Made Custom Mount & Question..

[JasonSyracuse]

Okay, so there's this guy whose landlord won't let him have his dish anywhere on the building. This guy is desperate to get dish. So he wants it in his apartment, shooting out his sliding glass doors. Mind you, this will be a 311 with a 121W Superdish. Now, I didn't want to have to bolt the thing to his refridgerator but I also didn't want a giant non-pen with 6 cinderblocks sitting in this guys living room.

So I took a bunch of extra support arms and made this setup:

I figured I could set this up pointing out the window. I'm not promising him I can get the 110W but we'll see if we can snag the 119 and 121. (Which is all he needs anyway with just the Top 60)

Anyways, here's the question, has anyone heard or had any experience with snagging the signal through glass? Just curious.

Jason

 

[Mike500]

It's been done, but forget about 121. I've done it with DirecTV at 101, but you're looking at a 30-35% degrade in signal strength.

 

[chaddux]

This guy is desperate to get dish. So he wants it in his apartment, shooting out his sliding glass doors.

I assume that sliding glass door leads to a patio. Just put it on the patio and the glass door won't be an issue. Remember, the landlord is prohibited BY LAW from stopping the installation of a satellite dish of reasonable size (SuperDISH qualifies) on property exclusive to the tenant.

 

[Bizzach]

I read somewhere a while back that it can be done with no problem.
Let us know how it goes!

 

[JasonSyracuse]

I assume that sliding glass door leads to a patio. Just put it on the patio and the glass door won't be an issue. Remember, the landlord is prohibited BY LAW from stopping the installation of a satellite dish of reasonable size (SuperDISH qualifies) on property exclusive to the tenant.

Of course. But his patio doors lead to a central 'common' area for all the tenants. He lives on the first floor, so he has no real boundary for his exclusive use. I wanted to do the job just because I wanted to make the spiffy mount *and* try and shoot a dish through a window.

But... if I lose 30-40% on my 121, thats no good seeing how I can only peak that sat out at around 80-90, and thats on a good day. It's just plain weak. Welp, we'll see what happens. Seeing how the whole setup is going to be temporary anyways, it doesn't hurt to try. (Except for the fact that I get per diem, doh!)

Jason

 

[chaddux]

Of course. But his patio doors lead to a central 'common' area for all the tenants. He lives on the first floor, so he has no real boundary for his exclusive use.

Well, that's no good. Build a fence!

 

[Mark_AR]

You may run into a small problem. (maybe)

I tried this when roofers were re-shingling my house. I tried pointing S through a closed window. Seems as though the glass had some sort of coating on it. As long as the window was open, I could get good signal. Closing it. Signal dropped to zero.

My windows didn't look tinted but they were coated with something. Dunno if your glass patio door would have the same type of coating.

I ended up mounting it to an old brake drum and locating it just outside the front door. Worked like a charm.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Allow me to be the first to say:

That's one sweet setup you fabbed there - GOOD JOB!

 

[bcope9]

If the window or door has a LowE coating on it, then it will not work. LowE is a coating of silver on the glass during manufacture to reflect heat out on sunny days and to keep heat in during the winter. The glass would also have an argon or krypton gas fill. I know, I used to make windows.

 

[fishman]

I have seen it done with a 500 dish mounted to a coffee table, it was working fine But I was there to do an upgrade adding a dish pointed at 61.5 and I declined

 

[PSB]

You could always change the glass to plastic, then it should work. Always worth a try.

Check out the picture at the bottom of the below page!

http://www.selkirkshire.demon.co.uk/analoguesat/paintingdishes.html