Dublin, help, advice and mounting issue

[RichardM]

Hi all,

I'm getting a motorised system installed and I'm not terribly convinced by the installer, so I was hoping for a few expert opinions!

I had a motorised system (1.2m CM dish, 36V actuator, TM5000 DAPCI receiver) in my old house, mounted on a large (5"??) pole in the garden. I brought dish, motor & receiver with me when I moved (2 years ago :-) and am just getting back to them now.

1. Due to orientation of house (in Dublin, back faces roughly 60W by dishpointer.com and there are very high trees in the park behind it) in order to get 28E & 15W (for NFL) the installer reckons that garden mount won't work, so he is going to put it on the back wall, but that CM & 36V motor are too big & heavy to wall mount (especially having to raise dish above gutter), so he is selling me a 1.1m no-brand dish and MotekSM2100 DiseqC motor.

Q. Is he right that 12m CM & 36V couldn't/shouldn't be wall-mounted or is he just trying to sell me a new dish/motor? To be honest, the new setup looks much less noticable, which will go down well with the local residents I think, so I don't mind the expense if I am not losing quality - is a 1.1m no-name steel dish really comparable to a 1.2m fibreglass CM from 8 or 9 yrs ago? I'm sure I'll be ok for 28E & 15W but what about e.g. 26E (which he assures me will be receivable on this dish)?

The new dish is a fraction of the weight of the CM, but still I thought that DiseqC motors weren't meant for dishes over 1m (even if it's lighter I would've thought that the bigger factor was the wind load, which I assume would be about the same)?

Finally (and most worryingly) he arrived with 12 & 18" T&K brackets for the installation, but they didn't reach past the gutter, so he said the only option was to mount it on the wall of our ground floor extension, which would be much more obvious in the garden, from the sunroof, from the bedroom windows *and* which would risk losing 15W (not to mention many others) due to the trees. He said that 18" was the largest size of T&K brackets available and he suggested finding a welder if I wanted larger! Thanks to this thread I can already save myself having to find a welder (although I am wondering if I need to find a new installer... :-) but I am wondering if using 24" brackets pushes the whole 1.1m dish issue over the edge of reliability...? Would 1 pair of 24" be ok, should I get 2 pairs or is it just too impractical?

Any advice, suggestions, etc. very welcome!

Many thanks,
Richard.

[satelliteman]

Welcome,

Moved to a new thread and added a suitable title.

First of all, find another installer Secondly consider the wind loading on the dish if mounting above roof height. If exposed, I'd certainly not be advising a Triax 1.1 on a DiSEqC motor using 24 inch T&K fixing. They do a polar mount for this dish (assume Triax as you mentioned 1.1m) so you could go 36v route.

[rolfw]

No reason why a CM 1.2m dish shouldn't be wall mounted, but it does need a very sturdy mount, normally a 3" mast and if above the gutter, ideally requires a two man team to mount.

As SM says, a 1.1m steel dish in an exposed location on a DiSEqC motor is not recommended, equally an installer who suggests that T&K brackets over 18" are not available is not to be recommended, as he is either very new at the game (so doesn't know any better), or a liar.

Your CM 1.2m will certainly outperform any unnamed 1.1m steel dish and will be far more reliable if in an exposed position.

[RichardM]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the advice - now I just need to find a good installer here in Dublin! There are a few listed in the "Installers" section for Northern Ireland, but none down here - have you come across anyone (in the forums or elsewhere) that you could suggest? I've rung a few from the phone book but hardly any do motorised systems and even those shy away when they hear "36V motor" :-(

Thanks again for your help,
Richard.

[rolfw]

We have two or three active members from Dublin, but although I don't think they're installers, they may know someone who is.

[gandalfthegrey]

Hi RichardM....
Have a look on boards.ie, Youre bound to get an installer there
_http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=55

trawl thru the posts,you'll definatley find somebody...From Dublin myself and have installed a couple of motorised setups but wouldn't be confident enough to put myself forward..but if your stuck you'll find plenty of help here...great bunch of lads on this forum.
gandalf

[RichardM]

Thanks again for the pointer. I'll have a look there, but I'll keep an eye here too because this site has been a great help - thanks for that!

Richard.

[timbo86]

Hi Richard, That installer is talking rubbish. Stick with the CM dish. I would be willing to travel to help you get setup. Can you send me a PM with photos of the dish site and the trees in question?

[rolfw]

Or better still, why not upload them.

[GreenmanBelg]

Hi Richard,
Contact Tony at satellite dot ie he seems to have a very good name.

