We have cable service through Insight Communication which has proven to be, time and time again, very undependable. We are thinking about getting one of the small house mounted satellite dishes that many of you have. We are asking for some information from those of you with the dishes. Who is your service through? Have you had any problems? And, if you are comfortable, how much does your service cost? We are paying almost $40 for cable service that goes out in the evenings at least once every two weeks. Thanks for your help!!

Dish Network Satellite vs cable

We moved in two years ago this month (my how time flies) and compared the monthly cost. Never having cable service in the past, we only considered 'basic' (low cost) alternatives. Our monthly cost with Dish Network is $19.99, not including the hardware (dish antenna, receiver, and installation). At that time I was able to get our hardware and installation kit ''free'' by signing on for a minimum of three months of basic service, through an internet seller (Bulverde: http://www.satellitezone.com/index.html). There may be others now that are competitive so shop around for what you want. The only thing left to do was locally buy a grounding kit (water pipe and ground wire) and install it all. The good thing is that the antenna (dish) doesn't have to be installed at a high elevation like typical antennae - you could mount it on the ground as long as you have an unobstructed line-of-sight view to the satellite location (generally southwesterly here). Think about where you would mount it first in order to get a good signal. This service has gone out only once. The downside is that it does not include local stations (IE 4,6,10,28,34, etc). I have an aerial antenna in the attic that ties into the receiver for these, but now I have seen an accessory antenna that clips to the dish for local stations that may work as well.

Deed Restrictions for Dishes

With regards to installing the dish antenna in the ground check our deed restrictions first. I seem to recall that we have to have the dish attached to the house.

deed restrictions

You are correct about the deed restrictions. I, however, was only asking about the dishes in the neighborhood which are all attached to the houses.

By Rosemarie