I've spent the last few days getting this dish in the ground up in the air! Actually, I started months ago by painting the sections and getting all brand new grade 8 bolts.
Because of the size of the dish and size of the pole (sched 80 4.5" OD 17' tall) I wanted I got a guy with an excavator to come over to dig the hole. 6' deep, 5' long, and 3' wide. The rocks... man oh man the rocks. I know why there's a hill in the back yard now. 45 bags of premix later and 20 cubic feet of backfill over the top the pole is in, with a big spur at the bottom. I knew I'd have to wait until Monday to get the dish up. The pole is 5 feet in the ground, 12 feet out.
So, today was the day. I had four people all lined up to help me get that dish up in the air. I had a friend of mine that had a lift of staging that he was going to bring over around 9ish and I'd pick up a couple of my brothers to help. This is where things fell apart a bit.
My bud with the scaffolding didn't show. So I called and called and called and finally somebody answered, but it wasn't him. It was the person that found his cell phone. So I call him a few times at his home number and no luck. Waited another half hour and tried again and he answered. He said he needed a ride to the casino to get his truck. He got drunk last night. At least he didn't drive. So, a buddy and I picked him up at his place so I move the child seats out of the way so he could get in and he said move the other because he's gotta drop off a friend of his too. Fine. 30 seconds later this blonde comes out the door. I asked if I could drop her off too. His hooker. Great.
We get to the casino but on the way there I tell her some stories that surprise even her, which, I think is pretty cool because prostitutes usually have heard or seen the worst crap there is to see out there. Get them dropped off and we're to meet at his place to pick up scaffolding.
He doesn't show. 1.5 hours later he tells me he had to go pick up his kid, argue with the ex, pick up his cell phone, drop off a buddy somewhere else. So I ask him about his girlfriend and how much she charges because I'm in a bit of a mood now.
On the way back to my place I notice the gas light on my car is on still from yesterday. I know I'm getting low on gas especially after all the driving around I did this morning. Things you do for scaffolding and buds eh? So the car is starting to sputter when I go around corners. But I make it to my place without running out.
It's now noon. 3 hours wasted and I've got a family dinner starting at 3.
Now, winds have been about 50kph (30mph) for days and a 10 footer is awkward. The lift of scaffolding is 5 feet and the pole is 12. Couldn't do it with the wind and as it is I'm going to need to build a platform around the dish to tweak from time to time. I'm getting....upset by this point. So I grab the grinder go to stick a cutting wheel on it. The arbor is the wrong size so I stick the grinding wheel back on and go at it.
Then my neighbour right behind me comes out of his house to watch. He's NOT impressed. In fact, he's down right pissed off. Now, I've talked to a half a dozen neighbours about the dish, months ago. I told them it was a 12 footer back then and they all said it's your yard, do what you want. Well today the guy right behind me decides he's changed his mind. I went and talked to him about it and says he knows he can't do anything about it (thank God.) But mostly it's his wife that's flipping. Then she gets home and backs the car into their driveway and walks by with a nasty glare. Then he tells me that they're planning on building a 25' fence, planning to sell next spring now, and in fact went on to say they might be splitting up. I offered to talk to her about the dish but we both agreed that would probably make things worse. So I go back to work.
A buddy of mine is working with the grinder taking about 18 - 24" off the pole. Now, the neighbour's driveway is right behind the dish and the grinder is throwing sparks all over pissed off neighbour's car. I told him to stop and my buddy that had the prostitute offers me a recip saw blade. I'm off to get my saw from a house I've been working on. I pull out of the driveway and the car sputters again. Just about out of gas. So I go to my parents place and grab the jerry can and drop a few liters in to get going. Told my father about the neighbour and he tells me he's had the same type of problem. Ask neighbour permission, they say fine, then change their mind after their wife has a problem, only after you've started the job. Felt a bit better and went and grabbed the saw.
It made it short work of the cutting and it was much easier to get the dish on in the end. I can now work on a five foot platform and everything is at shoulder height. I couldn't do that with the 7.5 footer. But while I was getting the saw one of my buds left and told the others he'd be back either tonight or tomorrow to get the scaffolding. He's building a house and needs it. Fine.
I drop off one buddy and my brothers head to my parents place for Thanksgiving dinner. I eventually get there an hour or so later. Left there about 6:30 because I noticed it's getting dark and I don't have the dish hooked up, let alone tweaked. If he came by for it before I was done I was screwed because I can't reach anything without it.
I talked to my tenant on the other side of my duplex about the one behind hating the dish and he said to just ignore the guy, tell him where to go, and for a fee he'd even do it for me. It's not like it blocks a view. It's a mesh dish. It's painted a blue/gray shade. He continued to say it's what I do to enjoy my time is my business and that if dishes is what makes me happy anybody else should just F*** off. Cool. He and his wife don't care about the dish being there, even after seeing it up. My wife isn't upset. She'd prefer cable. But at least things have improved signal quality wise.
After a couple of hours extending actuator wire and a bit of tweaking it's up I just got back in about 45 minutes ago after having a lamp out with me. It's tweaked, peaked, and doing great! All my 9/10 S2 transponders have jumped 20-25 points on the Azbox over the 7.5. That with the dish being a bit warped. String test passed though. I can grab NBC on AMC 18 now and I could barely get 54%. Now I get 80%. Most 9/10 fecs are 85-90%. I only got as much as 71% before. I also can get another 4 degrees of arc, over to 123 before the house is a problem. And Anik F3, I could only get 28% Q on the Azbox but now I get 80%.
After ever bit of crap today at least it worked out. I've got some pictures here. The first one is the BUD next to a 40" StarChoice round. A few of the hole and concrete pour. The only ones I don't have is of the dish going up and of it actually up. Got too dark. I'll post that tomorrow.
