New house, new dish project

[Captain Jack]

Hi,

Over the past few weeks, I have been house hunting with my partner and finally found one. A real pain, as most rental properties won't accept pets and we have two cats! This house is a decent price with decent Internet (only 500m from exchange) but, sadly, with a north facing garden Only for a few years until we get married and buy our place - which WILL have a south facing one....

But for now... I have permission from the landlord to erect a dish so now I am thinking of options. Looking at dishpointer on my phone, the houses were pretty much in the way at the back of the garden at my height level of 1.8m. Only the western satellites are clear from around 30W. The front of the house faces the road, so the dish has to go on the back somewhere.

There are a few choices - 1) do the over-the-gutter installation of my 1m Channel Master (1.2m too big for this I think) or 2) increase the height of the dish at the back of the garden until it clears the houses. Ideally, I would want two dishes, one for Ku and another 1.2m for C, especially if I can grab 49E.

Over the gutter should be fairly simple - a K-T-K bracket arrangement on a 3 inch pole should make it fairly stable. I've no idea how much over the gutter the dish has to look as it depends on roof-slope angle so will need to investigate further.

However, I am wondering how I can increase the dish height while making it as stable as possible. But is it fesible to increase the dish height to around 3 meters? What about martin-f's fence post concreted into the ground (can simply be cut off later) with a pole stub at the top? No idea how I would stabilise it though. Or a simply a long extended 3 inch pole (perhaps concreted into the ground again?) with guy wires?

I've attached a screenshot to let you know what I'll be dealing with. The yellow highlighting will be part of my property.

Cheers
CJ

 

[satelliteman]

A ground mount would be easier on the eye and on the property. KTK will require some serious drilling into a rental home. Check they will be ok with this.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Back of the garden.

Stick a 3m pole when you can (you will want a permanent structure for a five year wait).

Raise the fencing to abut the same height (ply the neighbours, tell them you are a raving naturist and so is your granddad)

Then put in a 2 metre steerable.

 

[Archived-1]

Just put what you want were you want they can only make you take it down at the end of the day. There's a caravan on a drive opposite me I don't like looking at it tbh but it's there what a stupid law on satellite dishes

 

[Archived-1]

What about martin-f's fence post concreted into the ground (can simply be cut off later) with a pole stub at the top? No idea how I would stabilise it though

it is not a fence post its a railway sleeper and it will not move one bit. no need for stabilization when I get a 1.8 it will be sat in the same place with no problems for sure ;-)

we have had 60/70 mph winds and she does not move one bit, its as good as a wall ;-)

btw c/j if you do go down that road and you need the same fabricated mount that I designed for my setup let me know pal, it cost me 30 pound but I gave him a tip he only asked for 20, worth every penny :-)

 

[Captain Jack]

Sorry, Martin :-hide Yes, back of the garden is the preferred way of mounting for access issues. It shouldn't be too visible to the neighbours behind it due to bushes but it will be visible to the neighbours from either side. See this pic - not sure why it's so green.

Railway sleepers look like a good idea. A couple fused together should make it solid but.... from what I saw the bottom of the dish needs to be at least 3 metres off the ground to clear the houses - how stable would it be at that height and how deep does the sleeper have to go into the ground?

I still want a second dish up on the house somewhere - maybe on the side of it for height issues but we'll see closer to time.

 

[Archived-1]

lol:-), i put mine down about 3ft c/j i am sure if you went a little deeper and plenty of concrete with two joined together you would have no problems at that height,

but i would have a larger mount made so it goes further down the sleepers

ive only got one sleeper in the ground and you can not budge it pal.

 

[Captain Jack]

I see what you mean Martin. I may well take up on your offer of having the mount made - I take it all sleepers are the same size? I guess if I use three sleepers, it will make it even sturdier.

OK, so about a metre deep - how about the width and length of the hole? 1m? Basically a 1m cube?

Lastly, did you use new sleepers or "reclaimed" ones? And what's the best place to get them? Travis Perkins type places or...?

