DirecTV HD Inside Apartment?

[Smike]

I live in a apartment building where my landlord will not allow the placement of satellites on the premesis. I have read various posts on the internet about how people in similiar situations were able to mount their dishes on a window sill inside their apartments. Does anyone have experience with this or know if it will even work?

I have three medium sized windows in the front, which level with the sidewalk. If I place the dish in my front window, I could get a fairly straight shot at the SW. Does the dish itself, need to be exposed, or could it be concealed by a curtain or window blind?

 

[Mr Tony]

where are you located?

 

[Smike]

Montreal (going through a broker)

 

[boba]

Dream on.

 

[Smike]

Are you referring to not receiving the signal from my geographical location, or just from inside my apartment? Relocating is an option, if need be.

 

[Joe Diamond]

Smike,

Montreal is a tad north. Your elevation is going to be too flat for what you want to do. The railing will probably screw you. The window looks ok. Montreal?

Joe

 

[Smike]

Yeah, I could relocate somewhere in the city, but you think Montreal is too north for it to be feasible even if placed outside at a higher elevation?

 

[Joe Diamond]

Montreal is in Canada right?

I don't think DTV will open your account.
Then there is the elevation thing. That far north you elevation will be real low...I think someone said the MA elevation to the 119 was 22 degrees and you are how far north of MA? ..................meaning you need to be in an open field or on top of a pretty tall building.

Good luck,

Joe

 

[Smike]

Can anyone else confirm what Joe has speculated? Going through a broker will be cost me a ton of money up front, so I would like to either go for it, and move to the top floor of a triplex (putting the dish on the roof), or abandon the possibility altogether.

 

[boba]

Can anyone else confirm what Joe has speculated? Going through a broker will be cost me a ton of money up front, so I would like to either go for it, and move to the top floor of a triplex (putting the dish on the roof), or abandon the possibility altogether.

Smike what you don't know about satellite television would fill an encyclopedia.
The AU9 dish from the LNB to the rear of the mount is about 32" so the dish mounted inside your window would be about 3' back which is quite an obstruction inside the room to walk around. Satellite signals don't pass through glass very well due to metal content in the glass. Most successful applications replace the glass with plexiglass, in Mountreal I would expect double pane glass due to temperature. That far East and North I would expect your look angle would be very poor. In Western Ma. my sister would have a look angle of 22degrees for 119 the lowest of the 5 satellites that the Slimline would see.

 

[Smike]

Of course, I now understand that the satellite being placed in my apartment is not an option. My question was, that if I move to a tall building and place the dish on the roof, would I have a shot? I find it hard to believe that DirecTV signals can not expand more north than MA. I know of people that live in Plattsburgh, NY (40Mi) south of Montreal, that pick up HD DirecTV programming.

 

[boba]

If you want satellite so badly the smart thing would be to sign up with a canadian service. You have a hangup with D* HDTV service so you are willing to move to a new apartment, enter into a 2 year contract through a servie that is going to cost you dearly. Trying to talk you out of it is senseless, go for it and enjoy it for your 2 years if it lasts that long before a governmrnt shuts you down.

 

[Smike]

There appears to be bias towards the fact that I am in Canada, trying to get a subscription to a US based service. I am an American who once had DirecTV in the states, so I know very well what it entails. I appreciate the suggestion, but I will not ever go with a Canadian satellite provider. The contents of this post are off base and irrelevant to my initial questions because of bias. I thought that by coming here, I would receive unbiased insight from seemingly more knowledgeable people about what I am interested in.

 

[Mr Tony]

dont let boba get to you...he's always like that

If you do put it on the roof, then it should work just fine. But in the window and the level its at that won't work.

The one thing is DirecTV has been fine tuning the signal footprint so it is possible that it does abruptly cut off near the Canadian border but a few miles inside of Canada shouldn't have an issue. After all, parts of Maine & Minnesota are farther north than Montreal

 

[DanBobTerror]

If you want satellite so badly the smart thing would be to sign up with a canadian service. You have a hangup with D* HDTV service so you are willing to move to a new apartment, enter into a 2 year contract through a servie that is going to cost you dearly. Trying to talk you out of it is senseless, go for it and enjoy it for your 2 years if it lasts that long before a governmrnt shuts you down.

Yeah, he could sign up for a Canadian service and get wayyyy less HD programming, wayyy less SD programming, and pay more for, say an HD PVR if he so desired. He could also move to Burma and let the government shut of his internet and tell him what to read and say too.

Montreal: go ahead and put it on a roof, or anywhere up high that has an unobstructed line of sight and you should be fine. By the way, your look angle is going to be closer to 30+ degrees.

Oh and as far as a broker goes??? Gimme a break dude, spend some time searching through past posts here and do your home work. There are a few US ex pats and current day Can pats that managed to figure it all out themselves.... :up

 

[Smike]

I wasn't able to find availability of local HD broadcasts anywhere north of Portland, ME. Would this hinder the national HD broadcast availability to me, or are national and local HD broadcasts not related?

 

[ycebar]

I live 50 miles from the canadian border in north dakota and get all the high def channels at good signals