Fortec FS6D 1.8m Dish

[PopcornNMore]

Update - 9/25/07

Tonight I secured the stand to the deck using lag bolts on both the bottom and back side. My wife and I then lifted the assembled dish and mount onto the stand and secured using the brackets supplied with the dish and 1.5" bolts, washers and nuts as shown in the pictures below.

The stand measures 27" X 27" and is 40" high, so that the dish overlooks the top of the house without having any LOS problems.

I also like how easy it is now to get under the dish to make adjustments and it saves a lot of room on the deck which my wife likes.

 

[PopcornNMore]

I wish I had available one more bracket for the front side. I can probably come up with something as a subsitute.

 

[Mr Tony]

I was going to say maybe throw a bag of sand on there as weight but the way you have it bolted down I dont think its gonna move

 

[amc1]

looks well done . im going to make up a metal stand for mine similar to the stand the dish rests on.the round ring but the bottom is going to be larger but square .the top of the stand will be round to match the bottom ring. i was thinking of trying to make a pole mount
similar to what sodem sells. or get my son make it up at work at the foundary where he works as a welder making stuff up.

 

[Sadoun]

The stands looks really good. You have good handyman skills. I would add one diagonal brace between two legs of the stand to give it more regidity and prevent torsion.

 

[Anole]

Funny, I ask about putting a dish on a 40-year old, well aged telephone pole, and everyone discourages me.
This chatter about wood supports for a dish seem to be all happiness.

What am I missing?

 

[PopcornNMore]

Anole,

I made sure my stand was perfectly level on all sides before securing the dish onto it. I am sure a telephone pole would work if level. In fact, I found a picture yesterday of a man who has all his dishes fastened to telephone poles. I will attach this picture later today when I am at work.

Dave

 

[PopcornNMore]

Here is that picture I promised:

 

[lumpkin666]

Those are poles, but not telephone poles - at least not the wooden ones that we have around there. The ones we have around here are a good 1.5 feet in diameter at the base.

 

[PopcornNMore]

I was just trying to show that wood could be used as an alternative. I even seen pictures of dishes just propted up next to a wall using no mount or pole.

 

[lumpkin666]

Funny, I ask about putting a dish on a 40-year old, well aged telephone pole, and everyone discourages me.
This chatter about wood supports for a dish seem to be all happiness.

What am I missing?

This support is short and made from pressure treated lumber affixed in both vertical and horizontal positions. I think some diagonal braces would help ensure very little movement in this short stand.

Phone poles are tall and heavy and frequently move with wind (not a LOT of movement, but they do move). The wood in a phone pole is not pressure treated (at least not like 2x4 lumber - you can tell as it splits easily), and it's vertical, which gives little resistance to wind sway. An old phone pole with 3-4 cables tied high on the pole and tightly to the ground would probably make it sturdy enough to mount a dish to.

 

[lumpkin666]

...I even seen pictures of dishes just propted up next to a wall using no mount or pole.

I've done that! I have a 7.5 ft dish propped up and hanging over the side of a steel trailer pointing at 97W right now

 

[digiblur]

I see lots of folks with DBS dishes on telephone poles around here. Especially in mobile home installations.

 

[lumpkin666]

I see lots of folks with DBS dishes on telephone poles around here. Especially in mobile home installations.

DBS dishes could probably be mounted on a turtle.. those subscription/circular signals are pretty darn strong, and don't care about a little movement now and then. I'm betting you could get away with mounting a FTA dish on the low end of a telephone pole.. or the high end, if you don't mind a bit of "wind fade" from time to time.

 

[Mr Tony]

I had 2 DBS dishes bolted to my TV aerial mast with no issues. And the mast did flex when we had wind

 

[PopcornNMore]

Tonight, before it started to rain I tried to get a signal from the 1.8m for the first time since I mounted it on top of the wooden stand. Not wanting to loosen the three mounting brackets on the bottom ring for now I just tried adjusting the elevation with the dish pointing straight ahead. After I got a signal I performed a blind scan and it found about 35 channels. Not bad for only adjusting the elevation. I discovered that I was on Galaxy 11.

Shop at Home, Gems, The Word and multiple EWTN channels were at 69-72%. However, I was unable to scan in the CW channels even when manually entering in the PID and AID using my Coolsat 4000 Platinum receiver. How can I receive these?

 

[Mr Tony]

CW needs a manual PID entry...If I remember what some people have done is

scan in the EWTN mux
edit the PIDS on the first 3 channels to be the CW PIDS
save those
then go to manual scan and change the info on the TP to be CW and save BUT DO NOT RESCAN

That should work. I remember seeing someone able to make that work. If you really want EWTN manually add a TP

 

[PopcornNMore]

I now have all three CW channels. Thank you Iceberg. The picture keeps breaking up due to the signal being only 64%. Other transponders on this satellite are around 69-72% and clear. I guess I need to adjust the antenna once this rain is gone.

 

[Mr Tony]

try and tweak it ever so bit. On my Pansat they come in around 45 which is stable enough...on the CS that would be 68-69

 

[R390A]

Are you planning on testing the KU side of that new dish? I would like to see how that 1.8m compairs to a standard KU offset dish.