An idea for manufacturing 120 CM dishes

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rjc3895

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Sep 28, 2004
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After reading Iceberg's posts on assembling his 6ft C-band dish, I was wondering if a 120 CM dish could be manufactured in 3 or 4 sections and assembled by the user. This may cut down on the shipping costs. The shipping costs for the 120 CM dish is pretty high due to the size of the dish. The 180CM and 240 CM dishes come in sections which allows the dishes to be packaged in smaller boxes (at least it looks that way in the photos). I'm not sure if this would work, but I thought it could make for an interesting topic. Perhaps our friends at Sadoun can pass this idea on to Fortec.
 
You got it right on the expensive shipping because of size, so would the dish be 120 cm prime focus or offset, and could it be made of lightweight aluminum so it could be mounted on a motor, I like the idea....... this would really cut down shipping costs.
 
I like the idea as well and will pass it on to the mfgs.

Here is a comparison picture of the packages that the current dishes get shipped in:
 

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Sadoun said:
I like the idea as well and will pass it on to the mfgs.

Better still, get them to make a motorized alt/azimuth ( not polar ) dish aiming setup capable of handling that 2.4M ( or even 5M:devil: ) dishes.

With a V-Box like electronics package so it can handle either DiSEQc or the 36 volt stuff, that would be very slick. Simply tell it where due south is and you want the clark belt and bingo, anything the STB asks for gets converted into x/y coords for the dish motors.

Can you imagine a dish mount that can scan most of the sky, let alone the clarke belt:hungry: ? No satellite would escape our curiousity :D .
 
Motozied alt/azi?? Did you mean dual axis? The product is already exist commercially. Problem is how much are you willing to pay. It will cost you more than the cost of the dish.
Bigger problem is none of the consumer controllers/receivers support dual axis.
Manufacture will not gonna make something that is uniqe, not supported by current hardware on the market.
FTARock,



Cold Winter said:
Better still, get them to make a motorized alt/azimuth ( not polar ) dish aiming setup capable of handling that 2.4M ( or even 5M:devil: ) dishes.

With a V-Box like electronics package so it can handle either DiSEQc or the 36 volt stuff, that would be very slick. Simply tell it where due south is and you want the clark belt and bingo, anything the STB asks for gets converted into x/y coords for the dish motors.

Can you imagine a dish mount that can scan most of the sky, let alone the clarke belt:hungry: ? No satellite would escape our curiousity :D .
 
One problem I see with the idea of making small dishes (like 120cm) in sections is surface accuracy. If the sections don't mate up together precisely as they should it could seriously impact performance. I'm not saying it wouldn't be possible to make a small dish that goes together in sections and has a high degree of surface accuracy but it might be costlier to do so and this might somewhat offset any savings on shipping.
 
I have seen an offset dish made of two sections. It does make it more manageble for shipping. Manufacturing quality and accuracy are important when it comes with two or more sections. Two or more stamping dies are involved. In addition it costs more to produce.
 
ftarock said:
Motozied alt/azi?? Did you mean dual axis? The product is already exist commercially. Problem is how much are you willing to pay. It will cost you more than the cost of the dish.
Bigger problem is none of the consumer controllers/receivers support dual axis.
Manufacture will not gonna make something that is uniqe, not supported by current hardware on the market.
FTARock,

I paid $90 for my new Fortec1.2 dish ... and $180 for my STAB120, so thats no surprise.

What alt/azi unit are you talking about??? I'm assuming its not the 1224EL unit which is polar , hats not a true full sky tracking unit.
 
Sadoun said:
Do we really need one in the USA? except for one satellite off by a fraction of a degree I beleive, all are on the Clarke belt.

You bad:devil: people have got me hooked on satellite. So now I'm thinking of branching out into real BUDs and total sky DXing:hungry: . Shame on you:D ! Do you have any idea the cross looks I'm getting around the house these days:eek: :D :D
 
No, I am not talking about the 1224EL carried by dealer in UK. The purpose of dual axis is or inclined sat. How many of them in the US.
what do you mean by "true sky tracking"? Are you looking for something that you can move the dish elevation and azimuth indepently any degree you want?
Cold Winter said:
I paid $90 for my new Fortec1.2 dish ... and $180 for my STAB120, so thats no surprise.

What alt/azi unit are you talking about??? I'm assuming its not the 1224EL unit which is polar , hats not a true full sky tracking unit.
 
Cold Winter said:
You bad:devil: people have got me hooked on satellite. So now I'm thinking of branching out into real BUDs and total sky DXing:hungry: . Shame on you:D ! Do you have any idea the cross looks I'm getting around the house these days:eek: :D :D
You're hooked :D I hope you don't have a HOA (homeowners association, aka busybodies who have nothing better to do with their time than to try to control what you have in your yard or on your house) in your neighborhood...

Girlfriends/wives can also be an obstacle.
 
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