 

[Archived-1]

hi c/j, it was a new sleeper that I used and they can vary in size, the more you attach together the more stable it will be with more concrete , but I am sure 2 will do the job, but that's up to you pal,

just imagine it as a tree trunk :-).

yes a 1mtr deep by 1mtr wide would be more than adequate.

I have used the wider one from the link below,

http://www.quarrytopgarden.co.uk/Pages/RailwaySleepers.aspx

if you do need the mount making up just let me know the measurements and I will get it you sorted and posted out pal :-)

 

[RimaNTSS]

OK, so about a metre deep - how about the width and length of the hole? 1m? Basically a 1m cube?

I would say, 1 cube meter is too much for pole for one antenna. I have mechanical hand-drill, with that I drill 15cm diameter ūp to 130cm deep holes. And then fill those holes with concrete and stick any metal pipe in it. In that way I have build > 100 meters fence around property. If one hole is not enough than you can drill 3 holes and connect them together to get stable construction. With that drill I also made 16 holes ~50cm deep to make basement for green house (I have posted picture on parallel tread), so all construction is very solid.

 

[Captain Jack]

Yeah, these are auger drills that you can make the holes with - less invasive than digging a huge 1 metre cube. However, I think that 15cm diameter is a little small IF I wasn't using additional support like guy wires...

I've actually done a similar project on my old Gibertini dish - see here http://www.satellites.co.uk/forums/topic/127106-my-old-gibby-12m-dish-with-moteck-sg2100-motor/

In this case instead of a pole, I am thinking of using railway sleepers (шпалы) as they are easier to work on than 76mm poles and are also cheaper!

 

[RimaNTSS]

You can make construction from metal pipes. Dig 4 holes, concrete pipes and veld them together on 2-2,5m level. If you close this box with some siding than you get additional storage for sat-equipment, and on top of it- platform for installation

 

[Captain Jack]

That might be a little intrusive - trying to make it as discrete as possible (the other half would kill me). But like this, I could put 2 dishes up easy though

 

[Captain Jack]

Another option is to use what I already have - a normal ground mount with three "legs" (like the one in my avatar but with 76mm pole). Make three holes with an auger drill, like RimaNTSS says, put threaded rods in each and bolt the mount to that. Then simply extend the pole with a coupler and stabilise with angle iron if needed.

 

[Huevos]

I think you should do a proper site survey with a small dish to confirm if the arc is really hidden. Also, no need to dig holes, just use a groundstand attached to kerbstones. That's what I did with my 180cm dish and that is still perfectly aligned after more than 2 years, and the winds have been horrendous this winter.

 

[Captain Jack]

Definitely, Huevos. Site survey is the way to go - I am just looking for ideas and options. Kerbstones - yeah, thought about that as well but I hate drilling into the things, even though I have an SDS drill, and it won't look at tidy.

You got a picture of your mounting?

 

[Huevos]

You got a picture of your mounting?

Yes. It's pretty basic, but only about an hour's work.

http://www.satellites.co.uk/forums/topic/146718-heavy-duty-groundstand-base-in-a-hurry/?p=742529

 

[purplemarina]

Definitely, Huevos. Site survey is the way to go - I am just looking for ideas and options. Kerbstones - yeah, thought about that as well but I hate drilling into the things, even though I have an SDS drill, and it won't look at tidy.

You got a picture of your mounting?

you could sink the kerbstones into the ground for " the tidy look"

 

[Captain Jack]

Purplemania, that would still require making holes

Alright, thanks for all the ideas - certainly a few options there. Will make a decision after the move and a site survey!

 

[turbostar99]

Flagstone's like the one's council's used to do the pavement's with. Put them down little bit of sand underneath and level off. Bolt your stand to the flagstone then put 4 concrete buiding block's on top of the flagstone. Easy to do quick and cheap B+Q sell them should cost not a lot more than £10.00. Job done stick flower pot's on them afterward's, happy day's