New feed for an old dish

[billyboy_1]

This perforated 10 footer was made by a company I used to work for here in Missouri. Antenna development & Mfg (ADM). It originally had a buttonhook feed but the steel pipe that is was made of rusted and failed. The antenna itself was still in great shape. I installed it back in 1984 and it was used until the days of C-band fell to the Ku-band feeds. I bought it from the owner for $50.00 and put it back in service. We rebuilt the feed system with a quick trip to home depot. The signals are still great just as they were back in the days when it was aimed at Galaxy-1.

 

[madmadworld]

looking good nice job

 

[Anole]

Yep. Lookin' good!

 

[KE4EST]

Nice!

 

[Cadsulfide]

Very nice

 

[phlatwound]

New life for a good old reflector, well done.

That thing looks pretty shallow, what is the fD ratio?

Where was ADM located in MO?

 

[Anole]

We've had members ignore nice (free) dishes because of saggy button hooks.
Your conversion looks as clean and straightforward as any I've seen.
Maybe you would like to post a few more pictures and write about problems you solved.
With luck, we can get others who've done the conversion to pitch in, or at least post links to their former discussions & pictures.
Maybe in the end, if there's enough good info, we can get our wonderful moderators to make it a FAQ on Buttonhook Conversions ...

 

[billyboy_1]

We've had members ignore nice (free) dishes because of saggy button hooks.
Your conversion looks as clean and straightforward as any I've seen.
Maybe you would like to post a few more pictures and write about problems you solved.
With luck, we can get others who've done the conversion to pitch in, or at least post links to their former discussions & pictures.
Maybe in the end, if there's enough good info, we can get our wonderful moderators to make it a FAQ on Buttonhook Conversions ...

Thats a great idea. I will shoot a few more photos and post them along with some of the details of the building of the new feed.

 

[billyboy_1]

New life for a good old reflector, well done.

That thing looks pretty shallow, what is the fD ratio?

Where was ADM located in MO?

The reflector is a little more shallow than most of the mesh dishes of that period. It was actually a perforated dish. The manufacturer made a machine that punched the small holes in the aluminum panels. When it was running it shook the entire building. I remember the little punched out dots being all over the plant. I am trying to remember the F/D ratio but the focal length is 52 1/2". These antennas were one of the best performers made back when C-band was king. The business was located in Poplar Bluff Mo.

 

[phlatwound]

The reflector is a little more shallow than most of the mesh dishes of that period. It was actually a perforated dish. The manufacturer made a machine that punched the small holes in the aluminum panels. When it was running it shook the entire building. I remember the little punched out dots being all over the plant. I am trying to remember the F/D ratio but the focal length is 52 1/2". These antennas were one of the best performers made back when C-band was king. The business was located in Poplar Bluff Mo.View attachment 82554View attachment 82555

Thanks for the info billyboy. My Mom was born in Poplar Bluff, and I was through there last week on a trip to Bowling Green, KY.

I don't recall ever seeing one of those in the Springfield-Joplin area (or anywhere else), but I will keep my eyes out for one. I don't really "need" any more BUDs but it being a great looking big perf dish and made in MO, I would definitely install one of those if I had it. Never seen a perf dish that is trussed on the back side like that.

Some interesting stuff in the brochure...extension panels to increase the size to 13' (which you can see in the foreground dish on the brochure cover)...and the dish and mount weighed 500 pounds?!? I'm sure that weight includes the tripod base assembly, looks really well built.

Did they have a horizon-to-horizon type mount by any chance, or was it a linear-actuated polar type? Looking forward to some more pics of your setup, particularly the mount.

 

[billyboy_1]

Thanks for the info billyboy. My Mom was born in Poplar Bluff, and I was through there last week on a trip to Bowling Green, KY.

I don't recall ever seeing one of those in the Springfield-Joplin area (or anywhere else), but I will keep my eyes out for one. I don't really "need" any more BUDs but it being a great looking big perf dish and made in MO, I would definitely install one of those if I had it. Never seen a perf dish that is trussed on the back side like that.

Some interesting stuff in the brochure...extension panels to increase the size to 13' (which you can see in the foreground dish on the brochure cover)...and the dish and mount weighed 500 pounds?!? I'm sure that weight includes the tripod base assembly, looks really well built.

Did they have a horizon-to-horizon type mount by any chance, or was it a linear-actuated polar type? Looking forward to some more pics of your setup, particularly the mount.

Yes the total overall weight of the original 11 footer was 500lbs that included the mount. If you were around in those days you had to of heard of Bob Cooper. he wrote "Coops Digest" which was the bible of the day. His publications included magazines that chronicled the cable vision industry from it's beginning. Bob was very fond of the ADM antennas and reported on them regularly. The company evolved with the times and made larger dishes that went up to 20 feet. They did produce a horizon to horizon mount for alot of the antennas. In fact, The perf 10 footer in this thread has a H-H mount on it. I will shoot some pics of it when I take ones of the feed rebuild. The older antennas like the one in the brochure did use a long actuator and did not travel the entire arc. I have some shots of the larger antennas and will include a few. When the company ceased operations here in Missouri, all the design of the antennas and the machines used to build them were sold to patriot and they changed very little of the design. ADM went from 24 panels down to 12 panels later. ADM sold their satellite antennas (all C-band) all over the world. I did all of local installs and service from about 1980 up until the C-band lost steam and the small stuff came out. We were there in the first days of TVRO. We sold our antennas to echostar, drake and lots of other dealers. I included a few more photos of some of the later antennas.

