Captain;s 1.2m on H-2-H mount

**1captain** · 01-07-2009 09:17 AM

Have had this satellite kicking around for years, got to be at least 25-years old or more. an it was made by Northern Satellite Corp. an model is NSC12-1 ( all raised letters in back of dish top left of center). an had it from time to time on setting it on a Sats for a feed that I could not lock with other dishes that I have here, an it became a pain to move it all the time, real tight on its tuning, so came up with the idea to set it up on a mount an make it track the ark, an it works great, an what a learning curve this was. an I will try to share it with you for any 1 thinking about a H-2-H mount or polar mount.

Now all pictures are from my test pole in the ground 5 1/2 feet, an here I can get from Gal-18 over to Telstar-12, an can not get all transponders due to boat for T-12 an a tree for G-18, but can get most strong transponders.

now my 1st try to get it to track, I failed big time an was ready to cut this mount up an remake it if I had to. but after getting on the compt an doing some research I found out what I was doing wrong, all thanks to the Prodelin web site, read their instructions for a polar mount for a 1.8m dish, an with in 3 hours had this thing tracking great.

now this is how you need to treate a Offset-ku dish to track.
1st you need to find you're declination for you're given area, then add that to you're offset angle of the ku reflector, now you will add you're declination an the offset angle together this is you're declination adjustment, should be some thing like this 23.5 offset angle of dish + 3.9 declination for you're location = 27.4 degrees of declination to dial in. now this is how you set it up.

1st you will set you elevation of where you dish mount is going to pivote from to 90* or perfect vertical, now set you declination to what you have determined from a flat spot on the reflector to ( my case here 27.4*), an "Don't Move It" this is where I messed up. now set you're elevation to you're latitude of you're area. now you are ready to start checking signal, an treat it like a C-band now or a prime focus dish start with you're due south, peak it in for best signal using you're elevation adjustment, then you're far east an west, to max signal an snug bolt up on the pole cap, now go back to you're due south satellite an re peak it again with you're elevation adjust. now if you took the time set you're declination perfect from the beginning, you will be done in no time.

Also with these lager offset reflectors the beam is tight so I found it fairly easy to get it perfect, after I read the Prodelin manual. my first mistake was moving the total declination adjustment.

now if it doesn't track for you, go over you're declination adjust agin an make sure you have it dialed in right. an if you do an still not tracking, now either add 1/2 of a degree or take away 1/2 of a degree (keep note of wich way you go if you make it worse), now you will need to repeat you're due south an east to west peaking process all over agin. remember changing declination adjust mess all of you're previous peaking that you have done.

when you finaly get it, you will have 1 nice set up, where this 1 is going should be able to go as far west as i need (148 will not use it but it could hit it) an east to AltanticBird-3 might even hit Intelsat10-02.

in these pictures all mounts that where added to the CFI H-2-H mount are stainless steel along with 2 angles on the reflector, (this is all my welding an fab work, some done Tig an some stick) an all stainless bolts an nuts also. down here where I am at any thing will rust away.

**1captain** · 01-07-2009 09:24 AM

Picture did not upload, on my post.
Here you go enjoy.

**phlatwound** · 01-07-2009 09:30 AM

Wow, nice job and sweet fabrication!

Did you fabricate the entire mount from the ground up, or was it factory-built and you modified it? If factory-built, what brand is it?

**1captain** · 01-07-2009 09:37 AM

Originally Posted by phlatwound

Wow, nice job and sweet fabrication!

Did you fabricate the entire mount from the ground up, or was it factory-built and you modified it? If factory-built, what brand is it?

I did all the fab work welding an cutting, to get the 1.2m to fit on that mount, now that mount is from a CFI 12-foot mess dish an it had a 10k pot on it, that I convert over to work reed switch that is gear driven, bet some birdview guys will be asking about that, have 4300 coounts with a G-box from limit switch to limit switch.

**phlatwound** · 01-07-2009 09:41 AM

Originally Posted by 1captain

I did all the fab work welding an cutting, to get the 1.2m to fit on that mount, now that mount is from a CFI 12-foot mess dish an it had a 10k pot on it, that I convert over to work reed switch that is gear driven, bet some birdview guys will be asking about that, have 4300 coounts with a G-box from limit switch to limit switch.

Very impressive, well done.

Yes, more pics and descriptions of your magnet wheel/sensor setup would be great!

**turbosat** · 01-07-2009 09:47 AM

Very nice work captain. Are those lnb-support arms some you fabbed also?

**PopcornNMore** · 01-07-2009 11:04 AM

Very nice!

