Winterizing the mesh BUD

[colbec]

Any tips?

My concerns:

I have 4 mesh buds all built on the technology of mesh screwed onto square tubes. One of the BUDs came with clear freeze damage to one of the square tubes where the square cross-section had been completely rounded out into a circle evidently by ice formation inside the tube over the winter. This must have deformed the basic shape of the dish both by the deformation of the tubes and by unequal distribution of weight while the water/ice was in the tube and made the dish less effective.

This can happen in times of freezing rain even when you have drainage holes at the bottom of the tubes. Insects build and leave nests and cobwebs etc inside the tubes that all give a foothold to accumulating water that eventually blocks the free passage of drainage and then you are sunk (or rather frozen out).

One of the issues is the centre disk on the Channel Masters. These must be in place I guess since it makes access to water a bit more difficult. These come flat on the Perfect 10 dish but bowed out on the CM. These disks do not contribute to the signal since they are in the shadow of the scalar ring and lnb. I'm thinking of sealing the tops of the downward pointing tubes in some way.

Since the CM disks were originally provided for mounting a measuring device for f/d adjustment, should these be convex/concave to maximize the distance between the mounting points?

 

[Inno]

I'd think about drilling large drain holes in the bottoms of all the "ribs" from the back side just to make sure they can drain properly. I had this happen to one of my old dishes, for C-Band it wasn't really a problem at all, didn't have KU back then though. Might be a problem for KU.
I'd seal up the tops as much as possible as I'm sure that leaves/dirt/various other debris can enter through the smallest cracks.

 

[colbec]

Thanks Inno, I have done some experimental sealing up on one of the fixed dishes with a plug of screwed up newspaper to stop crud getting into those ribs pointing down. We shall see.

While doing this it occurred to me that this is fine on a fixed dish, however on a dish that travels a lot of the arc then only about a quarter of the dish ribs will be reliably pointing up all the time. Some of the others may at one time be up or down, and if plugged you could have the situation where your own plugging will cause the freeze.

 

[Inno]

After I wrote that I had thought of that also. Up isn't alway up.......down isn't always down so the potential for "plugging" becomes greater. Again, not sure if it would have a huge detremental effect even if one rib did split or deform.
I guess you could just leave both ends open (if possible) and flush them in the fall before things freeze and hope for the best.