Dish ID Help Needed

[fred555]

No fancy machinery available to borrow at this time,
I will just have to dig the hole the old fashioned way.

At the end of the scale on the diggers, 34'', still have a ways to go:


Now its getting close, I am at the end of the digger, 44'' time to stop:

For an 18'' frost line I think I'm good.

 

[phlatwound]

You will be fine with a hole that deep. Just be sure and put some kind of tab on your pole a foot or 2 off the bottom, so it can't rotate in the wind.

 

[fred555]

I'm pretty sore after digging that deep hole then mixing by hand 15 bags of concrete.




Metal straps were used to keep the rebar cage steady in the x - y axis during the pour.
I can't wait to remove the form in a few days.

Just a reminder of what the rebar cage looked like.


I can say for a fact that I will never have an issue keeping a plumb pole.

 

[fred555]

Took the form off and did a little backfill.
Those 3/4 bolts look small in this picture,
so does the 1 inch ID conduit.


To recap : Half ton of concrete almost 4 feet deep with reinforcement cage and leveling adjustment.

 

[fred555]

Getting it together today.

This 10 footer is a monster, I could not imagine having a 12 footer.

I can't seem to get the actuator bracket around the actuator.
I just drilled two holes in each end of a piece of angle iron for now and put that in place of the actuator. Just finished tuning it. I split the difference and have it set to get 99 and 101W at the same time for now, lots of good stuff there. The Q is great! Quite a step up from a 6 footer.

The dish panels are brand new out of the box (a 1994 Winegard Quadstar model) and free. I repainted the LNB support arms and touched up the polar mount I got from a member here (Thanks Capned! I hope your dog is doing well). Of course the pole assembly is newly fabricated and I did supplement the fabricator's paint job with a few more coats of black rustoleum (suggested by danristheman). A new Titanium C2WPLL (won it in the Christmas contest, Thanks again Brian!) and new KTI feedhorn cover, which was pricey. I probably have around $300 invested and it pretty much all looks brand new. Watching Columbo on MeTV 101W as I am writing this.

In the coming week I will take some closeups showing the new and shiny-ness of it while it lasts.

 

[BeltFanChris]

That 10 ft. does look like a monster. I guess I need to bring my realizations back down to earth and back to reality and forget about trying to acquire 12 ft.. I need to just get a 10 ft. and be happy. You'll are so lucky and fortunate to have DIY skills cause I got none

 

[FTA4PA]

You'll are so lucky and fortunate to have DIY skills cause I got none

Don't sell yourself short. A lot of people here started knowing nothing about satellite dishes or their installation and figured everything out as they went along. It's a great chance to learn!

 

[fred555]

Don't sell yourself short. A lot of people here started knowing nothing about satellite dishes or their installation and figured everything out as they went along.

Like me.

 

[. Raine]

And me.

 

[Jason S]

And me...

Fred555, the Winegard looks great!

 

[phlatwound]

I am a cum laude grad of the school of hard knocks, with an emphasis on DIY...but I couldn't even spell FTA till I found this website.

A 10 footer will serve you well, BFChris, and if you end up with a setup even half as nice as what Fred has done you will be very satisfied.

 

[fred555]

I suck at photography.. see the proof:





Well on the second you can sort off see the shiny newness on the back side.

 

[richyrich]

I would have been able to help; those Winegard dishes were some of the best made; perfs were deeper; and more "smooth". If you figure the focal point the way you just do; however; you may be in for a surprise; it should be more like 36-37 inches; i be lie if I did not get quality easier that way (from 60% to 80% lifer; whichever is better; it is your way...re-wire; new connectors on light pipes for each room with box; instant pay tv!

Beauty, what a find; worth $1,000 todays world.

 

[fred555]

Just wanted to give an update. The Quadstar is in what I believe to be it's final configuration.

Time to take away the scaffolding, put all the dirt back in the right places, chop the weeds and plant some grass.
How many people's HOA would have a cow over the dish, the weeds and the scaffolding?

The final setup is 97W, 101W and 105W.

You might not see it, but all wires are labeled at the dish and at the multiswitches with a chart going on the inside of the door of the distribution cabinet. All wires in the system are labeled this way.

I think I may paint the DR Pepper feed horn covers white today, but I promise after that its on to other dishes!
Well maybe put the center cover in place too.

The Quadstar will not look so lonely for long. I am thinking the 8 foot KTI will get planted to the right of this one.
I'm thinking for 99W as a start.

Capned I want to thank you once again for shipping the needed parts as to put this beauty back into service for the first time ever as it was still in the box when I found it.

Maybe one more picture after I paint the feed horn covers, chop the weeds and put the center cover in.
It was a fun project and this dish was very easy to work on and fun too!

 

[capned]

fred555,

Nice job on the install. Thanks for sharing the pix...and sorry for the late reply...I've been away from the forum for a while.

 

[fred555]

fred555,

Nice job on the install. Thanks for sharing the pix...and sorry for the late reply...I've been away from the forum for a while.

I'm glad you are back! I have been enjoying the dish very much thanks to your parts!

 

[wvman]

Need help to identify my latest free dish score. I know the following:
It is a 10 footer.
Depth is 22 inches
Focal length is 41 inches.
FD ratio is .34.
(I will try to attach pictures, I dont post things on the interwebs much so I hope they come through.)
It came in a box marked KTI but the specs calculated above dont match published specs found
online. I plan on using 1/2 emt to fabricte support legs. I guess I will need the feed horn support plate that the legs bolt to and a polar mount. I could also fabricate the plate and a fixed mount if I had to as wife will allow multiple fixed c band dishes. I have a Titanium C2w-pll meant for a mini bud project I can use .View attachment 101994View attachment 101995View attachment 101996View attachment 101997
I would appreciate any info you guys have. The wife wants it in operation asap, along with the existimg 3 ku dishes she demanded.

I think it's a Winegard as well. The Perfect 10's we used did not have channels made into the ribs for the screen to slide into. The screen was held down with screws along the ribs. Both were excellent dishes and performed well, but the Perfect 10 was a little less expensive than the Winegard. The offset adjustments on the Winegard were a little different than the Perfect 10, but other than that, they were pretty similar. Hopefully, this weekend I'm going after a used Perfect 10 ten footer, and I'll look it over and post a photo of the dish and mount.