New user - old Birdview

[bombu]

If you are going to only occasionally have a reason to move the antenna, how about a 30 dollar solution? A common trailer jack with a hand crank. If you could track the satellite arc with this manually, you would be missing nothing but the convenience of getting to control it from indoors.
This could also be a good solution until you eventually find a used actuator that is still capable of a reasonable repair without breaking the bank. Good luck!

Mike

Thanks Mike. That's an option. I have a jack from a manufactured home hitch that I've considered using. A crank might be easier (but maybe I can use a battery powered drill.) I haven't seen anything in that price range, though.

I'll have to measure the stroke length I'd want. I can measure the range between the extremes but I don't think there's much chance of getting signal at the extremes. I'm on the west side of a hill so my view to the east is limited and there's forest to the west.

When I get set up to actually receive signals I can decide what stroke length would be appropriate.

Arlo, I'll take what you've said under advisement but, unless I can get the original actuator arm to move, the gear box and motor aren't going to be usable anyway. I don't see any possibility of getting the arm disassembled without getting it to work first. The coupler that the motor drove is a rod with a slotted end. I can get the claw of a claw hammer into the slot which gives me leverage to try to turn it. It turns about 15 degrees but there's no change in the extension of the telescoping tubes.

Whatever the mechanical arrangement is within the two telescoping tubes it seems to be permanently hidden away unless the penetrating oil frees it up enough to let the slotted rod turn. I've used up the two old spray cans I had on hand and just bought another (B'laster) but I'm afraid it's going to be a waste of money.

 

[Brct203]

I'm not particularly familiar with that specific actuator, but there are basicaly 3 main components, and all could have suffered from degradation over time:
- the motor
- the gears
- the acme screw and nut (or equivalent)

Looks like the gears had plenty of grease so might be ok

My suggestion would be to take things apart (after and while taking plenty of pictures so that you know how to put it back together), so that you can isolate those 3 components.
the motor might have suffered from water and rusted. I have seen motors where the housing rusted inside, swelling and pushing the magnets towards the rotor until it squeezes it enough that nothing can turn. it might be possible to remove the magnets, clean things up, treat the metal and glue the magnets back in place. the steel armature of the rotor might have rusted and swollen outward, until it touches the magnets. That's probably easier to cleanup while being careful not to damage the copper windings.
Now the acme screw... since the motor is no longer connected, see if you can turn the gears or the shaft and whether the arm actually moves in/out. If it does, try to see if it's clean and grease if necessary. If nothing moves, the screw is probably damaged by corrosion and it may or may not be salvageable. If you can turn the shaft but the arm does not move, then the nut is probably damaged and would need to be replaced. Not sure if that's an option beside manually fabricating one.

so it would be great if you can somehow make it work, even if it's not working perfectly, but enough to get you started.

Now about C-band in general, depending on where you are located, 5G interference can be a minor, distant problem, or a show-stopper. So before you spend much money on a new actuator, see if you can get reliable reception at all ...