Satellite Dish Identification

[drunk247]

Hey guys. I've been lurking in here a long time and I have learned enough to successfully setup my ku band dishes without asking questions. This forum is great. I recently collected a 12' mesh dish that was laying in someone's back yard. It isn't in great shape but it is structurally in tact and the mesh is in good shape.

I need help identifying the thing so that I can get it back in operation. This thing is going to my camp where I get 72w - 105w (Cameron County, PA) on the KU dish.

I am hoping someone here knows what this is so I can find a manual or instructions for it. The previous owner knew nothing about it because he just kept bringing parts and asking me if I wanted them as well. There is also an L-shaped bracket and a polar mount that are not pictured. If I get a nicer day I will try to drag everything out and take some better pictures. The previous owner had taken it mostly apart but it appears all the pieces are available. I may need to replace some bolts.

There is an unlabeled actuator and a Chapparal feedhorn with a Mag-7 LNB that were also included.

Any assistance or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[StarScan]

From the structure it looks like a Paraclipse

 

[drunk247]

From the structure it looks like a Paraclipse

That was quick. Thank you. I did some searches and it does look like that matches up with what I have.

 

[waylew]

This might help,I'd give credit to where I got these but I can't remember,probably here tho .

 

[drunk247]

This might help,I'd give credit to where I got these but I can't remember,probably here tho .

Thank you. That probably came from this thread: http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/care-and-feeding-of-a-12-foot-paraclipse.142822/

I don't think I have quite that much work to do on the panels but I do have a mount issue. From what I have seen around here and other places I believe I have a polar L mount. I am debating if I should bother to look for the right parts or just fabricate those parts. I am guessing I will get the parts a lot sooner if I fabricate.

I saw some pictures on another site that showed this dish mounted to a square pole. If that was the standard for this Polar L mount I may have to make something anyway.

I have another polar mount that is round and seems to be more common to large dishes. It wasn't built for this dish so I think that modifying it to fit may cause me alignment problems when I try to finally setup the dish.

 

[Titanium]

The Paraclipse post mount cap was a thick wall 4" square pipe about 2.5 - 3 feet long. It was a heavy beast, but certainly would never fail! This square post sleeved over and tension bolts secured to the in-ground round pole.

 

[drunk247]

The Paraclipse post mount cap was a thick wall 4" square pipe about 2.5 - 3 feet long. It was a heavy beast, but certainly would never fail! This square post sleeved over and tension bolts secured to the in-ground round pole.

That is what I saw in one of the other forums. I didn't realize that whole thing was a sleeve. I bet that was heavy. I asked the guy who had the dish if there was anything else that went with it. When I looked at what he gave me I knew there was going to be a missing mount piece. Do you think it would just be easier at this point to fabricate a round sleeve with the appropriate bracket piece on top? I believe I can replicate that fairly easily. I don't know that I want to make the sleeve quite that long. It seems that the L bracket has a tension adjustment that linked the back of the L bracket to the sleeve. From what I have seen both here and in other pictures from other sites there are a number of different ways that the elevation setting was accomplished. Are these setups some aftermarket modifications that the owners did to make setting the elevation easier or did Paraclipse just have different designs over the years for this mount?

The pictures here: http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/i-finally-did-it.324460/

As compared to this one: http://www.fridgefta.info/forums/showthread.php?tid=26895#axzz34QwuBNTq (I hope this doesn't violate rules but I didn't want to just grab the photos without attribution.)

The second seems to have been modified in a few ways. I don't think that my L bracket has either of these setups.

 

[Titanium]

There were several elevation designs and also clone Paraclipse dishes. I owned the type shown in the 2nd link. It had a critical poly sleeve that inserted in the AZ rotation assembly. Without this sleeve installed, the mount had considerable slop.

Before you put a ton of work into this dish... The Paraclipse is a very nice looking design and built like a tank (which made them popular in the Caribbean), but there are much better performing dishes out there. You won't regret using it for C-band, but not a great KU performer. This design has significant side lobes. Without the missing parts, it might be just as easy to create a complete new polar mount our retrofit a donor.

I do not regret getting rid of my Paraclipse, except that a scrapper snagged it from my Craigslist ad while I was not home. They left the mount, motor and bolts but took the aluminum.

 

[waylew]

Here's a pic of the back of mine.As you can see,I cut about 3' off the square tube,couldn't get it up on the pipe otherwise.Then used a piece of the cutoff to make the guy wire collar.I made the adjuster on the top for setting declination,the original design wouldn't hold after the ice storm in 1998.Put the dish up around 97,came from just down the street,had to take it completely apart to get it down from where it was.

And yes that is a robin in a nest,they don't seem to mind going for a ride once in a while .

 

[Titanium]

Nice mod on the declination adjuster, Waylew! Replace that with a short throw actuator and you will have a perfect set-up for optimizing declined satellite reception!

 

[waylew]

Had thought of doing something like that for long time,especially when the frost was having it's fun moving the pole all around.But since I did a real tune up on it a year or so ago it hasn't been as much of a problem .

 

[(((Garyd)))]

somewhere i saw i saw a pile of new clips for one, there free if you pay for postage

 

[drunk247]

Thanks to all. I will keep looking around for the additional pieces I may need. My aunt did give me her 8' fiberglass dish. It is still mounted so all the pieces are there. Unfortunately the mountain has eroded a bit around her dish and the retrieval process could be a little hairy. I'll post some pics of that one next time I get up to camp.

 

[lost_mesa]

This design has significant side lobes.

Brian, any idea what aspect of the design causes the significant side lobes?

 

[Titanium]

Brian, any idea what aspect of the design causes the significant side lobes?

The panel design and depth come to mind. Have provided service calls through the years on dozens of Paraclipse's and the side lobes were consistently greater than on similar size competitor dishes. Very evident on a spectrum analyzer when stepping east/west from a target satellite. I recall a thread several years ago discussing the KU sidelobe challenges.

Have you noticed the side lobes on your Paraclipse?

 

[lost_mesa]

So the side lobes are only an issue on Ku? I had heard it wasn't a good Ku dish, but was hoping for great results on C band. I just acquired the Paraclipse. It is completely disassembled and needs some work, so it will probably be another year before I get around to it.

I just moved and have a lot on my plate right now. Getting the Paraclipse set up won't be the simple one weekend project that the 7.5 ft Unimesh was.

 

[Titanium]

It is hard for me to talk smack about a beautiful, sexy, stunningly gorgeous model ....... err, uhh .... dish model.

Sidelobes are a problem on any band, but is more pronounced on KU higher frequency because of the tighter beamwidth. While I have not performed side by side testing with another dish, I can't imagine that sidelobes help on adjacent satellite interference with 2° spacing. While C-band performance was good on weaker transponders, DVBS2, 16/32APSK hadn't been invented yet so maybe others can could comment more on their Paraclipse observations with more demanding signals in the new century.... LOL!

 

[Radioguy41]

Nice mod on the declination adjuster, Waylew! Replace that with a short throw actuator and you will have a perfect set-up for optimizing declined satellite reception!

 

[clucas]

My Paraclipse has always had trouble receiving Ku. I think the holes in the mesh are too large. I even tried to put some regular metal screen (the kind used in doors) behind a few panels with no success. I'd like to replace all the panels if I could find something to replace them with.