5-meter cassegrain reflector vendor

J

jetli626

Member
My Satellite Setup
X/L/S-Band satellite ground stations
My Location
San Diego, CA
Hello,

Apologies if this isn't the proper forum for this sort of request. The company I work at is looking for a vendor to build a highly rigid (honeycomb composite or some variation thereof) 5-meter reflector that will accept a cassegrain feed. It will be enclosed in a radome and will experience 3-axis motion. The central hub must be quite rigid as the feed is pretty darn heavy.

We are located in California, but our customer is in Europe. Therefore, we are hoping to find a European vendor to produce this. Does anyone have any recommendations?

I have been searching the forums here a bit, and there are some companies that make large reflectors, but they appear to be less robust and/or cannot be custom-made.

I have attached some pictures of prior examples (made by US manufacturers). We really like the latter example, with an 8-petal + hub configuration. Those are easy to put together and are very rigid. Note that we are used to $50k+ reflectors, as well, so price isn't an issue for the most part.

Thanks!
 

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Is the final design for your European client going to be receive only, or receive/transmit.

If the latter, what band(s) and what type approvals are you hoping to get for the finished installation ?


And is it a one off contract or are you looking for a quantity for future use ?
 
It's only for receiving. We are going to take X-Band data (Terra, Aqua, and NPOESS). It is a one-off, as well. The system is already approved by the appropriate government agency, so we have the proper paperwork in place.

A prior manufacturer we've used is Pacific Radomes. They make a great reflector, but we are also investigating European manufacturers to make things easier. We don't have a system on hand to in-house test this, either, so it's going to have to be laser-checked in advance (preferably by the manufacturer) and then delivered straight to the customer. We are only hands-on for the final install.
 
OK, that makes sense.

Is the backplate and motor drive mechanis something you are providing, or does that have to be part of the reflector design as well.

If they have to be mated up on site, then do you have a template design ?

And is the final system land, or ship based ?
 
Indeed, we have a positioner and usually design a mating bracket to connect the reflector to the positioner. We will need the backside of the reflector to have threaded inserts so we can attach the bracket to it. Integrating the backplate/bracket into the reflector might also be acceptable, but we usually don't go that way.

Here is a better picture so you can see how things are usually done. Note the octagonal bracket...it mounts to the back of the reflector via bolts that thread into the center reflector hub. That whole assembly is then lowered onto the beefy square bracket underneath, which has already been attach to the T-shaped arms.
 

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I forgot to mention that it is land-based. It will be in a radome though so weather isn't really an issue, aside from biting cold, since it's gonna be on a mountaintop. It has to be mated on site, as well. We don't want to do any drilling, etc. Just mate the brackets and lift the reflector via a giant crane.
 
Thanks for the answers

I will go check my little black book

Can i ask roughly whereabouts this is to be installed ? It might save a few thousand $ if its in Eastern Europe.
 
It will be installed in Italy. The positioner is actually already in place, so we just need to get the reflector over there.

Thanks for the help! We are pretty clueless about overseas vendors a lot of the time. I'm glad I stumbled across this forum.
 
Having searched, I believe the book has shrunk somewhat over the years. The Russian fabricators appear to have changed email and web addresses a number of times and are uncontactable at present.

Four other European manuafacturers are apparent, one of those deals more with the military connections (Cobham), which bought out the Patriot company

_http://www.cobham.com/about-cobham/avionics-and-surveillance/about-us/satcom/albion/products/broadcast--prime-focus-antennas.aspx

You probably know the other two

Precision Antennas - now back in business courtesy of another company. They used to manufacture a 4.5m Cassegrain, but I believe the new company stops at 3.7m.

_http://www.qpreflectors.com/downloads/QPcatalogue.pdf

Jast of Switzerland - _www.jastantenna.com - they are part of the Viasat Group but are a manufacturer in their own right.

