After helping my slip neighbor align his dish this past weekend I felt left out without a dish. So I used an old dish and receiver I had laying around and made the trip down to the harbor tonight.

Below are some pics of the install and I was able to get a better signal then I have at home.

4"x"4 8' pole with a small 4"x"4 spacer. 3 carriage bolts attach it to the dock box with a 1"x6" on the inside.


View of dish mounted in place #1


View of dish mounted in place #2



Artistic sunset shot


TV and receiver inside cabin


Satellite row, if you look closely you can see 3 dishes

That's cool! I should re-mount our dish!

We do watch plenty of TV on the boat. When "Ultimate Fighting" is on PPV we sometimes end up with a gang...




Right now, the dish goes everywhere WE go...




But I'm actually getting tired of looking at the thing. It's on a rotator so I can aim it on the lake, but so far we've never needed to watch the tube out in the lake, so I should just move the thing! And I have a perfect place for it:




I start my non-vacation vacation this friday, maybe I'll put this on my to-do list!

The only problem--one more thing to remember to un-hook before heading out!

With a boat your size it's probably a tough call as to where to mount it. I'd probably be more inclined to watch TV outside the harbor with the space you have. In my situation I've never turned the TV on away from the dock. Plus I had most of the gear so it was a cheap project.

We've never watched TV away from the dock either, that's why I'm thinking of just sticking the dish on the dock post next to the boat! AND, we've got a digital TV convertor and some rabbit ears, so we can get local TV out on the lake anyway...

There's about 40' of extra coax spooled up around the dish mount on the boat, so the only thing I'd need is a way to clamp the dish mount to the post! Couple of $4 U-clamps should do it...

When we moved onto our boat we had a DTV dish and receiver and weren't sure if it would work. We have floating docks and no piling to mount it to.

We got a rod holder and attached to a rail on the bridge, lined it up and presto! Shoots right through the glass and even holds a signal when the boats rocking and swaying.

We have basic cable at the dock so if the sat goes out during a storm we have a back up. We records lots of stuff and watch it when we are out on the hook.

C4W- Do you all have to get approval from the harbor before puting those up?

Do you own or rent the dock boxes?

Very nice Chicago4Winns! Now all you need is a mailbox, and paper delivery.

Frantically Relaxing - is that a piano I see under the wind chimes?

I'd guess a helm.

Occasionally I like to take the approach to ask for forgiveness later rather then asking for permission first. This was one of those cases. The guy 3 slips down for me has had it setup for 3yrs and my neighbor did his last weekend, so I figured the harbor is ok with it.

We rent the boxes at the low, low rate of $150/season.

Piano? No, we took that out last month!

The window frame above the helm is black and silver, that's all that's there...

Question:

If you have Direct TV at home (I don't, I have cable) do you have to pay extra to have it at your dock or on your boat?

If so, is there a discount or is it like another subscription?

The new guy next to me at the marina has a piano on his boat. Electronic, but it's a piano.

Direct TV charges per box, I believe it's $4.99. Over the past year I've replaced older boxes with HD DVRs. I kept the service active on one older box and now it's on the boat. So the short answer is yes it's $4.99/mo to have it at the boat.

But you have to have a subscription also, right? I mean the total cost for Direct TV is more than $4.99 per month, correct?

Direct TV starts at around $30 a month.

We have Charter Cable TV at the dock included as part of our annual slip rent.

Correct, I'm not sure what their cheapest package is but it's definitely more then $5.00/month. That is just what I pay extra to keep that box turned on during boating season. I can turn it off during the winter.

Al, cable at the harbor is yet another common "luxury" that the Chicago harbor system doesn't have. We did however, get wifi a few months ago. It's free this season no word on next year. I'm sure they can cover it somewhere in the $90/ft we pay.

I'm stuck with cable for my Internet access so that's why I have it, not satellite TV. We have wifi but the marina is just letting us use their network. Problem is, they put their antenna inside the metal building so to use it we have to go into the building or the adjacent picnic area. I tried to describe som options to make it work at the docks but they didn't put it in themselves so they don't understand how to improve it.

BTW: "Winter" around here only lasts until about noon!

$90 per foot is about what I pay as well. We get free cable but have to pay about $32 per month for WiFi.

We pay $10.00 per foot per month on an annual contract so that's $120.00 per foot. Plus #30.00 per month for 30 amp electric. It's about the least expensive marina in the area and it's the closest to home.

And you can boat pretty much all year long. We're April-Oct here and it really doesn't get nice until June.

Our contract is May to Oct, but they allow you to launch as early as Apr, and pull out as late as the end of Oct.

That's why I moved south!

But ............ Do you have to have a hurricane plan?

They just changed the harbor system last year, April 1st-October 31st. Last year I pulled out the last week of October and it was 70*. This year I don't think we hit 70* until May.

I think I'd trade 6 months of boating for a potential hurricane. You just need to do something about that pesky salt water