 

[Kallesatman]

I would appreciate it if you could give us some insight as to the feedhorn itself. It seems that you took a section of stove pipe coupling to mount the lnb with focal adjustment
capability. Thank you for your effort. 73, karl

 

[billyboy_1]

I would appreciate it if you could give us some insight as to the feedhorn itself. It seems that you took a section of stove pipe coupling to mount the lnb with focal adjustment
capability. Thank you for your effort. 73, karl

Yes Karl thats what it is. The original feed had the then polorotor held on an L bracket that would slide to adjust the focal distance. Some of the other antennas of that era didn't allow for a slide feature to let you peak the focal point for max signal. I am going to shoot some photos of an original factory feed from my antenna and then some of the rebuild of this perf. It is really amazing what we did with it.. The supports are 1" conduits for wire from home depot and the can is rolled stove pipe. I looked for one of the original cans but it's been 28 years since those were made. This dish was manufactured in 1983-84. More to follow.73's Craig (KB0NDS)

 

[billyboy_1]

Here are the photos I took of the improvised rebuild of the feed support of an older 10' perforated antenna. I also included some shots of an original feed system from my 11' ADM which was actually the second version for my old dish. The first version was an alliance brand TV antenna rotor that physically turned the LNB. When the polorotor came along, the L bracket and the feed housing was used. My 11 footer was made somewhere around 1978. If you'll look closely at the very top of the feed housing you can still see the three support rods and plate that held the old TV antenna rotor. Before the three leg support there was a four leg one like in the brochure photos.

 

[radio]

I hadn't heard of anyone using an alliance TennaRotor for the LNB in about 25 years! When I first started in radio as a minimum wage "God Squad" announcer, a call came in on a Sunday morning to our station from the religious station across town that they couldn't get some of their programming. I knew dishes, (was selling birdview at the time-retail for a local store) so I went over after my shift of spinning hymns and introducing church programming, and found their "tenna rotor" needed a turn for polarity. All came in fine. Was shocked to see a tenna rotor deployed for that purpose way back then....and to hear about another now!

Always thought that was an improvised way of doing it...maybe someone actually SOLD dishes with the intent of using that system? (common in those days and readily available at most hardware and electronics stores!)

Wow! Memory lane!

 

[billyboy_1]

I hadn't heard of anyone using an alliance TennaRotor for the LNB in about 25 years! When I first started in radio as a minimum wage "God Squad" announcer, a call came in on a Sunday morning to our station from the religious station across town that they couldn't get some of their programming. I knew dishes, (was selling birdview at the time-retail for a local store) so I went over after my shift of spinning hymns and introducing church programming, and found their "tenna rotor" needed a turn for polarity. All came in fine. Was shocked to see a tenna rotor deployed for that purpose way back then....and to hear about another now!

Always thought that was an improvised way of doing it...maybe someone actually SOLD dishes with the intent of using that system? (common in those days and readily available at most hardware and electronics stores!)
Wow! Memory lane!

At the time when we began (1978-79) that was about all that was available except using a dual feed but the LNA's were 1500 bux a piece. I can remember trucks delivering full pallets of the tenna-rotors. Memory lane for sure.

 

[Anole]

With all the stories I'd read over the years about getting the feed to the focus, this design is a breath of fresh air.
Makes for painless and independent tweaks to the F/D, too.

I always hated the idea of bolting the scalar to the support legs.
Now, accuracy on the leg length isn't critical.

Not sure I can squeeze an ortho feed into that stovepipe, but a big coffee can might work.


Great pictures - thanks very much.

 

[billyboy_1]

With all the stories I'd read over the years about getting the feed to the focus, this design is a breath of fresh air.
Makes for painless and independent tweaks to the F/D, too.

I always hated the idea of bolting the scalar to the support legs.
Now, accuracy on the leg length isn't critical.

Not sure I can squeeze an ortho feed into that stovepipe, but a big coffee can might work.


Great pictures - thanks very much.

At first I was afraid the thin metal of the stove pipe was going to make this very unstable but after tightening all of the bolts it came fairly sturdy. With a little more experimentation I think it would be stronger and would support any size feed. The original housing was .90 gauge aluminum so it was strong and never rusted. This was a fun project. Thanks for your comments Anole.

 

[Anole]

If someone were converting a Buttonhook to tri-leg (that's why I chimed in on this thread), and used a relatively small diameter LNBF, maybe the tube could be a short length of 4" or 6" diameter plastic sewer pipe.
The scalar wouldn't have to be inside.
It would be light, strong, cheap, and never rust nor require paint.