Any dish is a good dish to start with. Go get it!
Did you ever talk with the people that own the other dishes you posted?
Did you ever talk with the people that own the other dishes you posted?
How do I get started
- Thread starter coltonjared
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I left notes on the doors of a few people but they never called me back. The one dish I really want that has the tree in front of it appears nobody lives there anymore. When I looked up the address to find the owner I found it he had died 7 years ago and his sister now owns the property along with 6 others so I'm not sure which one is hers to find her.
Keep leaving notes and knocking on the door. If you can get your hands on something to start with do that. Keep on the hunt for something bigger and better.
Problem is when I get a dish up it will be the only dish to ever get put up so I half to make sure I get it right the first time.
If I put up that 7 1/2 dish the pole would be 3.5 where if I got a 10 later I would need a 4.25 pole
Not necessarily... The mount for my 10' SAMI fit right on where a 7.5' KTI once resided.
Read through this thread. It will give you another option for your pole, allowing for easy size change.
http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/unimesh-dish.341901/
http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/unimesh-dish.341901/
Attached are a couple of photos of the pipe mount on my current setup. It's mounted to a slab with piers under each bolt location that go down 3' to bedrock, rebar in slab and piers. The dish in the photo is a 7.5' dish, later swapped for a 10'.
The tripod allows adjustment for plumb and if/when we move to another house, I just have to unbolt and load it up.
The tripod allows adjustment for plumb and if/when we move to another house, I just have to unbolt and load it up.
I like the look of that. I just don't know if I could make a base like that and get the bolts in the correct position. Then find a pole that could be bolted down cause I'm no welder lol.
Sent from my iPad using the SatelliteGuys app!
Sent from my iPad using the SatelliteGuys app!
Here is a really slick pole mount by Fred555 that allows adjustment for plumb:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/posts/4011447/
In my case, the pole was already welded up like that. The digging and setting forms for the base was the easy part. Mixing up all the concrete in a wheelbarrow was the hard part.
If you have the pole, a welding shop should be able to attach a couple of legs for cheap. The bolts went in after I placed the concrete for the slab/piers. There's a drawing with measurements for the mount here
Once the concrete had cured for about a week, set the dish mount onto the pad. Marked the dish mount holes, then used a masonry drill bit to drill down through pad into the pier about 12-inches, blew out the freshly drilled holes and then used concrete epoxy to secure threaded rod into the holes drilled in the concrete.
Hindsight... Probably should've made a template from wood or plywood to mount J or L-bolts and then set the template with bolts into place while concrete was wet. Would've been cheaper than the concrete epoxy and threaded rod (i.e., not all-thread).
http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/posts/4011447/
In my case, the pole was already welded up like that. The digging and setting forms for the base was the easy part. Mixing up all the concrete in a wheelbarrow was the hard part.
If you have the pole, a welding shop should be able to attach a couple of legs for cheap. The bolts went in after I placed the concrete for the slab/piers. There's a drawing with measurements for the mount here
Once the concrete had cured for about a week, set the dish mount onto the pad. Marked the dish mount holes, then used a masonry drill bit to drill down through pad into the pier about 12-inches, blew out the freshly drilled holes and then used concrete epoxy to secure threaded rod into the holes drilled in the concrete.
Hindsight... Probably should've made a template from wood or plywood to mount J or L-bolts and then set the template with bolts into place while concrete was wet. Would've been cheaper than the concrete epoxy and threaded rod (i.e., not all-thread).
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I'm tying to figure couple things out first I'm planing on getting a titanium pill lnb unless the dish I end up getting has a ku band lnb already set up on it, is there a way to attach the cone to it? From all the pictures I've seen when people put the titanium pill on they leave the cone off. Second when it's time to find the zenith satellite from what I read you half to drive the dish to center with the actuator. Do you do that with the receiver and it automatically knows where center or do you drive it manually and guess your center?
If you mean the nosecone lnb cover...yes. The bud should have a ring that the nose cone (and scaler) attaches to. On all my buds so far, it has been plastic and slightly wider than the scaler.
If you mean a conical scaler... that is used on an Off-Set mini-bud setup.
On a Prime Focus BUD, you use a regular (flat) scaler with the C band lnbf.
If you mean a conical scaler... that is used on an Off-Set mini-bud setup.
On a Prime Focus BUD, you use a regular (flat) scaler with the C band lnbf.
Well, zenith is the highest point on the arc. In a no wind situation, and nothing supporting the dish, it should balance there. Any movement one direction or the other, will cause it to lose elevation. Now, with all that said, what I do is use a tape measure and measure from what should be equidistant points from the Polar axis on the dish mounting ring or square back to a point that should fall on a line through the zenith, Polar axis and the chosen point.
You just need to be as close as you can to that point. Don't obsess over it, but get as close as you can. It is only needed when you set the Declination angle. There is one exception to that and that would be that you and your true south satellite happen to be on the same Longitude mark. Don't obsess with getting every setting absolutely correct, you will drive yourself bonkers. Just get as close as you can. You will tweak for best performance later. By being as close as you can get, you are improving your chances of easily finding your true south bird.
You just need to be as close as you can to that point. Don't obsess over it, but get as close as you can. It is only needed when you set the Declination angle. There is one exception to that and that would be that you and your true south satellite happen to be on the same Longitude mark. Don't obsess with getting every setting absolutely correct, you will drive yourself bonkers. Just get as close as you can. You will tweak for best performance later. By being as close as you can get, you are improving your chances of easily finding your true south bird.
Here's an update. Never heard back from the people I left the note for but I have a buddy of mine asking his grandpa if he wants to get rid of his dish which I think it was a 10ft. It was in good condition when I seen it last and had a new actuator put on before they moved across the street and quit using it. It looks like a dish I got a picture of when I was driving around. The other picture is of the dish but not a good one. Hope to get some better pictures later.
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Looks like a 10 footer. Don't worry about the nose cone. They are great areas for wasps to fine a home. 3 or the 3 dishes I have taken down have them.
Run your dishes naked. Makes them much easier to tune out on the fly.
Run your dishes naked. Makes them much easier to tune out on the fly.
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