Moving to condo next year and it is unlikely that the condo board will allow satellite the usual 18-20 inch dish on the balcony or wall. Is there any smaller dish that I can use and perhaps camouflage it?
Thanks
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Moving to condo next year and it is unlikely that the condo board will allow satellite the usual 18-20 inch dish on the balcony or wall. Is there any smaller dish that I can use and perhaps camouflage it?
Thanks
Going back to the 90's smallest one I can recall.
paint it to look like wallQuote:
Originally Posted by OldTester
I attached mine to a post fixed in a bucket of cement A half full pail can be moved around.There isn't much they can do about it
You can also keep it inside and point it threw a window if that's an option for you, you will loose some reception but it does work. To add to what Dishuser said.....there are also satellite dish covers you can buy for the dish to make it look like all sorts of things.
Sorry Mavrick, but mounting a Ku band dish inside looking out through a window with the window closed, will not work too good if the window is double pane and UV/IR reflective, the coatings for those are murder on Ku band RF signals.
A single pane of regular glass or a piece of plexiglass is the best shot.
One other thing Old Tester, do you have a Southern exposure? Like a balcony, or a window facing South? If not then your out of the game.
Yes, my condo is at the corner so I have window facing West and SouthWest. I checked with Dishpointer and there is no issue wiht LOS. It's just that the HOA will most likely to tell me that it is not allowed. First time in a condo so I don't know. Yeah I'm thinking about some camo or cover to make the dish looks less obvious on the balcony. We will see. Thank you all for responding!Quote:
Originally Posted by Terryl
Yeah, I know it's not the best set-up and will loose alot of signal but I have seen it done if that's the only option......Quote:
Originally Posted by Terryl
Check this stuff out.....Quote:
Originally Posted by OldTester
Code:http://www.dishcamo.com/dishcamo.htm
In some installations where the HOA did not allow satellite dishes, I make up a wooden frame for a South facing window (second story or higher) and use plexiglass to keep the weather out, works in most cases.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mavrick
Info for all:
The UV and IR coatings on most modern windows is a very very very thin metallic coating that is transparent to visible light but attenuates the high and low end light waves of UV and IR.
This coating on a dual pane window will attenuate a satellite "C" or "Ku" band RF signal by 3 to 10 dB, this depending on the coating, now 3 dB does not sound like much, but in the RF world it's 1/2 of the RF voltage (radio signals are sometimes measured in micro volts or pico volts) coming down from the satellite, this could be 1/4 to 1/2 (or more) of the usable signal hitting the dish and going to the LNB.
One way to compensate for this excessive loss would be a bigger dish, in some cases a 6 foot dish would be needed for just "Ku" band signals.
In some places with an HOA you could talk real nice to them and ask if the dish could be mounted somewhere where it cant be seen, in most cases the HOA board members are just a bunch of idiots, and follow their own agenda and love to try and control others and don't care about anyone else.
If the condo has a roof top AC system it may be surrounded by a false wall to conceal the AC units, the dish could be mounted on a non-penetrating roof mount inside this enclosure, and the coax run down to your place through a window using flat through the window coax.
OOppps too much coffee again, I'm out.
I have used two methods
One threw the window was pretty parallel to the window and used a little bigger dish to get good reception
Other time was to much of an angle put regular size dish non the balcony close to the wall painted same colour as the wall and put tall plastic plants in front of it the plants blocked nothing noticeable.
Walmart has a porch storage box. Ive used one like this before in an HOA community.
Can take lid off or modify and the bottom can be cut out also.
I mounted the dish mount to the concrete balcony with a hammer drill and tapcons. two are enough for a small dish. then I used screen over the top so no one above could see what it was. The signal will go right through the screen like a screen door has.
Barton 63-Gallons Storage Box Container Patio Pools Yard Garden Tools Porch Deck Backyard w/ Wheel
the box hides it pretty well.