Retrofit My Radioshack Dish Onto My KTI Mount

JFOK · Oct 19, 2018

wvman,

Congrats on your retirement today. I hope to do the same in 2 years. Its amazing how fast time flies...especially as you get older.
There aren't many dishes in my neck of the woods anymore, either the weather or hand of man has seen to that.
Keeping my fingers crossed on my dish conversion next spring.
Good luck with those dish retrievals...watch your back.

John

wvman · Oct 19, 2018

JFOK said:
wvman,

Congrats on your retirement today. I hope to do the same in 2 years. Its amazing how fast time flies...especially as you get older.
There aren't many dishes in my neck of the woods anymore, either the weather or hand of man has seen to that.
Keeping my fingers crossed on my dish conversion next spring.
Good luck with those dish retrievals...watch your back.

John

I was going to get one of them tomorrow, and as usual, it started raining a little while ago.

Can't drive through their yard when it's like that. I'll have to try another day.

Thanks for the congrats. Now, I have to see how quick I get bored. I can't sit still long. Have to be doing something.

JFOK · Jul 21, 2019

Hi All,

I'm reviving a thread I started last fall regarding retrofitting my 9 foot Radio Shack dish onto my KTI mount.
I will have the time in the next few weeks to get started on this project.
To sum up my project, my loyal, 20 year old KTI 7.5 dish is less than parabolic preventing me from getting the most out of FTA.
I want to replace it with a RS dish I have, which is in perfect condition. Discussions I've had with Magic Static and wvman
indicated that i can basically drop my RS dish onto the KTI mount with very few modifications.
My question...should I assemble the RS dish on the ground, "string test" it, then drop it in place on the mount in one piece (which I will arrange to be an a horizontal position), or should I assemble it panel by panel onto the mount ? This will basically be a one man operation although lifting help can be arranged if needed. I'm thinking that dropping the dish on the mount in one piece would be preferable, making it easier to attach the RS dish ribs to the mount "tabs"...any thoughts ??
Thanks in advance.

John

Magic Static · Jul 22, 2019

Depending on the situation you may need to do it one way versus the other but which ever you do it's always good to do a string test after assembly.

pacificrim · Jul 22, 2019

I am using a Unimesh mount (from a 7.5') for my 10' KTI. I had to drill holes in the dish like others mentioned earlier, but it fit right in. The tubing dimensions of the KTI dish were slightly smaller that the Unimesh, so it was easier than if it were the opposing parts trying to mate up. I don't think it would have been possible to put the Unimesh dish into the KTI mount, without a bunch of work.

Ligers vs Tigons, I guess.

JFOK · Jul 23, 2019

Magic Static and pacificrim,

Thanks for responding.
Its been 20 years since I assembled a FTA dish and feel I'm a little rusty in the assembly department.
Will keep you all advised of my progress and any issues that may arise.

John

mememeth · Jul 23, 2019

hi john, i hope u made it thru that nasty tornado today on the cape, i had some larger tree limbs come down and they took 2 guy wires down off my tower in brewster, plus some smaller trees, tom

JFOK · Jul 24, 2019

Hi Tom,

Thanks for checking in.
We had 2 tornado warnings here on the Cape which is very unusual. One on Monday night and the other yesterday morning.
The first tornado was in the next town to us (Mashpee) and remained airborne. The second tornado actually touched down and skirted the south coast of the Cape, brushing by about a mile south of us with a brief heavy gust of wind that actually made a whistling noise in our house. In all the storms I've been through in this house in 20 years, I never heard that sound before.
I actually like this kind of weather as long as no one gets hurt, but it scares my wife, so I have to temper my excitement, for her sake.
Glad to read you made it through safely.

John

Cham · Jul 24, 2019

Nothing more fascinating (weather wise) than watching a tornado and experiencing "some" of the effects as long as one is safe! Have seen many here, including one about a half a mile from my home. That one was getting too close!

JFOK said:
like this kind of weather

JFOK · Jul 24, 2019

Cham,

I've always wanted to go on one of those tornado chases, but my wife said she'd be too afraid for me.
I don't think I could enjoy it knowing shes at home worrying.

John

rodrigocn · Jul 24, 2019

If I understood correctly, are you going to mix 2 different antennas?
Why don't you install the RadioShack with its original mount? I recently restored one and it is very good.
He is over 20 years old and still works very well.

