How low can I go?

[Shawn95GT]

I think I know the answer will be "disconnect the actuator, swing it and find out!", but I figure I'd ask. If nothing definative, care to guess?

I'm wondering if I could get away with trimming 12" or more off of the 3 1/2" pole I'm setting up for the 8' dish.

Amazingly enough, the overall height of this dish is exactly the same as my existing installed 5' dish. If possible, I'd like to get this dish to hide behind a 6' fence. The same fence that the 5' dish is peeking over now. I know this is a tall order!

See pics of the 8' mocked up on the new pole:

 

[Kb Cool]

I think you can go alot lower. Set elevation (if you have not already), disconnect the arm and swing dish to your lowest eastern sat that you expect to get and measure from bottom rim to ground and then see how much you can cut.
I have my 10footer on 34 inches of pole sticking out of the ground with plenty of clearance.

 

[Shawn95GT]

I think you can go alot lower. Set elevation (if you have not already), disconnect the arm and swing dish to your lowest eastern sat that you expect to get and measure from bottom rim to ground and then see how much you can cut.
I have my 10footer on 34 inches of pole sticking out of the ground with plenty of clearance.

Thanks for the input!

The pole is 42" tall now and it's a smaller dish than yours. I'm liking the looks of this .

I plan on dialing in W6 - W7. I'm guessing I'll hit the wall before I hit the ground going East.

Shawn

 

[ken2400]

Nice job thanks for the pics. Just a few notes. As I am sure you know the more surface area you can get on the base the more stable the whole dish will be, larger metal plate or bolted to a large piece of well painted wood. Many thin coats of paint are better than one thick coat.

I bet this new dish will give you years of enjoyment.
Good luck and keep us posted on how it all works out.

I think I know the answer will be "disconnect the actuator, swing it and find out!", but I figure I'd ask. If nothing definative, care to guess?

I'm wondering if I could get away with trimming 12" or more off of the 3 1/2" pole I'm setting up for the 8' dish.

Amazingly enough, the overall height of this dish is exactly the same as my existing installed 5' dish. If possible, I'd like to get this dish to hide behind a 6' fence. The same fence that the 5' dish is peeking over now. I know this is a tall order!

See pics of the 8' mocked up on the new pole:

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

someone who was better at trig than me had a formula they posted in one of the dbs thread earlier this week on how far back you needed to be from an ostacle (fence) per meter of height to get most satellites. Unfortunately i cannot remember which thread it was on now, but someone who knows trig or geometry - or scored 700-800 on a SAT in the Math Section - could probably state it.

 

[Change]

distance from fence = (height of fence)/(tangent(elevation angle to satellite))

 

[gizzer777]

Nice!

I think I know the answer will be "disconnect the actuator, swing it and find out!", but I figure I'd ask. If nothing definative, care to guess?

I'm wondering if I could get away with trimming 12" or more off of the 3 1/2" pole I'm setting up for the 8' dish.

Amazingly enough, the overall height of this dish is exactly the same as my existing installed 5' dish. If possible, I'd like to get this dish to hide behind a 6' fence. The same fence that the 5' dish is peeking over now. I know this is a tall order!

See pics of the 8' mocked up on the new pole:

Hey Shawn...That is a REALLY nice looking dish!!!
Jeff

 

[Shawn95GT]

Nice job thanks for the pics. Just a few notes. As I am sure you know the more surface area you can get on the base the more stable the whole dish will be, larger metal plate or bolted to a large piece of well painted wood. Many thin coats of paint are better than one thick coat.

I bet this new dish will give you years of enjoyment.
Good luck and keep us posted on how it all works out.

The 2x4s were just there to keep the bare metal off the ground while I was playing with it. I plan on achoring the 3/8" plate to the good size 'bulb' of concrete that I have the 5' dish's pole set in right now. It is over 1000# of concrete so it should suffice .

The plan is to cut off the 'old' 2" schedule 40 pipe flush and then drill some 5/8" holes into it and drop in some concrete wedge anchors. If it goes well I'll have some 5/8" studs stucking out to bolt the base plate to.

Depending how it works out, I'll either use washers under the plate to shim the pole true or use nuts below the plate to make it that much easier to tweak.

I'm looking forward to getting the bigger dish up.

As for the fence, it's behind the dish. I'm trying to keep it down low as a favor to my neighbors behind me.

In related news, my VonWeise actuator which was reported to be broken by the guy I got it from work justs fine .

 

[Shawn95GT]

Update...

I figured this thread was as good as any to provide an update since lowering the pole was the big unknown going into this.

It was at 42", and I cut it down to 30". In the second pic you can see the section of pole that I cut off. It's funny - I'd be concerned mounting my little Primestar & SG2100 combo on a pole this short and here I am setting up an 8' dish on it .

So, 30". That 2 1/2 feet! How did it work out? See the pics. When I swing the dish over to the Eastern travel limit, the dish is about 3" off the ground. Of course, this is with the 'mount' sitting up on 2x4s. Where the dish is actually going, the slab is slightly below ground level. It'll be tight but I don't expect that I'll actually swing that far East anyways.

In the pics the mount / post is roughly as far from the wall as I plan on installing it for real. There is a TON of room there. I'm going to consider putting it closer to the wall now to minimize the intrusion into the lawn.

I'm about 1/2 way through the paint job. This brown color blends pretty nice with the fence.

 

[WyrTwister]

I figured this thread was as good as any to provide an update since lowering the pole was the big unknown going into this.

