Winegard 10-foot (8 panel) Pinnacle Perf Antenna

[mikekohl]

I am attempting to piece together a 10-foot Winegard Pinnacle Perf antenna, to revive my abilities for motorized big dish reception.
After having over 20 dishes in my yard on and next to my "tower" at my old location (near Plain, Wisconsin), it has been difficult to
adapt to living in a small village with rules and regulations. Five years without it is long enough, so I am ready to tick off some of the
neighbors with an extra piece of metal in the backyard. (There is not a single BUD in this village of about 700, even the drinking establishments
rely upon DISH and DirecTV).

There are supposed to be four Mounting Brackets to connect the square polar mount tube frame to the back of the reflector.
It appears that I will have to fabricate some, and have no accurate references. One face of this angle material has a 1/2 inch hole drilled near its center,
and the other side of the angle brackets have two holes drilled near the edges to accept a 1/4 inch bolt. The angle material appears that it may not be bent
at exactly 90 degrees, and the face for the 1/4 inch connections to the back of the reflector is cut at what appears to be a 30 degree or so difference from perpendicular. Hard to explain without a picture and I am relying upon an old Winegard manual with mechanical drawings. If anyone has such a dish in their possession, I would greatly appreciate a photo of the bracket, with measurements. Thank you kindly.



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[Magic Static]

I have a Pinnacle on an AJAK and I just picked up the panels for one a few days ago. But no mount.
however I did recover a Zenith branded Pinnacle a few years ago. Same dish and brackets.
They are 90 degree angle brackets with one end cut at an angle following the curve of the dish.

 

[mikekohl]

I have a Pinnacle on an AJAK and I just picked up the panels for one a few days ago. But no mount.
however I did recover a Zenith branded Pinnacle a few years ago. Same dish and brackets.
They are 90 degree angle brackets with one end cut at an angle following the curve of the dish.

That is very helpful, thank you. Do you happen to have the dimensions of the angle on each side of the 90 degree bend? I can probably eyeball if I have the raw material sizing.

 

[Magic Static]

I don't have them here. I gave the Zenith dish to EmCommSat . I don't think he set it up yet. Maybe he can give you the measurements.

 

[thedishking]

Mike - sorry to be late to the party here. I have a mount under my deck that I can get to fairly easily. I would be glad to provide pictures / measurements of what you might need.

I am thinking about using this antenna (as you may recall, I have been thinking about it for years!) - but it is a bit challenging to get it 14' up in the air on a free standing pole considering the Orbitron is working fairly well.

Hope you are doing well!

Travis

 

[stogie5150]

I am attempting to piece together a 10-foot Winegard Pinnacle Perf antenna, to revive my abilities for motorized big dish reception.
After having over 20 dishes in my yard on and next to my "tower" at my old location (near Plain, Wisconsin), it has been difficult to
adapt to living in a small village with rules and regulations. Five years without it is long enough, so I am ready to tick off some of the
neighbors with an extra piece of metal in the backyard. (There is not a single BUD in this village of about 700, even the drinking establishments
rely upon DISH and DirecTV).

There are supposed to be four Mounting Brackets to connect the square polar mount tube frame to the back of the reflector.
It appears that I will have to fabricate some, and have no accurate references. One face of this angle material has a 1/2 inch hole drilled near its center,
and the other side of the angle brackets have two holes drilled near the edges to accept a 1/4 inch bolt. The angle material appears that it may not be bent
at exactly 90 degrees, and the face for the 1/4 inch connections to the back of the reflector is cut at what appears to be a 30 degree or so difference from perpendicular. Hard to explain without a picture and I am relying upon an old Winegard manual with mechanical drawings. If anyone has such a dish in their possession, I would greatly appreciate a photo of the bracket, with measurements. Thank you kindly.



I

DAMMIT man, this kills me. Just a cpuple years ago I threw away a rusted pinnacle mount because the square tube rusted from within. The "L" brackets were perfect and I said to myself, self, you should keep these. Nope, to the scrap pile they went. Hope ya get it sorted Mike.

 

[Hyper Casey]

Hi Mike. Casey here. I have the exact same 10ft Winegard Pinnacle here. I have pictures and measurements for you. Typing this message on my phone. I will post info when i can login from my PC.

 

[Hyper Casey]

Material is 3.5mm thick.

Width of Bracket = 100 mm
Height of Short Leg = 56 mm OSM
Hole on Short Leg = 35 mm OSM
Length of Long Leg (Long Side) = 154 mm OSM
Length of Long Leg (Short Side) = 121 mm OSM
Puts the Angle of cut on Long Leg at 20 deg?

