Cement in a Bucket on the Patio

[TVisgoodforyou]

I went out a bought a HD DVR receiver this past week to replace my R10 and then when the DirecTV installer came out yesterday he said I could use a pole and cement in a bucket but then it would still be wobbly so he wanted to attach this satellite like I had my original 1lnb satellite on the wooden railing and I would need two extra bracers that were about a 1.5' long on either side of the mast.

It is a strong wooden railing with extra supporting 2x2 boards bolted vertically to the front of the railing but I was not sure if the 32lbs dish would pull off the rail in a strong wind even if I clamped it down along with the bracers.

I did not like the cement in a bucket idea very much because it seems a five gallon or smaller bucket may be to heavily for an apartment porch and maybe a strong wind would blow it back and it may crash into my sliding glass doors or the satellite would fall through the patio. I returned the receiver because I did not think I could get this to work and maybe it was time to move into a house(but I hate mowing the lawn!:mad: ).

Then I saw all these posts on these forums and I went driving around and saw that someone else in town had a 5lnb slimline in bucket but it looked like a smaller bucket than a 5 gallon. My apartment porch is about a foot thick and already has a cement surface and is on the 3rd floor.

If I used cement in a bucket I would probably use clamps to secure it so it does not fall back and crash into the sliding glass doors.

Has anyone ever damaged their porch because of the weight of the cement bucket(or cinder blocks if with a non-penetrating tripod) plus the pole and the slimline dish?

In addition, has anyone mounted this dish on a wooden railing before with clamps?

[HDTVsportsfan]

I can't comment on the strength of your existing porch.
I can tell you that i have a 3-LNB in a bucket on a 4 foot pole and the wind did knock it over and break the arm. If you use a short pole, you'd probably be OK. But wind can be a problem.
The wood rail may warp...so that could be a problem down the road as well.

Buy a house. ;) :p :D .

Seriously good luck. Many installers frequent the board and can offer you some more specific information, hopefully.

[Mike500]

I have a suncontracting install company, and we do not like or use the slimline with a bucket.

We use a heavy duty antenna tripod like the one Made in USA by a well known and respected antenna tower manufacturer called Rohn. It sells for $35 and is much less expensive than the one sold at www.solidsignal.com for a lot more. Since the slimline takes a two inch actual pole, solidsignal can charge a lot more for it, in that it is not standard. The way we get around that is to use a standard $6 galvanized steel chain link 1-5/8 actual line post sold everyday at Home Depot. It fits perfectly into the Radio Shack tripod. To get to two inches, we use an adapter like the one shown in this eBay listing developed and manufactured by a colleague who is an experienced engineer.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=150187225239&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=005

We have done over 50 tripods this way, and the customers have been very happy. It seems that some apartment managers are very strict about attachments to the rails or anything that sticks out beyond the rails.

[cartrivision]

A 5 gallon bucket of cement is not stable enough to hold a slimline dish, especially under windy conditions. If you must use a portable cement base, I would suggest using the bottom of a large plastic garbage can with at least a two foot diameter, and to keep the pole as short as possible.... just long enough for the dish to see over the balcony railing. Don't worry about the weight. Any balcony would have to be designed to be able to hold a good number of full sized adults, so putting a 100+ pound cement base on it won't be a problem. As others have said, a good tripod would be better but only if you are able to secure it to the deck with bolts or screws.

[Mike500]

If you can, or don't want to place schres into the decking of the patio, you can always extend the mast in the tripod dowm to the floor and conviently use a plastic umbrella stand filled with water or sand to anchor it.

Just mark the holes of the tripod with small dots of paint, so that you can relocate the position, if it needs it.

The advantage to the tripod is that it can be finely adjusted for plumb. If you use a concreted bucket, you have to get it right the first time, and there is only one position to keep it there.

[kd4ao]

Or use a Steel Umbrella stand and a short mast. It worked for me with a 3 lnb dish and was very stable thru several storms. I suspect it would work with the 5lnb dish as well.

[TVisgoodforyou]

If you can, or don't want to place schres into the decking of the patio, you can always extend the mast in the tripod dowm to the floor and conviently use a plastic umbrella stand filled with water or sand to anchor it.

Or use a Steel Umbrella stand and a short mast. It worked for me with a 3 lnb dish and was very stable thru several storms. I suspect it would work with the 5lnb dish as well.


You mean like a 18"Dx12" cast iron umbrella base for $25.36 from Lowes or a 6Hx16Wx16L free standing umbrella base that can be filled with 50lbs of sand for $24.99 from Target?

I would want to get it to the point where I do not have to keep adjusting it back to the original position because I have the sliding door blocked off and it take allot of time to unblock it.

[Mike500]

You mean like a 18"Dx12" cast iron umbrella base for $25.36 from Lowes or a 6Hx16Wx16L free standing umbrella base that can be filled with 50lbs of sand for $24.99 from Target?

I would want to get it to the point where I do not have to keep adjusting it back to the original position because I have the sliding door blocked off and it take allot of time to unblock it.


The one to be filled with 50 pounds of sand would be better. However, if you don't want to use sand, water would weigh just about as much. I believe that it is about 63 pounds per cubic foot.

No, it would not be likely that it would move. Marking it would only be a precaution, in the rare case that it did.

[Technician]

Don't put a kaku dish in a 5 gallon bucket of concrete. Get a tripod mount or balcony brackets if possible.

[TVisgoodforyou]

I can drill holes or attach anything to the building.

Has anyone ordered this 2" non-penetrating mount http://www.aisatellite.com/pdf/NPR-A-2%20list.pdf from this company http://www.aisatellite.com/products.htm?

I do not see where you could mail order the tripod on the website.

[rdiedrich]

I can drill holes or attach anything to the building.

Has anyone ordered this 2" non-penetrating mount http://www.aisatellite.com/pdf/NPR-A-2%20list.pdf from this company http://www.aisatellite.com/products.htm?

I do not see where you could mail order the tripod on the website.

I use those for commercial installs all the time. In fact I use one just today. If you ask the local install office to supply one they can but will most likely charge you for it. I believe the charge here for non commercial accounts is $75 and we include the concrete blocks as well.

Randy

[TVisgoodforyou]

My railing is about 3' high so I would need a 2" pole that high for one of these non-penetrating roof mounts so the dish will over look this rail.

I called the national office for the install company and they said the non-penetrating roof mounts they have are for the roof only and not the balcony. Then I called their local office but I have to wait until Monday to call the warehouse to see if they have anything. It may be that the roof mount they have does not have a high enough pole.

In addition, I thought the tech said I had a clear line of sight but I found out today that some how the tech put a note that I did not have a clear line of sight when I called the install company.

There is a tree in front of the right side of my balcony that does not have any leaves right now so maybe it will be a problem in the spring when the leaves grow back?

The current 1lnb dish I have has enough room to get a 92% signal in the clear part of the sky to the left of the tree. The tech said last weekend that the slimline 5lnb satellite looks at more of the sky so does that mean that if there is a tree there with leaves next spring that the HD satellites will degrade the ka signal?

I starting to think that I should just wait until the cable company gets the Sci-Fi and History channel in HD when ever that is.:grrr: