mounting satellite dish

pvc pipe,(same diameter as the regular bracket), painted to match the mirror and attached with hose clamps, to the mirrors.

approx. 4 ft long and 2 inch diameter

1 on each side. better swing for the dish

worked good for yrs. drilled 2 oval holes for the clamp to fit better.

 

I use to mount mine on a piece of pvc attached to the mirror and I used a dish pointing app I got off the android market to find pointing coordinates. I got pretty good at setting it up. I could get it going in under 2 minutes flat but eventualy found an even better way. You should try a Slingbox. You can get satelite or cable service on your cel phone, laptop, or tablet. The device works great and you can also elimate some of your personal possesions from the truck such as you TV. The fewer personal possesions you keep in the truck the fewer valuables you have to worry about losing. You might also find some value in some of the on-demand internet based services. Even though I have a Slingbox I still mostly watch TV shows on my tablet with Netflix, Hulu Plus, Google Play, or Cinema Now. I probably wouldnt even have satelite service if it weren't for other members of the household. I would put a link in here for the Slingbox but the post gets flagged as spam. They sell them at Bestbuy though.

 

I agree with DGStrong71! I do not have any TV service at my house. I watch a lot of popular shows and stuff online for free and legal! You can also get Netflix and etc. that is listed above for a lot cheaper and easier. I think Satellites will be a thing of the past very soon.

 

Yep, technology is changing.

The mirror mount is most effective but I think it looks tacky running down the road with an ugly pipe sticking up.

I've thought of a telescoping pole mounted on the back of a cab. One could even use a vertical load lock holder. But setup wouldn't be as easy. I have a handheld Digisat but not everyone has one of them. You could buy one cheap on eBay. As you cross the country elevation changes by zip code so easy access of the dish is necessary.

I use to install satellites years ago. Some apartments we weren't allowed to attach the dish to anything. We remedied that situation by putting the pole in a 5 gallon bucket full of concrete and setting it up on their porch/balcony. A driver could do that and easily store it under his bunk but it weighs about 80 lbs. Just have about 100' of RG-6 and set it up behind your trailer or actually anywhere depending on where you park. I'd park in an end grass spot and set it up outside the door. That way the dish is easily adjustable and it's not going anywhere with a weighted bucket. We use to use them chain link fence post you can buy at any home center. They are the perfect width. You can cut it shorter if you like. One hint is to beat a flat side on the post with a hammer, the part that emerges in the concrete. That keeps the post from free spinning. Just throwing a thought out there.

 

Satellite Tv will never be obsolete until they fix the infrastructure when streaming videos or TV programming. IMHO streaming has a long way to go to be perfect and reliable. Video especially in HD uses a tremendous amount of bandwith so maybe the answer is to compress it. I think it was OK in the early days but as more and more people use it, I've found that buffering problems persist, and in some cases motion blur can be annoying. It all depends on the service you are using.
We love VUDU for instance. On its day its got fantastic quality video with 5.1 surround sound, but after a year of no problems, the buffering issues came to the fore and now its a matter of whether we want to continue watching movies that way. And as for watching via WiFi, forget it. You really need to hard wire to get the best results.
Now we have Apple TV at home which is hard wired through my system and it works great. Excellent quality You can watch VUDU via a laptop but I never liked the results. I guess I'm still a little old fashioned and still love the Blu-ray DVD medium, for movies
Satellite will always be here for the foreseeable future, and that maybe streaming will take over but I'm skeptical and you are going to have some pretty hefty internet data usage bills if thats how you're going to watch TV, unless you stumble on a good WiFi connection/signal. Directv for instance has a form of streaming service but in my opinion, they are doing it the best way and that is to download onto a HD server and then you watch it. A much better way IMHO rather than pure streaming.
But everyone has their opinion and can find the best way for them. But to me good quality audio surround sound is just as important as the video side of the equation. YMMV
Good luck

 

Sorry guys, I went a little off topic there didn't I ? But as I've got a Pete 387, its not easy to mount a Sat Dish but I do have a couple of gizmos that may work. One is called a Sidekick. However I'm thinking about using one of those domes that you mount on the back of the rig, that semi automatically find the signal. They're not cheap but the only other way is to fabricate a bracket on both doors and attach a PVC pipe to that. I've found I need to get the dish as high as possible to get a clear signal that is not impeded by the truck next door.

 

You could simply mount a bracket to the back of the cab in the same manner the QC is used. Drill the holes and pop a few rivets with some silicone to weatherproof the hols.

Easy peasy