DirecTV in an Apartment?

Sc00ter asks: "I live in an apartment and I'm seeking advice on how to mount a DirecTV dish without causing damage to the building. I don't have a balcony to put it on, only windows. There are some people that have worked around this by using other types of antennas, but the cost of such a device is too high. I have also seen some window mount type antennas but I don't think I should trust these in the wind. I was hoping somebody out there had been in a similar situation and had a tip or two."

Comments

Ideas

[MBCook]

I've seen quite a few dishes mounted, here are some ideas:

• I've seen people stick a small pole in a large bucket that was filled with concrete and mount the dish on that. If you could get permission to just set that next to the building that would be fine, or you put it inside and point it through a window, but it would be ugly.
• Lots of people around here have the dishes clipped onto a railing of some sort that they have near (like a balcony, but you might have something). This would hold it just fine, if you have a railing of some kind near.
• Build a mount. You should be able to rig something up. For example, use a 2" by 4" the height of the window. Then you close the window on it (securely and tightly). You could paint it to make it look better. You mount the dish to the 2" by 4" (or a block of wood attached to it). By putting a small piece of wood on the sides and top/bottom of the 2" by 4", you can make it easily support the weight of the dish with just friction (no screwing into the wall).
• Neighbors. Do any of your neighbors have dishes? Just attach a multiswitch (basically a splitter for satellites) and you can use their signal with no problem for either of you. It's usually used to allow you to have boxes in more than 2 rooms, but it will do the same for you. You might not even need one if they have a Dual-LNB dish and only one simple reciever.
• Through the roof. You might (might Might MIGHT) be able to get a usuable signal through the roof (if you are on the top floor) or through a wall. The closer you are to the equator the better.
• Ask a professional installer. Find one who will give you a free "estimate", and see what they think.

Tips

[jakev383]

I used to install for Time Warner and Direct TV. First thing is to ask your landlord. Most of them are not too uptight, and will allow an installation onto the roof. If not, we used a tripod whic we purchased for $20 at RadioShack, and sold to customers for $34.95. The buckets with concrete in them aren't a bad idea; we use them now for PTZ cameras we put on our construction sites. My first bet would be talk to the property manager, though. Chances are good you're not he first person to ask.