Look at my setup of my CM 1.2 side mounted _____http://www.satellites.co.uk/satellite/picture-members-setups-general-satellite-installations/143499-new-setup-sat-hq-belgium.html

BTW I did put threaded bar through the wall!!!!

Let us know what you do.

[gandalfthegrey]

Hi Richard,
Contact Tony at satellite dot ie he seems to have a very good name.

Richard you can catch Tony on Boards.ie too he is a regular poster and he will point you in the right direction...good luck
gandalf

[RichardM]

Thanks for all the suggestions.
@GreenmanBelg - It's great to see your setup (although when I showed my wife she nearly went hysterical!! :-)
The CM 1.2m polar mount that you have at the top is similar to what I was hoping to achieve.

Hopefully it'll be clearer in the photos, but basically we have a semi-d with the back wall facing roughly 60W by dishpointer.com. The exposed gable wall faces NW, so if I want to get East of 28E I think I need to attach to the gable so that the dish is at or above the apex of the roof - do you get visibility over the top of your roof? On the other hand I'm not sure that there is enough to the East of 28E to make it worth the increase in my wife & neighbours' blood pressure!! So I might settle for mounting on the back wall and getting from 28E to somewhere past 30W.

I have attached 2 pics - 1 of the back of the house with a crude dish drawn-in where I would hope to get the widest reception. 28E would be slightly back over the house, but the elevation of the roof seems shallow enough at that point. Is it realistic to hope to get further east (would the dish need to be too high to swing back that way? if it could, would the pitch of the roof become too steep to see over?)
The other pic just shows the angle of the street, so you can see the direction in which the back wall faces. I would like to have reduced the size of the pics a bit as they are probably bigger than they need to be, but I had a look at the limits for images and I think they are under the max and unfortunately the hard drive in my laptop failed so I don't have any decent tools on this machine. I hope I'm keeping within the forum guidelines! I don't have a pic of the trees, so I'll try and grab that in the morning when it's a bit brighter.

I really appreciate all the input - I can't believe how helpful you guys have been.
Thanks for the offers and suggestions for installers - a neighbour who saw the dish said that there is somebody just down the road who installs dishes and offered to dig out the number, so I just want to wait until he comes back to me, but as I said before most installers here don't want to do motorised, so if he doesn't work out I'll take up some of the offers here.

Thanks again,
Richard.

[GreenmanBelg]

Not sure why wife went mental looking at those lovely dishes, its a hobby better than the pub and I could go on, lucky me here I could stick 100 dishes in the garden and nothing would be said, rant over.

In short Richard the back garden what direction dose it look out on? Is there trees in the way looking out from your back garden? just to say when your dish is easy to get at ie close to the ground its easy to tweak and service.

Finally Richard did you think of doing a DIY job much more satisfaction and with cash saved more money for sat gear.

BTW I'm originally from Dun Laoire via Cork.

[RichardM]

Hi,

Dell replaced my laptop hard drive, so I finally got the other photo ready - this one looks (at an angle) approx South from the back of the house. The back wall faces 60W according to dishpointer.com (there's a google-map in one of the previous posts with the house marked, but I'm not sure if it makes any sense...), and the trees run parallel to the back of the house at a distance of about 100-150 feet. In the bottom right corner you can just see the trusty CM dish awaiting a home...

I know my wife's reaction from the original installation - I was coming home from work to see it, and my wife was sitting in the back room reading. I'd never seen a dish bigger than 0.8m, so when I looked out the door and saw the 1.2m dish sitting on a 5' pole in the middle of the garden I nearly fell over! Couldn't believe how well Sarah was taking it - I asked her if she had seen it and she hadn't so she strolled over ... it was about 20 mins before she could speak again!! In fairness though she still didn't object - she let's me away with a lot really. :-)

My original plan after the move was to mount it myself, but now that I'm looking at putting it up to roof level and subjecting it to the Dublin winds, I think it'd be safer to get someone with some experience - "safe" and "experienced" don't really describe my DIY abilities!

BTW, I've been working in Dun Laoire for 10 years (lived there for 6 months after I got married) - pier, People's Park, shops, banks, etc. - it's a great spot!

Cheers,
Richard.

[GreenmanBelg]

So Richard any movement on your side?

Did you contact anyone?

[wod]

as long as you get a strong wall mount and decent fixings like sleeve anchor bolts then you should be fine.

my dish is at roof height and mounted on 24inch t&k brackets with 3inch pole due to trees and guess what this week my neighbour trimmed the damm trees because they got out of hand lol.

the size of the dish it would be best to use 2 sets of brackets to be sure.