This forum is awesome!

[BobL]

I stumbled on this forum about a week ago. Searching for home improvement ideas and what not on Google. Since then I've been reading tons of cool stuff!

A little about me, I install satellite TV and internet for a living. Great job! If you guys ever want to know the ins and outs of proper dish mounting, cable routing, service loops, drip loops, cable types, f-connectors, dish pointing, etc. I'd be happy to bore you to tears.

Two tips on your next inspection of a house equipped with satellite TV. First check to make sure the dish is grounded. There should be a solid core wire (usually green jacketed) running from the mounting bracket to a ground. Messenger wire on the cable is commonly used as well. A ground is an electrical box, steel pipe, or something like that. The purpose is to dissipate static electricity or lightning. The other thing to check is the wall plate. The center of the connector should be blue. That's for the high frequency that satellite signals travel at. Often techs will re-use cable company wall plates, robbing customers of the increased signal quality they're paying for. Both of these items are commonly overlooked by sloppy techs.

Other than installing satellite systems I do a little home repair on the side. Simple stuff mostly. What I really enjoy is fixing appliances. It's crazy what people throw out. Often I'll find a range, refrigerator, or dishwasher that needs some minor part and some elbow grease to be good as new. I'll fix them up and give them to someone worse off than me. Sometimes they can pay me enough to cover the cost of the parts. It's a good feeling.

Active in my church a lot. I'm a Christian and that guides me in everything I do. I'm also taking college courses in HVAC. It's challenging but helping me grow as a trades person. I feel that's what God is calling me to do, work with my hands and do the best job I can every time no matter what is is I'm doing. After all our purpose in this existence is to serve Him and do His will.

Anyway I never really gave much thought to the home inspection business, but I really enjoy reading all the articles on here. It's neat to see a group of experts dissect another persons "craftsmanship". Definitely getting a lot of ideas on how I can do things better in future projects.

Thanks for having this really great resource here to read. I'm sure the folks that manage and run this operation put a lot of time into it. It's truly a blessing to be able to see how others might view the work I do.

[kurt]

I'd love to have a decent telecom installer around here. Most of the guys that work Chicago install telecom like the Mongol hordes stampeding the peasants.

[BobL]

My boss is fond of saying he doesn't want installers working for him, he wants technicians.

What kills me is how little time is actually saved by doing a sloppy installation. Like only putting in 4 bolts to hold the bracket to the house instead of 6.

Think about it, you got the ladder off the truck, set it up, climbed it, leveled the bracket, marked and pre drilled 4 holes, siliconed them, and ran in 4 bolts. How much longer would it have taken to do 2 more and do the job properly?

Some guys are just lazy I suppose. Kind of sad really, it's not that hard to do it right.

[Ben H]

Some guys are just lazy I suppose. Kind of sad really, it's not that hard to do it right.

Well said brother, well said.[]