Hi all;
I'm pretty much a total C-Band noob although I've installed a number of motorized KU band dishes and experimented with a 'mini' bud with a C-Band LNB on a 1.2 meter dish. I've had the hankering for many years to get into a real C-Band dish and I wanted new and at a decent price point so of course that limited the choices. After reading threads here, at Rick's and other forums I decided to purchase from Tek and this thread will be the ongoing saga of a 'noob' and what happens. I'll do an overall review at the end and the purpose of the thread is to also ask questions along the way to solicit help from the local experts and perhaps this will benefit someone else down the line.
To begin with I ordered one of Tek's complete 10' mesh kits which includes;
- 300cm (10ft) Mesh Dish
- C/Ku Combo LNBF (Pro Broadband)
- 36-inch QARL Heavy-Duty Actuator (2-inch Tube) with weather boot
- SuperJack DiseqC1.2 Positioner
- Openbox Z5 HD PVR Receiver
- Digital Inclinometer
In addition I ordered a mounting pole as well as 200' of 18-4 actuator cable. No, I'm not using the whole 200' of cable for one run. I stay in my 5th wheel RV in the summer so that is one run of about 75' and the other one is to my cabin and that is about 50'.
The total including shipping was about $1350 and you can imagine that shipping ate up a good chunk of that. The pole was $150 and the shipping was about that much as well. I looked around locally to see if I could get that size pipe and I couldn't.
I paid with Paypal and that was seamless and I received everything undamaged within the shipping times referenced on Tek's webpage. I had a bit of a problem getting a box through customs and had to answer some questions before it would pass thru and they asked some dumb questions but I digress. In addition I've been in email contact with Tek on a few questions and he has always responded back within 24 hours.
The dish came in two boxes and when shipped they used the boxes that it came in from China but then used additional boxes on everything including styro peanuts and bubble wrap and copious amounts of tape. Very well shipped and protected. They even boxed the pole and covered that with bubble wrap as well. Appears to be only schedule 40 pipe so that it a 'bit' of a concern but it's rare to get wind gusts about 30mph. I installed the pole yesterday and used #500 of cement with an additional #50 down the pole to reinforce it on the inside. A big round bubble level was included with the pole so that was a nice touch.
I want to let the cement cure for 5 days before putting any significant weight on it or tortional stresses but I did figure I could install the saddle mount, elevation mount and polar screw with the brass bushings. Here are the first two pictures I took of this part of the installation along with a question.
That first pic is pointed up towards the sun a bit so it's a little washed out but my initial question is the gap between the top nut and the washer. Is that going to cause a problem? Looking at the angles involved I don't see how to avoid that nut and washer not lying flat on the elevation arm and if I shifted to the bottom hole on the saddle mount I think it would make the angles even worse.
I'll install the frame and the dish sections next week and take it from there and see what happens. And of course I'm completely open for suggestions along the way as even though a motorized KU dish is similar the scale of this dish is something else all together.
to SatelliteGuys flooringguy23
