Looking for ideas on "hiding" my Dishes :)

[Davage]

I'm getting my hands on what appears to be an 8ft dish. Originally I thought it was a 6ft dish, and after looking closely at some pictures of it, I think that it is probably an 8ft dish.

I also have a 31" motorized Alphastar dish, a 20" ExpressVu dish and an 18" Dishnet Dish.

I live in a fairly new subdevelopment, and in order to not draw complaints from my neighbours, I'm looking for ideas on how I can hide an 8ft dish, and also any ideas on what people have done to put their smaller dishes into tight areas too.

I'm thinking about building a platform tucked away close to my house for my smaller reflectors that will maintain line of site to the satellites, but yet will be out of sight to the neighbours.

The 8ft dish should be an interesting challenge to cloak. Any ideas? I remember years ago seeing covers that looked like patio umbrella's etc.

I'd be curious to see any pictures of what the folks here have done to hide their dishes from sight.

 

[mikekohl]

Buy some 4 x 8 foot pieces of lattice material (redwood, cedar, etc)
and put some 4 x 4 s in the ground, connected with 2 x 4 or 2 x 6 lumber to lock in place. A couple of these lattice panels to the side of the antenna that you do not want appearing to the general public is usually enough to distract gawkers and complainers. Of course, it you are trying to block the view of the dish in the direction that it's pointing, there will be a compromise between blocking reception and blocking view of the dish. Not as much of a problem at due south, since angles are much higher.

 

[iammike]

It's issues like these that will forever keep me from living in a neighborhood with an HOA. If your neighbors are going to object to the dish, I seriously doubt you can disguise it and make them happy. The best I think you can do is to plant it in a location in your yard where they can't see it.

Either that or paint the pole green and paint some yellow petals on the dish and tell them it's a big sun flower.

 

[Davage]

Either that or paint the pole green and paint some yellow petals on the dish and tell them it's a big sun flower.

That actually is a fantastic idea! My artistic skills are lacking a little, but I should be able to find someone to help paint the dish so that looks like a big flower.. I can paint the LNB cover so that it looks like a bee.

I'm seriously considering this idea...

 

[ken2400]

I am thinking storage shed. It would have three sides and part of a roof. If the open side does not face anyone then a dish neer the ground might be well hiden. I was thinking of making a small leantwo(sp) for my KU dish myself. Mybe a wood pile on one or more sides might work too. Walk around your neighborhood and see what other people have. Think of making the same thing but with only two or three sides. Tell us what you come up with.

Good luck :up [
QUOTE=Davage;761650]I'm getting my hands on what appears to be an 8ft dish. Originally I thought it was a 6ft dish, and after looking closely at some pictures of it, I think that it is probably an 8ft dish.

I also have a 31" motorized Alphastar dish, a 20" ExpressVu dish and an 18" Dishnet Dish.

I live in a fairly new subdevelopment, and in order to not draw complaints from my neighbours, I'm looking for ideas on how I can hide an 8ft dish, and also any ideas on what people have done to put their smaller dishes into tight areas too.

I'm thinking about building a platform tucked away close to my house for my smaller reflectors that will maintain line of site to the satellites, but yet will be out of sight to the neighbours.

The 8ft dish should be an interesting challenge to cloak. Any ideas? I remember years ago seeing covers that looked like patio umbrella's etc.

I'd be curious to see any pictures of what the folks here have done to hide their dishes from sight.[/QUOTE]

 

[scottc98]

Dish umbrella for the c-band

Also, the shed idea wouldn't be a bad idea if you can make the roof out of a plexiglass (or whatever people use to replace their windows so they can have the dish inside)

You could also condence your expressvu/dishnet dish to one dish. My channelmaster eliptical was set up that way a few years ago. was able to get 119,110,91, and 82 on the same dish (really strong signal) in Ohio and in California (before the new sat came up for the 91).

or you can look what Iceberg has done and move everything to a tortial dish.

That way you can get most of the KU stuff on the arc and motorize the 8ft with a C/KU lnb.

 

[Davage]

Dish umbrella for the c-band

or you can look what Iceberg has done and move everything to a tortial dish.

That way you can get most of the KU stuff on the arc and motorize the 8ft with a C/KU lnb.

I really like that dish that Iceberg has. One of these days I'll get one of those dishes

I went out and paced through my backyard yesterday looking at the dishes where they are currently mounted on top of my storage shed and I've found a spot close to the ground and also close to the house in the back yard where I can tuck them away neatly so that they are out of view. I'm tucking them away by choice, there is nobody complaining right now about my 3 dishes... My neighbour directly behind me has 3 DBS dishes and a Starchoice dish on his back shed in plain view, so it really isn't an issue of people complaining, I just want to tuck them away neater so that when I put up my 8ft dish, all they'll really see is just 1 big dish and it won't look like I'm a downlink for the local cable company with dishes everywhere.

I still like the idea of somehow decorating the dish by painting it so that it looks like a flower, and then the neighbours will be happy to show any visitors to their house what their wacky neighbour did to his big dish.

I appreciate all of the input. I'm just waiting until spring now so that I can go pick up my free dish from my wife's friend's house and transplant it into my back yard.