First Dish Problem - Pole Mount Needs Secured

[slocoma]

I just switched from D* to E* in the beginning of October. Never had a problem with D*, never had a service tech to my home after installation.

I've had my first problem with E*. Sunday, we had some really high winds. My signal would come and go. Sunday night, the winds continued. When I woke up Monday morning, our locals were gone. Talked to tech support on the phone, went over everything and they said a tech would have to come out, but couldn't do so until Thursday. I was a little annoyed it would take so long. I would miss Monday Night Football, but don't care about the networks any other days of the week. I asked for the E/W feeds for the big 4. She said NBC was the only one she could give me, and only from the W coast. I said nevermind then. I did see that I do have both the E/W feeds for NBC though. She must have given them to me on accident. I hope they don't realize that and I continue to have them once my locals come back.

EDIT: Just checked my DN account after I posted this. I got waivers for NBC finally approved, that's why they gave me NBC. The others were denied in October. Not sure if I am being charged for them though.

After I got off the phone with the tech rep, I went out to check the dish. I noticed that the poll mounted in the ground could be moved back and fourth a bit. I'm sure it's because of the high winds and the huge SuperDish caused the ground to shift around the poll enough to move the dish out of whack for the one sat. My SuperDish is pole mounted because my original installer advised against mounting the dish on the roof. He stated he was formerly a carpenter and the SD used a number of lag screws for the tripod that could eventually cause leaks. Is this information unfounded? If I don't end up having it on the roof, any ways to really secure the pole so it doesn't wave in the wind? We get some heavy winds at times, especially in the fall/winter.

 

[ats7627]

A SuperDish, high winds and roof mounting are not a good combination. Since the face of the SuperDish is so large, high winds can put an incredible amount of force on the structure to which it is attached. You are much better off with the ground pole. Speaking of the ground pole, is it set in concrete?. If it isn't, it needs to be. How tall is the pole? A ground pole of proper height, set properly in concrete should give you no problems.

 

[slocoma]

A SuperDish, high winds and roof mounting are not a good combination. Since the face of the SuperDish is so large, high winds can put an incredible amount of force on the structure to which it is attached. You are much better off with the ground pole. Speaking of the ground pole, is it set in concrete?. If it isn't, it needs to be. How tall is the pole? A ground pole of proper height, set properly in concrete should give you no problems.

It's in concrete. How much, I'm not sure because I didn't install it. I would say that with the SD on the poll, it's probably 6'5" tall to the top of the dish.

 

[rowemance]

That is a pretty tall pole for a SuperDish. I don't do that much in Superdish but I would suggest about 350 lb of concrete and about a 2' diameter pad. I do have about 30 international, Starband, Direcway customer with SuperDish or same size on there roofs and haven't heard any leak complaints.

 

[webbydude]

When I usually set a 121 or 105 SD, the dish height is approx 3' from the ground. Most of the pole is set in cement with the 1st foot or so driven into the ground. As long as you have a 40 or 50 pound bag of cement then you should be fine. What I suspect happened was that the tech didn't flatten the portion of the pole that was to be buried. No matter how much cement you use, it will spin if that happens.

 

[slocoma]

That is a pretty tall pole for a SuperDish. I don't do that much in Superdish but I would suggest about 350 lb of concrete and about a 2' diameter pad. I do have about 30 international, Starband, Direcway customer with SuperDish or same size on there roofs and haven't heard any leak complaints.

Well, I know there isn't that much concrete in the hole. He used a post-hole digger and made the hole just a little bigger than the pipe.

 

[HokieEngineer]

Oh, wow thats definitely not enough. I'd say for a dish 6' off the ground you should have a concrete slab maybe a foot deep, and 1.5' square? The pole should also be hammered down into the ground at least 3'.

