Finally!

[Chewie]

Hello Dee Ann
what is the size of the hole for the 6 foot dish, is looking good, I am about to do my set up, I have the same dish.
Thanks in advance.
regards
Chewie

 

[Dee_Ann]

Hello Dee Ann
what is the size of the hole for the 6 foot dish, is looking good, I am about to do my set up, I have the same dish.
Thanks in advance.
regards
Chewie

Hi Chewie,

Well, to be honest, I am not totally certain. I asked the guy to make the hole 18" around. He said it was a little bigger, he said he thought it might be 19" or maybe 20" because it took more cement than the other hole which was the same depth.

The first hole took 9 sacks of cement and the 2nd hole for the 10' dish took 11 sacks. Both holes were 4' deep.
I have my doubts as to if the 10' dish is deep enough to survive a hurricane. I'm afraid it will be pushed over and if that happens it will be an absolute nightmare to straighten up and repair.

My dad said the best thing would have been to pay someone with a digger on a tractor to dig a hole like 10' deep and put a much longer pole in. But that would be pretty expensive to do that.

Well, only 6 1/2 weeks until hurricane season so we shall see..

 

[primestar31]

Get some 6 ft utility metal fence posts from Lowes or Home Depot. Like these:

Shop Garden Zone Utility Fencing Heavy-Duty Steel Fence Post 6ft at Lowes.com

Shop Stanley-National Hardware 1/4 x 7 1/2 Turnbuckle Eye/Eye SS at Lowes.com


Buy some heavy guy wire, and turnbuckles. Get a sledge hammer, and drive the fence posts diagonally in the ground on at least 3 sides of your sat poles. Drive them almost all the way into the ground, and out a ways from the pole. Think of it sort of like you are laying out a triangle. You then can drill holes through the top of the pole, but below the polar mount. Or, even right through the polar mount, that's what I did. Just make sure it's already tweaked, and set permanently on it's aim if you do it this way. Stick "Eye Bolts" through the hole, using flat washers, lock washers and nuts. You then run guy wire between the eye bolts, to the fence posts, placing a turnbuckle in the middle of the run. You then torque up each turnbuckle evenly, (making sure the pole stays straight up and down) and you now have a guy wire supported big dish..

It's fairly cheap, and if laid out right, it gives tremendous additional support to your pole. It might be just what you need to survive a hurricane.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Get some 6 ft utility metal fence posts from Lowes or Home Depot. Like these:

Shop Garden Zone Utility Fencing Heavy-Duty Steel Fence Post 6ft at Lowes.com

Shop Stanley-National Hardware 1/4 x 7 1/2 Turnbuckle Eye/Eye SS at Lowes.com


Buy some heavy guy wire, and turnbuckles. Get a sledge hammer, and drive the fence posts diagonally in the ground on at least 3 sides of your sat poles. Drive them almost all the way into the ground, and out a ways from the pole. Think of it sort of like you are laying out a triangle. You then can drill holes through the top of the pole, but below the polar mount. Or, even right through the polar mount, that's what I did. Just make sure it's already tweaked, and set permanently on it's aim if you do it this way. Stick "Eye Bolts" through the hole, using flat washers, lock washers and nuts. You then run guy wire between the eye bolts, to the fence posts, placing a turnbuckle in the middle of the run. You then torque up each turnbuckle evenly, (making sure the pole stays straight up and down) and you now have a guy wire supported big dish..

It's fairly cheap, and if laid out right, it gives tremendous additional support to your pole. It might be just what you need to survive a hurricane.

Ooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

EXCELLENT Idea!!!

And this is one that I think I could manage myself!

Thank you!!

 

[Anole]

Some years ago, I put in a 40' telephone pole.
Managed to dig an 8' deep hole with shovels.
The last couple of feet required a long-handled monster, with an almost right-angled scoop.
Borrowed it from the utility company guys who ... oh, well that's a story I can't talk about.

For more recent work, I got a post hole digger with a cam-operated clam shell on the business end.
What it does, is close with just a minor spread of the handles.
Seems pretty nice, compared the the regular old style.
Got it on close out. Can't seem to find a picture of it on the web.
Maybe people weren't stupid enough to buy 'em.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Some years ago, I put in a 40' telephone pole.
Managed to dig an 8' deep hole with shovels.
The last couple of feet required a long-handled monster, with an almost right-angled scoop.
Borrowed it from the utility company guys who ... oh, well that's a story I can't talk about.

For more recent work, I got a post hole digger with a cam-operated clam shell on the business end.
What it does, is close with just a minor spread of the handles.
Seems pretty nice, compared the the regular old style.
Got it on close out. Can't seem to find a picture of it on the web.
Maybe people weren't stupid enough to buy 'em.

What about this?

http://bit.ly/gJlikH Lehman's® Best Post Hole Diggers



That's a weird looking gadget and pricey too! Sadly though it doesn't say how deep a hole it will dig.