It was at 42", and I cut it down to 30". In the second pic you can see the section of pole that I cut off. It's funny - I'd be concerned mounting my little Primestar & SG2100 combo on a pole this short and here I am setting up an 8' dish on it .

So, 30". That 2 1/2 feet! How did it work out? See the pics. When I swing the dish over to the Eastern travel limit, the dish is about 3" off the ground. Of course, this is with the 'mount' sitting up on 2x4s. Where the dish is actually going, the slab is slightly below ground level. It'll be tight but I don't expect that I'll actually swing that far East anyways.

In the pics the mount / post is roughly as far from the wall as I plan on installing it for real. There is a TON of room there. I'm going to consider putting it closer to the wall now to minimize the intrusion into the lawn.

I'm about 1/2 way through the paint job. This brown color blends pretty nice with the fence.

I see the battery charger . I have used one to move a dish during setup .

Wyr

 

[Kb Cool]

Glad to see you back. Dish looks good. I find them easier to work on when they are low to the ground. So in my book the lower the better.

 

[maf12]

The paint job looks great on the dish. What type of paint did you use? I plan on doing the same to help hide my dish.

 

[fulszjep]

paint

It looks like the 3.57 a can paint at walmart. It is the same as I used.

 

[TheRedknight]

Nice pics

 

[Shawn95GT]

The paint job looks great on the dish. What type of paint did you use? I plan on doing the same to help hide my dish.

fulszjep was close .

$3.44/can @ Home Depot.

It's RUST-OLEUM 'American Accents' in the rattle can. The color is Nutmeg and it has a satin finish.

I finished painting it this afternoon. I'm on can #7 now. I did the stand, the polar mount, the dish, the feed supports, & the scaler ring. I'm holding off doing the feedhorn cover since it'll be easy to do after the dish is all up. I'll probably end up shooting it too though.

The mesh is a pain to paint. You have to hit it from multiple angles to get good coverage. I've touched up the mesh 3-4 times now, and I keep finding grey spots.

If I remember to I'll take some pics of the dish tomorrow now that the paint job is done. Tomorrow the plan is to get the feed supports on and get the scaler ring centered up / the focal length set.

Once that's done I'll concider taking down the old dish / pole and getting the base of the new mount affixed to the concrete.

 

[Shawn95GT]

Paint is done

Yeah, I know the feedhorn cover is crooked but I just set it on there for the pic.

Now I need to investigate the logistics of cutting down the old pole. I want to cut it off flush so the sawzall isn't going to do the trick this time.

I'm going to see if I have enough air hose to get my cut-off wheel out to the dish. If not, I'll have to bring the compressor out back.

I noticed that I'm probably going to have to extend both the coax and the skew servo wiring. The actuator should be ok. This might workout good though. Maybe I can put a box out at the pole and put all the splitters out there for the DVB tie-in. This would let me have my SG2100 in action and still be able to split in the C/Ku from the BUD.

1st pic is the new dish all together.
2nd is the old setup pointed at G5.
3rd is the slab I'm going to attach the new mount to. The RG-6 on the ground is where the SG2100 was connected.

Shawn

 

[raydio]

Nice paint job - should blend in well with your wall. You'll never know there is a dish there.

 

[Shawn95GT]

What a crazy afternoon!

Well, first off those concrete anchors were MUCH more of a PITA than I expected.

I ruined a new $20 masonry bit when I hit a rock . This turned my four post mount into an un-intensional tripod . I also managed to break the torque handle off of the drill. Glad I bought the extended warranty! When I get the drill fixed I may try to get #4 in but it doesn't seem to be lacking in any way without it.

The good news - the pole is PERFECTLY plumb and fully adjustable should it change it's mind about being so. This 'floating plate' is just too cool. Thanks again Thomas if you're watching this.

Jeff - you need to do this with your new mount if you find a permanent home for it.

I'll get some better pics when I finish up all the wiring and such. Daylight will help too. At night that color photographs more orange than it does in real life.

Thanks for all the encouragement thus far. Hopefully I'll get this thing tracking before the weekend.

 

[ken2400]

Nice photos, nice job. It;s not going anywhere.
Keep us posted on how well it works for you.

Well, first off those concrete anchors were MUCH more of a PITA than I expected.

I ruined a new $20 masonry bit when I hit a rock . This turned my four post mount into an un-intensional tripod . I also managed to break the torque handle off of the drill. Glad I bought the extended warranty! When I get the drill fixed I may try to get #4 in but it doesn't seem to be lacking in any way without it.

The good news - the pole is PERFECTLY plumb and fully adjustable should it change it's mind about being so. This 'floating plate' is just too cool. Thanks again Thomas if you're watching this.

Jeff - you need to do this with your new mount if you find a permenant home for it.

I'll get some better pics when I finish up all the wiring and such. Daylight will help too. At night that color photographs more orange than it does in real life.

Thanks for all the encouragement thus far. Hopefully I'll get this thing tracking before the weekend.

 

[1inabillion]

Billion here

The good news - the pole is PERFECTLY plumb and fully adjustable should it change it's mind about being so. This 'floating plate' is just too cool. Thanks again Thomas if you're watching this.

Thats how i set my dish mount up in 1990, that works way to KOOL. My dish is
all home made. The dish reflector and the dish mount is all hand made and still
works like it did when it was first made and installed by me. My dish need a
paint job but over all its still looks good after 16 years. will post some pics soon.
before and after the paint job.:up

Nice Job