I recently acquired another C-Band dish - an 8ft Paraclipse Hydro solid aluminum dish. The dish has a couple obvious dings in the outer lip. I conducted the 'string' test from several different locations around the dish. When strung directly over the worst of the dings the strings are separated by almost 3/8 in. Other locations string true. It seems to me any damage may be confined to the very edge of the dish. I decided to test the dishes actual performance but I didn't want to go to the trouble to plant a pole. I needed a temporary test platform.
After mulling it over for several days I stumbled onto the solution. I had an old 7.5 ft mesh dish complete with polar mount in my parts pile. The lightbulb came on. Anchor the dish to the ground and insert a short piece of 3in pipe in the polar mount and mount the Paraclipse on that. I replaced the actuator with a turnbuckle. I could plumb the pole by using the inclination and azimuth adjustments on the old mesh dish.
The temporary mount works although there is a little to much flex to the structure which allows a some movement in the Western Kansas wind. Nothing a few guy wires couldn't fix if I decide to use the temp mount for anything other than testing. I plan to pull the DMX741 LNBF off of my 10ft Unimesh and install it on the Paraclipse. The Paraclipse Hydro is a beautiful dish. I hope it still performs well enough to salvage.
Oh by the way. I didn't destroy a good 7.5 foot dish to make the temp mount. Notice the large dent in the rim courtesy of the aforementioned wind.
After mulling it over for several days I stumbled onto the solution. I had an old 7.5 ft mesh dish complete with polar mount in my parts pile. The lightbulb came on. Anchor the dish to the ground and insert a short piece of 3in pipe in the polar mount and mount the Paraclipse on that. I replaced the actuator with a turnbuckle. I could plumb the pole by using the inclination and azimuth adjustments on the old mesh dish.
The temporary mount works although there is a little to much flex to the structure which allows a some movement in the Western Kansas wind. Nothing a few guy wires couldn't fix if I decide to use the temp mount for anything other than testing. I plan to pull the DMX741 LNBF off of my 10ft Unimesh and install it on the Paraclipse. The Paraclipse Hydro is a beautiful dish. I hope it still performs well enough to salvage.
Oh by the way. I didn't destroy a good 7.5 foot dish to make the temp mount. Notice the large dent in the rim courtesy of the aforementioned wind.
