Command Performance H to H

[stecle]

I was finally able to obtain this mount, that I have been negotiating with the owner for months now. It was on a bar, and the owner thought his dishes were still worth the thousands he paid for them back in the 80's lol.

This is the biggest, heavy-duty, H to H mount that I have ever seen. The housing is solid cast and 2 of us struggled to lift it off the pipe. When I get time I am going to take it apart and get everything moving freely before putting any power to it. Probably hasn't been used in 25 years.

 

[primestar31]

I was finally able to obtain this mount, that I have been negotiating with the owner for months now. It was on a bar, and the owner thought his dishes were still worth the thousands he paid for them back in the 80's lol.

This is the biggest, heavy-duty, H to H mount that I have ever seen. The housing is solid cast and 2 of us struggled to lift it off the pipe. When I get time I am going to take it apart and get everything moving freely before putting any power to it. Probably hasn't been used in 25 years.

If it's cast as you say, be careful because that means it can shatter.

 

[stecle]

If it's cast as you say, be careful because that means it can shatter.

My brother, who has experience with metal and welding, thinks it is cast. Of course he could be wrong. lol

 

[primestar31]

My brother, who has experience with metal and welding, thinks it is cast. Of course he could be wrong. lol

It very well could be. I have an old Ajak HH drive that's cast. Came from a person that used it on an old Winegard dish. I planned to use it, but never got around to it. Maybe I'll put it up for sale sometime, but it's so freaking heavy, it would cost a fortune to ship.

 

[armadillo_115]

I wonder if that requires a special type of control box to operate? Professional model rather than hobbiest?
Looks like it will handle about anything mounted to it.

 

[armadillo_115]

There's an older post that seems to be a dish made by the same company. MZT (Yugoslavia) Mount looks similar except not H2H.

UNITRAC U90 Dish

So the dishes I rescued yesterday have made in Yugoslavia stamped in the mount and coverplate! They are 10 feet perforated aluminum beauties :) Good for ku with the small perforations. a 5" mount pipe and the mount is easliy adaptable to put the actuator on the other side for my eastern arc dish.

www.satelliteguys.us

 

[waylew]

Definitely a casting.

 

[stecle]

There's an older post that seems to be a dish made by the same company. MZT (Yugoslavia) Mount looks similar except not H2H.

UNITRAC U90 Dish

So the dishes I rescued yesterday have made in Yugoslavia stamped in the mount and coverplate! They are 10 feet perforated aluminum beauties :) Good for ku with the small perforations. a 5" mount pipe and the mount is easliy adaptable to put the actuator on the other side for my eastern arc dish.

www.satelliteguys.us

Thanks for the info! The dish in the older post is the same as the one I took down. Unfortunately most of the panels were destroyed.

The dish was a real pain to take apart. They used round stove bolts with a slot head. Why??? lol Of course they were all rusted so I basically had to use 2 vice grips and break many off these off.

The H to H mount I have was also made in Yugoslavia. I will take a few more pictures and post them.

 

[stecle]

Some more pictures.

 

[mikekohl]

I remember seeing this antenna and HH mount at a satellite trade show in the early 90s. Obviously the manufacturer became a casualty of the war in Yugoslavia, and likely went out of business. The solid reflector had some of the most robust and accurate forming that I ever saw in my life. Motor drive looked very heavy duty, although the manufacturing design of the sensor assembly was unlike anything sold in the North American market. If you can identify specific components, perhaps Digi-Key in Minnesota might have a proper replacement part. Good luck! Added note: the distributor for antenna and motor was located somewhere in southern Ontario, but I do not recall their name.

 

[arlo]

What a honker! If the gear train and motor can be torn down and refurbed. That's most of the battle.
What voltage is the motor designed for?
There are 2 high current limit switch diodes. Probably good.
Limit switches are cherry microswitch style off-the-shelvers.
The encoder is no issue at all. All of the electronics on the board could be bypassed and modernized with a simple u-shaped optical sensor or hall sensor. The encoder wheel could be used as is or a new disc made with 2mm neodymium disc magnets pressed and glued in evenly spaced holes. Or a series of holes drilled around the circumference and painted black for the optical sensor. Both sensors requiring ~ +5 VDC, ground, with sensor output emulating dry contacts. Usable with most any actuator controller.
I'd do it!