JFOK · Jul 25, 2019

rodrigocn,

I saw your Radio Shack restoration and it was awesome to see the work you accomplished.
Unfortunately my RS mount wasn't stored well enough and suffered rust damage.
Since I'm not a welder, I decided to use the KTI mount which is in very good shape for its age...just some surface rust.
I will rust proof it once I get the old KTI dish off of it. In the meantime I've moved the RS mount to a better indoor location and someday I may try a restoration attempt on it if I'm not satisfied with the planned swap.

John

Cham · Jul 25, 2019

Sorry for the tangent.. but what I have done is bring the "better half" along on the chase.. that way I am a bit more careful too. She enjoys watching the clouds and I explain how the (storm) system is working which helps too. I don't really do much chasing it's more like "watching" and reporting really.
Talk to the local NWS people they often have chase schools coordinated with the local college/university etc maybe you can get in on.
Good luck with the dish!

JFOK said:
Cham,

I've always wanted to go on one of those tornado chases, but my wife said she'd be too afraid for me.
I don't think I could enjoy it knowing shes at home worrying.

John

JFOK · Jul 25, 2019

Cham,

She would never join me on a chase.
I'd have a better chance of having a pilot land a 747 in my backyard.

John

JFOK · Jul 29, 2019

Hi All,

I was looking over the instruction manual for assembling my Radio Shack dish.
I forgot that there were arms that attached to the RS mount "hub plate." The mesh panels then slipped into these arms and were then attached to the arms. I'm wondering if anyone who has a RS dish (hello Andy or rodricocn) could tell me whether I could assemble the dish without the "hub plate" arms by attaching the mesh panels to each other. Then just attach the completed dish to the four KTI mount tabs. The mesh itself is contained within an aluminum frame.
Thanks in advance for any replies.

John

. Raine · Jul 31, 2019

Hi John,

The mesh could be assembled without those arms and the hub plate but whether it would be strong enough without those arms to hold up to wind and snow, I don't know. Leaving out the plate I don't think would be a problem, but leaving out the arms might be. Do you have a picture of the mount you're going to use?

These are the arms on my dish, are yours the same?

Andy

JFOK · Aug 1, 2019

Hi Andy,

Thanks for responding.
I'm attaching several pictures of my KTI mount that I hope to be able to use for this conversion.
I was thinking I could attach the mesh to the tabs I circled in the first picture. There are 4 tabs with this mount.
I'm also wondering if I did use the arms, whether or not I could attach some of them them to the KTI hub I highlighted in the second picture.
Thanks for any input Andy. Others are also welcome to offer suggestions.

John

JFOK · Aug 3, 2019

Hi All,

Well...I have all the parts needed to assemble this dish, panels, arms, nuts and bolts.
I forgot how nice this dish is and its condition is VERY good. Its been in my garage for 20 years.
I will start this week assembling the RS dish and if all goes well, taking my KTI out of service after 20 years of faithful service.
If anyone has suggestions, feel free to send them my way. I'm apprehensive, but hopeful.

John

. Raine · Aug 4, 2019

Hey John,

I mounted my 12' conifer dish onto a mount that looks very similar to that one and it worked out good, but my conifer has square aluminum tubing framing each panel and I bolted to that tubing.

I think on your RS dish, I would try seeing if four of the arms would line up with the tabs on the mount and bolt to the arms rather than directly to the mesh, you may have to drill holes through the arms. I'd probably put on the other arms too after, even if they can't be connected to the mount, just to give it some strength.

The mesh on the RS dish is much heavier than other dishes I've seen but with a snow load on it in the winter and only four bolts points directly to the mesh, my feelings are that it could bend or tear.

Or, I'd cut the top plate off the RS mount and weld tabs on it to match up to the Kti mount, then just assemble the RS dish onto it, that would probably be best.

I've been cutting trees down here after work all week, otherwise I would've answered sooner. Darn trees are blocking my LOS from 113W on up and a bunch of Ieaners, dead ones and huge ones, nasty stuff!

Andy

JFOK · Aug 4, 2019

Andy,

Thanks for the response.
Great minds think alike as what you suggested, I was thinking of doing with the arms...drilling and attaching them to the four tabs.
Like you I thought I'd add the other arms just for strength, even if they can't be connected. After the dish is up I may have some ideas as to attaching the other arms.
I was thinking of ways to utilize the old RS mount, but I'm not a welder. I will keep that mount none the less.
My dish is somewhat protected from the wind where it is now. My only concern would be a heavy wet snow.
I'll be up your way next weekend. Getting together with some college friends at Lake Bungee. Haven't been there in MANY years.
Thanks for checking in. If you have any further thoughts on my project feel free to share. Be careful with the tree removal.

John

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