what kind of pole do i get?

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somery

SatelliteGuys Pro
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Sep 30, 2006
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Pasadena, TX
if i were to move a dish to another location and had to cut the old pole, what kind and where would i find another for my new location. i am thinking that i don't want to mail order one. shipping and all..... is a plumbing shop's cast iron pipe the same exact size or anything? and what kind of concrete should i use. i heard that fast setting can crack over time or something like that. well, thats my question i guess, read on only if you want my progress on this dish.

My dad sold out the C-Band world to the little dish guys! Anyway I am going to be moving the 9 foot solid aluminum dish, a 20 minute trip, to my house.

only ten bolts to completely dismantle this dish. heres how:
I took the four (could have been six) "set screws" (all of the nuts and bolts on this dish are 3/4 ) that are going thru the coupling looking pole mount loose and with a person on each side of the dish, we rotated the dish on the pole; looks like its ready to come off! i took the feedhorn and arm off just by removing the four bolts at the base plate of the feedhorn holding arm with an impact tool, while my dad had a backup socket over the nuts on the back side of the dish. i put the liquid wrench on the nuts just seconds before we removed them, and my dad said not to worry because the early installers said overtightening would warp the dish.

then i got the actuator arm (the mover arm) off by removing the bottom swivel bolt while my dad held the dish from dropping. took it off because i thought it would be sloppy. took the feedhorn and arm off because i thought i might have to carry it on top of my suburban. i was going to put two ten foot 2x4s left to right over top of truck, about eight feet apart, then put the face of the dish down and tie it all down. didn't want to bend the aluminum.

but now a friend is offering his pickup. who knows.. maybe i'll still use the ten foot 2x4s laying from the bed floor at the tailgate to past the headache rack. guess then i would have the "cup" of the dish up to the sky, which means my taking that feedhorn arm (messing up the focal adjustment of the feedhorn) was a bad idea.

im excited, i can't wait, whoo hoo thanks in advance,
somery
 
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The Cast Iron will work just fine... I moved an 8' dish from next door by just setting in on the bed of my old truck, feedhorn up of course... I used qucikrete to set the pole and it worked just fine ( used a cast iron pole also from a salvage yard )
 
Schedule 40 pipe should be good enough, schedule 80 is great if you can come by it. I've had great luck buying scrap from well and pipeline contractors. Additional rigidity can be gained by filling the void inside the pipe with concrete, but this is usually not necessary.

Plain old ready-to-mix concrete from any home improvement center (brand names such Quickcrete, Sackrete) are fine for a job this size. You might want to splurge and buy it in the 40 lb bags rather than the 80 lb ones. The price spread is not that large.
 
dfergie, thanks for the rebar tip! GrumpyGuy, are you talking schedule 40 as in white PVC plastic for the main mounting pipe?
 
Cast iron or steel ...

...and dferg's advice on preventing the pipe from being rotated in the concrete is important. If you can't do it yourself, stop at a welding shop on your way home with the pipe. With any luck they will take care of you on the spot.
 
Wow, i finally did it and now have a good picture! Special thanks to dem0nlord for the quick response near or on Thanksgiving day! I was digging within minutes of your response :) thanks!

I ended up needing a 4" pole. I looked to salvage yard poles and got one that was 3.5 inches Outside Diameter on one end welded to about a three foot length of 4.5 inch pipe totaling 8'2" in length . This pole made me sad. I mean, i can see through the rust and pits and know that the reflector and mount are used but this was bad..... anyway i lucked out when I measured the original pole without the dish and saw it was an even 4 inches O.D.

The rest of this is just my installation experience, only if you've got extra time, might be skim-over-able or something. The whole point is that i think it was all worth it. :)

Dish move, i thought, was fun :) 9 foot dish is perfect for a pickup (had a big pickup-type tool box, still fit nice) dish stayed in the lane easy enough. I followed the dish home :)
Anyway, got a 10.5 foot long pole new from steel supply off beltway 8 and telephone here in houston. (they sell 21 foot lengths so i ordered .5 of one) didn't make em cut it. End of the day before thankgiving, i didn't want to hold em up.
So no priming or rebar weld-ons. Hope i didn't make a bad choice not doing that....The dish and mount are really heavy so i couldn't have the top of the pole more than 5 1/2 feet off the ground. So I dug down a little over 5 feet. 5 feet is really deep! I belled the bottom out a little, didn't measure the bell, but the neck was about 18 or 19 inches wide. Took 16 sacks of the 80 pound bags of concrete. There is still a couple inches shy of ground level, so i guess i'll put more later, I filled it with dirt for now. And there isn't any concrete in the middle, but i put an umbrella in the hole when it was drizzling/raining the day after i finished the concrete (i put plastic over everything too). The cabling is on the ground right now...guess i got too excited to see something to bury the wire...i'll run gray pvc underground this weekend, but i have to mail order the ribbon cable.
Oh and my actuator is malfunctioning :-( I ordered a SuperJack 24" The motor (and that manual turner under the cover) and everything are turning but the shaft isn't moving. I saw a schematic in the FAQS list, but i don't know.......hate to think i fix it and it drops my dish hard or something. Thanks all for your installation help! The picture quality is like dvd quality to me. Wow! I am glad I saved this dish from death, my mom was going to turn the dish into a pond or flower pot or something, she was going thru ideas! I said NO way!

