New dish

[ZetaMale]

Still working on getting the new CKD-12 installed. Ran into some interesting stuff. Turns out that they sent me a 4.5" mount instead of the 3.5" as advertised at Skyvision. Skyvision told me that either mount works with the rest of the dish components but the manufacturer messed up and sent a 4.5" mount. Anyway, I decided to keep the 4.5" mount and I replaced the 3.5" pole with a 4.5" pole. Unfortuneatly, I didn't get a chance to assemble the dish last weekend and next weekend only has high's in the 40's. I miss DST right now. Anyway, the instruction manual for this dish recommends an 18" actuator for traversing 120 degrees. I'm going to confirm this with Skyvision as I thought you needed a 24" actuator for a 12 footer. The manual stated that a 24" could get bent with this dish if it extends more than 18". Of course, there are software limits that can be set. If an 18" actuator is adequate, I just happen to have one. :up

Hopefully, I'll have the dish up before Thanksgiving. Photos and performance evaluation to come.

 

[ZetaMale]

I never got a reply from Skyvision to clarify the actuator question (I hate calling tech support - I'd rather do e-mail). So, I'm going to install the 18" actuator and see if it really will move this 12 footer over 120 degrees of the arc and if it'll hold up. Since this Saturday should have decent weather I'll get the reflector assembled and see if any friends are around to get it on the mount.

 

[turbosat]

It might work but its hard to see how a short throw like the 18" will be enough to move that big dish very far. Maybe if you were to tweak it absolutely right...

 

[14karat]

It might work but its hard to see how a short throw like the 18" will be enough to move that big dish very far. Maybe if you were to tweak it absolutely right...

That's a stretch... maybe pushing the limit switches to the, well, limit...
As far as what they said about the actuator getting bent, well, any of them can get bent... but if a heavy actuator like the Venture 36" I've got was to get bent, well... I don't think a bent actuator would be at the top of my concern list in that case...
Just sayin'...

 

[ZetaMale]

I finally started putting the dish together. Turned out to be a lot of work and I'm still not done. Spent about 5 hours assembling the reflector so far. Looks like it's not going to go together perfectly. May have been poorly manufactured or distorted during shipment (or maybe I don't know what I'm doing?) Anyway, we'll see how it looks after finishing the reflector assembly and see how good the string test and, ultimately, how it performs. Not sure if I'll put a dual band feed on this - it's tough enough getting C band to work, let alone Ku.

 

[singkwan2004]

Its wise to have a 24" arm then the 18". A 24" arm is better hold when you encounter the strong wind force. the dish can also give you more room to track more satellites.

 

[ZetaMale]

Work continuing when I get to it. But, part of the problem is with holes not lining up correctly. Looks like I'll have to drill out some holes since I can't get them to line up no matter what I try. :rant:

 

[ZetaMale]

Project delayed due to very cold weather. Suppose to get to -4 tonight with no 60 degree weather in sight. Bummer. Global warming? What's that?

 

[ZetaMale]

Discovered that I'm missing a lot of hardware. I'm not surprised since the installation instructions are assembled out of sequence. I'm sure I didn't lose any of the hardware. I just bought the replacement hardware today. It should be warm enough to continue assembling the antenna this weekend. If I'm lucky, I'll get the mesh installed and then get the reflector mounted to the pole.

 

[Dishman Dan]

Work continuing when I get to it. But, part of the problem is with holes not lining up correctly. Looks like I'll have to drill out some holes since I can't get them to line up no matter what I try. :rant:

Did you leave the hardware loose and try using "line up" punches or "drift" punches??? I do not mean to physically punch the thing! But try a long punch or 2 in some holes and with some moving and twisting, some other holes (holes without the punch) might line enough up to put bolts in!

 

[skysurfer]

Spent about 5 hours assembling the reflector so far. Looks like it's not going to go together perfectly. May have been poorly manufactured or distorted during shipment

Are you assembling it on a flat surface (driveway, patio) or on a uneven surface like grass?

I find cband dishes in general have a better chance of going together truer if you use a flat surface.

 

[ZetaMale]

Are you assembling it on a flat surface (driveway, patio) or on a uneven surface like grass?

I find cband dishes in general have a better chance of going together truer if you use a flat surface.

I'm assembling it on the patio but the dish is 2 feet bigger than the patio.

 

[turbosat]

I always put mine together on the pole, a panel at a time (never can find any help lol). The last 12' I had was painful like that one seems to be, I found if I put everything together loosely, I could finally get the last 2 panels to meet by pulling and straining some. First time I tried to assemble it, I tighened everything as I went, but just snug, not really tight. The last 2 panels were 6" apart, haha. No way could I pull it together. Loosening everything made it finally go together. Then it could all be tightened properly.

 

[ZetaMale]

I always put mine together on the pole, a panel at a time (never can find any help lol). The last 12' I had was painful like that one seems to be, I found if I put everything together loosely, I could finally get the last 2 panels to meet by pulling and straining some. First time I tried to assemble it, I tighened everything as I went, but just snug, not really tight. The last 2 panels were 6" apart, haha. No way could I pull it together. Loosening everything made it finally go together. Then it could all be tightened properly.

I guess it's possible to assemble it on the pole but putting in the mesh at the top would be a challenge. Anyway, I hope to finish installing the rings this weekend and flip the dish over to get the mesh installed and then get this beast up on the pole. The weather hasn't been co-operating though. Got over a foot of snow over the past couple of days and it has been very cold (-17 when I went to work this morning). It's only going to get into the low to mid 30's this weekend but I'm going to see about getting this done. I still have to run the ribbon cable and go through the alignment process. I'm going to put a dual-band feed on it and hope that the Ku performance is great. Otherwise I'll be buying a motorized 90 cm dish (and hope I'm not disappointed).