OSM = Outside Of Metal

Sorry about being in Metric, i have digital calipers i used to measure, plus i come from an auto parts manufacturing background, we use metric in that industry.

Hope this helps, and Good Luck!

 

[mikekohl]

Material is 3.5mm thick.

Width of Bracket = 100 mm
Height of Short Leg = 56 mm OSM
Hole on Short Leg = 35 mm OSM
Length of Long Leg (Long Side) = 154 mm OSM
Length of Long Leg (Short Side) = 121 mm OSM
Puts the Angle of cut on Long Leg at 20 deg?

OSM = Outside Of Metal

Sorry about being in Metric, i have digital calipers i used to measure, plus i come from an auto parts manufacturing background, we use metric in that industry.

Hope this helps, and Good Luck!

Thank you so much Casey. I have spent the last several weeks bringing lots of mount parts to a metal scrapper. It's been six years since I sold my 22 acre property and removed the antenna farm, and four years at my new house in a small village that my new wife and I purchased. Just quit a day job at Lands' End after about six years, and am taking a few weeks off to get things done around the house, which include restoring several C and Ku-band dishes, and installing a 5 antenna system for off air local reception. Many details that I have never had the time to do properly while working a day job. Today I made the decision to scrap the 7-1/2 foot Paraclipse Hydro reflector that I was going to use to receive the ARCS Alaska channels from 139 West. It has been moved at least four times, and its one piece construction makes it nearly impossible to tweek into performing properly. A rescued 10-foot Winegard that we have been discussing is back into the picture and will now serve that function, once I make those missing brackets. Lots of work before winter, but I am having fun! If I beat the weather, have a 2.8 meter Patriot polar mount antenna that has never been assembled before. That's on my bucket list for motorized reception. Thank you and everyone else that has provided advice on both the Paraclipse and Winegard antennas. Semi-retirement is never boring!

Mike

 

[mikekohl]

Between the weather and removing a rear molar, I had delays in getting my installation of this dish finalized. It is finally tracking as good as it is going to get, working well from 55.5 West to 135 West. I am using an antique V Box 7 with a very efficient Von Weise V-76-5 24 inch linear actuator. Went to the last of my private stock and have one of Brian Gohl's previous 2 output C-band LNBFs that passes all C-band frequencies down to 3700 MHz. There are a lot of channels still using the low end of former C-band, especially international satelllites such as 55.5, 58 and 61 West, and the Eutelsat satellites that occupy the slots at 113, 115 and 117. What I have just discovered is that new satellites have been launched since early October and continuing into December, some already in service, and some of them C-band only with only the 4000 to 4200 MHz frequencies planned on being used. Slots that will soon see service with very hot signal levels include 135, 133, 131, 129, 127, 125, 123, 121, 105, 103, 101, and 91 West.
I have been using a LinkBox 500i receiver, and while it was never made for UHD, it does a dynamite job with HD signals in H265 format. Quite complex to program, but it's good as a test instrument. After not having a motorized C band antenna since 2016, everything has changed. I am fortunate enough to be in view of two cell phone towers that have not yet buried me with 5 G interference, owing to a location in rural Wisconsin.
One request for anyone that has had experience comparing sensitivity with the Linkbox 500i vs. any of the other recent receivers. With a ten foot dish I am unable to pull in more than a "20" quality reading in my location (50 miles SW of Madison, WI) on the 139 West AMC-6 satellite, trying for the Alaska mux at 4156H.
Screaming levels are coming in nearby, with readings in the upper 90s to 100 in Quality on this LinkBox unit on 135 West. It does well on the Eutelsat satellites at 113 and 117, but not on 115, due to a rapid dropoff of its levels east of the Mississippi River.
What is most impressive across the arc is that there are huge numbers of HD channels in the clear, and if one is fortunate enough to be out of reach of terrestrial interference by location of your dish, I see the potential for the use of 6 to 8 foot dishes combined with a low cost C-band LNBF and a current FTA receiver. Not a lot of dollars involved and a fixed antenna might provide enough variety to supplement your other viewing, given the abundance of HD. The tradeoff will be that the new satellites will be packed in at true 2 degree spacing, and alignment of antenna and feedhorn will be super critical. Bigger is always better, but I see potential for some hobbyists to resurrect this while tinkering. We'll see what happens.

Again, if you have some hands-on experience on sensitivity of other recent receivers, please let me know.
Thank you!