How to wall mount on a stone wall?

Supercell

I need to mount a dish on a old fashioned stone wall - i.e. the house is pretty old and is built with stones and cement - the walls are several feet thick.

I can get a cable through the window but am at a loss at how to attach the wall mount to the wall.

Are there drill bits than can cut through stone ...what do the sat pro installers do in this situation ?

watty

Yes there are. Even an ordinary masonary bit will --- EVENTUALLY!

You can use a grond mounted pole too. The dish doesn't usually need to be very high

byte

You'll have to get the Hilti out!

Seriously, you'll need an SDS impact drill and an SDS bit. You could probably hire one of these for a few hours?

cast_iron

A mains operated sds drill is a must, as is patience!

You might need a couple of bits as they may burn out.

And best of luck tacking the cable down the wall...:)

Supercell

Thanks guys, was planning to get a hammer action drill in Woodies tomorrow and a masonary bit and that would do it, but maybe this needs a rethink?

The blurb on http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/powertools/sds.htm looks a bit scary for a novice user to be honest!

Sparky

Any sds drill will do the trick. It has a heavier punch than a masonary bit. If you know anyone with a dewalt or a hilti, they can do it for you.

To make life easier when drilling the wall, start with a small bit first, ie: 5.5 and work your way up to the size of the bolt you are using.
Probably a no 10, I think.

watty

It will work with ordinary hammer if you drill as Spark-y suggests. But take lots of breaks to save the drill!

Two sizes of bit should do

Supercell

Got the dish up with a serious amount of sweat and effort with a masonry drill, my arms are fecking aching.

Couldn't get any signal though not sure if its the tall shrub to the left of the dish or my lnb.

Hadn't got a signal in a while in the last place either and presumed it was down to the trees growing.

Luckily have a spare lnb and if that doesn't do it, the shrub's for the chop!
That's tomorrows work as I'm knackered and cranky and its getting dark.

Cool glass of Druids should restore the equilibrium soon

watty

If to the left of dish, it may be LNB or cable or alignment.

Also signal is received from angle upwards from dish of over 20 degrees.

Supercell

I'm thinking it might be alignment, just looked up the magnetic declination for here this year online and its only roughly 4.5°W compared to my compass which is about 9°W coupled with trying to align it pointed at Hotbird (least offset from centre with decent signal and usually a 5 min jobbie to align) might explain it.

May also be the cable from the lnb to motor, have an old cable that might just about stretch to the motor which I know is good so will try that.

Hope its not me bloody meter, that the one thing I don't have spare!

Very frustrating as I spent so much time getting the bracket perfectly level and straight in all directions (with a spirit meter).

Supercell

Spent the morning at this before the weather closed in.
It seems that the house doesn't face exactly south (closer to SE) which was the problem - and had to adjust a lot more than I thought through magnetic declinations calculated yesterday.

I got a really nice signal and thought it must be Sky but turned out was 19.2 - 93% level and 100% quality. But the motor was pointed at 28.2°E ..
Then I noticed that a wind vane on a roof near me was pointing to south slightly over a bit, so moved the dish and now can only get 80% quality on 19.2°E (after realigning) which is confusing me a bit.

I know the dish positional tables are screwed up a bit because the last place I was in had a shítty mount that was to skinny for the dish and flexed a lot - going to reset the Motek next week and realign.

That said cannot understand why with the dish at correct arc for 19.2° that the signal is noticeably weaker than at 28.2° - perhaps the lnb isn't exactly vertical in its holder?

The mount I installed yesterday is perfectly vertical according to one of those bubble level tools so cannot be that.

Any suggestions? - I know that the difference between 80% and 93% might be nitpicking a little, but having a motor I want to be able to scan accurately , and also as I live relatively high up, the weather always seems to be that bit windier/wetter colder etc and reckon signal drop is more likely as a result.

All suggestions welcome.

watty

I use USALS, so don't need to know exactly were south is.

Align motor elevation correct and dish elevation/declination on arm according to motor manual.

Make sure dish is eactly square on arm.

Select 30W or 42E on receiver. Move whole assembly E/W on pole to peak signal. Repeak by fine adjustment of dish rotation on arm (which far east or west adjusts elevation!).

Now select 5W or 8W and fine tune dish elevation/declination on arm. (as this position is most sensitive to elevation). Fine adjust motor E/W position.

Reselect 30W or 42E, but do not losen motor on pole or dish elevation. Fine tune dish rotation on arm, which is large elevation component far east or west.

Now pick 1W or 5E and adjust LNB squew (rotation of LNB in holder) for MAX QUALITY only, don't do it on 28E etc as it is strong and slightly different angle to some other satellites.

Now 56E to 50W should be perfect.

watty

If your motor doesn't do GOTO x replace it! If the Receiver doesn't do USALS (menu for your own lat & long and automatic calculation of GotoX), replace it.

With the USALS system, nothing is stored in the motor and if ONE satellite is correct the other 20 to 32 you can get here (depending of Dish size) will be correct.

Supercell

watty wrote:

I use USALS, so don't need to know exactly were south is.

Align motor elevation correct and dish elevation/declination on arm according to motor manual.

Make sure dish is eactly square on arm.

Select 30W or 42E on receiver. Move whole assembly E/W on pole to peak signal. Repeak by fine adjustment of dish rotation on arm (which far east or west adjusts elevation!).

Now select 5W or 8W and fine tune dish elevation/declination on arm. (as this position is most sensitive to elevation). Fine adjust motor E/W position.

Reselect 30W or 42E, but do not losen motor on pole or dish elevation. Fine tune dish rotation on arm, which is large elevation component far east or west.

Now pick 1W or 5E and adjust LNB squew (rotation of LNB in holder) for MAX QUALITY only, don't do it on 28E etc as it is strong and slightly different angle to some other satellites.

Now 56E to 50W should be perfect.

That's a fantastic helpful post Watty, thanks a lot, makes perfect sense, will do that exactly next weekend weather permitting.

Many thanks for taking the time to post such a nice guide to motorised dish aligning.