Ingenious ideas for Apartment patio setup
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Bronze Member Username: LearningsatsPost Number: 15 Registered: Aug-05 | I am looking for some cool ideas for setup a dish on an apartment patio. What I am trying to avoid is doing any drilling of holes on either the wall of the building or on the wooden ate surrounding the patio area. What I am planning to do to avoid drilling on the gate is buying a 5 ft tripod and go to a hardware store and buy maybe a 1 - 2 foot pipe for the mast. I do plan to buy a motor eventually but first round probably will be without it. Now what I am not sure about is how to avoid drilling holes into the apartment wall to get the sat cables (2) into the apartment. The sliding patio door is surrounded by a steel frame. A couple of ideas floating in my head are: 1. run the cables from the quad polar LNB (Plan to use the Ivacom QPH-031) to a Diseq switch. The switch will just sit outside the patio door. Then use some quick connect cables (read about them but dont know that much about them) to connect to the switch when I get home. Or idea #2. I read somewhere that someone used some flat type cables that just ran through the door and when the sliding door was shut because the cables are flat that it was able to shut. But I am thinking even still the cables will get some serious wear and tear after a few months. What do you guys think? Any better ideas? Thanks, David |
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Silver Member Username: H3lt3r_sk3lt3rPost Number: 271 Registered: Oct-05 | @David Flat cables do work, I've set up a couple of my friends with them and they were happy that nothing had to be "demolished", though like you've said a sliding door wouldn't work, in fact with how the frame is made, the door wouldn't even close, because of the bottom sliders (wheels) touching the base. If you have sliding or double/single hung windows however, you can always get away with a flat cable, because almost all of those type of windows have a strip of rubber on top and bottom (don't know exactly what they're called, sashes? stops? I don't know) which will prevent the metal part from breaking the cable. Another solution would be, to run a cable through an existing switch box, alot of apartment buildings where I live have individual switch boxes on the outside wall usually located either to the side of the patio/balcony, if this is your situation, just unplug the existing outside cable line and plug in the coax from dish to the line going into the house. |
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Off the Wall Unregistered guest | Here's a zanny idea. Put the dish inside if you can hit the bird and you have room for it without it being an eyesore. The lead in glass blocks the signal, so I heard that some have put plexiglass (that clear plastic window stuff) in pace of the window =) Zanny idea but it works and hides the dish from the exterior too =) |
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Silver Member Username: Thill1951akalkPost Number: 432 Registered: Oct-05 | sat signals will go thru glass for those who want to have interior dish,its commonly done...and the tripod dish system is already available at many dss hardware sites and used on patio balconies etc.. |
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Bronze Member Username: LearningsatsPost Number: 16 Registered: Aug-05 | Thrill, will the signals go through a wooden gate also? Or would I need a tripod and mast that will extend above the gate? |
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Silver Member Username: H3lt3r_sk3lt3rPost Number: 277 Registered: Oct-05 | @David  You're a funny guy, you know that? If the signal would travel through walls, all of us would be setting up our dishes indoors to be more safe and the need for a dish motor would drop. |
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Bronze Member Username: LearningsatsPost Number: 18 Registered: Aug-05 | No no, I wasnt saying the walls. The outside gate around the patio. The gate is not completely solid. It has gaps. Thrill was saying that the signal will pass through glass, so thats why I asked about it passing through the patio gate. I know it will not pass through the building walls from the inside. Thanks, David |
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Silver Member Username: H3lt3r_sk3lt3rPost Number: 279 Registered: Oct-05 | @David I wasn't being serious either , I know what you mean, the metal fence with gaps in it, I doubt it will work, because it doesn't work when just a few tree branches are blocking the dish, but you should try, it won't hurt. |
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New member Username: Laxey34Miami, FL United States Post Number: 9 Registered: Oct-05 | David E-mail me at laxey34@yahoo.com you can have a patio mount to mount your dish at a reasonable cost. I will check the website I saw it on and let you know |
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Off the Wall Unregistered guest | mine is blocked by trees, shoots right through them amazingly enough, until it rains, then lose signal, but never a problem in winter when leaves are all gone. Wierd eh... I didn't know it will go through glass though. I guess not enough lead to totally block signal. I heard Plexiglass was way to go but one just has to try it and see. |
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