 

[stecle]

I remember seeing this antenna and HH mount at a satellite trade show in the early 90s. Obviously the manufacturer became a casualty of the war in Yugoslavia, and likely went out of business. The solid reflector had some of the most robust and accurate forming that I ever saw in my life. Motor drive looked very heavy duty, although the manufacturing design of the sensor assembly was unlike anything sold in the North American market. If you can identify specific components, perhaps Digi-Key in Minnesota might have a proper replacement part. Good luck! Added note: the distributor for antenna and motor was located somewhere in southern Ontario, but I do not recall their name.

The distributor in southern Ontario you might be thinking of was Tee-Com. They were the largest distributor in Canada, but I don't think they carried these. They sold a mesh dish called the Alpha 10 which was very well made with a big 36" ring. They looked a lot like the Cabot and perhaps were manufactured at that plant.

I vaguely remember the Command Performance dishes in the catalogue of a distributor called C.L. Blue which were based in Western Canada. I am guessing that is probably where this mount came from. Of course that was over 30 years ago so I might be mistaken.

 

[mikekohl]

The distributor in southern Ontario you might be thinking of was Tee-Com. They were the largest distributor in Canada, but I don't think they carried these. They sold a mesh dish called the Alpha 10 which was very well made with a big 36" ring. They looked a lot like the Cabot and perhaps were manufactured at that plant.

I vaguely remember the Command Performance dishes in the catalogue of a distributor called C.L. Blue which were based in Western Canada. I am guessing that is probably where this mount came from. Of course that was over 30 years ago so I might be mistaken.

I grabbed a floor model of an Alpha 10 at a trade show in Las Vegas. It was actually a private label version made for Tee Comm by SAMI / Superior Antenna in Arkansas, back in 1990.
Tee Comm was also one of the backers of the original Alphastar Ku-band system.

 

[stecle]

What a honker! If the gear train and motor can be torn down and refurbed. That's most of the battle.
What voltage is the motor designed for?
There are 2 high current limit switch diodes. Probably good.
Limit switches are cherry microswitch style off-the-shelvers.
The encoder is no issue at all. All of the electronics on the board could be bypassed and modernized with a simple u-shaped optical sensor or hall sensor. The encoder wheel could be used as is or a new disc made with 2mm neodymium disc magnets pressed and glued in evenly spaced holes. Or a series of holes drilled around the circumference and painted black for the optical sensor. Both sensors requiring ~ +5 VDC, ground, with sensor output emulating dry contacts. Usable with most any actuator controller.
I'd do it!

I am guessing that it is 36V. I am not going to power it up until I disengage the motor from the drive assembly and verify that it will turn freely. I am hoping that a simple cleaning/degreasing will be all that is needed without having to change any parts.

 

[Houston Rockets]

Update us on how the project is coming around...

 

[stecle]

Update us on how the project is coming around...

Unfortunately I haven't had time to do anything with the mount. I am also embarrassed to say that I have 2 other H to H mounts that I need to rebuild. I am currently working on a project with my 2.4M offset prodelin that I will post on the forum soon.

Being a self employed business owner doesn't leave much time for hobbies. I promised my GF a road trip to Alaska this summer, but the business won again.

 

[Houston Rockets]

Unfortunately I haven't had time to do anything with the mount. I am also embarrassed to say that I have 2 other H to H mounts that I need to rebuild. I am currently working on a project with my 2.4M offset prodelin that I will post on the forum soon.

Being a self employed business owner doesn't leave much time for hobbies. I promised my GF a road trip to Alaska this summer, but the business won again.

ok I understand and know the feeling, I am looking for a H to H motor myself let me know when you get the time to finish it..

 

[stecle]

I can't believe it, but I actually found another one of these Command Performance H to H motors. This one was being used to move a 12 foot Paraclipse. I found it in the same town where I got the first one. Perhaps a local dealer promoted these and there might be more. In both cases the dishes had Chaparral Corotors installed so they were probably looking for Ku accuracy over a actuator.

 

[stecle]

The tear down and rebuild begins.

 

[Satfaca]

Congrats to your acquisition. This is one of the strongest if not the most powerfull H2H motors ever produced.
The motor is well known to the european satellite DX community thanks to DX Bozoth who's fitted his 3.7m one-piece Andrew giant on it. As far as I know it is still in operation even after almost 30 years.



I have up until recently used it to carry my 3.4m Prodelin which weighs some 350 lbs (160kg). Besides all the motor is so quiet one could literally sleep under it.



Note that the motor operates with 24V.

Here are some videos of the original MZT motor and antenna in action.

View: https://youtu.be/UhXXcMaLBEg


View: https://youtu.be/TMMLqoIFE_U


View: https://youtu.be/qVOJzbZtxLI


View: https://youtu.be/7r15Af8VFag?t=118

View: https://youtu.be/7r15Af8VFag