I finally did it

[mmewrench]

I picked up a 12ft paraclipse classic this past spring (local dish) and it just sat behind the garage until this past weekend. On a whim I made a few phone calls to line up some muscle (a lot of it), and swapped it out on Saturday. When I brought the dish home I brought it in one piece so that setup was easy. Paraclipse has a unique design to mount the feedhorn and scaler. They have a mounting plate with three nylon jackscrews to fasten the scaler. The mounting bolts for the scaler go right through the jackscrews. With this setup I was able to set the F/D ratio and square up the scaler, and then set focal distance with the jackscrews. My true south is 83w so I used RTN to set azimuth (yes Ku). It took me longer to drag a TV and receiver out to the dish then it took me to aim it.

 

[madmadworld]

those are cool looking dishes.
enjoy

 

[chapelrun]

We want more PIX !!!

 

[T4Runner]

Very, very nice.



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[KE4EST]

Very Cool! Glad to hear you got it up and running.

 

[RT-Cat]

Great looker! Wish the motel not too far from me would let his go.
.
RT

 

[toucan-man]

Thumbs up !

 

[Babadem]

Nice find! Welcome to the 12ft paraclipse Elite Club!

 

[FaT Air]

Ah! what's the word? oh yeah, envious.

 

[phlatwound]

Very nice, especially when you could get it home in one piece and not have to deal with assembly.

 

[mmewrench]

Time for an update. I played with it for a week, tweaked the elevation, tightened everything up, set the limits on the actuator. I have a booming C band signal from 37W to 137W. The old unimesh would go no further east than 43W. quality points are 5 to 10 points higher across the arc.

On the Ku side Im getting higher quality except for on a few sats that I cant pick up at all. It seems that this dish is more sensitive to obstacles. I have a few tall trees in my line of sight from 103w to 125w, so no pbs. 103w is crazy. I can get vertical Ku at 70+ quality all day long, but horizontal is non existent. The old Unimesh would still see these Ku sats even though the center of the dish was lower (paraclipse mount places the dish a foot higher).

 

[Babadem]

Time for an update. I played with it for a week, tweaked the elevation, tightened everything up, set the limits on the actuator. I have a booming C band signal from 37W to 137W. The old unimesh would go no further east than 43W. quality points are 5 to 10 points higher across the arc.

On the Ku side Im getting higher quality except for on a few sats that I cant pick up at all. It seems that this dish is more sensitive to obstacles. I have a few tall trees in my line of sight from 103w to 125w, so no pbs. 103w is crazy. I can get vertical Ku at 70+ quality all day long, but horizontal is non existent. The old Unimesh would still see these Ku sats even though the center of the dish was lower (paraclipse mount places the dish a foot higher).

I see you're using the the 12ft Paraclipse for C/KU reception. I never tried it on KU, assuming that the holes on the mesh might not work well on KU. What is your actuator size?

 

[mmewrench]

The actuator is an old ProBrand Super Jack (ballscrew) with a 24 inch stroke. I could probably squeeze a few more degrees out of it, but I don't want to overextend it. My dish is one of the last models produced so it has the Ku mesh and the Polar T mount.

I played with it a bit more yesterday and found that by adding a 1/16" shim (declination is adjusted with shims), I can now pick up the missing Ku birds. That shim changes my declination by about .25 degrees.

 

[FaT Air]

Happy happy joy joy :up
I moved my actuator to the east side to not overextend on the 'larger half' of the arc. Still hits 139 easily.
Another thing that sometimes is 'workable' is to create a larger 'triangle' in the dish/arm/axis geometry. Move the fixed mount from behind the polar axis off to the side of the pole on the side it's attached. This will move the arm away from the axis when extended.

 

[Babadem]

View attachment 92968View attachment 92969The actuator is an old ProBrand Super Jack (ballscrew) with a 24 inch stroke. I could probably squeeze a few more degrees out of it, but I don't want to overextend it. My dish is one of the last models produced so it has the Ku mesh and the Polar T mount.

I played with it a bit more yesterday and found that by adding a 1/16" shim (declination is adjusted with shims), I can now pick up the missing Ku birds. That shim changes my declination by about .25 degrees.

Wow!! Since there are 2 screws (bolts) for elevation, setting up your elevation on this mount must have been slightly challenging as both sides need to be balanced for a good dish performance. Picture #3 here of my 12ft Paraclipse shows a different type of elevation bolt and style.

 

[mmewrench]

The second adjustment screw really didn't make it any more difficult. Im sure it would make more difference on a 14.5' dish (much heavier). Much more stable too.

 

[wen]

View attachment 92807View attachment 92807I picked up a
12ft paraclipse classic this past spring (local dish) and it just sat behind the garage until this past weekend. On a whim I made a few phone calls to line up some muscle (a lot of it), and swapped it out on Saturday. When I brought the dish home I brought it in one piece so that setup was easy. Paraclipse has a unique design to mount the feedhorn and scaler. They have a mounting plate with three nylon jackscrews to fasten the scaler. The mounting bolts for the scaler go right through the jackscrews. With this setup I was able to set the F/D ratio and square up the scaler, and then set focal distance with the jackscrews. My true south is 83w so I used RTN to set azimuth (yes Ku). It took me longer to drag a TV and receiver out to the dish then it took me to aim it.

Congrats, that is my dish, almost exactly and I bought mine brand new!!! If you have a manual for it, let me know if you ever scan it and can send me a copy. There are two other manuals on this site, but neither is exactly like the polar T mount that you have!

 

[mmewrench]

No manual here either, but I skated by with the info found on this sight. I believe my dish is the 1995 model, because the polar T mount still has the long square tube (very heavy).