Least intrusive install?

[Schorschi]

Hi,

I'm thinking about getting a Globecast dish in order to receive German TV here in West Central Florida.

I know absolutely zilch about installing anything satellite, so bear with me.

Since I'm renting the house I live in I don't want to mount the dish on the roof or even affix it to the house wall, so the only place I see to put it is right in front of the house on a pole. Have a clear line of sight from anywhere in front of the house. (The other day the sun was almost exactly at the same spot the satellite is, so it was easy to see suitable mount locations.)

Next, I don't want to drill any holes through the wall to put the cable through, so is there a way to get some kind of flat cable to put under the window that won't deteriorate the signal too much? The window frames are metal and it looks as if a cable would have to be bent by 90 degress to go under there. Total cable length would probably be between 15-20 meters (50-65 ft) from the dish to the receiver. Would this work? Is there another non-damaging (better?) way to lay the cable? Under the front door maybe?

How much would this cost to install if I tried it myself? How much if I had it done professionally? I read about grounding on this site, but don't understand much of it. Wouldn't know how/where to ground it to?

Also, what options would I have to receive two satellites with one dish? Besides German TV, which is on Telstar 5, I would want to get a generic mix of free domestic channels. Would I have to get two separate receivers, because of different reception technology? In other words, what other satellite(s) could I receive with the same technology that receives German TV? I would want to stay under 1m dish size.

Georg

[mhoward]

Hi, Since you are a renter I know you cant really drill. I own my house, but I ran my coaxial cable straight into the attic through an air vent under the eaves. I have also seen people run the coaxial cable beside the dryer vent.

If you must use a window, there is one more trick. Take a 1x2 wood stick, cut it the exact lengh of the base of your window, drill a hole just large enough for the coax cable and then close the window on the board and use a professional zip tie (find in electrical section at HomeDepot) through the window lock to keep the window shut.

[Admin]

For running a cable under the window, see item # 3 here: http://sadoun.com/Sat/Order/Install.htm



Also you could use a tripod to mount the dish on. See #17 on the same page.

[Schorschi]

Thanks for the replies.

The idea with the dryer vent is interesting. Although in my case this would require running the cable around to the back of the house into the garage and from there into the living room. Probably some 50-70 meters (170-230 ft) total cable length. What's the maximum cable length I could use?

I'm not sure how having the window not go down all the way I would be able to lock it. I'm not familiar with all the different stateside window types, but the one here opens up with the bottom half and in the center is the lever that goes into a groove on the top half to lock it. If the bottom half doesn't go down all the way, I don't see how a zip tie would be able to lock it.

How flat is the flat cable? Could I feasibly put that under a sliding window and close the window? It looks awfully tight there.

The tripod would be better suited for hard floors, wouldn't it? I have mostly grass out front, so I guess a pole would be better for that?

Georg