Help in buying new dish

[dan70]

Pictures of my new dish

The weather cleared long enough to take these pictures of the new dish today.

The dish was bought in Mexico as per the last owner and measures roughly 43" X 40"

Does anyone recognize this dish?

I will paint it this summer I think to make it look new again...

The pole is plumb but doesn't look that way in the pics, also I will have to move the pole since a much smaller dish was used on it before and my new dish is to close to the fence now to swing wide.

Hope I didn't post too many pics.

 

[rv1pop]

Is that Salem in Oregon? Is Biggs Jct and North on 97 close enough to go? There may be a 6 foot mesh nearby if so. PM me.

 

[Anole]

Okay, your Ku dish is an honest 1 meter unit.
The 40" wide is the key. 43" tall is incidental.
The thick rim is very nice for holding accuracy.
Not too keen on the mount, but it'll work.

I wouldn't really worry a whole lot about painting it.
Maybe some buffing with a scotch-brite pad, and a little flat gray primer, if you must.

Looks very nice!


And do pay attention to RV1pop's offer above! - :up

 

[dan70]

Weird how in the pictures a pole could look 10-20 degrees off!!!

The 6ft dish is 2-3 hrs away so sorry I can't, thanks for the info though,
I appreciate the kindness and wish it was closer.

This dish is making me pull my hair out even with a accutrack 2 I cant get anything but directv on a circular LNB...talk about touchy ouch!!!!

a mouse fart will change the readings but then again look at the operator behind the install hehe.

Man I got away's to go, thanks Anole and rv1pop.

living, reading and learning.

 

[dan70]

Meant the new dish is finicky compared to the Hughes dish I previously
and successfully installed.

I won't give up that's part of the fun of this hobby.

My accutrack meter peaked at 85% but nothing on the screen, tried all day

Going back out there with my trust tv if it don't pour today.

 

[Anole]

a thought:

Meant the new dish is finicky compared to the Hughes dish I previously and successfully installed.

I won't give up that's part of the fun of this hobby.

Good attitude! - :up
Now get us some more close-up pictures of the dish mounting bracketry and elevation details.
That may be the source of your critical adjustments.
If so, we gave a member with a similar bracket some good ideas a few years back, and they may well apply to your dish.
He had a Fortec Star 1.0 meter, and the elevation pivot looked about the same.

 

[dan70]

Adjustments

Anole can my spitfire elite be possibly incompatible with this dish?
just want to rule that out.
Or perhaps a different focal point needed?

I got a Johnson 700 inclinometer/level tool from Sadoun, it only took three days to get here and am using that and having issues so far.

I added 5-8 degrees from level from the dish face and been working up/down
a little at a time.

I am trying again to find 97W on the new dish and am working on the offset
angle for this particular dish...so far no joy.

I will keep at it but it rains in spurts here lately :rant:

Also I must say that for me in particular I am not very impressed with
my Steren sky tracker II (digisat, accutrack whatever you call it
might be nice on the circuitry but the case material is very delicate and utmost care needs to be taken while handling it.

I'm back to my tv for tuning with a hot tp from the list for 97W

I will keep trying. Why did I get 85% on the Steren meter??? could have been a circular bird maybe 101W I think.

Last thing wonder if the mount might be upside down something, the previous owner disassembled it before I got it and I put it together.

I think it's right but will flip it over if I cant get anything within a few
days or so locked in.

I will take close up pictures of the mount in detail soon for you.


thanks

 

[dan70]

P.S I bought the meter used on ebay and thinking on returning it.
(I bought all my stuff used so far to save money)

 

[dan70]

my mistake

The Johnson level is the only thing brand new sorry...

 

[dan70]

Getting Close Now

I was aiming for 97W and got 95W so I'm getting close.

Very good signal quality 90% +/- on my CS5000.

I rotated the mount 180 degrees, not sure at this stage if it had something to do with it or not.

It started getting rainy again so I headed for the house.

I will get the offset for the dish before the dish moves or something

Still at a very early stage of experimenting with my new dish.

I included many pictures of the mount.

Thanks everyone for all the help

 

[dan70]

Pictures might be too large for some, should they be at a certain size?

 

[Anole]

still a good choice

No, the pictures are not too big.
I'd say they are just big enough to show some detail and get you some feedback.

I can't tell, so I'll ask... is there any possibility you could shove an axle rod or bolt through that central hole between the elevation adjust bolts?
Is there sheet metal underneath to guide one?
Without an axle to pivot on, you're going to find elevation adjustment pretty touchy.
If so, I'll get you some links to a previous discussion I had with JsatTV in Canada, about his 1m Fortec dish, and some competing designs for adding a giant elevation adjust screw.

As to how to determine what to line up with any of those 5° tic marks, I'm at a loss.
Some dishes say to draw an imaginary line through the bolt...
... some give you a washer with a pointer on it...
The bolts used appear to be quite a bit overkill.
I'm wondering if that's an American-made dish, or if the previous owner went nuts and put in some serious hardware?

 

[dan70]

more detail

Anole first let me say thanks for letting me know 40" is more important than the
43" on this dish and also about desirable wide lip...

I thought the more surface the better, whether it be height or width.
I 'm trying to learn all I can.

The bolts I think are original and have long bushing/sleeve(s)
between the two walls so you don't pinch the two sides together to much.

(hope that makes sense)

Two bolts go through the sleeves, top and bottom.

The center hole goes all the way through but not sure if thats useful?

I added three more pictures with inside views.

The guy I got it from traveled a lot, said he took this dish from Alaska to Mexico in the past, guess that makes this truly a world dish hehe

As far as the tick marks go, a bolt head is large in determining elevation for me.

After aligning the dish to 95W today the inclinometer reads 80-83 degrees
at the dish face, I still might have to fine tune, but wonder
any ideas on the offset so far?

 

[dan70]

alrighty success at last

Ok here we go, I'm 10 degrees plus (+) from plumb and pegging the
quality meter on my coolsat aiming at 97W.

97W is at 32.1 elevation where I'm at, according to dishpointer.

So I'm thinking 32.1 minus 10 degrees= 22.1 or 22 degrees
offset on my dish.

I really think I got it but if my math is wrong please let me know.



learning through trials and error.