All about Birdview and Dish Hunting

[linuxman]

To be sure, I am going to install it. I don't believe that anything meaningful is hurt and that it will perform as expected. That's probably what happened to this one. Might have been bumped while mowing or a kid ran into it while running in the yard. Who knows.

These feed supports are definitely welded into place on the back side. They were either shipped like that or put on at the dealer.

Thanks for your help.

Fred

 

[gabshere]

fred
i think your going to like this one it looks great....nice photos
i couldn't see anything that would hamper reception

 

[linuxman]

Hey George,

I think I am too. Can't wait to get it up and going. Supposed to rain here all week, but that will give me time to get the mast welded up for the mount, and round up everything I will need.

I got three major projects going at the same time. It is keeping me awake nights.

How's your BUD coming? Did you get the sleeve welded on yet?

Fred

 

[gabshere]

no my welder just got to town and i have to talk to him and report for jury duty tomorrow so i don't know about time off yet

 

[linuxman]

Well, you'll get it done. I have faith in you.

 

[WyrTwister]

Well, you'll get it done. I have faith in you.

I think your Birdview kas a Feedhorn with a H and a V feed . Your receiver may be OK with this .

Your receiver may not be able to deal with the electrical sensor that keeps track of the position of the dish .

You will most likely have to do some field engineereing to use it for Ku .

A lot of these issues are different on a Birdview , as comparred to " generic " dishes .

wyr

 

[linuxman]

Hey Wyr,

You are correct. It does have an H and V feed. I am planning on pulling that out and slipping a Co-Roter II into the hole. I will also buy the conversion kit to allow my receiver to move the existing motor and dish.

It will still take a little engineering, but it will be worth it.

 

[linuxman]

If anyone has a picture of the reed conversion kit even if it is just a diagram of how it goes on the unit, please post.

Thanks, Fred

 

[linuxman]

Ordered the reed conversion kit from Skyvision today. They said it would go out today, and should be here by the end of the week.

Got a 5-1/2 OD schedule 40 pipe, going to be picked up by the welder and the flanges welded on to be used with my mount.

Started to haul concrete blocks from Lowe's at 25 per trip. Am getting 36 per mount. Each leg of the mount holds 12 blocks. That's approx. 480 lbs per side on each mount for a total of 1440 lbs of ballast for each mount.

There's a new scrap and recycling place here in town and I met the owner today looking for a pipe. He's going to run his giant fork lift with arms that can be extended to 30' down on Saturday. I will have the blocks on pallets, the Birdview on a pallet, and he will lift it all up on the roof for me, along with anything else that I have to lift up at the same time.

The center mast is supposed to be done by Friday, so I'll be ready to start setting up. Can't hardly wait!!!

 

[lumpkin666]

I sure hope that's a nice solid roof!

 

[linuxman]

The roof is very solid!

It was constructed in 1956 by a local construction who believed that the job should be done like they were building it for themselves.

The walls on two sides are standard concrete block with brick on the outside yielding a 12" thick wall with re-enforcement rods and wire. The other two walls are 12" thick concrete blocks with the same re-enforcement.

The roof is 18" tall steel girders with a steel I beam down the middle with supporting legs every 20 feet. On top of the steel girders is 1/4" thick corrugated steel with a 2" layer of "light" concrete with roofing on top of that.

The welder said I could do just about anything I wanted on the roof including building another house and it would not phase it.

It has a 5500 sq ft concrete floor with that doesn't have a crack in it anywhere.

When we redid the interior, the plumber said it was the hardest concrete he ever had to jack-hammer through to lay a few feet of new plumbing.

 

[linuxman]

Do you think I should paint the Birdview flat black?

I've got to clean the penetrating oil off that I sprayed through it to make the bolts come out without breaking off. Of course if I did paint it, I would mask off the logo.

So should I paint it or just clean it and leave the color it's natural charcoal gray?

 

[linuxman]

Just an update.

Got my reed switch conversion kit in. Cleaned all the old grease off the ring gear and pinion. Re-greased everything with new grease. Pulled the motor off, and installed the kit. It was pretty straight forward by following the instructions. Took the old Drake out there and ran it back and forth from East to West extremes and all worked very well.

I noticed the motor was made by Von Weise. I could probably get another if it ever goes bad. At the very least send it in and get it rebuilt. Von Weise is located less than a hundred miles from me in St. Clair, MO.

The welder brought by my modified 5-5/8" schedule 40 mast. It cost $20.00 for the pipe. I already have it on the roof and the mount semi put together.

I decided not to paint the Birdview. I hit it with Krud Kutter when I first got it home. That stuff does a good job, but leaves a little residue behind. I got out there today with some Dawn dish washing liquid in some hot water and a long handle scrub brush, and now it is a very dark charcoal gray. If I can find a can that will match the paint, there are a couple of small patches to touch up where the paint has come off.