I'll be getting 4dtv sidecar maybe to start. Wonder if the 905 has symbol rate issues like the 920? the wife didn't want me to have the dish. I got lots of silent treatment over this. When we (dish move driver, me and the wife) lifted the dish onto the pole up 5'3" from the ground we got back and our mouths dropped. Its huge! Lol I love it! It was worth every effort! Whoo hoo! I sub'd to Skyvision's silver package and added nickelodeon east.
Aaaahhhhhhh cband....i remember when sci fi first was coming on the air and those planets and stars would come to the screen like you were flying thru space. Always wondered what it was, then there was the countdown. That was cool. I can't remember for the life of me what the first ever show was! I think alien or terminator. But i watched it! Coolness guys, this 27 year old is loving it, thanks!
ps I got a friend looking for one now
 
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It is well worth a new 922 from Skyvision or NPS, you can also ask about a refurb, you can slave a dvb receiver to the 4dtv for many free channels, c/ku is also good to have if you do not already.
 
The Cast Iron will work just fine... I moved an 8' dish from next door by just setting in on the bed of my old truck, feedhorn up of course... I used qucikrete to set the pole and it worked just fine ( used a cast iron pole also from a salvage yard )



No to cast iron ( as in sewer pipe ) . Yes to black steel pipe ( used as gas pipe , among other uses ) .

Wyr
 
As for the no cast iron, any particular reason why? I was looking at several places and no one really carries it anyway,tho , only found short pieces of galvanized. I found a new 4" by 10.5 foot steel pipe for 70 bucks. Worth it to me, if its the foundation of the whole antenna.
 
I tired something new today, made my own king post mount. I didn't put in any anchors before pouring the concrete, but instead drilled the concrete and put in 8 6"x3/4" anchors afterwards. This is for a 10 foot mesh. No idea if wind will rip the anchors out or not, time will tell. I just like the idea of being able to re-level the pole later if needed. probably would have it going already, but I was replacing all hardware with stainless, only to find out I had forgotten to get some of the bolts, and it was too late, Home Depot already closed. For the pipe I used a 5 foot section of schedule 40 conduit. Luckilly I have an electrician friend that does commercial work, so I can get scrap pieces like this for free.
 
Wow, nice! I too, was thinking about going to stainless, just worried the bolts that tie the reflector dish (trek fiend here :) --reroute power to the deflector dish!) to the frame and mount would interfere with the signal?

is this your main dish? are you saying you took it up and reinstalled it?
 
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Yeah I didn't have a good perm install of this thing done yet, I only got it about a month ago and have been operating with a rather temporary setup. 1200 lbs of concrete in the ground with lots of rebar so I know that part will be fine. I just question these anchors. Getting ready to leave the country for about a month though, so it will just sit and we'll see how it does in the weather in the meantime. I still need to bury conduit too.
 
As for the no cast iron, any particular reason why? I was looking at several places and no one really carries it anyway,tho , only found short pieces of galvanized. I found a new 4" by 10.5 foot steel pipe for 70 bucks. Worth it to me, if its the foundation of the whole antenna.

Cast iron sewer pipe is not designed for any significant strength . It only has to be water tight . It might be OK if you put steel re-bar inside & pour with concrete . That is not a bad idea with any pipe .

Go to a scrap metal dealer & look for a piece of schedule 40 or schedule 80 steel pipe . It will be priced by the pound .

This is much cheaper than buying new pipe .

Wyr
 
I tired something new today, made my own king post mount. I didn't put in any anchors before pouring the concrete, but instead drilled the concrete and put in 8 6"x3/4" anchors afterwards. This is for a 10 foot mesh. No idea if wind will rip the anchors out or not, time will tell. I just like the idea of being able to re-level the pole later if needed. probably would have it going already, but I was replacing all hardware with stainless, only to find out I had forgotten to get some of the bolts, and it was too late, Home Depot already closed. For the pipe I used a 5 foot section of schedule 40 conduit. Luckilly I have an electrician friend that does commercial work, so I can get scrap pieces like this for free.

I will attempt to deacribe my mount for my 10' perferated metal dish .

A steel plate , about 24" x 24" os bolted to my concrete patio with 8 - 12 , 3/8" concrete anchors . The pipe / pole is delded to this plate with 3 triangular gussets . This allowed the pole to be leveled .

This has been up for at least a year .

Be careful if you weld galvinized pipe , the zinc vapors are posionus .

Wyr
 
Yeah I didn't have a good perm install of this thing done yet, I only got it about a month ago and have been operating with a rather temporary setup. 1200 lbs of concrete in the ground with lots of rebar so I know that part will be fine. I just question these anchors. Getting ready to leave the country for about a month though, so it will just sit and we'll see how it does in the weather in the meantime. I still need to bury conduit too.
Mine is setup this way and it hasn't budged.

I did it so I could shave off the studs and bury it if I move. #1 its quick & easy to take down, and for 2 - it's re-usable ;).
 
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