This week's experiment! My sons first dish

[Blindowl1234]

Well since I've not worked much in the last few months I'm going to put up a Ku dish for my son. I noticed this week he has a neighbor with a pizza dish on his patio mounted on a frame of some sort. It's held in place with a few patio blocks. I thought well I'll show these people in their townhouses how to do it up right! Luckily he is at ground level. Since he has a small patio 12 x12 or so I'm going to try and put my spare hotdish 90 in a 5 gallon bucket. Guess I'll take my spare SG2100 motor and add it to the mix. Looks like line of sight is 72W-113W. If he was in the next unit we'd have full view of the sky. Oh well I'm off to get the bag or two of concrete and tomorrow if all goes well I'll post pics.

 

[toucan-man]

Instead of a bucket I have a 2 foot square concrete slab about 4" thick. Bolted a floor flange to it and screwed the 2 3/8" OD pipe into that. It's not better, just different. For what it's worth, 2 cents max.

 

[Anole]

Trip did about the same thing, recently.
Read his thread for ideas.
http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/299885-New-FTA-Setup-at-Parents-House

Particularly my post about short poles, buckets vs tubs, et al.

 

[Blindowl1234]

I tested it here at my house briefly..83 thru 97w with the bucket not exactly level yet. Pouring down rain here. Thunderstorm in December..strange.
If the weather breaks I'll go back out and tinker lol

 

[Blindowl1234]

Tried everything today and an old SG2100 I had would go west and stop. Lucky I have another old spare in the garage. It works on the bench. Try it again tomorrow. Gonna get cold here this weekend.

 

[T4Runner]

I have used a wooden palet borrowed from the back of the local grocery store in the past. Very stable and bolts down Nicely.

 

[polgyver]

I have used a wooden palet borrowed from the back of the local grocery store in the past. Very stable and bolts down Nicely.

How did you fasten the vertical pipe to the wooden pallet? With flange, as Toucan did? Did you use any bricks, blocks or patio stone to stabilize the pallet? I am interested, as I can get wooden pallets easily, and will attempt to set up a Wavefrontier dish in near future. Cheers, polgyver

 

[northgeorgia]

I actually use the roof mount kit (that came with my dish) directly on a board. My dad had some sort of thick heavy wood and laminate board which was much heavier than a typical pallet, but I still had the issue of stabilization and leveling. I used some leftover yard pavers and other small bricks to level out the board (we certainly don't have much flat land where I live), and heavier bricks/blocks on top to stabilize the board. Not as nice as a dedicated pole in the ground, because days of rain can make the bricks start slipping or sinking into the mud ever so slightly -- but I find I never have to make a huge adjustment (I usually have more adjusting to do after a large wind rather than a flash flood). Anyway, I would say having various sizes of leftover bricks and blocks on hands would be ideal for use with the pallet, too

 

[Anole]

I have used a wooden palet borrowed from the back of the local grocery store in the past.
Very stable and bolts down Nicely.

I've seen some plastic pallets, but never paid much attention.
Not even sure what they were designed for.
Maybe I'll keep on the lookout.

 

[polgyver]

Well since I've not worked much in the last few months I'm going to put up a Ku dish for my son. I noticed this week he has a neighbor with a pizza dish on his patio mounted on a frame of some sort. It's held in place with a few patio blocks. I thought well I'll show these people in their townhouses how to do it up right! Luckily he is at ground level. Since he has a small patio 12 x12 or so I'm going to try and put my spare hotdish 90 in a 5 gallon bucket. Guess I'll take my spare SG2100 motor and add it to the mix. Looks like line of sight is 72W-113W. If he was in the next unit we'd have full view of the sky. Oh well I'm off to get the bag or two of concrete and tomorrow if all goes well I'll post pics.

Hey, Blindowl, it seems that your install went well (I found it in another thread), so, where are the pictures? And, for educational purposes, could you, please, get a photo of neighbours' pizza dish install, so we could learn what to avoid? Cheers, polgyver

 

[Blindowl1234]

Polgyver, Overall it went ok. Still waiting on the new motor to arrive. My old spare SG2100 motor has a too many issues so I've got a DG380 coming. Should be here on 1/3. So far line of sight is 72w to 113w. I'll see if I can get pics of both setups today or Wednesday.

 

[yankee495]

Cool...We wanna hear what the neighbor has to say too...after they figure out something is different.