2.4m Raven (Formerly ASC Signal, formerly Andrews, formerly Channel Master) dish inst

[Malard]

Hi,

After much investigation i found that 'no-one' in the UK had a 2.4m Andrews Channel master dish for at least 6 weeks.

Tracking down the uk distributor proved tricky, Andrews sold their dish division to ASC Signal, then in June this year they formed a new company called Raven(?) which now produce the dishes, Paradigm are the uk distributors (www.paracomm.co.uk) and they sell the Tx/Rx 2.4m dish for only £1400~ which is a bargain compared to the £2450 i was being quoted elsewhere.

Anyway back to my task at hand, The dish arrives this wednesday (26th Aug 2009) and I am wondering if anyone is interested in helping me install it, I live in peterborough and its going to point at nilesat.

I was also wondering if any owners or knowledgable people can give me any advise on the install ?

Thanks

Martin

[Malard]

oh P.S I notice that this site has blogs, I was thinking of documenting my install, I guess its not your every day install and can supply pictures etc and any issues I encouter. Would any admin be interested in me doing this on your site?

[rolfw]

Not quite correct on the information Martin, Andrew Satellite Communication group who changed their name to ASC, bought Channel master and recently sold the small dish business to Raven, an existing UK company.

[rolfw]

Most installation histories are added to the pictures of members' setups section, there are a couple in there already, would be great to see yours.

[Malard]

Oh, well according to the person in america as ASC they said it was just called Raven, i presumed (now incorrectly) that the firm was US.

But anyway, at least its down for google to spider and hopefully the keyword heavy brief will help other people track down a dish.

M

[rolfw]

Just as a matter of interest, the LNB in your profile appears to be a single band LNB, you will need a universal LNB for full Ku band reception.

[Malard]

Ah thanks, rolf ,can you suggest which lnb would be best for the dish, i need quad output and its going to point at nilesat, money is less of an issue as its being charged to work. The LNB they quoted can be sent back. I just asked them to supply the appropriate LNB I guess they messed up.

[rolfw]

Providing the feedhorn is C120 type, you wouldn't go too far wrong with an Invacom C120 Quad, it is the weapon of choice for many of our fringe reception specialists

[Malard]

This is what I have on order,

1 Kingpost for 2.4m (6.63" OD/168mm OD)
2 2.4M Type 243 Ku RxTx Omt/Fil (Int)
Linear, x-pol
3 WR75/WG17 Ku-Band Blanking Plate
4 Ku-Band PLL LNB
Frequency: 10.95 to 11.70 GHz
LO Stability: +/- 10 kHz; NF: 0.7dB
F-type


Would you be able to tell me what I actually need from this and where I could source the right stuff for a midweek delivery (i.e 26th/27th aug 09) ?

Thanks

[Telia]

Check with Allsatcom, one of the largest distributors of the old Andrew dishes, they are very helpful and have large stock, we buy plenty to work from there.

However they are in France, _http://www.allsatcom.com/

[Malard]

Thanks Telia, i've sourced the dish from the UK supplier, thats not the problem just need to get an LNB and feedhorn, does anyone know if the boss and rods from the dish are included with the dish or if i need to get them seperatly?

[Malard]

Anyone wanting to see pictures of the build..

_http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=135845&id=626191662&ref=nf

[Telia]

Can't see anything as you need password?

[Malard]

hmm, well, i think you need to be logged into facebook, but otherwise its free to access,

_http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs144.snc1/5332_142836096662_626191662_3350161_3809626_n.jpg
_http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs144.snc1/5332_142836091662_626191662_3350160_3122518_n.jpg
_http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs144.snc1/5332_142836106662_626191662_3350162_5509723_n.jpg
_http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs124.snc1/5332_142837771662_626191662_3350371_5032901_n.jpg
_http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs124.snc1/5332_142837766662_626191662_3350370_854591_n.jpg

P.S Admin, sorry for posting live link, but just out of curiosity disabling html links in the admin area would surely remove the need to append them with an underscore?

[Channel Hopper]

Thanks Telia, i've sourced the dish from the UK supplier, thats not the problem just need to get an LNB and feedhorn, does anyone know if the boss and rods from the dish are included with the dish or if i need to get them seperatly?

A kingpost is going to take at least a day to set up correctly as the concrete needs to set fully around the studding. Then you are looking for a day to install the dish as per instructions. So it is not really necessary for the LNB / feed to be available until the weekend.

You could always install what is arriving, and swop it over once the dish is fully aligned, so no need to delay things.

As for people stocking C120 CM feeds, one of the forum sponsors might look in tomorrow morning and send you a PM.

[Malard]

I'm using this dish to relay downsampled pictures to our office in estonia

Current install plan is as follows:

Concrete poored today, pins sunk.

Monday, Setup test feed using Astra 2d dish sending pictures to estonia, order dish, kingpost, lnb, feedhorn, coax.

Lay coax and install flush mounts inside property.

Tuesday dish arrives (ideally LNB/feedhorn also), begin dish build

Wednesday, continue dish build & install kingpost ontop of pins.

Thursday mount dish and align.

Friday send test feed of live pictures from nilesat.

Saturday go live.

[satelliteman]

P.S Admin, sorry for posting live link, but just out of curiosity disabling html links in the admin area would surely remove the need to append them with an underscore?

We ask that members disable live links, as per the rules which all should have read. Disabling HTML altogether would also kill live links to pages within the forum and also disable the forums key word revenue stream.

[Malard]

fair enough, i thought it was possible to disable just external links being posted by standard members, must be a mod i installed on my boards that allows that.

[rolfw]

We could mod the templates, but then it would break every time we update the forum software, which is quite regularly, so instead we just ask that members read the rules and guidelines.

[GreenmanBelg]

Check with Allsatcom, one of the largest distributors of the old Andrew dishes, they are very helpful and have large stock, we buy plenty to work from there.

However they are in France, _http://www.allsatcom.com/

ALLSATCOM is a very good company to do business with, I found them excellent.

[Malard]

does anyone have experience in tuning this sized dish to nilesat? if anyone is in the peterborough area, i'm willing to pay for it to be tuned

Thanks

[Channel Hopper]

Bit far from here unfortunately.

At what point did you think you needed expertise aligning the dish ?

[Malard]

i dont have a clinometer to get the vertical alignment, physically moving the dish is proving tricky on my own.

[satelliteman]

Have you a meter to set it up on Nile?

[Malard]

no, but i managed to find a local sat engineer who helped me fine tune it, its currently very overcast with light drizzle and i am getting 80% on 11977V and 79% on 11996H

which should give me some overage with rain fade i figure?