Bigger Dish Needed: 3.7 Meter Installation

[eastof111]

Some ideas, ADL dual orthomode feed or Bullseye dual or as mentioned earlier a dual c-ku ortho feed with Norsats.

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[el bandido]

Cannot run the Bullseye because the lowest advertised f/d for that piece is .39. Mine is set at .34. Commercial parts are built with much stricter tolerances than the China parts If that Bullseye was made in China, it would be advertised to work all the way down to .29 f/d or wherever they needed the numbers to be!

The dual Chaparral will work: f/D Range 33 to .42. But only on C band. No servo motor means less maintenance.

[el bandido]

I have ran into something that needs to be taken care of before any more work is done on this satellite dish. Any Polar Mount dish owner needs to be aware of this issue because it is dangerous!

The dish panels for this particular installation weigh about 42 pounds a piece, and there are 8 of them. The polar mount probably weighs a couple hundred pounds, so there is a lot more weight than what we will find in mesh or even most steel dishes. The dish needs to be pointed straight up while installing these panels, and the dish will need to be rotated as the panels are installed. (Install all panels, Install all bolts, then gradually tighten or torque the bolts.)

Here is the Danger part, especially for a heavy dish, but mesh dish owners should pay attention too. The same danger is present when changing actuators, or if an actuator breaks:
To make this dish point straight up, the actuator is removed, plus the declination adjuster is disconnected. Locking plates, or some form of locking the dish will need to be made now. This system is pretty well balanced, and will almost stay straight on its own, but as panels are added, weight will increase and balance will be lost. This thing weighs about as much as the typical full size pickup truck engine, so care will need to be taken to make sure it does not move unexpected.

The actuator will need to be installed while the dish is locked in place, and a clear path around the dish needs to be available at all times. If the actuator breaks, the dish will flop or fall in one of two directions. If the dish flopped while someone is standing under it, Death or serious injury could occur. This applies to any Polar Mount dish system.

[el bandido]

Making provisions to lock this dish in place are going to take some time, so I locked it in place for now using the actuator. Parts that move in this system have bushings, and all the bushings have been checked.
The actuator for this dish is mounted in a way that allows it to rotate the dish by pulling straight down, or pushing straight up. Not all polar mounts are designed like this. My mesh dish has the polar mount angled, which works. But I prefer the design of the bigger dish.

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[el bandido]

All the dish panels were installed in the exact same place as they were originally with the bolts only finger tight. Now I will slowly tighten all the dish panel bolts in stages. It is being done this way in hopes that the dish will have its original parabolic shape.

The next step will be the feed installation. I am going to use all the original parts that work, including the lnbs. My plan is to get the dish antenna working, then change or upgrade parts as needed.

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[ViP3R]

All the dish panels were installed in the exact same place as they were originally with the bolts only finger tight. Now I will slowly tighten all the dish panel bolts in stages. It is being done this way in hopes that the dish will have its original parabolic shape.

The next step will be the feed installation. I am going to use all the original parts that work, including the lnbs. My plan is to get the dish antenna working, then change or upgrade parts as needed.

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Nice EB, the dish looks nice and clean now compared to the first pictures you posted.

[rrob311]

When I took down the large dish off the roof I was on, I used a pair of pull ropes on each end with an assistant. This allowed us to control the dish any way that we needed without it swinging out of control and knocking us off the roof.

[el bandido]

It is always a good idea to measure and double-check all measurements and settings. This is a heavy Duty commercial dish, and you would expect everything to be set and installed correctly. That is not the case: The fd setting on the installed lnb was set around .34, but after carefully measuring and calculating this dish, the fd is .37! The dish measures across or in diameter of11'11 1/4" or 363.855 cm, (or round to 3.6 meters). The depth of this dish is exactly 2 feet or 60.96 cm. The focal length is 135.73 cm.

I Also noticed a spot on the dish. This spot appears to be a bullet from a .25 or.380 caliber handgun. Most satellite dishes will not stop any bullet, and this sort of surprised me. (Picture of bullet attached.)
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[el bandido]

I had been wanting to upgrade the size of my 7.5 foot C band dish for several years. I was seriously thinking about buying a new dish when i found this one. You will not find much difference in gain and other specs when comparing a 7.5 foot dish to a 10 foot dish. If the hardware of both dishes is equal, you could expect 1-2 db gain in C band along with a slightly narrower band-width when upgrading from a 7.5 to a 10 foot dish. A 12 foot dish may have 4-5 db gain in c band over a 7.5 foot dish. i think the real or best difference between a 7.5 foot dish and a 12 foot dish is the narrow beam-width that the 12 footer offers. Think of the 7.5 foot dish as aiming a shotgun at the sky, and the 12 footer as aiming a rifle. The signal of the 12 footer is much more compressed, and really helps to null out interference from nearby satellites.

My new dish is now operational. The total monetary cost of moving, installing, and setting up this dish is less than 100 U.S. dollars. A cheap c band lnb has been installed. This was the simplest way I knew to check the dish and get in the arc. I got lucky: The very first blindscan I tried returned transponders and channels. I was aiming for 87 West and got 97 West, so I was 10 degrees off and about 2 degrees low. I have spent some hours tuning the dish, and have seen snr as high as 20 db for some of the stronger transponders. IMO, this is a very good snr for C band.

The real reason or the design behind this installation was to get 16APSK signals. There are at least a couple more db that I can get out of this system after everything is set correctly, and after new commercial lnbs are installed. It is good to finally see the 16APSK mux at 97West. I hope to enjoy more muxes like it in the future. 16APSK photos attached.

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[eastof111]

Nice!!!