Polar Mount on Offset Dish

chib

I am tired of worrying about bad weather mis aligning my dish and I am considering going down the polar mount and Jack actuator route as it's a much more solid setup.

Due to the current bad weather in the South East. My dish was mis aligned by the wind last night. I had to go out this morning in the rain to realign the dish which took an hour

I was wondering if I could get rid of the black plastic and replace it with a polar mount and if this possible where do I get a polar mount from?


Chib

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robbieb43

I have just been through the same loop but ended back with a Stab 100 H2H. I am about to put my brand new Polar mount and Jack on fleabay. The problem for me was that my old Lenson Heath Polar mount was great so I decided, when the spring storms wrecked my old dish, to go down the same route. Unfortunatelly the Triax Polar mount I bought did not give nearly the arc that I wanted and for me, with a wall in the way the jack would have snagged. I am really happy with my Stab, but lets see what happens next winter.

chib

hmm...Its something I have to consider...But I am determined to go down the jack + Polar mount+vbox route although it seems it would set me back in excess £100 .

I had to go out a second time to realign my dish. I still cant figure out if it is the wind or my motor forgetting sat position due to water seeping into its electronics..It is still not working properly.


Going back to your post about what you said about your newly arc with the polar mount not as good. Could you elaborate on this pls. Is this as a result of ill fitting b/w the polar mount and dish or is it to do with the location of the sat dish.

I have been scanning round for Polar mounts and so far I can't seem to find any except for a Triax Dishes. I have a generic DigiQuest dish

CHib

rolfw

I had to sort out loads of problems last winter with those dishes, in most cases the elevation of the dish had dropped, due to the plastic back plate shrinking in the cold more than the steel bracket.

The steel bracket also flexes too much and is impossible to tighten enough on the motor arm, you would be better off investing in a quality dish.

PS. Is that Wembley in the background?

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chib

Yup , It is Wembley and its been so busy lately...kinda of annoying waking up in the morning to footie fan belting out their club songs.

Although the atmosphere around has been quite good and jovial

Chib

robbieb43

Yes the old LH used to give me 45W-42E in comfort, but the design of the Triax (and it is real Triax part, not one of the dodgly clones also on the market) is such that once you fix the lever arm to the dish it can't manage more than about 30 degrees one way and as many as you want the other. So If you want to mount it correctly from a declination and inclination point of view, you are stuck with about a 70 degree ARC. The jack snagging on the wall made this even worse, but this just my difficult siting, not a problem I can blame them for however.

I did think I could take a hacksaw to it and do some modding but I decided better of it. I was suprised I must say but I followed the instructions to the letter and cross checked it with pictures. My installer also could not see a way round it .

chib

Thanks for the reply Robbie43. I must say I am a bit surprised as Triax is suppossed to be a good make. Did you try speaking to Triax and if you did what did they say?

I have been looking around for Polar mounts and I can't seem to find any.The only ones I have seen are made by Triax for Triax dishes and they cost a fortune. Looks like I have to buy a whole new dish

I have noticed polar mounts are used mainly for huge dishes(above 1m diametre), could someone pls reccommend any offset dish(similar to my current dish. See first post) of about 85-90cm that comes with a polar mount

Cheers
Chib

wium

I agree that a polar mount is the answer.I have got a 2.6M C band dish with a polar mount,copied it with a few modifications and got a welder to make me a polar mount on which i mounted a 90cm offset dish.Using a 24 inch actuator i cover 78.5E to 27.5W with ease. In my case i have mounted the actuator on the right hand side,looking from behind the dish ,moving East to West.(Southern Africa)

chib

Hmm.... no replies for a few days now :-)

Maybe I have to go down the making it myself route but I have no clue of who to contact about this a welder and I guess I would need a sample polar mount as well.

or maybe finding a trying to find an old disused polar mount dish and ripping off the polar mount.

CHib

robbieb43

Hi Chib

No I never did speak to Triax - maybe I should have but it was pretty plain to see (bit of an engineering type that I am) that the design would have a limiitation - see pic. It would be better if the arm on the front part of the mount was on the dish mount as in my LH. As you can see either way you mount it, it will snag either east or west.

The plus side is that it was not too expensive - less than 50 quid. It will be even chepaer for someone else when I put it on fleabay.

Compare this with the LH set up - you can see from the pic how far the LH can move round - look at the difference in construction also. The flimsy arm and plastic bushes on the Triax versus the "Brooklyn Bridge" approcah on the LH. (Just for clarity Pic one is Triax, Pic 2 & 3 are LH Polar mount and Dish mount - with dish still attached )

Rob

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