Yet again! No horizontal on ses 1 at 101

[tiredold]

I made the column out of 16 inch heavy wall steel tube. At the end I have a schedule 40 pipe box fitted into the square tube (three 1.5 inch thick plates with a hole in the centre and outside cut to just fit inside the square tube. Then welded one by one into the square tube). Where it reaches the ground there are two 2 I beams that extend 6 feet from the base and then go down 7 feet, like a tripod. I dug and poured the two back legs and leveled them with base plates (all in 36 inch sonotubes). Then I dug the hole for the mast (also seven feet deep). I brought the pole (with the arm mid way) and put it into the hole with the two "legs" sitting on the base plates on the back legs. Then I put a support holding the mid point arm with a hydraulic jack. I would then level the whole structure and then pour the concrete and let it sit for a couple of days. Now the fun part started. I did not have the dish at that time, and the dimension of the collar they gave me was the outside diameter, not the inside. So, while the dish was hanging in the air above the mast, I had to measure and then go to the shop and turn a SOLID piece of shaft to fit into the pipe extending from the mast, and at the other end, into the satellite dish collar (welder came and welded the stub adapter to the mast). It weighed about 150 lbs. I then slid the dish down onto the pole. The top of the dish is 41 feet off the ground. I had neighbours on the ground with ropes helping to guide it. My 98 year old neighbour watched, and when I came down the ladder asked me "Jeff, what is this for, research? I said no, so I can watch I Love Lucy 24 hours a day. He thought I was screwing with him. 39 years later, the answer is still the same. By the way, you should see my deck. Same material, but heavier.

 

[arlo]

It's true that thin walled c band waveguides are easily distorted by the holding bolts. Seems that just when you get your signal maxed and you give the bolts (3 in my case) that final little grunt to keep it all in place. There goes the signal. I filed the bolt ends flat where they contact the feed. Better. But still. Then wrapping the outside of the feed with aluminum duct tape to fill the slop in the scalar worked a lot better. I ran across a block of delrin and spun up a sleeve in the lathe and milled in perimeter slots for the bolts to set in. Bliss!

I'm using a Chaparral scalar and a real sweet stainless dual lnb ortho now. They even flashed the insides with what appears to be silver. Maybe silver bronze. Whatever. It was blackened like tarnished relay contact points. Anyhoo. It's robust and the throat would crack before crushing. That 'oomph' of the retaining bolts does zero to received signal. Plus. It fits snug in the scalar with a touch of wiggle room.

Still get a tickle when I ride by the neighbors when he had his dishnet dish bolted to an old maple stump. When the ground froze and heaved in the winter. The dishnet van was there like he lived there. Go figure.
I would wonder if that 80 foot pole is getting a touch of a heave when the ground freezes. Me? I'd at least hang a rope to give a tug when signals start to suck just to see if tugging on it in different directions makes a difference. Keeping with the spirit.
What do ya' think aboot (south park laughter dub-in) doing something like that? Eh?

 

[tiredold]

It's true that thin walled c band waveguides are easily distorted by the holding bolts. Seems that just when you get your signal maxed and you give the bolts (3 in my case) that final little grunt to keep it all in place. There goes the signal. I filed the bolt ends flat where they contact the feed. Better. But still. Then wrapping the outside of the feed with aluminum duct tape to fill the slop in the scalar worked a lot better. I ran across a block of delrin and spun up a sleeve in the lathe and milled in perimeter slots for the bolts to set in. Bliss!

I'm using a Chaparral scalar and a real sweet stainless dual lnb ortho now. They even flashed the insides with what appears to be silver. Maybe silver bronze. Whatever. It was blackened like tarnished relay contact points. Anyhoo. It's robust and the throat would crack before crushing. That 'oomph' of the retaining bolts does zero to received signal. Plus. It fits snug in the scalar with a touch of wiggle room.

Still get a tickle when I ride by the neighbors when he had his dishnet dish bolted to an old maple stump. When the ground froze and heaved in the winter. The dishnet van was there like he lived there. Go figure.
I would wonder if that 80 foot pole is getting a touch of a heave when the ground freezes. Me? I'd at least hang a rope to give a tug when signals start to suck just to see if tugging on it in different directions makes a difference. Keeping with the spirit.
What do ya' think aboot (south park laughter dub-in) doing something like that? Eh?

I used to tweak the dish by hanging a rope off it and pulling on it from 30 below. It worked and it hash't moved in over 30 years. The dish is 36 feet to the centre, 41 to the top. Never moves.

 

[tiredold]

I used to tweak the dish by hanging a rope off it and pulling on it from 30 below. It worked and it hash't moved in over 30 years. The dish is 36 feet to the centre, 41 to the top. Never moves. I used to climb the 44 foot ladder on the ground, but once past 65, I said no more and use a cherry picker.

 

[tiredold]

I wish I still had this one, but I sold it about 12 years ago. Besides, it would not fit between the houses, but I loved it.

 

[Pepper]

Holy crap. Why mounted so high in the first place, is that the only way it could get LOS?

If it's not at ground level, I ain't messin' with it.

 

[tiredold]

Holy crap. Why mounted so high in the first place, is that the only way it could get LOS?

If it's not at ground level, I ain't messin' with it.

When I put it up, there was a monstrous tree that overhung 4 houses. It was simply huge and was two doors down and directly west. So this was the solution. Sure enough, three years later, they cut it down, it took them five days, working all day to get it down. Back in my twenties and thirties, I had no reservation about going up there. Before the trees beside it were trimmed, they covered all but the top. I would have people over for a bbq and be in the yard for an hour before they noticed it. Made me chuckle. Then the questions would start.