Polar mount

[patmos]

I work with antennas using both X/Y mount and elevation/azimuth( Earth Station). I fully understand how they operate but I cannot understand how the polar mount works mechanically. I understand that one has to set the elevation to the site latitude+declination. I would greatly appreciate if some one could explain how the antenna follows the satellite arc as it is swept from east to west. I also want to know if this can be DIYed as Mauritius is far from all stores one can purchase one.If not please advise one for a 3M antenna.

 

[voomvoom]

I don't know how to best explain it. But, what you understand is correct. Now think of the polar mount with a dish mounted to it. The dish would be like a door on hinges and swing from east to west or vice versa. I guess the polar part comes in from the polar axis, where you have an actuator to move the dish from east to straight up where you are located or vice versa from the west to straight up. Basically whatever your polar axis is, you would need to decide whether you wanted to view the eastern sky or the western sky. There were some horizon to horizon mounts, but I think they are few and far between. These mounts would cover the entire spectrum east and west of your LOS. Hope this helps. I can't think of a better way to explain it.

Al

Edit: the other stuff I know I can't help you with. Sorry....

 

[patmos]

Thanks a lot . One thing you let me understand is that most polar mount is not from east to west horizon. So what? I t follows half of the satellite arc?My problem is that I never seen a polar mount physically. I work in the earth station and would be familiar with the other mounts. what I cannot get is how the feed is lowered/ or raised to track the satellite arc as it is moved say west.
Can someone suggest a good book or site to help.I am a man who likes to know how things work. Please bear with me.

 

[tdti1]

You can ask here www.4dtvrocks.com or If you would like I will post your question there so you do not need to become a member, and repost the answer here.

 

[orthoclipse]

Two useful links:
3w[dot]arrowe[dot]com[forwardslash]polarmount[dot]html

 

[orthoclipse]

3w[dot]geo-orbit[dot]org[forwardslash]sizepgs[forwardslash]tuningp4[dot]html

 

[kelleyga]

Hi. I am new at this and I have been readying for days now. I got a C band satellite and want to install it myself. I live in Tampa Fl and want to get a free channel on the PAS 3r Satellite at 43.1 W. When I convert that based on my longitud/latitude to something I can relate better too, it tells me I need to point my C band dish to 119.8 at 35.9 elevation. That is going East. If I use a mover, do you mean I will not be able to see satellites from South to West if I get the PAS 3r?

So, I can not have my mover move to PAS 3R and SatMex 5?

I thought the mover can go from west to east???

Sorry if this is a stupid question, again I have been reading for 3 days and trying to learn as much as possible but I am getting a little confused. And I want to get the 2 satelaties mentioned above.

 

[tdti1]

I hit ACM-8 all the way to AMC-12 with out any problems, I would even get HispansatC but my house is blocking me to much, I use a 24" arm.

 

[voomvoom]

kelleyga,
It probably depends on what kind of dish you have/use. I live at Macon,Georgia (83.8 degrees W) which is virtually on top of you. I have mine set up for south/north to west. I have an old fiberglass 10' dish and it's so heavy if I try to go much past AMC-9, I usually wind up having to unhook the actuator to get it back over the hill. I actually tore up an actuator once. There are H to H polar mounts out there. Unfortunately for me, I don't have one. If you set it up to south/north to east for PAS-3, I don't think you will see many birds past AMC-3 (if you can get it). If you have a mesh dish, you may see a little farther west. Maybe you can find an H to H polar mount or possibly you can find another dish in the neighborhood and use 2 dishes to get the whole spectrum.

Al

 

[kelleyga]

Thanks for your answer voomvoom.

I got a 10 foot mesh dish. I did not know I can set up my window. Now I know my motor will not do H to H. But maybe I can set it up to go from PAS 3R up to as much as I can. Being 3R the one at the most left.