Directv being installed Tomorrow morning, BUT.....

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homerofwar

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Dec 4, 2008
49
0
Saratoga Springs, NY
ok So I ordered Directv about 2 weeks ago (dec 30st), the earliest install they could give me was Jan 14th, form 8am till Noon. Im really excited to finally get Directv HD, since i've had it with Time Warner poor lineup.


So my question for you today, seeing how I live on Ballston Spa, NY 12020, how do they install the satellite dish in the snow? there is about a foot of snow on all of my land, and about 3 inches on the roof, I have a deck, ah screw it Im a visual person, I made a video for my question, so its easier for me to explain:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odQKuLJ9ohI]YouTube - Question for Satelliteguys.us: Directv Installation Question[/ame]
 
Go to dishpointer.com and enter your address or zipcode, then select the DirecTV SL3 (for the 99, 101, and 103 sats) in the drop down box. You'll see that the dish needs to point to about 230 degrees. Which is southwest, so you should be fine. Let the installer determine if he wants to do the install from a safety standpoint. But, with snow potentially accumulating on the dish and blocking signal, I'd mount the dish where it can reached.
 
If there is anyway you can, I would clear the roof or be ready to help dig a hole. If you say the tree that is right behind your chimney is south then at 180° then go a tad bit more west to about 30°-50° looks like you should be fine. TBH I would prob want the dish on a pole with you getting that much snow, so you can remove it easier if need be. I would ask the tech to run a self tapper through the AZEL mount onto the Mast (roof) or Pole before he fine tunes it so it wont move when you sweep it.

As far as doing the install in the snow, I have no idea as around here a snow flake shuts us down.
 
I have to go off topic and give a shout out to Capital District in NY How I miss being there I be back to reck havock in a couple of months. ( South Glens Falls )
 
If there is anyway you can, I would clear the roof or be ready to help dig a hole. If you say the tree that is right behind your chimney is south then at 180° then go a tad bit more west to about 30°-50° looks like you should be fine. TBH I would prob want the dish on a pole with you getting that much snow, so you can remove it easier if need be. I would ask the tech to run a self tapper through the AZEL mount onto the Mast (roof) or Pole before he fine tunes it so it wont move when you sweep it.

As far as doing the install in the snow, I have no idea as around here a snow flake shuts us down.


Here in Ohio I have installed in 6-8 inches or more... it isn't a big deal.

If snow stopped us from installing these things the Cleveland area would have no installs from Dec-April every year.
 
Here in Ohio I have installed in 6-8 inches or more... it isn't a big deal.

If snow stopped us from installing these things the Cleveland area would have no installs from Dec-April every year.

Great, I shoveled out a patch way around my whole house, my hand, and my whole deck, which hasnt been shoveled at all, so it had a foot and a half of snow and ice, i just clear it all off, layers of frozen snow haha. Took me 3 hours I dont want it to be a hassle for the dude to install, I have no problem offering him coffee or hot chocolate either. The high tomorrow is 7 degrees, I work in the outside 8 hours a day so I know what its like,. How long are they typically outside for? for the dish part?

I have to go off topic and give a shout out to Capital District in NY How I miss being there I be back to reck havock in a couple of months. ( South Glens Falls )

sick man, yeah I lived in many parts of the capital region, saratoga, colonie, guilderland, haha man the winter is fine until it hits mid jan - feb i hate those months! haha
 
Great, I shoveled out a patch way around my whole house, my hand, and my whole deck, which hasnt been shoveled at all, so it had a foot and a half of snow and ice, i just clear it all off, layers of frozen snow haha. Took me 3 hours I dont want it to be a hassle for the dude to install, I have no problem offering him coffee or hot chocolate either. The high tomorrow is 7 degrees, I work in the outside 8 hours a day so I know what its like,. How long are they typically outside for? for the dish part?


Depends on the install.

If it is HD it could be a while (hour or two). The problem I always had with the cold is that a lot of the time I had to take off the gloves to do parts of the install. Bitter cold like what is forecast for tomorrow always took me a while longer because of the frequent stops in the truck to warm up...

Remember, these are big boys out there so they know what they are in for and usually dress appropriately. If they are experienced in this stuff I would bet your dish is already put together and sitting in the installers living room or basement. (working with a dish that starts out warm and is already put together is a lot easier to stay warm doing than trying to handle small nuts and bolts in sub 10 degree air.) My day always started the evening before when I got my jobs for the next day... dishes put together and all switches and boxes I needed for the day (plus a spare or two) were sitting next to the door staying warm until the morning for me.

As far as clearing the snow like you did... sure it is nice of you, but it sucked because nearly every time I had a customer do it before I got there it wasn't where I was working anyhow LOL.

........................


