North Facing Balcony - please help!

kingsubbu

New Member
Original poster
May 26, 2008
2
0
Hi,

I live on the top floor of a 4-floor apartment building in Los Angeles and my apartment has a balcony that faces North. I would really like to install a satellite dish (from DishNetwork) but my building does not allow us to put a dish on the roof. Is there any way I can ask the technician to use a pole mount or something to mount the dish so that it can be pointed South? (I was thinking of using the pole on my balcony to hoist the dish over the roof - there are no apartments above mine)

thanks a lot for your help.
 
Use a really, really tall pole ... it would have to get up to at least the eaves or higher depending on the pitch of the roof. Problem with a tall pole is it will sway.
 
If there is little or no overhang you may also be in luck if you can extend a pole out a short way. Look angles are very high here in SoCal so extending a pole out horizontally a couple of feet may be all you need to clear the rooftop on that top floor apartment. Most older buildings here have flat roofs. If you are in one of those this method may work for you.
 
They can legally block tall poles under safety exemptions of the OTARD laws.

Actually it has to extend more than 12 feet above the roofline before they can nix it for that reason, however it being an apartment they can just say no because it would be extending beyond his exclusive use area
 
yep has to be inside his living space.. in cali the signal comes in at about a 45* angle so walk to ur balcony see if u can see at that view maybe even 2 or 3 feet above u might work..
 
In the LA area the look angle is 50 to 51 degrees for 110/119. Extending out a foot or two from a top floor balcony may work just fine if the landlord doesn't complain. That would be the real problem since it would at that point be extending outside of the renter's living area.
 
At an angle of 45 degrees, an object 10 feet tall has to be 10 feet away from the dish. So, if he has an open top balcony he can probably do this with a 6-8' pole in a bucket of concrete.
 
go outside and take a picture of ur room from a chair... hold the camera at aprox 45-50 dregrees and face south..

We here will more then likely be able to tell u if u can get signal.

just remember a tripod lifts the pole aprox 2 feet off the ground plus the 6+ inches for the blocks ur already about 2.5 feet tall. throw a 6 foot pole onto it.. and hope it holds .. might work.
 
did it

I'm late to this thread, however, I did something very similar when I lived in Central California, except it was with Directv instead of Dish. I lived on the 2nd floor of a 2 story apartment and my balcony faced north, so I took a piece of pipe, attached the dish to it and raised it until I got a signal. My building had a slanted roof, but I only needed to get the middle of dish to be roughly even with the roofline (7feet-ish) and I got a signal. I clamped the pole to the railing and I was good to go, until I moved again a year later.

The angles might be a bit different, but it should work with Dish too.
 
a picture is worth . . .

I had these in my archive.
Have no idea where I got 'em.
Possibly here on SatGuys...
Seems pretty self-explanatory.
At least one guy's good idea.
 

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Hi,

I live on the top floor of a 4-floor apartment building in Los Angeles and my apartment has a balcony that faces North. I would really like to install a satellite dish (from DishNetwork) but my building does not allow us to put a dish on the roof. Is there any way I can ask the technician to use a pole mount or something to mount the dish so that it can be pointed South? (I was thinking of using the pole on my balcony to hoist the dish over the roof - there are no apartments above mine)

thanks a lot for your help.
you can ask..and if he says yes. You will have to pay extra for this. I warn you though. Unless this very tall pole is lashed to the building( a likely violation of the apt. managements rules) the pole will sway in the lightest of breezes and your servcie will be far less than reliable.
Think about it.
 
I had these in my archive.
Have no idea where I got 'em.
Possibly here on SatGuys...
Seems pretty self-explanatory.
At least one guy's good idea.
Nice work!! Improvise,overcome, adapt....
UNfortunately 99% of all apartment communites in this area forbid this kind of work. They go with the OTARD rules and limit the dish location to areas within the exclusive uise of the tennant. Some go as far as banning ANY part of the dish extend over the rail of the balcony/patio.
And not to open a big can of worms but a few of the bigger managment companies are banning satellite antennas altogether. The leases have the wording right in them. I don' think it's right But I don't own the property.
 
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