Tek2000 8' Solid Dish Review

[Alan Rovner]

I recently installed a Tek2000 C Band 8' solid dish, and thought the forum might benefit from a review. I'll divide my comments into separate categories.

Cost
I thought the cost was reasonable, $349 for the dish, and $130 for shipping from Toronto to Washington State.

Ordering
After placing an order, I didn't hear from Tek2000 for 3 to 4 days, then I received my shipping and tracking information.

Shipping
There are 3 packages in total and are shipped from Purolator within Canada, then changes to UPS in the U.S. I'm quoting from the web site here, the packages are (1) the Panels 50"x50"x6" and very heavy at 60 lbs, definitely a 2 person lift (2) the mounting pole, feedhorn struts and other hardware 50"x16"x16" at 25 lbs and an irregular size and (2) the mounting collar and associate hardware and brackets 36"x36"x6" also heavy at 40 lbs.

Important Note: In my case the mounting pole was damaged or manufactured incorrectly. Two of the three mounting feet were bent. When placed on a flat surface the mount rocked back and forth. I have no idea where this damage occurred, but since I wasn't planning on using it, for me it didn't matter, but I wanted to report the issue here. The photos below show the issue.

Overall Construction
I was pleased with the overall construction, as see in the first photo, the various brackets and pieces are 1/4" steel and quite sturdy. All pieces are painted battleship gray and the paint job seems reasonable. The 6 panels are stacked together in the shipping box, and I think there a brief amount of paint chipping on the corners of the panels probably occurring during shipping. I used some Rustoleum touch up paint to cover these areas. When the 6 panels are bolted together, it's pretty formidable, much much heavier and beefier than a mesh dish.

Important Note: The bracket that the actuator arm connects to has mounting holes only to mount the arm on the right side of the dish, for east coast users. If you need to mount the arm on the left side like me, you need to drill the bracket with equivalent holes yourself. Tek2000 has informed me a future manufacturing run will correct this, but again I wanted to report to the forum.

Documentation
Documentation, we don't need no stinkin documentation. Seriously, you will receive one sheet that is a copy of a copy, with a parts list, and an exploded diagram of the dish and mounting hardware. The exploded diagram is pretty much useless, and hard to see. I scanned the page and zoomed in on the scanned file and that helped a little. What helped a lot was to download the pictures of the dish from their web site. I would have been pretty lost without that.

Photos
Here are several photos which I'll comment on individually

Photo 1: The full mounting pole, you can't see from this view, but the feet are bent, the next photo shows this.

Photo 2: Shows a closeup of the bent foot:

Photo 3: The various brackets and pieces for the mounting hardware

Photo 4: The finished reflector undergoing the string test on my garage floor

Photo 5: My helpful neighbors assembling the reflector to the mounting hardware

Photo 6: The completed dish, also showing the Geosat 90 dish

Last Photo: Overall picture showing dishes and my ham radio tower in the background

 

[KE4EST]

Thanks Alan for providing a good review. Please also add your thoughts on the performance of it as you use it. Also anything else you may notice down the road that you did not notice now.
Great well thought out and planned review!!

BTW, nice set of beams!

 

[Arion]

Nice job. The angle iron and mount itself is definitely more beefy than the mesh dish and that makes a lot of sense considering the wind load of a solid dish. And I imagine the solid dish is easier to come into symmetry than the mesh dish. Still need some work on the Chinese manufacturing considering the mounting pole not being flat on the bottom. On my 10' mesh dish one of the mounting brackets wasn't quite right either. Probably a bad jig at the factory or it got bent somehow but was easily straightened. I installed my 10' solo but I can see with a solid dish you would certainly need some help. From what I can see quality seems to be pretty good as it is with mine. About the only concern that I have at this point is the threaded rod used for elevation. It doesn't seem like it's very high quality and it looks like you have pretty much the same rod. Hopefully won't be an issue but time will tell. Also nice that the manufacturer seems responsive to Tek asking for various changes along the way as the current dishes seem to be more heavy duty than the earlier ones.

 

[Alan Rovner]

A couple more comments, I did replace the two bolts that the reflector pivots on. One of them stripped as it was tightened. That shouldn't have happened unless the bolt was cheaply made. No issues so far with the long elevation bolt.

