Dish Order Mixup: My Fault, Not Sadoun's!

[MJFlash]

Hi, Folks,

EDIT: As we discover later on in this thread, Sadoun's at no fault here - this was all just a mixup over the fact (which I hadn't known) that Sadoun acts as a distributor for some other satellite retailers, in addition to being a retailer themselves. Through it all, they've been terrific, and I highly recommend them! For folks that worry about mail order vendors, here's one you really can trust!

I was all excited today when DHL showed up two days early with my new 100cm Fortec Star FTA dish from Sadoun. I ripped the box to shreds getting everything unpacked, and quickly assembled the dish. When I sat it next to my current 31" Winegard, it somehow seemed a lot smaller than I expected. A quick shot with a measuring tape confirmed my suspicions - it's just a 90cm dish! A closer look at the shipping label on the remains of the box said the same thing. Argh!

I know they're good guys, so I'm sure we'll get this fixed tomorrow. It just seems ridiculous to have to try to find new packaging material, box this back up, and then ship this thing all the way back to Ohio from California. Hmm. Anybody in Northern California want a great deal on a barely-touched dish?

I really am looking forward to seeing how my motorized FTA setup will perform with a 1M dish. Hopefully soon now... ah well, the best laid plans of mice and men, and all that.

 

[MJFlash]

Hi, Gang!

Bloody heck - these guys ARE good! Though I'd called earlier, and everyone had already gone home, somebody still caught my after-hours email and responded as I was posting my previous message! I'm seriously impressed with Sadoun! We'll let you know how things go.

Have Fun!

 

[Anole]

I was about to say: "tell Sadoun, not us", 'cause I know they'll fix you up.
(based on my good experiences with 'em)
But, I see you already found that out!

At first, I thought you were gonna complain on getting a dish bigger than your motor could handle...
...wouldn't that be a nice surprise?

When I got my big 36" from them (2005) everything came in the dish-box.
Motor, LNB, usb receiver , et al.
I carefully opened the big box, and could still ship in it today.
So, for ripping up the box, you are awarded no points for style.

I'd take that off your hands , but I'm too far south.
I suspect Sadoun will make it worth your while to keep it...

 

[MJFlash]

Hi, Anole!

Well, they're certainly on the ball! Sadoun asked me to send 'em a picture of what I'd received for verification (quite reasonably so), and offered to eat the shipping if I was interested in keeping the dish. Considering that that's more than 1/3rd off, that's a heck of a discount! Of course, the problem is... where the heck am I gonna' put this thing? If I go crazy, maybe I could use it for a fixed pair at 82 and 91 - that would certainly put me in pretty good stead for when the HD boxes show up. Hmm... I wonder what the LNB spacing would have to be for a dish like this? I guess I'm off to search!

As far as the box goes, we literally broke down over 200 boxes just last night that had filled up the garage. Out here in California, there just isn't room in most houses to store all those boxes! Of course, I really should have at least read the shipping label first!

Anyway, Sadoun's clearly got it together, despite the little mishap. Good guys, indeed! :up

Have Fun!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

It is good to hear stories like this about our sponsors.

Thanks for posting it.

 

[Anole]

9º on the Fortec 90cm dish

Of course, the problem is... where the heck am I gonna' put this thing?
If I go crazy, maybe I could use it for a fixed pair at 82 and 91 ...
Hmm... I wonder what the LNB spacing would have to be for a dish like this?
I guess I'm off to search!

Search no more...
Since you are subscribing to BEV, here is the info you need:

data on FS-90 dish.
how-to for determining LNB spread.

Do the math and let us know.

 

[riffjim4069]

The Sponsors here are all Top Notch...not perfect, but they certainly don't come any better.

 

[satcustomer]

What part of Northern California, MJFlash?

 

[kstuart]

What part of Northern California, MJFlash?

Same question here.

 

[iafirebuff]

Sadoun is TOP NOTCH! I have bought alot from them in the past year and nt only have I gotten great deals, I have had great service both on the phone and via the internet from them. I have only spent about $600 from them, but they have treated me like I have spent a million. THANKS SADOUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[MJFlash]

Hi, Folks!

Anole: One of these days, I'd love to sit down and use an optical simulation program to truly understand the real number for these offset dishes of unknown curvature (parabolic?). Even computing the F/D ratio is tricky. If you measure from the center of the dish to the approximate focal point, the F/D ratio would seem to be between 0.67-0.75, yet Fortec claims an F/D ratio of 0.6, and that the focal length is 510mm (which is well ahead of the LNB position, as measured to the center of the dish). So, clearly, the center of the dish isn't the proper reference point for an offset dish. Anyway, let's stick with 510mm. Based on that, plugging "510mm * sin(9 degrees) in inches" into Google yields almost exactly pi: 3.141 inches.

