The Carriages at Parliament Place

What a Dish!

Dec 11, 2002

There was no cable television service available for hook-up when the first few residents moved in over the summer of 2002, and the maximum telephone connection speed for modems was about 24kb.

Calls to Adelphia and Qwest, both of which were in various financial problems, left us with an uncertain future for both entertainment signals and internet connectivity, so the early Carriages at Parliament Place pioneers turned to satellite dishes for communications with the outside world... in some cases, two dishes were erected on a unit to provide voice and data services.

This created some problems with unclear covenant clauses governing the installation of satellite services, aesthetic value of the development, issues with insurance of the common areas, and so on. Fortunately, our development's board of directors, assisted by the property manager, were open to listening to the problem and offering solutions which would preserve the integrity of the development while ensuring the residents could enjoy the same level of communication as do other neighborhoods in Colorado Springs.

A few issues arose in the discussions, such as:

- style, color, and location of satellite dishes
- connection of a dish to the pre-wired panel in each home

By law, a satellite dish smaller than one meter (39.4 inches) is acceptable subject to reasonable rules and covenants prescribing their location. We propose that these dishes should be pole-mounted where possible, away from the traffic lanes, and of a color that blends with the exterior of the units. Obviously, grounding, access to pre-wire points on the exterior, and having a clear view toward the south, are key factors in determining a location. Should pole-mounting not be feasible due to interference or line-of-sight denial, then a roof mounted installation could be acceptable, again out of view of the traffic lanes, and with a 1m-or-less sized dish of a color that blends with the roof shingles. Also, cables and grounding wires should not lay on the roof, but installed through the roof and distributed from that point.

The board has approached the pre-wire installer about pre-sighting each unit for a potential satellite dish now or in the future. Also, the construction crews began installing a conduit tube from the roof to the the utility room in new construction to provide an easy access port for satellite cabling.

As time progressed, and calls to Adelphia and Qwest continued, the telephone line speed magically doubled, and full optical cable service including high-speed internet access, was up and running in November 2002. Qwest even provided an incentive to turn in the satellite dishes and receivers for a very generous break on installation and monthly subscription costs for the first year.

So, while things seem to have improved, there may be some new residents who want or prefer satellite service, and as units change hands, subsequent residents may not want to keep what others set up. These issues, plus the insurance and liablity questions will be addressed in the near future.

We can anticipate more on this subject, including some well-defined covenant clauses, soon.

LC