9 FT Steel Dish Project

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Your almost there. Looking good so far.
 
Looking great!

Are you stretching strings edge to edge to assure correct parabola is shaped while attaching the panels?
 
I should check that.
We did assemble all the panels loosely, then drew down in a sequence from a Scientific Atlanta dish manual. (no documentation on this Wilson dish)
 
you will, of course, be printing a book entitled " Cool Satellite Mods and Projects" (WITH BIG PICS)
For the rest of us to follow?
I enjoy reading your projects.
cool stuff
 
LOOKING GOOD!!!!!! Is it going to fixed or motorized? If fixed what sat are you going to point it at?
What lake is he located on? Boy, am I sound nosing or what? Are you going to have to do some tree branch trimming,
if motorized?

AL
 
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It's on Silver Lake just South of Traverse City. Will be motorized and have to trim out the scrub brush in front of it. We can see from 15w to about 113w where it hits the tree line on the West side of the lake.
 
It's on Silver Lake just South of Traverse City. Will be motorized and have to trim out the scrub brush in front of it. We can see from 15w to about 113w where it hits the tree line on the West side of the lake.
Oh that is a bummer. It looked like he was going to have a clear view of almost everything.

RT.
 
GOT SIGNAL!

Today we installed the actuator arm and lnb. Panned around just a little and there we were with the first signal, ETWN on 91w. LNB is a Gospell GKC-D001 C/Ku combo. We had a long hot day, so we didn't play much after scanning one sat. Next session we will have to walk the arc in and optimize the lnb position.


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The TV is an old analog that doesn't photograph well. Picture and signal is actually quite good.
 
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How could life great any better a 9 foot c-band dish at a lake house.
 
How could life great any better a 9 foot c-band dish at a lake house.

You got that right, will be great if I can get the alignment working. I've put several dishes on the arc successfully, but this one is tough for some reason. Spent about two hours Sunday messing with all the adjustments, could only find 99w which is very strong in Michigan. This installation is 45 minutes from my house , then a long walk from your car to lakeside. Hauling equipment up and down plus the long drive makes progress slow. Next session I'll have to reset everything and start over.
 
The old Wilson is working once again! Gave me countless hours back in the 80's+. It did pick up less than 61 and more than 135 back then, so it will work once the adjustments are purrrrrfect. Can't get that far today. The trees have had time to grow.
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It takes that long to get to his house cuz you have to drive slow on Holiday road. Good to see on TV that it will be redone next year. That is one BAD road. (really the crazy TC traffic):eek:
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Keep up the good work.

Meow
 
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It takes that long to get to his house cuz you have to drive slow on Holiday road. Good to see on TV that it will be redone next year. That is one BAD road. (really the crazy TC traffic):eek:


yea we have been after the County to fix it up. Guess it is just not bad enough yet.

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Dish Project Update:

After having this up for a year now and playing with it from time to time, it never worked that well. Might be out of parabolic shape. HOWEVER all is not lost. My Father-in law kind of lost interest and subbed a pizza dish, but needed internet access. I built a WiFi can-tenna out of a 3" copper pipe and copper end cap.
It fits well into the muffler clamp Wilson had used to hold the LNBF. The dish has plenty of gain at 2.4ghz WiFi freq. and is pulling in a an open AP from a resort that is across the lake.

I have a router with DD-WRT firmware installed. This is mounted on the back of the dish in a waterproof case. With it set to the bridge mode, it is essentially reversed by taking a RF signal and sending it through Cat 5 cable as a network signal back to a router in the house where it is distributed both wired and wireless through out.

The polar axis is set to the far East at near 0 elevation, and azimuth is rotated by the post collar. So here is the old Wilson serving up free internet access!
 
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Nice.. like the color :thumbup:

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Outstanding !
I like everything about it.
Deserves a thread of its own.

The short coax cable to the router is something most people just don't appreciate.
How you got power (over Ethernet?) to the router and waterproofed it would be educational, as well.

If nothing else, at least shoot a few more pictures and post 'em. :up
 
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