And lastly Elital of Italy, supplying Anthex antennas in 5metre cassegrain configuration

_http://www.elital.com/prodotti_antenne.htm

_http://www.elital.com/download/antenna_characteristics.pdf

ANTHEX srl
Sede legale Nucleo industriale di Pile
67100 L'Aquila
Tel. 0862/810063 06/5758654 06/70476111



I have no experience of them, but at least they will be local.
 
hello,
if your going to uplink the dish will need a tracking motor to keep it aligned with the satellite.
this is usualy the case with anything over 4 meters
try the italian compony
they are off work till tuesday.
easter monday is a holloday here in italy.
ralph
 
hello again, there was a satellite place in st cloud florida i saw that makes big dishes as well.
try a search it should come up.
don't have a name sorry.
ralph
 
ralphmagno said:
hello,
if your going to uplink the dish will need a tracking motor to keep it aligned with the satellite.
this is usualy the case with anything over 4 meters
try the italian compony
they are off work till tuesday.
easter monday is a holloday here in italy.
ralph
Click to expand...

'It's only for receiving. We are going to take X-Band data (Terra, Aqua, and NPOESS)'.
 
ralphmagno said:
hello again, there was a satellite place in st cloud florida i saw that makes big dishes as well.
try a search it should come up.
don't have a name sorry.
ralph
Click to expand...

'We are located in California, but our customer is in Europe. Therefore, we are hoping to find a European vendor to produce this. Does anyone have any recommendations?'
 
hello again,
look at _http://www.irte.it
they have a web site and i see a 4 meter cassegrain antenna.
they probally make a biger dish on special order.
phone number i see on site is 39-0331 797286
we have a 4 meter prime no one wants here too big to move.
ralph
 
ralphmagno said:
we have a 4 meter prime no one wants here too big to move.
ralph
Click to expand...

What is the make/condition of 4m dish at your site ?

_http://www.irte.it/I/a_psat_cass.htm

I didn't pull details of any manufacturers of antennas smaller than 4.5m as the radome would be rather empty.

@jetli626 - Knowing what the minimum gain necessary for the project at a specific X band frequency would be useful.
 
hello.
its a irte 4 meter it weighs a ton it comes in 2 sections 2 meters high by 4 meters long.
it took 5 guys to carry each peace up 5 floors.
had to build a sepcial base.
it is about 800 kilos total and is rated for 150 km wind
it was for the bbc project that didn't work here in naples.
ralph
 
Do you need exactly 5 meter? as i can get you used cassegrain Vertex/RSI 7.3m dish or Andrew 7.6m 4-port, LP, Motorized in excellent condition for immediate delivery ex works from Netherlands.

I can get you in contact with our broker firm that deals in ex-used commercial dishes for good prices.

I PM you with details.


jetli626 said:
Hello,

Apologies if this isn't the proper forum for this sort of request. The company I work at is looking for a vendor to build a highly rigid (honeycomb composite or some variation thereof) 5-meter reflector that will accept a cassegrain feed. It will be enclosed in a radome and will experience 3-axis motion. The central hub must be quite rigid as the feed is pretty darn heavy.

We are located in California, but our customer is in Europe. Therefore, we are hoping to find a European vendor to produce this. Does anyone have any recommendations?

I have been searching the forums here a bit, and there are some companies that make large reflectors, but they appear to be less robust and/or cannot be custom-made.

I have attached some pictures of prior examples (made by US manufacturers). We really like the latter example, with an 8-petal + hub configuration. Those are easy to put together and are very rigid. Note that we are used to $50k+ reflectors, as well, so price isn't an issue for the most part.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
A 7 metre dish is unlikely to fit in 5m radome, besides the motor platform will not function well with a dish that is probably twice the weight .
 
Thanks for the help, Channel Hopper. I'm gonna submit some quotes now, I suppose. Another manufacturer we are considering is MFG Galileo/Ratech, though they would have to make new tooling to hit our required F/D of .305.
 
jetli626 said:
Thanks for the help, Channel Hopper. I'm gonna submit some quotes now, I suppose. Another manufacturer we are considering is MFG Galileo/Ratech, though they would have to make new tooling to hit our required F/D of .305.
Click to expand...

Then you are back to a US manufacturer increasing the cost and delivery schedules.

How far off would you be with the Anthex 5m dish (f/d of 0.3) from Elital, and does your feed have any adjustment at all ?

It might be worth calculating the distance of the final destination from them in L'Aquila, as it will prompt them to answer a bit quicker.
 
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