It figures

[lumpkin666]

Okay, so I've bought 3 receivers, 2 fortec dishes and a primestar dish for this new hobby (under the impression that I could get a certain religious channel, which I find out may not actually be possible according to a few that have tried)... Now the weather is actually cooperating so that I can get out and mount my first FTA dish. I get on the garage and get everything almost mounted, and I notice that everything is tight, but the mount is wobbling now that the weight of the dish/motor is on it. Apparently the cheap crap that they built my roof out of is too flexible! (even hitting one crossing 2x4)

Oh well. Off to Menards tomorrow to buy a post. I guess I will get a bit more visibility of the south skies from a post further back in the yard anyhow. But it still sucks that I wasted my day mounting this sucker on the roof for nothing

[rainman]

Originally Posted by lumpkin666

Okay, so I've bought 3 receivers, 2 fortec dishes and a primestar dish for this new hobby (under the impression that I could get a certain religious channel, which I find out may not actually be possible according to a few that have tried)... Now the weather is actually cooperating so that I can get out and mount my first FTA dish. I get on the garage and get everything almost mounted, and I notice that everything is tight, but the mount is wobbling now that the weight of the dish/motor is on it. Apparently the cheap crap that they built my roof out of is too flexible! (even hitting one crossing 2x4)

Oh well. Off to Menards tomorrow to buy a post. I guess I will get a bit more visibility of the south skies from a post further back in the yard anyhow. But it still sucks that I wasted my day mounting this sucker on the roof for nothing

that's the way it goes win some loose some.LOL

[elgemcdlf]

If you are planting a pole think about cutting the grass. Put a piece of PVC in the ground next to the pole to allow the coax to run through. This will protect your coax from the lawn mower and weed eater. A couple minutes of thought should have a design that will work for you. I put a 180 on top of the PVC (unglued) that keeps the rain out

[brentb636]

Originally Posted by lumpkin666

Okay, so I've bought 3 receivers, 2 fortec dishes and a primestar dish for this new hobby (under the impression that I could get a certain religious channel, which I find out may not actually be possible according to a few that have tried)... Now the weather is actually cooperating so that I can get out and mount my first FTA dish. I get on the garage and get everything almost mounted, and I notice that everything is tight, but the mount is wobbling now that the weight of the dish/motor is on it. Apparently the cheap crap that they built my roof out of is too flexible! (even hitting one crossing 2x4)

Oh well. Off to Menards tomorrow to buy a post. I guess I will get a bit more visibility of the south skies from a post further back in the yard anyhow. But it still sucks that I wasted my day mounting this sucker on the roof for nothing

A ground mount is so-o-o much more convenient than a roof mount, if you can find the place to put it. My motorized 90 cm is on the roof, but I re-enforced the roof area( from underneath, inside the attic) with a piece of 2x10 forced between the trusses and bonded in with lag bolts. The roof mount ties into the 2x10, not only the cheesy roofing material. A lot better support and stability.

[lumpkin666]

Originally Posted by brentb636

A ground mount is so-o-o much more convenient than a roof mount, if you can find the place to put it. My motorized 90 cm is on the roof, but I re-enforced the roof area( from underneath, inside the attic) with a piece of 2x10 forced between the trusses and bonded in with lag bolts. The roof mount ties into the 2x10, not only the cheesy roofing material. A lot better support and stability.

Yeah, I was thinking of doing some reinforcing on the garage roof, but it's pretty steep (and I'm not as young and thin as I used to be), so the pole mount is probably going to work out better for me anyhow. I just hope that I have enough room to shoot over the neighbor's garage from my backyard!

[brentb636]

I hear you on the not-so-young stuff. I'm long and reasonably lean still ( 6'5'-212 lbs -BRAG) but at 60 years, I'm not nearly as flexible as I once was. Getting into the attic crawl space was a slow deliberate process. Falling through onto the kitchen counter was an option to be avoided !

[boroda1]

Originally Posted by brentb636

A ground mount is so-o-o much more convenient than a roof mount, if you can find the place to put it. My motorized 90 cm is on the roof, but I re-enforced the roof area( from underneath, inside the attic) with a piece of 2x10 forced between the trusses and bonded in with lag bolts. The roof mount ties into the 2x10, not only the cheesy roofing material. A lot better support and stability.