I was kind of O.C.D. about preparing for bad weather and busy days... I used to spend Sundays or slow periods cutting sections of wire into certain lengths and putting ends on. (10, 15, 20, 25, ect... up to 60 foot seconds of each type of wire, wire tied, labeled, and ends on the wires ready to go!)
 
Depends on the install.

If it is HD it could be a while (hour or two). The problem I always had with the cold is that a lot of the time I had to take off the gloves to do parts of the install. Bitter cold like what is forecast for tomorrow always took me a while longer because of the frequent stops in the truck to warm up...

Remember, these are big boys out there so they know what they are in for and usually dress appropriately. If they are experienced in this stuff I would bet your dish is already put together and sitting in the installers living room or basement. (working with a dish that starts out warm and is already put together is a lot easier to stay warm doing than trying to handle small nuts and bolts in sub 10 degree air.) My day always started the evening before when I got my jobs for the next day... dishes put together and all switches and boxes I needed for the day (plus a spare or two) were sitting next to the door staying warm until the morning for me.

As far as clearing the snow like you did... sure it is nice of you, but it sucked because nearly every time I had a customer do it before I got there it wasn't where I was working anyhow LOL.

........................


I was kind of O.C.D. about preparing for bad weather and busy days... I used to spend Sundays or slow periods cutting sections of wire into certain lengths and putting ends on. (10, 15, 20, 25, ect... up to 60 foot seconds of each type of wire, wire tied, labeled, and ends on the wires ready to go!)
haha awesome, I have no problem shoveling out any area he needs, I ordered my directv service online off directv.com, and it was only giving me the earliest install date of march 3rd, i was like seriously? lol so i called up directv and they got me the earliest of jan 14th, im getting an hd-dvr box, and 2 standard receivers, i just hope like you said the installer is dressed properly for bitter weather cause its gettin pretty cold out tommorw.
 
oh very cold week, right now its only 3 degrees, fells like negative 14 with the windchill, man o man I hope this guy will be ok outside if he shows up hahaha
 
All hell broke loose this morning in Chicago & two things made me chuckle this morning. (-2 this morning at 3am with a jump to 20 & 6-8 inches of snow followed by an eventual drop back down to -5 by 9pm tonight)......anyway....

DirecTv doing an install a block down & the guy looks like he's in a snowmobile suit trying to get this thing mounted. The eve install isn't working because the ice is gutter thick with ice cycles almost solid to the ground. Looks like a pole mount would be the easier install but this owner must want it up high. Every time this installer runs inside he must lose 3Ibs crawling through whatever crawl space he's attempting to feed the cables through.....It's been about two hours & counting.

Right next door, someones main septic line collapsed & they got this huge caterpillar tearing all hell out of the sidewalk & yard. Something tells me these guys get together tonight at the local tavern & have a yack fest.

They certainly earned their money in Chicago today.
 
yep he showed up at 10:30am, I let him take plenty of breaks when he was outside do to the horrible weather, it was mounted in the corner of the house on the first level. It has clear view of the sky. We were having some trouble getting the 103 to pass the test for activation on the hd-dvr, it wouldn't pass with 78 percent signal on 103 even, but he got it up to 85 percent and then it seemed to pass. So all in all the installation went smoothly. There coming back in the spring to mount the wire properly for the second floor, to much ice and coldness to get a ladder to mount it, I didn't have to sign-off on anything, and he left an installer note about the wiring needing to be mounted for the second floor needed to be done. All in all ithe installation was done around 2:30pm, haha then i took a nap and enjoyed my new directv But im satifisfied, :D


Though, I do need to get used to how directv does there channel line-up haha ive had time warner for 15 years so im not used to the channel lineup, or how the hd channels are scattered all about, and not all together like time warner lol. I def need to get used to it, but im sure I will like it better once im settled in with it. All in all im a satisfied Customer!
 
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yep he showed up at 10:30am, I let him take plenty of breaks when he was outside do to the horrible weather, it was mounted in the corner of the house on the first level. It has clear view of the sky. We were having some trouble getting the 103 to pass the test for activation on the hd-dvr, it wouldn't pass with 78 percent signal on 103 even, but he got it up to 85 percent and then it seemed to pass. So all in all the installation went smoothly. There coming back in the spring to mount the wire properly for the second floor, to much ice and coldness to get a ladder to mount it, I didn't have to sign-off on anything, and he left an installer note that it needed to be done. All in all ithe installation was done around 2:30pm, haha then i took a nap and enjoyed my new directv But im satifisfied, :D


Though, I do need to get used to how directv does there channel line-up haha ive had time warner for 15 years so im not used to the channel lineup, or how the hd channels are scattered all about, and not all together like time warner lol. I def need to get used to it, but im sure I will like it better once im settled in with it. All in all im a satisfied Customer!
That is great to hear!:up I hope you enjoy DIRECTV as much as my family and i do!
 
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