Humpty Dumpty C-Band dish sat on a wall.....

[Mr Tony]

Humpty Dumpty C-Band dish took a helluva fall

I have a 6 foot Fortec dish that I had bolted to a 30" high table to clear the roof. My TS is 38 degrees here in Minneapolis. It was fixed on G4....well tonight I tuned to G4 only to get nothing. All my other satellites work fine. Looked outside on the deck and DAMN

We had some strong winds here today and the dish (once again) biffed it off the table. Third time its fallen. Once it fell because it wasn't bolted down. Once the whole table tipped over with it. This time I was not so fortunate. There was 80 pounds of sand on it but I guess that didnt help

The table broke off from the frame and bent the hell out of the back pieces on the dish. Also dented the bottom of the dish but that's OK. Looks like its just a few pieces to replace

Now the big question is How do I fix this? Sadoun if you are reading this it looks like I only need those smaller brace bars. Do you have any extras laying around I could buy maybe?

so for right now I'm KU only...the 2nd C-Band dish in the garage I aint moving up there right now

 

[Wescopc]

Condolences, 300 lbs of sand next time?!sadroll
Bob

 

[turbosat]

That would make me sick! Hope you can get some pieces to fix it, maybe you can think up
another way to fasten it down. Santa Ana winds working overtime this week for sure.

 

[caddata]

....bent the hell out of the back pieces....

Lowes, Home Depot, and some well stocked hardware/building supply stores carry various sizes of aluminum and steel square tubing. Measure or take a damaged piece with you and see if it can be matched in size and material.

Harold

 

[stogie5150]

Yikes that sucks.

Wish you were closer, metalwork is my stock in trade.

But yeah, go to a good hardware store if you can't get the parts from Sadoun. You MIGHT get away with just flatbar if you use steel, just drill a hole in the end. You can cut it with a hacksaw, a GOOD hacksaw...

Another idea that would work, go to the same store and get you some appropiate sized conduit, cut it to length and pound the ends flat on an anvil/bench vise. Drill the holes to bolt it up and there you go. That would probably be cheaper than Sadoun even.

Looking at it again, I'd try to use small square tubing from Home Depot/your hardware store. Say, 1" square. Drill the holes in the ends and bolt 'er up.

 

[linuxman]

Sorry Iceberg!

That's gotta suck!

As others have said, you can get nearly close replacement parts at Lowes/HD.

I know you have said you aren't handy about this sort of thing, but anyone who can engineer the switches/cable runs/LNBFs the way you have, can fix this dish.

We'll help you along the way if you need it. A Dremel is a man's best friend.

Fred

 

[qwert1515]

I am sorry to hear that, I hope you fix it soon.

That would make me sick! Hope you can get some pieces to fix it, maybe you can think up
another way to fasten it down. Santa Ana winds working overtime this week for sure.

I have 220 pounds of brick trying to hold my 1.2 Meter against the Santa Ana winds, There have been gusts over 60 MPH, enough to knock out Ku band signals but I can still receive C-Band, until now I only worried about rain fade.

 

[PopcornNMore]

I'm so sorry Iceberg. This would make me really sick.

Hopefully Sadoun will be able to supply you with replacement parts.

I am now thinking about adding extra supports onto my dish to prevent this from happening.

 

[Mr Tony]

Thanks guys for the ideas.

Another thing I was thinking was just using a couple pieces of wood to brace it up. It seems like those bent bars just keep the frame from tipping back as it did. I guess I needs some more sand bags on it

 

[Diamond Jim]

My heart goes out to you. That's almost as bad as a death in the family:shocked. My advice, suck it up big boy and get back into the game as soon as you can. Good luck.:up

 

[rv1pop]

Is it possible the table may be acting like a wing and giving some lift to the assembly then the dish acts like a windmill blade? If so, a perf-table top may help that. Or maybe a sloping air foil may help to redirect the wind. I do not know how your winds are, but ours can be rather strong. When I added a second dish (Channel Master 75E) to my shed roof, it broke up the wind patterns enough that my GEOSATpro quit moving all the time. Of course, the winds are only getting up to around 35 mph right now. Around the end of November they will probably be in the 90's or more - then I will be able to tell what I have to do. I also tied a nylon cord to hold the dish against the prevailing wind.

 

[Mr Tony]

My heart goes out to you. That's almost as bad as a death in the family:shocked. My advice, suck it up big boy and get back into the game as soon as you can. Good luck.:up

I have one dish that I can wheel out in front of the garage (which seems to be fixed at one western satellite) if I need it that bad. But right now with it aimed just at G4 for the nets I'll have to work on it a little bit.

 

[Mr Tony]

Is it possible the table may be acting like a wing and giving some lift to the assembly then the dish acts like a windmill blade?

its a copmbination of a few things. Being at 45N my true south satellite is only 38 degrees so the dish is top heavy to begin with. It seems like if we get strong winds from one direction it does it. The table is to clear the roof for G4.

I do not know how your winds are, but ours can be rather strong.

we can have some strong winds. I think I need a better table to mount it to
I did but the T90 kinda got priority over the C-Band dish

 

[Anole]

four words:

.

big @$$ed carriage bolts ! -

 

[Mr Tony]

Well we're back up and running

went ouot and grabbed the top part of the "O" ring (where the dish panels attach) and used my foot on the bottom and pushed it back up. Those 2 bent bars keep the dish up at a good level. Bent those bars back as best I could and reaimed. Its off by maybe 1/2 a degree now but got G4 back...not the best because the bottom of the dish is bent to hell but its working right now

 

[Tron]

Sorry about the dish, like Diamond Jim said, its like a member of the family here!

The good news is that, since that dish is divided into sections, it should be easy (and cheap) to replace the one bent 'petal'...

 

[caddata]

.....dish is divided into sections, it should be easy (and cheap) to replace the one bent 'petal'...

For what it's worth:

I contacted Sadoun about a replacement panel and was told they don't exist. I offered to buy one that might have been damaged in shipping if new ones weren't offered. Again, "none to be had".

Harold

 

[SatSniper]

Ice in another month you can do what I do go up with a bucket of water and freeze it to the roof shocking how hard it is to get something off a frozen roof when crap breaks at the worst time of year I hate this time of year go to work in the dark and get home in the dark hard to work on outside projects during the week one of these days i am going to fall off a ladder and have a flashlight or cordless drill stuck in a place I don't want it.

 

[Mr Tony]

Sorry about the dish, like Diamond Jim said, its like a member of the family here!

The good news is that, since that dish is divided into sections, it should be easy (and cheap) to replace the one bent 'petal'...

the bottom piece isn't that bad and has bent already once before. Its the back pieces that I need to figure out how to rig up

 

[Mr Tony]

Ice in another month you can do what I do go up with a bucket of water and freeze it to the roof shocking how hard it is to get something off a frozen roof when crap breaks at the worst time of year I hate this time of year go to work in the dark and get home in the dark hard to work on outside projects during the week one of these days i am going to fall off a ladder and have a flashlight or cordless drill stuck in a place I don't want it.

on the bright side, most of my dish farm is on the deck so its easily accessible. Just the motorized is on the roof and I've climbed up there many times....and fallen off a few