I too took it off the roof, after I figured, it can observe the same segment of the sky from a balcony. I made some sort of wooden pallette, and mounted dish and motor to it with antenna tripod. I need to put some heavy bricks on top of that pallette and replace antenna mast with fence poll, because it's bending when wind blows, and when wind is 25mph, the thing just jumps or even falls down, and already is not vertical.
Sadoun's white "Univ.mount I" is still on the roof.

[rainman]

mine is mounted on a pole about 4 ft off the ground very easy to work on that way.

[Corey]

I mounted mine on the side of the house about 10 feet up. It's not terribly convenient to work on, but the RG6 doesn't cross turf anywhere, so there's no mower damage possibilities.

I considered the 4 ft pole idea, but I don't own a wheelbarrow to mix the concrete, so it would have got me into several more purchases that I would use only rarely.

Perhaps I will snap a picture of my install and post it. I did one unusual thing y'all might find semi-interesting.

[rainman]

Originally Posted by Corey

I mounted mine on the side of the house about 10 feet up. It's not terribly convenient to work on, but the RG6 doesn't cross turf anywhere, so there's no mower damage possibilities.

I considered the 4 ft pole idea, but I don't own a wheelbarrow to mix the concrete, so it would have got me into several more purchases that I would use only rarely.

Perhaps I will snap a picture of my install and post it. I did one unusual thing y'all might find semi-interesting.

you don't need a wheelbarrow to mix cement it can be done in a bucket and a lot easier to pour.and run the RG 6 in a conduit under ground no mower problems. the digging part is a different story though.

[lumpkin666]

You can mix quickcrete 30min setting mix right in the hole (directions to do so are right on the bag)

[Corey]

Good to know about the concrete, should I ever want to move the dish. Thanks

[lumpkin666]

So I got an 8ft pole and dug a 3 1/2ft (approx) hole to mount it in. I even remembered to add something to the pole so that the cement would grab it and prevent it from spinning. I haven't got the pole mounted yet (weather getting icky again, and I want to make sure it's plumb first). I did finally realize that I don't actually need the pole to be exactly plumb since my dish has an adjustable mounting post that I could just connect to the new pole with some U-Bolts.

Anyhow, I took the dish off the roof and left it laying next to the post - sorta hoping that seeing it there would get me encouraged to get out there and get things finished up in the next day or so. Well yesterday was pretty windy, but I don't think it was THAT windy... but my dish wasn't there when I got home from the store late last night!

What luck! At least I had the motor inside the garage (stupid me, I was thinking "keep this inside so that it doesn't get rained on" ... wait, it's gonna get rained on eventually!). Anyhow, I cased the neighborhood, but didn't find any spare dishes rolling around

At least I got another new FTA receiver yesterday! But I need to mount a dish so that I can use one of my receivers, and I am a bit concerned about mounting another dish out there now! Will my luck hold up next time? Maybe I should get a bigger pole so that when I get the dish mounted, it'll be 10-12 feet off the ground. Sheesh.. and I live in a quiet little town

[pmb1010]

that sux that some weasel had to swipe your dish

[brentb636]

Wouldn't you think it might stand out , if it were installed locally ? It's an odd thing to steal. Some people would take your trash can, I guess .

[atperson100]

It was probably a convenient object to take. If it were on the pole, it would have probably been too much trouble to steal. Just put a razor wire fence around your installation like they do at tv stations.

[elgemcdlf]

If it was a windy day like it was here it just blew away. They are not that heavy and make great frisbees. It is most likely around somewhere and if you went asking someone probably has seen it. Might be bent beyond use though. I know the wind from transporting a 10' solid dish at 40mph are strong enough to lift it out of the truck. Mount, actuator and all. The shape of the dish just makes it very prone to lift.

By the way your pole should be plumb to avoid major headaches during alignment. Your theory has one large flaw. You will only be able to plumb your mast in one direction. Imagine forward rear tilt. What about side to side? Much easier to just set the pole plumb to begin with.