Someone mentioned a muffler shop and a pipe. Would a standard plumbing pipe fit snugly in the existing bracket pipe? If so, you could slide the plumbing pipe into the existing bracket pipe. Cut some grooves in the existing pipe. Use a muffler clamp to squeeze the two pipes together.
On my own kit, I actually used a short piece of schedule 40 PVC, slipped over the end and bolted through both pipes with washers. So far it has served me well for 8yrs and held up through two hurricanes, but I have no idea what your own localized weather situation is. Can't remember anymore what size I used, believe it was 1 1/4", but you should be able to figure it out.
Eventually, exposure to sun and elements will take a toll on exposed PVC, but may work until you can come up with something better.
EMT would work just as well, last forever, but if ice and snow is an issue, you should probably cap the end: you would not believe what freezing can do to to metal pipe of any sort.
Worst case, purchase a length of similar sized EMT from almost any big box or hardware store and either fashion a temporary pipe bending jig, very simple, or find someone with an EMT bender and cut to length.
Looks like the existing pipe is about an inch diameter. There has to be a way to extend that, some how. Either with a pre formed piece that slips over, or perhaps some kind of rod that slips into the existing tubing.
Got to be a way, but I've not really got any good ideas for this moment.
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Someone mentioned a muffler shop and a pipe. Would a standard plumbing pipe fit snugly in the existing bracket pipe? If so, you could slide the plumbing pipe into the existing bracket pipe. Cut some grooves in the existing pipe. Use a muffler clamp to squeeze the two pipes together.
Muffler shop as others have suggested. You will need to paint it properly if you expect the pipe to last.
Remove the bent pipe and drill holes in the short end to match the pivot and locking bolts.
Purchase a proper "eave mount" satellite dish mounting kit:
Consider an "under eave mount" kit which is less likely to break.
Non-penetrating roof mount if you want to move the dish around for optimum positioning:
Consider another location or mounting method:
The eaves are usually rather thin but will work if you don't have a rain gutter and add some reinforcing behind the eave. Another board will work, but I prefer painted Unistrut.
You could if you have another piece of similar diameter pipe and a welder. I've done this for one weird installation by taking two DBS dish mounts and butt welding the ends together. Welding was easy. Painting was not.
Someone suggested using PVC pipe. That will work for wi-fi because antenna aiming is far less critical than Ku band. Pound or glue a piece of schedule 40 pipe into the end of the existing mount. You may need to build up the PVC to the same diameter as the steel pipe or antenna aiming might be a bit clumsy.
Not just a new mast, but also a new mount. I'm partial to the "under eave mount" method.
Clever tricks have a habit of backfiring. Search Google Images for photos of "tile roof antenna mount" or "eave antenna mount" and look for something similar to your situation.
This seems the easiest. The angles will all change, and the Rocket is heavy so it has to be strong enough. I probably have to screw it into one of the cross-cut edges of the beams.
For the record, quite a few solutions were proposed which should work.
The first approach I will is drilling & reversing the J. However that greatly changes the geometry, and may need side braces. (DTV-AT9-SB Standard Short Brace for DIRECTV Slim Line Dish DTV-AT9-SB)
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So the second approach is to find a SECOND Dish-TV J-arm and mount them both on the wall, one ABOVE the dish and one BELOW (in opposite directions) with the "tops" of the mounts almost touching each other.
The third approach will be to shove 1 1/4" EMT electrical conduit into the short end of the j-arm and then weld it on or bolt it on.
Why not get a piece of pipe that will fit the Rocket mount, clamp it, then use two more U-bolts to mount that pipe to the direct TV mast.
I got two of those Starband and Hughes satellite internet dishes for free on Craigs. They have a very strong mount. What happens is in the Santa Cruz mountains, as soon as a wired internet service shows up, they junk the satellite internet gear. You can convert them to FTA, though in your case, just use the tripod.
The tripods that come with sat internet are really strong. The LNB and BUC combo is mighty heavy. Often the satellite internet dishes are still on the homes but not being used.
Satellite internet is terrible. You can't get around the latency problem unless you can cut a deal with Einstein.
Yech. The spacing between the two U-bolts will be fairly small due to the inadequate length of the short end of the satellite dish pipe. All you've done is transfer the problem from the dish mount to the U-bolts.
Also, U-bolts won't work. You need something like these to keep the pipes parallel:
The Radio Shack (Channel Master) vent pipe mount are junk.
Reminder: Tile roof. Most of those mounts won't work unless you drill the tile. It really does need to be something designed for eave mounting.
If you don't do anything in realtime, it's tolerable. Exede (Wild Blue), which uses Ka band and spot beams seems to be less disgusting than the others.
Einstein is not a stockholder. However, note the spot map at:
Note the south end of beam 21, which cuts through Monterey Bay. I know of systems that work in the Aptos and Prunedale areas, but the signal levels are lower than a few miles north in Santa Cruz. Grrrr...
I didn't know those "double" mounts existed in real life. I have hacked them together buying long bolts at OSH and COTS antenna mounts. But that double clamp looks much better.
In my rounds today, I noticed a large sat dish on the roof at a strip mall. No LNBF on it. I guess when a tenant leaves crap on the roof, the owner pulls the cable out when cleaning up, but odd they pulled the LNBF. Maybe the F-connectors had rusted and it was less work to pull the LNBF.
