Advice Please on Removing and Operating Without Feed-horn Cover

[Achebee]

My 12 ft. dish has a plastic base that the big "thimble" shaped feed-horn cover attaches to.
Then the scaler assembly is screwed onto that. The support arms for the assembly are attached to the plastic base for the cover, and I am finding it is a POS and I can not keep the signal centered..I have a laser centering device and the plastic base is just not the right setup to keep that signal centered right.
I would imagine that it should be OK to just eliminate that feed-horn cover assembly all together and support the scaler directly to the supports...Is that a good idea??? I took the feed-horn cover off a Hughes Internet feed-horn assembly and ran 7 years with-out it and never had any problems..Is it OK to have my dual orthomode feed-horn and high-end LNB's (all 4 PLL) exposed to the elements ??
I also heard that by removing the hard plastic cap on the front end of the feed-horn and replacing it with a Styrofoam coffee cup bottom (cut to fit) will give you a couple more db's.. can anyone verify that???
I'm in the jungle, no snow and ice, but lots of rain, and I am hoping I can just eliminate that big ugly cover, and get things centered up properly.I would appreciate any advice or ideas anyone may have, thanks, HB

 

[TMair]

I like having the cover on, mostly because I like the way it looks, I know a lot of people don't, I had to take mine off though because I got a new C band LNB, and it is to big for the cover, I can't use an elbow on it because I loose just enough that I can't lock on W-3 with the elbow, anyway like I said I know a lot of people who don't use the covers, I live in Ut. so plenty of snow, and rain.
On my set up the four poles that hold the feed horn are bolted to the scaler rings along with the plastic base for the cover, I can't imagine that it would ever hold bolted just to the plastic base.
As for the cover on the bottom of the feed horn I have no idea but I would like to know, if that where possible to get more signal by using a styrofoam cover I could use the elbow and put the cover back on.
Terry

 

[rodder]

i do not use a cover and never had a problem.

 

[eurosport]

One of each...

My 7.5 footer has a cover on it, over a Geosat Pro C-2, and my 10 footer has no cover over it's Geosat Pro CK-1, and no problems with either one. If you go "naked"... ...just make sure your connectors are sealed up real good.

 

[B.J.]

I generally have the cover on in the winter, hoping that it will keep the temperature more constant. In the summer though, I generally try to keep the covers off to prevent wasps from building nests in there. I hate it when I'm up on the top "this is not a step" step of a ladder, and find a nest of wasps under the cover.
Anyway, as long as you wrap the coax connections with tar gunk or something, the weather won't hurt them.

 

[Achebee]

OK got it, and thanks

Thanks for all the replies, and I am going to run naked and seal up all connectors..I know this way I can keep everything aligned properly with a lot less hassle.
Best of luck to all, HB

 

[LocutusOfBorg]

My 12 ft. dish has a plastic base that the big "thimble" shaped feed-horn cover attaches to.
Then the scaler assembly is screwed onto that. The support arms for the assembly are attached to the plastic base for the cover, and I am finding it is a POS and I can not keep the signal centered..I have a laser centering device and the plastic base is just not the right setup to keep that signal centered right.
I would imagine that it should be OK to just eliminate that feed-horn cover assembly all together and support the scaler directly to the supports...Is that a good idea??? I took the feed-horn cover off a Hughes Internet feed-horn assembly and ran 7 years with-out it and never had any problems..Is it OK to have my dual orthomode feed-horn and high-end LNB's (all 4 PLL) exposed to the elements ??
I also heard that by removing the hard plastic cap on the front end of the feed-horn and replacing it with a Styrofoam coffee cup bottom (cut to fit) will give you a couple more db's.. can anyone verify that???
I'm in the jungle, no snow and ice, but lots of rain, and I am hoping I can just eliminate that big ugly cover, and get things centered up properly.I would appreciate any advice or ideas anyone may have, thanks, HB

Some say the feed cover helps keep the elements (sun, rain, etc) from overheating the LNB or corroding the connections. But, I've never had a problem leaving the cover off but having the cover on does give the dish a nicer appearance.