 

[Dishman Dan]

Some years ago, I put in a 40' telephone pole.
Managed to dig an 8' deep hole with shovels.
The last couple of feet required a long-handled monster, with an almost right-angled scoop.
Borrowed it from the utility company guys who ... oh, well that's a story I can't talk about.

My "utility company" has 2 of those shovels!

One is angled and the other is a straight spade type.

They are very handy and I "borrow" them quite often!

 

[macgod79]

Dee look up my 8 page post from not to long ago on how to setup the 6 footer. When I started I had no knowledge of how to set it up and thought I was gonna be lost but all turned out well. What is your true south sat? Ill help you get it up and running with ezspeak(newbie language) lol

 

[Dee_Ann]

Dee look up my 8 page post from not to long ago on how to setup the 6 footer. When I started I had no knowledge of how to set it up and thought I was gonna be lost but all turned out well. What is your true south sat? Ill help you get it up and running with ezspeak(newbie language) lol

#1. Cool...
#2. What's a "true south sat" ?

 

[tvropro]

#2. What's a "true south sat" ?

Your true south satellite is the satellite closest to your south at your location. It is where you need to begin to track a dish.

Lots of good information here:

Footprints by Dish Size - Adjusting the Polar Mount for Prime Focus Antenna - C/Ku-Band Satellite Systems - Tuning, Tracking, Azimuth, Elevation, Declination Angles, F/D Ratio, Focal Distance, Inclinometer, LNB/Feedhorn Assembly, Actuator Assembly, C

 

[macgod79]

U also are gonna need a angle finder as most all cband dishes do not have a elevation scale on them. There often called inclemeters. Mine is a johnson angle finder I got for 8 bucks I think from sadoun

 

[Dee_Ann]

Ok..

I have reached the point of absolute cluelessness..

I have no clue how the motor attaches to this thing. I have no clue if I'm even close.

I have seen various photos of this dish assembled and they are all different. So I do not know which one is the right one.

I think that because everyone lives in different parts of the country it affects how you assemble the thing. I just do not know.

So, just for kicks, I went outside and stuck the motor on the dish in what I ~think~ is somewhat similar to how I've seen others done on here.

And to be honest, for now, getting the motor working is a very low priority, on a scale of 1-10, I put that at a 1. The main thing for now is using the motor to just keep the dish from flailing about in the wind.

I just want to aim this dish at C-band 87 and leave it there for the immediate future. I'll worry about making the motor work later this summer when I can afford another Gbox. The BIG dish, I do want to motorize it, right away, as soon as I get it put up.

Anyway..

So here is all this wacky stuff on the back of this dish that I don't know about. Then there is the LNB on the front.

The arms that hold the ring, I don't know if I have them right. They were bent at weird angles when I opened the box and I couldn't make any sense of that so I sort of bent them flat(ter)..

Then there is the LNB. It rotates. Like, 360 degrees. And, it slides in and out of the ring. A lot.

All that geometry stuff about how to adjust these things is beyond me. I totally stink at math and my math skills are sub-basic. Geometry makes my brain melt down just looking at it. I can not comprehend geometry, at all.

I think my best bet is to just take the squealy meter out there and play pot-luck trying to find the satellite. Maybe I'll get lucky.

In the meantime, I've knocked off for the evening so I'm going to spend the rest of the evening pouring over photos and stuff you guys have posted and see if I can figure it out.

Dear goddess I feel like such an idiot.... And a lost one at that..

 

[Skyv1]

Hi, Dee-Ann.
I just read through this thread and I must join the chorus, nice dish farm you've got sprouting there!

As to the motor, it's always best to keep the "push" as straight as possible.
If you attach the dish end of the actuator arm on top, then you should also attach the clamp at the mount on top.

I'm not familiar with that particular dish, other than what I've seen in pictures.
Is it possible the angle iron/bar that your clamp bolts to, could be turned upside down?
Does it attach to the mount with one bolt hole or two?
If two, do you have enough spacers to enable you to mount the clamp to said bar on top (i.e. inside the "L" shape) with clearance?
If one, would the holes line up if you flipped the bar end for end and turned it upside down?
If neither question yields a yes, then you should attach the actuator to the underside at the dish and make sure that you use your spacers on both the clamp and the end of the arm.
This will keep the force in-line and help prevent the arm from binding.
You're almost there now, don't give up hope and don't let things seem to be too complicated. After all, you're basically just pointing at things when it comes right down to it.
You also have a solid base to work from since you have a number of working dishes, pointed at various "birds", in easy view of your new installation(s).

 

[rocot0]

Is easy , I will post some picture of my dishes to try to help u .....good luck

 

[Dee_Ann]

Hi, Dee-Ann.
I just read through this thread and I must join the chorus, nice dish farm you've got sprouting there!

As to the motor, it's always best to keep the "push" as straight as possible.
If you attach the dish end of the actuator arm on top, then you should also attach the clamp at the mount on top.

