Is a RayDX 10.5 any good?

[lonewolf454]

I have never heard of a RayDX and didnt find much googling it, but I might be able to get a 10.5. It has a button feed(?) which I have heard before people had trouble with them swaying in wind so I am not sure if I should stay away from this one or not. I used to have a SAMI 7.5 and now I have a KTK 6.0 as a temporary both had feed mount rods from the dish, I always heard this was better, but not sure. I can say the 6.0 is not big enough for a lot of feeds.

Should I go for the RayDX 10.5 or keep looking for a SAMI, ChannelMaster, etc?

 

[Phottoman]

If it's free, grab it. Anything is better than nothing.

As for your fear of wind moving the button hoof, you *can* guy wire it to three or four places on the outer rim and keep it stable.

Hope that helps.

Photto

 

[pendragon]

I have a 10.5' Radyx and it is my best C-band dish (I have a Winegard 10' and a couple of smaller BUDs). It has a rather low f/D, but not that hard to work with. Forget about having any problems with the buttonhook. It is very rigid and you won't have to mess with guy wires. I'm sure one can get Ku with it, but I wouldn't recommend this over a 1.2m offset.

 

[lonewolf454]

Actually it's 75$ and 200 miles away, so no good for most ku feeds then pendagron?

 

[pendragon]

I wouldn't recommend any BUD for Ku unless it's a solid. I put a Ku LNB with a prime-focus feed on the Radyx for a quick test and it did fine, but certainly no better than my 1.2m offset. I saw the same thing on my 10' Winegard perf and a 7.5' mesh. I believe the limitation of my perf is partly its extremely small f/D, but with any mesh surface variations cause a poorly contained focus. I do have a 6' prime-focus petal solid that does better than the 1.2m offset.

I don't know whether it's worth a 400 mile round trip to you, but the Radyx is going to be very hard to beat on C-band and it's built like a tank. Just make sure the mesh is in decent shape before making any trips.

 

[14karat]

I wouldn't recommend any BUD for Ku unless it's a solid.

My 10' mesh (before it was assassinated) didn't have any issues with Ku - that is - ONCE it was tweaked.
Peaking a BUD for Ku is a pain, but it will work.
For someone new, I'd highly recommend a dedicated smaller solid dish for the purpose.

As for $75 and 200 miles... I'd do it for a Birdview... and maybe even consider it for a Paraclipse... but I can't think of any others I'd go after.
Too many free mesh BUDs within 20 miles of me to choose from...

 

[pendragon]

My 10' mesh (before it was assassinated) didn't have any issues with Ku - that is - ONCE it was tweaked. Peaking a BUD for Ku is a pain, but it will work. For someone new, I'd highly recommend a dedicated smaller solid dish for the purpose.

I think we're in basic agreement.

However, when I put my prime-focus Ku feed on the Radyx for a quick test it worked fine. I made sure it was perfectly centered and then repeaked all the dish and feed adjustments for a fairly weak Ku bird (can't remember which one it was, but it's one where I'm essentially out of footprint). Reception was great, but as I have found with other mesh BUDs, it was no better than what I was getting on my 1.2m offset.

In some cases it was worse. I did some crude cross-polarization measurements on the spectrum analyzer and also moved the feed around a little to see how tight the focus was. My conclusion was the Radyx was focusing all the energy, but not all in the same place. This is the same result I have seen time and time again. For the record the Radyx mesh is in very good condition and there is a negligible amount of surface damage.

Properly adjusted, mesh dishes like the Radyx can be used for both C and Ku. That's how I started with my first BUD and I was very happy with its Ku performance until I picked up a 1.2m offset and realized that the smaller dish was doing better in most situations. Adjustment can be critical to getting a BUD to work its best on Ku, but with a mesh the surface departures from a true paraboloid are such that you will never see the gain benefit a large dish would theoretically offer. For illustrative purposes, a 3.2m Radyx should theoretically have 8.5 dB more gain than a 1.2m. On the spectrum analyzer I could easily measure the gain was slightly less than what the 1.2m was doing.

I'm not suggesting people abandon Ku on their mesh BUDs. But it can put a premium on accurate adjustment, and combination feeds have losses on C-band that a dedicated C-band feed will not have. If you have the option of using separate dishes for C and Ku, that is often a good path to follow.

 

[14karat]

I think we're in basic agreement.

Agreed.

 

[sergei]

I have never heard of a RayDX and didnt find much googling it, but I might be able to get a 10.5. It has a button feed(?) which I have heard before people had trouble with them swaying in wind so I am not sure if I should stay away from this one or not. I used to have a SAMI 7.5 and now I have a KTK 6.0 as a temporary both had feed mount rods from the dish, I always heard this was better, but not sure. I can say the 6.0 is not big enough for a lot of feeds.

Should I go for the RayDX 10.5 or keep looking for a SAMI, ChannelMaster, etc?

I'm using both the sizes of Raydx dishes and not had any issues with getting good signals on 4DTV programming. What I've seen most is a low signal reading but always a high quality reading which might be either the dish or the receiver. As far as the button feed I've had winds here in Iowa and nothing has moved. Depending on when it was made it can be a bear to install and it's not for the weak, especially if having to install at any height becaused there seems to be two different mounting systems. The dish is well build and the only issue might be screen size and KU reception. If I were you I would jump on it.......!!!

 

[lonewolf454]

I did go get it, now in process of reassembling. I do have question on how the pole mount and dish attach together though, could someone email or pm me a pic of an assembled raydx.(especially a rear view) It is quite different from the SAMI and Kaul Tech mount. I could probably figure it out but a pic will save a lot of headaches.

 

[pendragon]

I took a couple of shots that I hope will help. Ignore the actual pole mount in the pictures because the guy who owned the dish before me had problems with the stock mount slipping in the high winds we experience. He had a friend slap together something that is more robust, but rather crude. Everything above that point should be usable.

 

[sergei]

I did go get it, now in process of reassembling. I do have question on how the pole mount and dish attach together though, could someone email or pm me a pic of an assembled raydx.(especially a rear view) It is quite different from the SAMI and Kaul Tech mount. I could probably figure it out but a pic will save a lot of headaches.

For a picture of the mount that I have on both of my dishes check out my post dated 5/22/2008 called"Cband Mount", at that time I wasn't sure what I had. Also
I attached a completed picture which may help you. If you need more let me know. I remember there was another posting of pictures of a newer style mount for the dish that someone had come across so you might do a search for it.