It would be interesting to know the percentage of sat dishes mounted but not hooked up. Anyway, it was one of those heavy duty mounts and a 36x24 oval dish.
I've run into sat internet gear hooked up to instrumentation in the boonies. There are only so many "slots" on those GOES birds to send data. For $50 a month, it is chump change for some outfit that is doing seismic studies in East Bumfuck.
Look on any decent vertical antenna mounting and you'll find them:
About $60/set.
Antenna Spec used to make a really fancy machined aluminum version that I can't seem to find. That's what's needed to pipe mount a 21ft Stationmaster or solid dish with a high wind loading.
What you really want is the thick zinc galvanizing. It's the dull gray stuff you see on all the telephone pole hardware. It lasts. The thin galvanizing on the commodity hardware doesn't last and often rusts in place. I have a large pile of old Metricom hardware that is similar to the APSR-616 but thinner and with 1/4-20 hardware. It's functional for very small antennas, but nothing big and heavy.
That's standard procedure. If it's a tenant occupied structure, such as a gas station, or a rental, it's likely that the new tenants will need to use the dish again. However, the LNB can be re-used immediately at other customers, so it's removed and re-installed elsewhere. If it's transmit/receive assembly, it's the most expensive part and is usually removed immediately.
We have 3 in the neighborhood. One more (me) as I'm pulling the plug on DirecTV. I'm paying $75/month, 30% of which goes for paying to watch commercials.
Ku band is packed full. All the new stuff is on Ka band. At
30-40GHz, dish alignment and stability is rather critical.
This may be too small of a pipe for common muffler clamps. If plumbing pipe fits inside, either get it welded, or drill a hole thru both pipes and put a bolt thru it. Around my area getting it welded if you supply the extension pipe, would cost $10 or less at a professional welding shop. Even if they charge $80 an hour, you're looking at a 5 minute job and a buck or two for the welding wire. You cant buy a bracket for that. Be sure to paint the weld to avoid rust stains on the house.
Satellite sucks with 700ms latencies & severe bandwidth limits; but it does provide the Santa Cruz mountains with 10 Mbps to 20 Mbps if you go with Viasat Exede Ka band (forget HughesNet, which is Ku band). Plus you can't buy and set up your own equipment.
This antenna and radio I'm mounting is for 2.4 Ghz WiFi, which has to handle a lot more noise - but otherwise it works fine at the 10Mbps to
20Mbps range up here in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
The alternative is 5Ghz equipment, depending on the WISP (e.g., Etheric) but the drawback is you can't own and set up your own equipment.
Most of us up here in the mountains set up our own equipment. We're not as smart as you guys but luckily the WISPs are all pretty good about it (Surfnet, Hilltop, Ridgewireless, etc.). So we learn just enough to get it working & for the kids not to kill us when it goes down. :)
Hi Jeff, Thanks for the advice. You're a wonderful local resource!
I picked up a 10' length of 1" (ID) EMT conduit today (they don't have any shorter lengths). I'll cut it about ten inches long, and push it in about four inches and drill a crosswise hole in the mounting to bolt the pipe into the J arm.
I might not even bolt it into the J arm if it feels sturdy.
Then I'll lag bolt (screw) it into the edge of the wood roof beams, which should work. The trick is that they're forty feet up in the air (due to the hillside being very steep at the fault line). I 'was' going to use the balcony but this rocketdish is huuuuge!
Up here in the Santa Cruz Mountains, we'd ditch everything for cable; but it's just not in the cards yet (even though we're practically in Silicon Valley - you'd think we'd be wired!).
While nobody would even think of HugesNet (Ku band), a few neighbors have started their two-year contract with Viasat Exede (Ka band). It's FAST, about 12 to 18 Mbps down. Much slower up. But you just can't change the latencies of 700ms to almost a second!
Even the guys on the two-year Viasat contracts are adding WiFi dishes so that they have a backup line-of-sight system. The WISPs out here are all good guys. They let me, for example, keep my dish pointing to them as an emergency backup, just in case my other WISP goes down (which is frequent with the winds & power outages around here). We all have backup generators and the WISPS have battery backup - but it's for naught when the antenna blows down.
I've mounted a few radio antenna but this new Rocketdish antenna & Rocket M2 radio is the BIGGEST HEAVIEST I've ever mounted - so it's more of a mechanical problem than the planar and smaller parabolic antennas I've had in the past.
The biggest problem now is the 40-foot drop should I fall off the ladder! :)
I noticed this has two sets of mounting holes, so that you can reverse the short arm of the J.
I thought about drilling a second set of holes in the long end, but, I worried about the cantilever being too far out in that case for the heavy rocketdish (which is heavier than a dish tv antenna).
By adding about 10 inches of EMT tubing to the long end of the J, I'm hoping not to change the geometry all that much. Of course, I have to bolt (lag screws) it into something really solid!
In hind sight, it might have been easier to erect an ugly but straight pipe in the ground!
I noticed most of the bolts that came with the Rocketdish were stainless steel, except one set of bolts which was a dull gray for just the bottom brace.
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BTW, WHAT is the purpose of the bottom brace anyway?
It is just to stop the antenna from sliding DOWN the mounting pole?
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