I'm not familiar with that particular dish, other than what I've seen in pictures.
Is it possible the angle iron/bar that your clamp bolts to, could be turned upside down?
Does it attach to the mount with one bolt hole or two?
If two, do you have enough spacers to enable you to mount the clamp to said bar on top (i.e. inside the "L" shape) with clearance?
If one, would the holes line up if you flipped the bar end for end and turned it upside down?
If neither question yields a yes, then you should attach the actuator to the underside at the dish and make sure that you use your spacers on both the clamp and the end of the arm.
This will keep the force in-line and help prevent the arm from binding.
You're almost there now, don't give up hope and don't let things seem to be too complicated. After all, you're basically just pointing at things when it comes right down to it.
You also have a solid base to work from since you have a number of working dishes, pointed at various "birds", in easy view of your new installation(s).

Hi Sky,

What you say about the motor makes sense now. Looking at the pictures and thinking back, it seems to be crooked. Having no idea what I was doing, I just stuck it together the best I could before the wind whipped it around on me. We are having some strong winds lately out of the south. Ugh.. HUMID......


Tomorrow I will go out and try again to put the motor on a better way. I was standing on a bucket to get to it and I didn't really have a good view of it from underneath. Tomorrow I need to get a ladder and see if I can get at eye level with it and maybe figure it out that way. Perhaps I should tie the dish with some rope so it can't move if the wind hits it while the motor is loose. That was worrisome and hard to fight when I was trying to put the motor on it.

Oh. Another thing.

I went to dishpointer.com and got my yard into the finder. Because of all the hurricanes they have very highly detailed photos of our area and my yard is very clear and I can see each individual dish in vivid detail..

So I put the pointer right in the spot where the new dish is now and told it that I wanted the info for a motorized dish, I selected a SuperJack DG120 which I ~think~ is a C-band type dish. That was the only C type, the others where ku HH types.

This is the info it told me when I selected the Superjack setup:

Motor Latitude: 30.0°

Declination Angle: 5.0°

Dish Elevation: 35°
Azimuth (true): 180.0°
Azimuth (magn.): 177.6°

---------

I also found out what absolute true south is, and easy for me, my house is lined up almost perfectly front north, back south, sides east and west.

So then I figured out that the satellite that is closest to my absolute true south is 95w Galaxy 3C. I checked The List and found that there are a BUNCH of horse racing channels on it. (I think horse racing is animal abuse and should be banned globally) But anyway, there are a few other Univision channels on it and maybe I can find them when I try to locate that satellite. I have to locate that satellite, right?

Dishpointer tells me to set the dish as follows to receive Galaxy 3C

Elevation: 55.0°
Azimuth (true): 182.1°
Azimuth (magn.): 179.7°
LNB Skew [?]: 1.8°



There are soooo many pivot points and adjustments on this thing. Sooooo many ways to do it wrong... And only ONE way to do it right.

I predict that this is going to take me a loooooong time to get it right.

Oh, and I found the directions that came with the dish but they make almost no sense to me. Very cryptic and unclear... I attached a scan of the directions..

 

[Dee_Ann]

BINGO!!!!!!!!!

http://www.satelliteguys.us/245442-finally-got-my-6-ft-dish-5.html#post2477322

THIS video is what I needed! I do not understand what the guy is talking about, the buzz words my my brain turn to mush but, he is showing what to do and I can mimic what he is doing and figure it out! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[stanleyjohn]

I have been following this thread and its looking good Dee.I know what your going threw!last spring i put up my 3 and 6 footer motorized dishes at a time when i knew very little about FTA.Both are working very well now and haveing a blast with them.Your getting lots of help here so ill just sit back and watch your progress.very nice dish farm you have! and with the addition with the two new larger dishes you will have the c-band covered very well.I did a check on your true south satellite 95w and found that your best tp to try to get would be 4167v/6614 (look at sat list on this forum) not alot of fta active channels on that sat right now.Take care and soon enough you will be channel surfing the c-band and having fun too.

 

[macgod79]

Dee I have the same dish. Yes it looks tough but when you stop thinking to hard on it, it becomes easy. My problem was that I wanted to keep playing with my elevation and such. Set the elevation on the inside of that white bar. Its the one

 

[Magic Static]

It would be easier to set the dish elevation and declination angles before attaching the actuator. This way you can see if the actuator will operate across the full travel without putting a bind on the dish. When you do set your angles now, you may find you need to attach the actuator in a different position.

 

[macgod79]

Sorry dee its the white bar on your polar mount that moves up and down. Your gonna need a angle finder as it is impossible to guess. After you set the elevation to what it says you move the whole mount and all slowly left and right til you get signal and if the elevation is right u will get signal. My true south was 77 degree's so yours is good that its near galaxy 3c strong signals there. Do u have a small tv set u can sit beside your dish? If you can bring it and the receiver to the dish it will be easier