Checking the vertical offset, my skew angle here is 57.9 degrees, so the relevant formula is tan(57.9) = X/3.14. Feeding "3.14 * tan(57.9 degrees)" into the Google search bar yields 5.01 inches. Yikes - quite a lot of offset! In this case, it might make sense to place 91 at the prime focus, so that 82 would be 5" higher than the 91 bird. Experimentation is in order - I just don't want to have the second bird fall off the bottom of the dish!

Many thanks for the cool pointers and suggestions!!!

Scott & RiffJim: It is indeed terrific when you know who you can trust - especially in our hobby, where so much of our gear isn't typically available locally!

SatCustomer & KStuart: I'm in the Silicon Valley area. Feel free to shoot me a P.M., if that's OK per forum rules, though to be honest, after going through this little experiment, I may just keep this after all!

IAFireBuff: I'm quickly learning that Sadoun's the bee's knees, too!

Cheers!

 

[Mr Tony]

I've ordered a fair amount of items from Sadoun too and they have always been good. I only had to call them once and that was when it had been the 7 day waiting time and they were very professional

 

[MJFlash]

Hi, Anole!

While I'm clearly utterly off-topic here, your recommended formulas essentially assume a spherical dish curvature, yet measuring the surface of the Fortec indicates that it is definitely something more like parabolic (which is the most efficient for a pure focus, anyway). If I can make more progress towards understanding how that affects these theoretical calculations, I'll post in the thread you pointed me to, and will stop cluttering up this one. Whether or not I actually learn more, I sincerely appreciate your help!

Best Regards!

[EDIT: I think I've found a start towards what we're looking for, and the answer is that with a parabolic dish (if this really is parabolic), getting off axis really hurts! I'll post the results so far in the thread that you referenced above.]

 

[MotleyFool]

SNIP
In this case, it might make sense to place 91 at the prime focus, so that 82 would be 5" higher than the 91 bird. Experimentation is in order - I just don't want to have the second bird fall off the bottom of the dish!
SNIP

I think you might want to put 82 at prime focus, from what I've read it has weaker signal levels because of a partial power failure on the bird. Especially since you said you're on the left coast.

 

[MJFlash]

Hi, Folks!

You're not gonna' believe what actually happened! As it turned out, when I decided to upgrade my satellite dish setup, I kind of went hog wild and decided to increase the size of all of my dishes. So, I went off to ebay, found the best prices, and wound up ordering a Dish 1000 Plus from Sadoun, a 100cm Fortec Star from Sadoun , and a 90cm Fortec Star from another vendor in Illinois. What I hadn't realized is that Sadoun isn't only a retailer, they also act as a distributor for other dish retailers. So what actually happened is that the other dealer had ordered a 90cm dish for me from Sadoun, but there was no indication in the shipment that that was the case. As a consequence, Sadoun in fact shipped me the 90cm dish correctly - their only mistake was in not shipping my 100cm dish at all, presumably due to some confusion over what appeared to them to be an odd doubly-ordered dish.

Now, the funniest part is that I'd already taken Sadoun up on their offer of eating the shipping costs, so I sent the extra cost to keep what I'd thought was a second 90cm dish. We finally figured all this out on the phone, so Sadoun will be refunding that money back to me, and shipping me the 100cm dish.

What a weird mixup!

Best Regards!

 

[MJFlash]

Hi, MotleyFool!

Yeah, that was my original goal, but it seemed strange that that would leave the 91 LNB physically below the bottom of the dish. After reading up on other offset dish setups, though, it turns out this isn't all that weird after all. So, yes, I'll be setting it up with 82 at prime focus, and with 91 hanging off the bottom of the dish! Most unusual!

Cheers!

 

[Anole]

MJFlash -

Under the circumstances, I would suggest you change the title of your thread to more properly reflect the actual situation.

 

[MJFlash]

Hi, Anole!

I've changed the thread title to "Dish Order Mixup: My Fault, Not Sadoun's!". Since I can't change the external view of the thread title myself, I've asked Scott if he would consider changing it to match the internal thread title.

Cheers!

 

[Mr Tony]

got it

 

[MJFlash]

Thank you very much, Iceberg!