**Anole** · 01-07-2009 12:34 PM

Very nice -

I particularly like the LNB support arms. Looks like they are fine-adjustable, with threaded rod.
Don't know if that's stock or your addition, but is a great idea for getting to the focal point!
Thanks for giving us enough picture resolution to zoom in and see the details.

I've seen H-H mounts modified to carry offset dishes, so can guess which are the parts you've added.
A nice side-view shot, would highlight how your two threaded rods give the required down-tilt to the dish, to make it track properly.
Congratulations on such an ambitious job! -

Looked through my collection of dish pictures, but don't think I've ever run across an H-H mount like that.
Sure doesn't look like it'd ever carry a 12' dish! Must have been a light one.

Can't get a good guess on the diameter of your Plexiglas magnet wheel.
But it appears ya might have used 24 magnets.
And they're not exactly crowded together.
Must be pretty small ones. Did you press-fit, or glue them in?
(I've considered both ways, as well as molding them in, and casting them in)

Toss us some more pictures when you have the time.
Always enjoy a successful project.
Should be a source of encouragement for everyone! -

**1captain** · 01-07-2009 04:09 PM

Originally Posted by turbosat

Very nice work captain. Are those lnb-support arms some you fabbed also?

Yes they are Turbo, those support legs came from a commercial VHF antenna that was on a police station here that I changed out years ago when did high tower work, I new day I would use them. they are sec#40 stainless tubing 1/2" OD, an taped 3/8" stainless tread rod in them with a jam nut. then have a pair of nuts on the outer (also fabed out of stainless) brackets that you can set you feed to center an even fine tune you're angle of the lnb, if you need to, all in all it is very adjustable the way I got those legs built.

**1captain** · 01-07-2009 05:09 PM

Originally Posted by Anole

Very nice -

Looked through my collection of dish pictures, but don't think I've ever run across an H-H mount like that.
Sure doesn't look like it'd ever carry a 12' dish! Must have been a light one.

Can't get a good guess on the diameter of your Plexiglas magnet wheel.
But it appears ya might have used 24 magnets.
And they're not exactly crowded together.
Must be pretty small ones. Did you press-fit, or glue them in?
(I've considered both ways, as well as molding them in, and casting them in)

Toss us some more pictures when you have the time.
Always enjoy a successful project.
Should be a source of encouragement for everyone! -

Thank You Anole.

The mount is Certified Industry's (CFI) think that they stop production around mid 80's, their dish was a cross between a ParaClips an a Radix, an they never work that well, very poor performers, an made cheep. have seen lots of them get ripped off that mount (where my 2 cross bars are welded) in high winds. what they had was 2 aluminium bars that thrue bolted on the top bar, an they would break or get cracked, just a poor desgin.

now that magnet wheel is made from 1/4" lexan, an I think have 22 magnets in it, with these magnets from what I have learned you always do a even # of magnet "never odd" reason is when they are put in the wheel need to have a push an pull effect on you're magnets an a odd # will you will have 2 pushers or pullers next to each other. a easy way to see this is put 2 magnets in you're hand then they will suck together, take 1 of the magnets an turn it around, an it will push away from that magnet, "push then pull".

no they are not glued, in just plressed in, made the wheel 1 night, had all holes drilled, put the magnets in freezer over night, then used drill press with a bar stock just to press them in. now they went in real easy, with the ice on them, which made me woirry about them comming out (even though I mike the magnet an drill bit .003 under size) but after all came up to room temp, they are not moving.

now this wheel is 3 3/4" in diameter, but the neat thing is the gear step up that is driving that wheel, about 2.6 or 2.7 to 1. it counts so fast on the G-box you can not see the last digit just a blurr. from my due south to east starting a 0 on G-box it counts to 2162, now back to 0 an run it to the west 2146 to my west limit switch. the reason why I wanted a high count is because of this dish with its tight pattern, orginaly had a smaller magnet wheel running from the worm drive an only had 500 counts on each side of due south, an a bum east or west would louse signal, now with it high count it takes about10 to 15 counts on each side of a satellite before you louse signal.

now I even called Sadoun an spoke with Steven about this high count on a G-box an he has never heard of any one running that high of a count, but he said that it should work. because it will support 2000 count on each side of the ark ( 0 ), an just to let you all know it will count higher than 2000. when I get done playing with it on the ground an pole mount it up above the roof, will try to start at 0 on my west an program satellite into the 3000 to 4000 count just to see how the G-box likes it.

here is a better picture of the wheel.

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