If your installer claims this isnt needed, refer him to this handy installation page:

http://www.geo-orbit.org/sizepgs/grndpole.html

 

[Van]

The pole must be placed 3 foot down in the ground in a hole 3 foot deep and 8 - 10 inches wide, the bottom foot of the pole should either be tapered by using a sledge hammer, have several 3 inch lag bolts screwed into the sides, bent out and back up to make it look like a tall check mark, or have 2 large cold water grounding clamps secured tightly around it. This will allow the cement to cure around the pole and prevent it from moving, hammering the pole into the ground will not do this and is one of the reasons for troubles such as yours. Idealy you should have 100 - 150lbs of cement in the hole with the pole when your finished and the dish should be no higher than 4 - 4.5 feet, your current pole probably only has 1.5 ft in the ground if the tech used the same pole that is supplied to its offices by dish.

 

[SimpleSimon]

I get tired of all this "windsail" talk. Must be because I'm from the BUD days. Superdishes are tiny in comparison.

When installed correctly, it's not an issue. There's a couple of roof-mounted BUDs (8 footers) down in town that have been there for going on 20 years. I just did a DW7000 upgrade yesterday, the mast didn't even have support arms, was 6 years old, and had never had a problem. I didn't quite believe the customer, but there were 40mph gusts going while I did the upgrade, and there was not a signal problem.

 

[Mike500]

It's not that hard of a repair.


Dig out about a 3-4 foot hole around the bottom of the pole about 6-8 inches deep. Depending on the diameter of the pole, go to the auto parts store and get either a 2 inch or 2-3/8 inch heavy duty muffler/tail pipe clamp. Using a 10 ft length of polyethylene lawn edging, form a circular form. Replace the dirt outside of this form.If you dio not want the concrete pat to show, dig down another 5-6 inches. Dig around the pole with a small gargen hand trowel or transplanter.

Mix 4 80 pound bags of concrete as dry as possible. Place and tighten the muffler/tailpipe clamp at the depth where the center level of the pad will be. Tamp and pack the concrete around the pole, making sure that it is plumb. Place the rest of the concrete in the form and finish the surface.

In the early days of c-band, if you can't dig down, you dig outward and place the concrete there. It makes for a sturdy mount.

 

[TheDishNetworkInstaller]

Well the roof vs pole debate is going to be a never ending issue.

There are just to many variables.

Soil condition.
Quality of the concrete.
Quality of the installer.
Quality of the parts being used.
Quality of the roof.
Average weather conditions for the area
and so forth.

Dish is getting away from roofs simply from a liability stand point.

This is just a never ending debate that really can't be won do to the number of variables.

 

[OoTLink]

When installed correctly, it's not an issue. There's a couple of roof-mounted BUDs (8 footers) down in town that have been there for going on 20 years.

Ditto to that one, I once saw a house with a BUD mounted on its roof that was almost as big as the side of the roof it was on. OTOH, it was a mesh dish.

 

[Van]

Yep I've seen only mesh c/kuband dish's mounted on either roofs ( only 2 ) chimney's ( many ) and walls ( many ). The constant with all has been structural stability, the 2 roof mounts I saw had the mast go down into the attic to a base about the size of a hot water heater that was secured at the rafters and ceiling joists. The second one was secured to an old chimney that was still in the house but had been capped into the attic.

Last year I did quite a few superdish roof mounts all with struts, most of the installs I did for superdish though were pole mounts and there was a few wall mounts. I have one roof mount install that didn't have any struts and was only done after the customer demanded I do it and my supervisor pushed for it also, customer signs off on paper work taking responsibility and relieving me of any damages.

 

[OoTLink]

Meh, or just install it on an overhang. If it breaks, no big deal... something similar once happened when the people who sold this house to us were moving out..

Husband "Tell me when to stop backing up!"
Wife "Okay!"
*wife starts talking to my mom and forgets*
*husband slowly backing up* "Is it okay?"
Wife "yep! A little more!"
*SMASH*

"oops"

they took forever to fix that though they did eventually lol.