Porta-BUD becomes Pole-ar BUD

[phlatwound]

I did a fixed dish install (97W) for a very nice Taiwanese family down in Branson, MO last year, and they paid me with a couple of piles of assorted sat stuff and OTA antennas that they were going to send to the landfill.

In the sat pile was most of the parts required to construct 2 of the 180 cm 6-petal stamped steel dishes, one on a fixed base, and a pile of pieces that at one time I was reasonably certain had been a polar mount.

So last winter I assembled one of the dishes, attached it to the fixed stand and used that setup to discover that a box of used 9 C-band LNBs I bought at a garage sale, were all bad.

After looking at the pics Robby posted in his great "$69.99" thread that gave me the motivation to assemble my polar parts pile into a mount.

I see he has listed the mount diameter of his new deal to be 2-5/8"? This one was 2-7/8", so I mounted it on an existing planted 2-3/8" OD Sch 40 pipe I had, and used a split piece of 2" PVC for shims...........perfect fit. That pipe would probably be a little wobbly in a high wind, but could probably cut a foot or so off it and it would be fine.

Haven't had much chance to tune it yet but I was pulling in the usual suspects from 91W and 99W before I had to shut down the other night.

 

[gabshere]

great pics i know your in the early stages of testing but how do you think it compares to say that mesh dish ( and it looked to be a 7 1/2 fter )

although its a solid c-band you might want to throw up one of those prime focus Ku lnbf's and give it a test

 

[phlatwound]

great pics i know your in the early stages of testing but how do you think it compares to say that mesh dish ( and it looked to be a 7 1/2 fter )

although its a solid c-band you might want to throw up one of those prime focus Ku lnbf's and give it a test

Thanks, George.

My first impression is the 7 1/2 footer is going to be better, but who knows how much I might squeeze out of the 6' if I have time to play with it.

And you must be reading my mind, the main reason I put that one on the pole was to try out my GeoSat SL1P on it. Once I can bring in the C-band arc pretty well that will be the next step.

 

[Mr Tony]

very cool

oh to have a back yard I could mount some C-Band poles in

 

[Corrado]

Nice farm you have going there, Phlat. Keep up the good work.

I love recycling this equipment myself and nothing beats free.

 

[phlatwound]

very cool

oh to have a back yard I could mount some C-Band poles in

We have 100 acres of trees, bluffs, creeks and critters and I'm sure we could spare enough for you to plant a few dishes, will send it ASAP, gratis. You just need to pull a few strings at the next HOA meeting.

Disclaimer: Iceberg to pay shipping on his new back yard.

Nice farm you have going there, Phlat. Keep up the good work.

I love recycling this equipment myself and nothing beats free.

Thanks, Corrado. It's great to be able to have a place where I can do whatever I want, and family that is cool with it.

If I keep at it, one day I figure I will know about a tenth as much about this stuff as some of you guys have already forgotten.