How tall of pole needed above ground

[Thehandyone]

I finally found some pipe to get my 10' dish installed. I was wondering what the minimum height I would need for the install to give myself about 6 inches of ground clearance at my easternmost sat. I was trying to see if having 5'6 of pipe above the ground would give me enough clearance, taking into account the dish's angle. I know I should give myself some extra room for mowing and such, I'm just trying to keep the dish as low to the ground as possible.

My location is 46.8N and 122.8W. The farthest east I will be able to see from where I am going to install it is 61.5W. I will be using a 24 inch von weise actuator that came with the dish (hopefully it still works).

Since this is my first c-band install, I wasnt sure how the actuator affected its height as it moves through the arc. I only have experience with a motor on a ku-band offset dish. Any help, or maybe if someone knows of a calculator online as I'm not really wanting to to the trig myself to figure it out would be great.
Thanks

Here is a pic of the dish.

 

[sergei]

You say you found pipe does than mean you've already purchased it, if so how long a section did you get?

 

[hd fan]

keep in mind in the winter snow will accumulate on the ground so it might happen it get stuck with that snow at the east extreme (dont think you will get a sat too far west) over 60 degrees travel therefore it will be very vertical (you are west of the mississipi so your arm its installed on the east side so it pushes from its lowest point , east). 6 feet above ground seems a better aproach for a 10 footer in your state for better snow clearence besides what if you get a 12 footer in the future!. In the winter is common for us to leave our dishes overnight parked at the lowest extreme possible so it is vertical and the snow slide off and I guess it will be commom also for us to forget about it and start moving the dish in the morning without realizing it is stuck with all the snow on the ground. Just a thought.

 

[FaT Air]

If you have the mount on the dish, remove the actuator, and rotate the mount(pre set to your LAT.) to one extreme. then measure from the inside top of the mount to the edge of the dish the mount is aiming at. Add your required dish edge to ground clearance. (that's at it's absolute extreme, actuator extreme will afford a bit more dish-ground clearance) If you have snow(?), you may want it more than a foot of clearance, to keep the edge of the dish out of it. I am pretty sure 5ft6in above ground will give at least a foot of clearance. If I remember, BITD, we mounted most 10ft'rs on a 4ft6in pole around here. My 10ft BUD is on a pole extending 6ft from the ground and have a minimum of 3ft6in clearance to the ground. ~2.25ft to the little 30 inch on it's lower lip, (Snow drift area)

 

[Thehandyone]

My co-worker had a bud about 20 years ago, and they long ago removed the dish, but the pipe is still attached to the side of their house. They have 2 10 ft sticks, attached together with a coupling. So I'll have 1 10 ft stick and whatever I can salvage from the one in concrete.

Snow accumulation isnt really that much of an issue in the NW. We have only had a few times in the almost 30 years i've been alive that there has been more than 6 inches of snow. I wont be able to put up anything larger than a 10 ft where we are at now, even putting this one up is meeting a lot of resistance from the wife.

Thanks for the tips guys. I'll give your method ,FaT Air, a try. It should get me close enough to what I am looking for.

 

[gordonkearse]

I wanted mine up high. I welded two ten foot sticks together. But its too high to make adjustments to the dish without fear of falling ten feet. And two sticks flex a little. So I had to tether the pole to another point. My intent was to get underneath to mow. And also I have it next to a six foot cyclone fence. It works great otherwise.

Five feet sticking out of the ground should be fine. You'll never have a ten foot dish exactly parallel to the horizon anyway cuz you won't pick up any satellite signal there. D-u-h!

 

[rv1pop]

I agree. You probably would not get enough snow or wind in Bucoda to worry about. Not since January 1950, anyway. Or wind, Columbus Day 1962!

 

[Diamond Jim]

I have a 7 and a half foot dish mounted on a 48 inch pole. That's how the professional installer did it in 1983, so when I moved it I did it the same way. It's worked fine now for 28 years. I would measure from the center to the edge of the dish and give it a foot more.