C BAND DISH ACTUATOR
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A 24 inch should be sufficient that's what I use and it covers the arc. I strongly recommend you purchase a heavy duty actuator. Sadoun sells them for around 125.00. they also sell the lighter ones with a 1 inch drive arm. Stay away from these. They will work for a while but they won't stand up over time not on a 10 foot dish.
i have the 36" heavy duty actuator from sadoun. one thing about this actuator is that it came without the pin connecting the motor to the arm and i fabricated a pin from a twenty penny nail. however, i think it is missing or changing counts from the reed switch. i just changed from my original actuator cable to a seven line wire from the big hardware store designed for sprinkler systems. it is 18ga and 100' long. is this adequate wiring for the actuator? charlie
You will have to try it. I used 14 guage speaker wire and I'me 150 feet. I wouldn't normally go less than 16 guage but try it, you will know soon enough if the actuator doesn't move or moves very slooooowly. 18 is good for the reed, I'me using bell telephone wire which is 22 guage.
One other note, if you find that a single run of 18 guage is to light then try paralleling 2 runs together.
My 10 ft Winegard mesh dish has a 24" stroke VonWeis mover w/Vbox X controller and I'm looking at 137w back to 37w before I run into a mechanical bind and I'm only about 18" out at that point. I could rework the mounts and get more out of it but I've got trees that will block anything beyond 37w so there's no point in doing anything else with it. I've seen some of these size dishes with 24" Super Jacks on them too but not sure they're still available.
Hi lone gunman, could you show a pic of your c band dish installation? You say that you can get from 137° to 37° I wonder how you can do it. Because a while ago I tried to do it but my dish tipped over so I had to lift my dish by grabbing it and since that time I"m afraid to do it again.
Thanks a lot and sorry about my bad english.
Thanks a lot and sorry about my bad english.
I just installed a 24" Venture Ball Screw for my 10' BUD - so far, so good.
Before losing LOS, I could go 43 to 139.
Keep in mind that a Polar Mount is not a Horizon To Horizon Mount
Before losing LOS, I could go 43 to 139.
Keep in mind that a Polar Mount is not a Horizon To Horizon Mount
You may find it advantageous to put the actuator on the opposite (East) side of the dish. I did and can now go to 53W.(end of usable pivot in the mount) With my actuator on the west side, 72W was the limit, any further and it would flop. It still gets to 139W on the west side with no worry of flopping.
I am using a 6 wire 16 ga shielded cable that I had laying in my building and I have a run of about about 80ft for my 10 ft dish. So far no problems. That leaves me 2 extra wires if needed
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depends where you live, you always want the side that will scan the lowest arc to be on the push side. ie my setup
I live at 113deg, so in theory I can scan from 45deg to 139deg. so thats 113-45 = 68deg east of me and 139-113 = 26 west of me. So I have the actuator mounted on the east side of the dish so when the dish is at its lowest point possible it will be pushing it, its when the dish flops past your true south that things can get hairy. mine only has to go 26deg past true south so it never approaches that point of no return where it flops so bad it gets kinda hungup.
maybe your at that kinda odd place in NA where you have a perfectly even east/west visibility so then you might have to pick and decide how bad it is and maybe just leave some satellites out of the big plan.
UDL
I live at 113deg, so in theory I can scan from 45deg to 139deg. so thats 113-45 = 68deg east of me and 139-113 = 26 west of me. So I have the actuator mounted on the east side of the dish so when the dish is at its lowest point possible it will be pushing it, its when the dish flops past your true south that things can get hairy. mine only has to go 26deg past true south so it never approaches that point of no return where it flops so bad it gets kinda hungup.
maybe your at that kinda odd place in NA where you have a perfectly even east/west visibility so then you might have to pick and decide how bad it is and maybe just leave some satellites out of the big plan.
UDL
I'm at 97W, so I flipped a coin to figure out which way to install the actuator. Ended up installing it on the east side so it has to pull the dish up from the east when moving from the Atlantic sats to the NA and west portion of the Clarke belt. Might have been better to have it on the other side but wouldn't really make much difference I suppose.
I use a Von Wiess actuator that I fixed up a bit from when I got it with the dish about 5 years ago. No idea how old it was when I started using it but the only issue I have had with it was lightning taking out the mercury switch. Was an easy fix. I would purchase the heaviest duty positioner I could afford if I was to replace it, the Venture ball screw type is appealing.
I use a Von Wiess actuator that I fixed up a bit from when I got it with the dish about 5 years ago. No idea how old it was when I started using it but the only issue I have had with it was lightning taking out the mercury switch. Was an easy fix. I would purchase the heaviest duty positioner I could afford if I was to replace it, the Venture ball screw type is appealing.
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