My C Band Dish is out of comission

[Scott Greczkowski]

I mentioned in one of the other threads that last weekend we had a huge wind storm come through. Unfortunately it damaged my C Band dish.

Here is whats broken...



Daytime picture is shown below.

 

[pendragon]

If that bolt has to pivot the dish on the top, it is a rather poor design for something this size (2.4m?). I've seen flimsy 1.8m dishes with a more robust declination adjustment. You need to get some angle irons and/or a couple of 3/4" grade 8 rods and weld something more substantial together.

 

[Lak7]

Ouch.
Take it down, stick it in a vice, apply heat, bend back.
Keep in mind of where you can not damage the threads.

 

[brentb636]

Certainly looks like the declination adjustment screw on my little 6 footer. Clearly it wasn't tempered . I'd be inclined to take it off, vice it, and try to bend it back without breaking it in pieces. If successful, I'd heat it with a torch and then quench it quickly in water, and see if that tempered it to any extent. Somebody with a welder could "fab" another one easy enough, but I don't know any welders in Connecticut . Maybe check around ?

 

[FaT Air]

Had some 60+ gusts measured near here. But came out unscathed. Just an idea to beef up the dec adj, see attached. A bit of sq and round tubing and some drilling and milling and just a small bit of welding. ( I never did like designs that hung the dish out on a bolt )
Simpler fix, After straightening, weld in triangles as large as possible on each side of the bolt/tubing.
But you'd still have the torque acting to bend the bolt, or the piece of angle used as a pivot/dec mount.

 

[WhiteBeard]

I mentioned in one of the other threads that last weekend we had a huge wind storm come through. Unfortunately it damaged my C Band dish.

WOW! That was quite a wind storm to do that. We had 50+ winds here recently but it only slightly moved the dish off the tracking.

 

[tvropro]

We had gusts close to 70 and sustained winds from 30 to 40 mph for 2 days this week and my bud had no issues. We did have 95mph winds during the summer with a really bad storm and that actually threw off the buds azimuth, slight bump and it was back on track. If I were you Scott I would get a heavy duty elevation rod made up at a machine shop to replace the bent one. That shouldn't happen if the parts were up to snuff and evidently they aren't.

 

[Hockeynut]

That is either 3/4 10 tpi or 5/8 11 tpi just throw a scale up there for OD.Am sure it is course thread.If you can get a hold of some grade 8 all thread(as pendragon stated) and take measurements of the exisiting bushing and make a new one with the ID the same and the OD larger giving more wall thickness for good welding penetration...And weld the all thread as perpindicular as possible to the new bushing you should be back in business.

Heck since you are at this point you can even go with a grade 8 fine thread to give you a lil bit more fine tuning adjustment..
5/8 18 tpi or 3/4 16 tpi..whatever OD you measure that ya need.

Very well apparent the current all thread that was welded to bushing was not a good grade of steel and hardened properly.

good luck.

 

[stanleyjohn]

Sorry to here about the wind damage Scott.Here in Higganum we didn't get it as bad!Since I'm also a amateur meteorologist i keep such records!heres a pic.

 

[TRG]

Sorry to here about the wind damage Scott.Here in Higganum we didn't get it as bad!Since I'm also a amateur meteorologist i keep such records!heres a pic.

Why is it usually windy during the day and calm at night? Something to do with heating?

 

[stanleyjohn]

Why is it usually windy during the day and calm at night? Something to do with heating?

Yes! Basically during the day when the sun comes up it heats the ground causing it to heat up and rise causing wind.At night !no sun!no heat no wind.There are other factors that make wind!like the difference in air pressure.

 

[TRG]

Yes! Basically during the day when the sun comes up it heats the ground causing it to heat up and rise causing wind.At night !no sun!no heat no wind.There are other factors that make wind!like the difference in air pressure.

I thought it was something like that. Thanks.

 

[Hockeynut]

Here we are trying to help a guy, that is trying to tell Rick how to run his site and cant even figure out how to get his Cband dish going again...But yet he is for FTA!!!!
Gimmmeee a break...What a joke....

 

[Wescopc]

Hockeynut
Not everyone is mechanical that enjoys FTA. Me thinks your comment is out of place!
Bob

 

[SatelliteAV]

Here we are trying to help a guy, that is trying to tell Rick how to run his site and cant even figure out how to get his Cband dish going again...But yet he is for FTA!!!!
Gimmmeee a break...What a joke....

Wow, what a random comment!!!

The joke may actually be your post.....

Scott is waiting to receive the replacement part to perform his own repair...... Maybe i am missing something here. I don't believe that he was asking for our help, but rather is showing the result of a major wind storm on his set-up.

 

[JimmyMcGee]

Here we are trying to help a guy, that is trying to tell Rick how to run his site and cant even figure out how to get his Cband dish going again...But yet he is for FTA!!!!
Gimmmeee a break...What a joke....

He didn't ask us how to run a site, he's got that figured out. He was talking about his dish. I don't know how to rebuild a transmission, does that mean I shouldn't enjoy driving?

 

[Mr Tony]

Scott is waiting to receive the replacement part to perform his own repair...... Maybe i am missing something here. I don't believe that he was asking for our help, but rather is showing the result of a major wind storm on his set-up.

exactly. I've posted pics of my 6 footer when it fell off the table it was on and got crumpled....I wasnt asking for help on how to fix it...more of to show what happened and what I needed to fix

 

[pendragon]

SatelliteAV & Iceberg: I think it's fair to say that if that part got bent by high winds, it could easily happen again. Some of us prefer to learn from failures and try to prevent them from reoccurring, or even prevent them from happening in the first place. This is not only a matter of a potentially damaged dish, but could be one of human safety. Admittedly one can't fully evaluate this design from one picture. On the surface it looks rather lightweight.

Now a 6' dish falling off a table, well...

 

[SatelliteAV]

Pendragon, Believe that you may have misunderstood my post. It wasn't regarding the suggestions to improve Scott's dish, but instead the comment regarding Scott's ability to repair his own satellite system.

I agree with you. Most of our systems can be improved and optimized with modifications!

 

[stanleyjohn]

Scotts Thread here is just Show and tell!we all have storys we like to share!it dosnt mean that he needs any help fixing the problem.