Performance wise I'm happy so far I'm receiving all sats from 87W to 137W. I could point further east but there doesn't seem to be much of interest there.

 

[norman881]

A couple more comments, I did replace the two bolts that the reflector pivots on. One of them stripped as it was tightened. That shouldn't have happened unless the bolt was cheaply made. No issues so far with the long elevation bolt.

Performance wise I'm happy so far I'm receiving all sats from 87W to 137W. I could point further east but there doesn't seem to be much of interest there.

58 W (My max east) has some good content.

 

[wvman]

I recently installed a Tek2000 C Band 8' solid dish, and thought the forum might benefit from a review. I'll divide my comments into separate categories.

Cost
I thought the cost was reasonable, $349 for the dish, and $130 for shipping from Toronto to Washington State.

Ordering
After placing an order, I didn't hear from Tek2000 for 3 to 4 days, then I received my shipping and tracking information.

Shipping
There are 3 packages in total and are shipped from Purolator within Canada, then changes to UPS in the U.S. I'm quoting from the web site here, the packages are (1) the Panels 50"x50"x6" and very heavy at 60 lbs, definitely a 2 person lift (2) the mounting pole, feedhorn struts and other hardware 50"x16"x16" at 25 lbs and an irregular size and (2) the mounting collar and associate hardware and brackets 36"x36"x6" also heavy at 40 lbs.

Important Note: In my case the mounting pole was damaged or manufactured incorrectly. Two of the three mounting feet were bent. When placed on a flat surface the mount rocked back and forth. I have no idea where this damage occurred, but since I wasn't planning on using it, for me it didn't matter, but I wanted to report the issue here. The photos below show the issue.

Overall Construction
I was pleased with the overall construction, as see in the first photo, the various brackets and pieces are 1/4" steel and quite sturdy. All pieces are painted battleship gray and the paint job seems reasonable. The 6 panels are stacked together in the shipping box, and I think there a brief amount of paint chipping on the corners of the panels probably occurring during shipping. I used some Rustoleum touch up paint to cover these areas. When the 6 panels are bolted together, it's pretty formidable, much much heavier and beefier than a mesh dish.

Important Note: The bracket that the actuator arm connects to has mounting holes only to mount the arm on the right side of the dish, for east coast users. If you need to mount the arm on the left side like me, you need to drill the bracket with equivalent holes yourself. Tek2000 has informed me a future manufacturing run will correct this, but again I wanted to report to the forum.

Documentation
Documentation, we don't need no stinkin documentation. Seriously, you will receive one sheet that is a copy of a copy, with a parts list, and an exploded diagram of the dish and mounting hardware. The exploded diagram is pretty much useless, and hard to see. I scanned the page and zoomed in on the scanned file and that helped a little. What helped a lot was to download the pictures of the dish from their web site. I would have been pretty lost without that.

Photos
Here are several photos which I'll comment on individually

Photo 1: The full mounting pole, you can't see from this view, but the feet are bent, the next photo shows this.
View attachment 127874

Photo 2: Shows a closeup of the bent foot:
View attachment 127875

Photo 3: The various brackets and pieces for the mounting hardware
View attachment 127876

Photo 4: The finished reflector undergoing the string test on my garage floor
View attachment 127877

Photo 5: My helpful neighbors assembling the reflector to the mounting hardware
View attachment 127878

Photo 6: The completed dish, also showing the Geosat 90 dish
View attachment 127879

Last Photo: Overall picture showing dishes and my ham radio tower in the background
View attachment 127880

I think you made a good decision not to use the supplied mounting pole. It looked like it was a bit thin walled, and the the 3 mounting flanges I feel, just aren't enough, especially in a high wind situation. Unless the anchor bolts were installed in the concrete at the time it was poured, I'd be really uneasy using inserts in holes drilled after the concrete was set up. During the 30 years I installed dishes, I've seen some pretty amazing things happen to dishes and poles.

The dish itself appears to be pretty well made, and that little extra signal gain over wire mesh can make or break reception on some satellites. I made an exceptional find last weekend when I stumbled onto an absolutely perfect 12 foot wire mesh dish made by Perfect 10. The screen is perfect, nothing is bent and even the paint is flawless. Looks like it's been kept inside a garage all its life.

