1.2m Channel Master UK project

[archive10]

The ground you are digging also looks annoying stone free for most of it!

It wasn't! Took some fiddling with the hand-showel to remove properly. They (10 or so) went back in with the concrete.
Nevertheless, took abou 40 mins to dig the hole, another 40 mins to pour the concrete.

 

[timo_w2s]

Pretty good going at 40 min to dig the hole. My stones are probably more like pebbles. I can get more than 10 in every spadeful.

Anyway, my dad managed to borrow an angle grinder from a local kitchen installer he was chatting to today, so it may give it a try if I can't get much further down.

 

[archive10]

Pretty good going at 40 min to dig the hole. My stones are probably more like pebbles. I can get more than 10 in every spadeful.

Oh dear. That's hard going. I had 20-30 stones until I hit the gravel layer 10 cn above bedrock.

Anyway, my dad managed to borrow an angle grinder from a local kitchen installer he was chatting to today, so it may give it a try if I can't get much further down.

Sounds like a good way forward. (or down, as it were).

 

[timo_w2s]

I've got down to 97cm and have to admit defeat. Hit a couple of larger stones that I just couldn't shift no matter what. Drilling did help break up some of the smaller stones so I got a further 6cm down from yesterday but now that I have the angle grinder there's no point worrying about the last 13cm. Interestingly I was also starting to get to a damp reddish clay layer. That's the first time I've seen that in the garden.

Hopefully onto stage 2 and concrete in the post next weekend...

 

[Lazarus]

Just don't trigger a Sink Hole!

 

[Captain Jack]

Well, at least he won't need to worry about digging any deeper...

 

[timo_w2s]

Don't joke about sink holes, our neighbour's house has had subsidence and needed underpinning and our lawn is starting to dip in the middle...

Here's my arm down the hole.

 

[RimaNTSS]

Are you sleeping there? Do not worry about 15 or so cm left, just cement your pole. And, perhaps, after installing antenna on it overall height will be OK and no need for angle-grind.
Add: Friend of mine has mechanical hole digger, if there are not big stones in the soil than digging is quiet easy. With that device is possible to dig almost 1,5m deep holes.

 

[timo_w2s]

That mechanical hole digger looks like a useful bit of kit although not sure if it would work so well in this hard ground here.

Anyway, I'm done and it was fun exploring the underworld but I wouldn't want to do it again in a hurry.

I did try the dish on the pole in the hole temporarily and it is just a little too high. I would like to keep it hidden from the street a little more so will try cutting off 10cm or so.

 

[archive10]

That mechanical hole digger looks like a useful bit of kit although not sure if it would work so well in this hard ground here.

Anyway, I'm done and it was fun exploring the underworld but I wouldn't want to do it again in a hurry.

I did try the dish on the pole in the hole temporarily and it is just a little too high. I would like to keep it hidden from the street a little more so will try cutting off 10cm or so.

Ah, it just occurred to me - there is, actually, another way of getting your CM 120 a bit lower on the pole:
This is a CM pole mount (non-AzEl mount) for the CM90-120.
Not as nifty as the AzEl pole-cap mount for installation, but actually puts the dish a good 15-20 cm lower on the pole.
And, depending on the elevation of the satellite you're pointing at, you can put it a lot lower on the pole if you want.
It also allows using non-3-inch poles, it's specced for poles between 60 and 75 mm.
(Or you could have two on the same pole... now there's a thought, eh?)

 

[timo_w2s]

Mine pole and mount are actually 60mm so not quite 3" but I'll stick with it as it seems pretty sturdy with the clamp on top of the pole.

Good to know there are alternatives though if I decide to move the dish later on (tempted to take it to Finland one day).

 

[archive10]

Mine pole and mount are actually 60mm so not quite 3" but I'll stick with it as it seems pretty sturdy with the clamp on top of the pole.

Whatever works is the key phrase here 8)
The CM AzEl-mounts I have come across are designed for 76 mm masts. Maybe yours is an older design, or somehow adapted. Maybe CJ can comment?

Good to know there are alternatives though if I decide to move the dish later on (tempted to take it to Finland one day).

Not sure how you travel to Helsinki, but if you pass through Copenhagen I currently have a slightly battered CM120 dish face you can have for free. The arms are a bit bent, and the LNB clamp a bit battered. And no bracket / mount. But it's a CM120, nevertheless...

 

[timo_w2s]

Whatever works is the key phrase here 8)
The CM AzEl-mounts I have come across are designed for 76 mm masts. Maybe yours is an older design, or somehow adapted. Maybe CJ can comment?

It does look like it might have been adapted at some point. I'll take a photo of it tomorrow.

Not sure how you travel to Helsinki, but if you pass through Copenhagen I currently have a slightly battered CM120 dish face you can have for free. The arms are a bit bent, and the LNB clamp a bit battered. And no bracket / mount. But it's a CM120, nevertheless...

Thanks, a tempting offer but I wouldn't be able to pick it up for a couple of years so I'll have to pass on it. Usually fly direct to Helsinki but when I have driven over I tend to do an overnight stop in Ringsted by the E20 and then over the bridge to Malmö in the morning.

 

[Captain Jack]

And what a lovely bridge it is. Drove over it to visit the Turning Torso in Malmo during my visit to a friend's house in Odense, DK. Stopped in north Germany on the way there and Eindhoven on the way back.

Anyway... the mount that Timo has was originally made for the 90cm Channel Master dish but it has an adapter plate, which will convert the mount for use with the 1m and 1.2m CMs. The mount came with the Tooway 1m dish, which I still have and intend on using at some point in the future but it seems perfectly suitable for the 1.2m too.

It has a weird mounting hole in that you can only use it with a 60mm pole but I got the pole with the dish/mount so it wasn't an issue.

 

[timo_w2s]

Here's a photo of the back of the dish that CJ was referring to. You can see the adaptor plate the mount is fixed to. It's all pretty solid and well built.

 

[archive10]

Anyway... the mount that Timo has was originally made for the 90cm Channel Master dish but it has an adapter plate, which will convert the mount for use with the 1m and 1.2m CMs. The mount came with the Tooway 1m dish, which I still have and intend on using at some point in the future but it seems perfectly suitable for the 1.2m too.

Aah. That explain things. Never seen one like it, though.
Indeed it seems very sturdy - you should have no probs with that.
And it explains the 60mm pole size.

 

[timo_w2s]

I managed to use the angle grinder to take off about 10cm of the pole. It only took a couple of minutes but very noisy! Bet the neighbours are glad I only had the one pole to trim.

The pole is now set in concrete, borrowing st1's idea, I used a workbench to keep it upright. Now just waiting for it to set before I cover the top of the hole with soil and put up the dish. Anyone know how long it takes before it is properly set?

 

[RimaNTSS]

looks fine. Understand, weekend is coming and you are eager to put antenna on, but you better wait couple of days and during this time make cement little bit wet. Sunday morning should be OK for installation job.

 

[timo_w2s]

Thanks, shall resist the urge to touch it until Sunday earliest. It's nice and warm and dry at the moment so hopefully good time for it to set.

 

[archive10]

Thanks, shall resist the urge to touch it until Sunday earliest. It's nice and warm and dry at the moment so hopefully good time for it to set.

very sensible. have fun on sunday, though. always nice to break in a new dish...