12 foot Paraclipse Copy from about 1985

[907TECH]

Back in the 80's I was installing 10-12 foot dishes, 12 feet in the beginning then a little smaller as the tech improved we were installing Paraclipse a lot. We tried out this antenna for awhile, it is almost a carbon copy of the famous Paraclipse, however the aluminum seemed to be a different alloy, the fit and finish was not equal you also had to tweak them sometimes unlike Paraclipse. There were many knockoffs out there.

 

[ZetaMale]

Too bad they don't still make them.

 

[907TECH]

Too bad they don't still make them.

There was a frenzy in industry, it was like the wild west. Systems were $3000 installed with a Drake Receiver, and dish mover.

 

[mikekohl]

Back in the 80's I was installing 10-12 foot dishes, 12 feet in the beginning then a little smaller as the tech improved we were installing Paraclipse a lot. We tried out this antenna for awhile, it is almost a carbon copy of the famous Paraclipse, however the aluminum seemed to be a different alloy, the fit and finish was not equal you also had to tweak them sometimes unlike Paraclipse. There were many knockoffs out there.

Looks like UP Satellite from Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Probably one of the companies that got out of the business shortly after HBO and Showtime started scrambling in early 1986.

When I lived on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula (1981-1987), I sold a number of 14-foot Paraclipse knockoffs made by EAGLE in the Portland, OR area. Paraclipse was much better reinforced, with a center plate that secured all trusses together. The EAGLE used a design found on earlier mesh antennas that involved attaching all trusses through the sides of a drum-shaped center hub, which did not secure one side of the antenna frame to the other. Because I was installing these 14-footers on offshore drilling platforms in 1984, I ended up reinforcing across the center hub with extra aluminum stock. Otherwise the antenna frame had a tendency to separate on left and right sides of the hub, from the stresses started on the rib that held a linear actuator. These also used a four leg support for the feedhorn, which I also had to rig two crossbars on at the feedhorn end, to keep it from twisting in the wind. Otherwise you would be replacing feed components that had fallen into the ocean (Cook Inlet) about a hundred feet below the deck of the drilling platform. Learn by experience and improvise. Witnessing firsthand what could possibly go wrong, and inventing a solution, was good on-the-job training for this career.

 

[Houston Rockets]

I always wanted one just couldn't afford that antenna back then

 

[Captain Midnight]

I found this knock off Paraclipse dish while working. If it wasn't 4 hours from home, I'd ask about it.