It's on a non-penetrating mount, perched on top of a guys garage on a pole that's just tall enough to allow the dish to clear the roof. The guy cut the hill away and built the garage 4 feet from the bank, and we should be able to put a couple 4x4's across the gap and slide the dish off the roof and onto the ground behind the garage. He even has a road within 10 feet of the garage roof. Can't get luckier than that.

The guy's going to build another story on the garage and want's it out of his way. I have a pole just waiting for that baby. We're going after it this weekend.

 

[Alan Rovner]

That's a good point, the supplied mounting pole was thin walled, maybe 3-4 mm. I don't know if you can see in the photos but my neighbor welded a 4 1/2" sleeve over an existing 3 1/2" pole, and got it to within 1 degree of being plumb.

 

[lorelys]

can you please sir put another picture of the final polar mount in the dish the back part this will help more us, please sir

 

[Alan Rovner]

I will try to add more photos this afternoon, please wait a bit.....

 

[lorelys]

than you sir i wait for you pictures

 

[wvman]

That's a good point, the supplied mounting pole was thin walled, maybe 3-4 mm. I don't know if you can see in the photos but my neighbor welded a 4 1/2" sleeve over an existing 3 1/2" pole, and got it to within 1 degree of being plumb.

It works well the other way too. I've taken 4 1/2 and slid a piece of 3 1/2 inside it and welded around the joint. A 2 foot stub of the 3 1/2 driven inside the 4 1/2 makes a very strong pole for high wind situations. If you don't have a welder, you can drill a hole through both pipes, put a nut and washer on and tighten it down and it prevents the inside piece from spinning inside the other. To cut either pole square on the ends, you need a Ridgid 2 blade commercial pipe cutter. It makes a perfect cut for the dish mount to sit down on.

A cutter that will cut up to five inch pipe cost upwards of $500 now, but I've had mine since 1983 and paid $350. I planted a pole last weekend that had been cut with a band saw. Rarely do you see a band saw that cuts square. Too much flex in the blade. I'll trim 2 inches off it with the pipe cutter tomorrow so I can set a dish on it this weekend. I did see the welding job on yours. Looked like a great job.

 

[Alan Rovner]

 

[Alan Rovner]

I added a few more closeup photos as requested, hope that is useful.

 

[lorelys]

thank you sir for the beautiful pictures yes my friend and i try in to put the one he get it from tek2000 but we are old and the paper with the intruction is really for ingenery mechanic so he is in bad move, i tell him take easy man, litle but little you will get the dish up. one more thing sir if we can see the actuator we are in miami we do not know is is for left or right if you can put the picture of the actuator we appreciate that sir . sir let GOD bless you for the help and bless you family to , thank you from miami sir we really need that help.

 

[wvman]

thank you sir for the beautiful pictures yes my friend and i try in to put the one he get it from tek2000 but we are old and the paper with the intruction is really for ingenery mechanic so he is in bad move, i tell him take easy man, litle but little you will get the dish up. one more thing sir if we can see the actuator we are in miami we do not know is is for left or right if you can put the picture of the actuator we appreciate that sir . sir let GOD bless you for the help and bless you family to , thank you from miami sir we really need that help.

In Miami, when you're standing behind the dish looking at the back, the actuator arm will go on the right side of the dish. When the wires are hooked up correctly, the dish will get lower when moving West, and higher when moving East. On some actuator control boxes, like the Pansat I have, the East & West limits are backwards, which means that box was designed for the West coast. You have to remember that when programming one of these boxes.

With the limited number of control boxes available today, you're not likely to run into that unless you purchase a Pansat. It's better to take your time assembling the dish than hurry through it and make mistakes. Good luck

 

[AceB]

That's an interesting mount, the dish looks like the generic Jonsa/Fortec Star but I've never seen a polar mount available for it so is this something that Tek2000 manufacture themselves? Just one question if I may, is declination set using the two bolts in this pic?

 

[Alan Rovner]

Correct, the two bolts you highlighted adjust the declination offset. The bottom of the dish has a small pivot point and the two bolts adjust the pivot.