I've read where Iceberg said that he rarely washes pots and pans, but gets out there and scrubs his dishes. I am the same way. Haven't washed household dishes in ages, but I was out there scrubbing away on that Birdview.

I still have a lot of work to do, but it is starting to come together.

 

[gabshere]

glad that you still get to work on it.... the days have been great for it.... i'm working nights all week would love to get at it for a bit will be nice to see some pic of that Birdview when you get it set up on that roof .... and to hear what kinda signals it will draw in

 

[linuxman]

The weather has been cooperating pretty well. The forecast has been for rain every day this week, but have only seen a little on Monday morning. Still forecasting rain until Sunday, but hopefully I will get some more work done on it.

I hope to have it functional by Saturday afternoon or Sunday. Then I can start peaking it in.

I will have pictures when it is all setup and SQ readings when peaked in.

 

[caddata]

linuxman:

There was an earlier thread on peaking the Birdview for declination that might be helpful.

If you didn't find any extra flatwashers between the dish mounting surface and the HH mount, the dish hasn't been peaked for declination. The HH mount has some declination built into it. When I installed my old Birdview I discovered that it hadn't been peaked for declination (there were no washers used as spacers). The dish had been used for only C band reception before I got it, so the owners probably didn't notice any difference. However, when I got the Ku working, I quickly discovered it needed to be peaked.

My old Birdview required eight flatwashers at the top of the mount to peak it in South Arkansas (at the Louisiana border) so your location North or South of that would be proportional. The number of washers then varied until there were none at the bottom.

Good luck on your installation.

Harold

 

[linuxman]

Hey Harold,

I read that thread, and mine had no washers installed on it, so I am pretty sure it was used only for C-Band.

I am going to buy new bolts for fastening the dish onto the mount and will get longer ones for the top and buy additional flat washers. Following the thread you mentioned, I checked the declination for Little Rock which is 4.93, the declination for Wichita which is 5.3 and the declination here, which is 5.44 and am planning to adjust accordingly. There isn't a lot of difference between Wichita and here, so hopefully I won't have to put in too many washers.

Thanks for the reply,

Fred

 

[caddata]

linuxman:

It's just a theory, but I think that peaking for declination helps correct for any warpage of the reflective surface. Deviations from a perfect parabolic curve are a fact of life for any dish. Manufacturing tolerances, mechanical damage (dropping), wind loading, and temperature variatons all affect the reflective surface accuracy. Any variation in the reflective surface changes the focal point and lowers the efficiency of the dish.

If my theory is true, I think peaking the declination will correct the problem you noticed when your string inspection showed a gap between strings.

Just a thought I wanted to discuss.

Harold

 

[linuxman]

Hey again Harold,

I think your theory is correct to the point where warpage is beyond what can be adjusted out. Along those lines of thinking, the adjustment of the focal distance may also help in tuning with imperfections. Perhaps that is why moving the feedhorn in or out has such an effect on some dishes. If it didn't have such an effect, one could just measure and be done with that part.

I think there are many variables at play when fine-tuning a dish. That's what part of the fun is. Making your dish yours.

Fred

 

[linuxman]

Just another update as I am about to fall asleep.

The welder came by this morning about 7:30. We had a couple of things to tack together around the house and he wanted to come early.

I got the guy from the local scrap yard to bring his monster lift down and set the dish which I had placed on a pallet, the mount on a pallet, and 3 pallets of concrete blocks on the edge of the roof. He saved us a ton of work. Can you imagine taking 72 concrete blocks up two ladders. Whew!!

I don't even want to think about the mount. That thing is heavy!!!

My son and I started working on the mast to get it all plumbed up. Once I had it laid out like I wanted, we put 36 blocks on the out-riggers to hold everything in place.

Got the wife, my oldest daughter and my son to help me put the mount on the mast. That thing is really heavy!!!

Tightened the mount down, and while they were still up there, we put the dish on the mount. Got everything secured temporarily. Adjustments will have to be made I'm sure.

Ran into the same problem that George had even though there is only 3/16" on each side between the pipe and the cap. I decided to try and cure it by adding another row of bolts near the top of the cap. Had to drop everything, run to Lowe's, buy a bit and tap for 1/2" holes. Got back and realized that I would need to run the dish to center in order to drill all the holes.

Stepped back and thought, I might as well put on the co-rotor and lnbs first so I could start peaking once I was in the center. The dish is currently all the way West. It was easier to put on that way.

Contrary to what has been said, my Co-Rotor would not slide into the scaler ring on this dish. Pulled the scaler ring off, and took it to a buddy's house who runs a machine shop about 5 miles away. He milled .030" out all the way around. He is a great guy, but so picky. He wasn't content until the clearance was down to about 2 thousands of an inch. Then he polished it and the co-rotor. Drilled and tapped two holes for set screws in the scaler ring for me. He said this way it wouldn't cock and always be straight. Took an hour and a half for his pains-taking work.

By the time I got back there was only about an hour left of daylight, so I hung it up for the night, took a shower and am headed to bed.

More tomorrow.