Dish 500 linear mod for 103 - How do y'all like today's handwork?

[olliec420]

The old Dish 500 has been on the house for a lot of years with no action, pulled it down and decided I want it to earn its keep today. Did some rough measurements and estimates and got it hooked up. Not too bad if you ask me! I need to go to the store and get a proper nut and bolt for it. I'll do that tomorrow.

 

[olliec420]

While posting this I saw a link to Iceberg's post where he added a linear LNB to a 500 in the 00s... I noticed he is skewing the dishing instead of the LNB as I did. I wonder if that would bring a stronger signal?

 

[comfortably_numb]

I can't believe you're able to tune anything with that dish, as it's undersized for 99% of Ku content-

 

[olliec420]

I can't believe you're able to tune anything with that dish, as it's undersized for 99% of Ku content-

There are a lot of posts here about the mod but many of them very old. Only strong TPs of course but it works!

 

[ancient]

Unfortunately the problem with mounting anything on wood, especially unfinished wood, is that it can warp. If you are lucky it will never warp enough to cause a problem. If you are unlucky you'll need to re-aim the dish a couple of times a year or more to compensate for the warping. This is the sad voice of experience talking (never mout a dish on a 4x4 pole, even if it is treated lumber!).

 

[olliec420]

Unfortunately the problem with mounting anything on wood, especially unfinished wood, is that it can warp. If you are lucky it will never warp enough to cause a problem. If you are unlucky you'll need to re-aim the dish a couple of times a year or more to compensate for the warping. This is the sad voice of experience talking (never mout a dish on a 4x4 pole, even if it is treated lumber!).

On no, this is just a staging area for the mod and testing. It's mount arm is still up on the house. Im going to put it back up there when I get it the way I want it. Im no fan of ladders so it has to come down for me to work on it.

 

[olliec420]

A little update... I came home tonight and we had light rain, real light rain but still rain. I said let me see what the signal is. I bet the rain destroys it...

Not too shabby. I dont think it would take much more to degrade though.