Because of the size of the dish and size of the pole (sched 80 4.5" OD 17' tall) I wanted I got a guy with an excavator to come over to dig the hole. 6' deep, 5' long, and 3' wide. The rocks... man oh man the rocks. I know why there's a hill in the back yard now. 45 bags of premix later and 20 cubic feet of backfill over the top the pole is in, with a big spur at the bottom. I knew I'd have to wait until Monday to get the dish up. The pole is 5 feet in the ground, 12 feet out.
So, today was the day. I had four people all lined up to help me get that dish up in the air. I had a friend of mine that had a lift of staging that he was going to bring over around 9ish and I'd pick up a couple of my brothers to help. This is where things fell apart a bit.
My bud with the scaffolding didn't show. So I called and called and called and finally somebody answered, but it wasn't him. It was the person that found his cell phone. So I call him a few times at his home number and no luck. Waited another half hour and tried again and he answered. He said he needed a ride to the casino to get his truck. He got drunk last night. At least he didn't drive. So, a buddy and I picked him up at his place so I move the child seats out of the way so he could get in and he said move the other because he's gotta drop off a friend of his too. Fine. 30 seconds later this blonde comes out the door. I asked if I could drop her off too. His hooker. Great.
We get to the casino but on the way there I tell her some stories that surprise even her, which, I think is pretty cool because prostitutes usually have heard or seen the worst crap there is to see out there. Get them dropped off and we're to meet at his place to pick up scaffolding.
He doesn't show. 1.5 hours later he tells me he had to go pick up his kid, argue with the ex, pick up his cell phone, drop off a buddy somewhere else. So I ask him about his girlfriend and how much she charges because I'm in a bit of a mood now.
On the way back to my place I notice the gas light on my car is on still from yesterday. I know I'm getting low on gas especially after all the driving around I did this morning. Things you do for scaffolding and buds eh? So the car is starting to sputter when I go around corners. But I make it to my place without running out.
It's now noon. 3 hours wasted and I've got a family dinner starting at 3.
Now, winds have been about 50kph (30mph) for days and a 10 footer is awkward. The lift of scaffolding is 5 feet and the pole is 12. Couldn't do it with the wind and as it is I'm going to need to build a platform around the dish to tweak from time to time. I'm getting....upset by this point. So I grab the grinder go to stick a cutting wheel on it. The arbor is the wrong size so I stick the grinding wheel back on and go at it.
Then my neighbour right behind me comes out of his house to watch. He's NOT impressed. In fact, he's down right pissed off. Now, I've talked to a half a dozen neighbours about the dish, months ago. I told them it was a 12 footer back then and they all said it's your yard, do what you want. Well today the guy right behind me decides he's changed his mind. I went and talked to him about it and says he knows he can't do anything about it (thank God.) But mostly it's his wife that's flipping. Then she gets home and backs the car into their driveway and walks by with a nasty glare. Then he tells me that they're planning on building a 25' fence, planning to sell next spring now, and in fact went on to say they might be splitting up. I offered to talk to her about the dish but we both agreed that would probably make things worse. So I go back to work.
A buddy of mine is working with the grinder taking about 18 - 24" off the pole. Now, the neighbour's driveway is right behind the dish and the grinder is throwing sparks all over pissed off neighbour's car. I told him to stop and my buddy that had the prostitute offers me a recip saw blade. I'm off to get my saw from a house I've been working on. I pull out of the driveway and the car sputters again. Just about out of gas. So I go to my parents place and grab the jerry can and drop a few liters in to get going. Told my father about the neighbour and he tells me he's had the same type of problem. Ask neighbour permission, they say fine, then change their mind after their wife has a problem, only after you've started the job. Felt a bit better and went and grabbed the saw.
It made it short work of the cutting and it was much easier to get the dish on in the end. I can now work on a five foot platform and everything is at shoulder height. I couldn't do that with the 7.5 footer. But while I was getting the saw one of my buds left and told the others he'd be back either tonight or tomorrow to get the scaffolding. He's building a house and needs it. Fine.
I drop off one buddy and my brothers head to my parents place for Thanksgiving dinner. I eventually get there an hour or so later. Left there about 6:30 because I noticed it's getting dark and I don't have the dish hooked up, let alone tweaked. If he came by for it before I was done I was screwed because I can't reach anything without it.
I talked to my tenant on the other side of my duplex about the one behind hating the dish and he said to just ignore the guy, tell him where to go, and for a fee he'd even do it for me. It's not like it blocks a view. It's a mesh dish. It's painted a blue/gray shade. He continued to say it's what I do to enjoy my time is my business and that if dishes is what makes me happy anybody else should just F*** off. Cool. He and his wife don't care about the dish being there, even after seeing it up. My wife isn't upset. She'd prefer cable. But at least things have improved signal quality wise.
After a couple of hours extending actuator wire and a bit of tweaking it's up I just got back in about 45 minutes ago after having a lamp out with me. It's tweaked, peaked, and doing great! All my 9/10 S2 transponders have jumped 20-25 points on the Azbox over the 7.5. That with the dish being a bit warped. String test passed though. I can grab NBC on AMC 18 now and I could barely get 54%. Now I get 80%. Most 9/10 fecs are 85-90%. I only got as much as 71% before. I also can get another 4 degrees of arc, over to 123 before the house is a problem. And Anik F3, I could only get 28% Q on the Azbox but now I get 80%.
After ever bit of crap today at least it worked out. I've got some pictures here. The first one is the BUD next to a 40" StarChoice round. A few of the hole and concrete pour. The only ones I don't have is of the dish going up and of it actually up. Got too dark. I'll post that tomorrow.
Just wasn't (and isn't) me. Geek at heart.
