TriPod Mounted Slimline Dish

Recipe For 1 5/8" to 2" Mast

The DTV Slimline dish can be mounted on the same tripod you use to mount your round 18" dish. The HD Slimline dish uses a 2" mast and the round 18" dish uses a 1 5/8" mast. The 1 5/8" mast will have to be modified by increasing the size to 2". I did this by slipping a 5" long sleeve of of 1 ½” gray schedule 40 non-metallic electrical conduit over the top of the mast. This sleeve will need to be heated so it will expand and slip over the 1 5/8" mast. The simplest way to do this is to heat it in your oven on the top rack at 325 degrees for about 5 minutes. "Check it often and don't have a melt down." Once slipped over the 1 5/8" mast the sch. 40 sleeve will cool and shrink to fit the mast for a perfect fit for the dish mounting bracket. Guys tell your wife the oven thing is perfectly safe and it won't cause a mess.
"Make certain to anchor any tripod mounted dish well."

A new tripod has hit the market since posting the above tripod mast conversion. This new tripod is advertised to stand up to 100 MPH wind. This would be very helpful for use with the new HD dish units from Directv and Dish Network.
It comes with a 2" OD X 30" Long mast mounted in a 17" tripod. The mast is also secured at the base. I know the first thing I would do is extend the mast a little higher. This would decrease the stability in windy conditions. But, it would help with frequent setups at with RV travel. I could live with that. I would probably take my dish down in high wind conditions anyway.
You can check out the tripod at the following website.
http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=RON6009

Another very stable tripod mounted dish system is to use a surveyors type tripod about $70 at home centers. A 2" offset mount cost about $100 and can be ordered from www.rovinginternet.com. This mounting system is like the portable internet dish setups but only using a 2" mount.