Advice Needed Channel master 1.2m with polar mount, Setup

Ragnarok

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I picked up a Channel master 1.2m last year with a bloody great pole that needs concreting in the ground. complete with polar mount and jack and loads of 4 core cable suitable for driving the motor. All I needed was a V-box to test it all about and it works which i also picked up. I just added a golden media 201+ LNB which I had alot of luck with on my other dish. when the weather is good it's hard to say if the Inverto black ultra is better, but when the rain comes down the Golden media holds on to the signal soo much better. Might even be the LNB cap sheding the rain better.

Safe to say the weather has been too crappy and cold to to consider concreting until just recently. I do have the original manual, which is helpful. I do have a digital spirit level/protractor and workbench which may be able to help keep it in place while the concrete goes off.

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I just brought another one with dish, polar mount, and tripod. I set this up temporarily too see it in action and see it working and put on the jack and got it moving and working. and some nice signals too. I currently have it tracking 36w- 28e , briefly had some luck with 36 and 39E a touch high on elevation on the west side but nearly bang on, but tracking too low past 16e to the east about a db out on 23.5e. Still not bad for very little tweaking and the tripod isn't the most stable or adjustable. but it's only temporary and must be moved soon.


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I'm not sure how much these dings will affect performance but the signals are decent. I might have to put the other dish face on and find out.

I've already routed all the cables I need. I have a spot picked out where it should be able to see the whole arc and not too far of both Horizons while be able to manage trees, bushes providing shelter without impacting performance and so the whole world can't see it. My receiver is a VU+ Solo 4k.

My questions are

I've not done alot of concreting, I have some ballast available, but probably not enough. I got some crazy quotes from Travis Perkins for post Crete bags. Whats the best way to go about concreteing in this pole?

I want to pain the dish face green/yellow to match the bushes, What paints should I be using?

How much of the arc should I be able to realistically track with the original channel master 6033 polar mount? I want to get 36w - 42e, I'm hoping 60W- 60E is possible, especially when i have the proper solid foundation in place.

Alignment strategy? It not like having Usals goto x for you nearest south satellite, then go set the latitude on the motor, align and your almost done. getting the east west setting accurate looks a royal pain in the butt, and the top latitude marking ( which i'm assuming controls declination) and a broad lines and doesn't look easy to fine the exact spot for my latitude and set it and assume it's dead right. it sounds like i'll be doing alot of trial an error.

I think
Always adjust elevation declanation on centre satellite 1w in my case.
1. If ether west or east is too high or adjust east and wast until they are ok or equally out. once this is right

2. if necessary Adjust declination on 1w again correct then with elevation. ( east and west sats the dish was pointing too low , declination was too high and vise versa) , then check the satellites on the east and west again.

repeat until accurate.


Much thanks guys
 
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A

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I've not done alot of concreting, I have some ballast available, but probably not enough. I got some crazy quotes from Travis Perkins for post Crete bags. Whats the best way to go about concreteing in this pole?

Wrsp concreting the pole into the ground, I did it like this:

Channel Master 120 for 28.2E in rural southern Sweden

It is still solid, and even though it wasn't meant for polar mount, I managed to get it plumb so that none of my spirit levels shows any problems.
I used 4 bags of concrete, bought them in a local builder's depot for about GBP 20 IIRC.
You may find something cheaper elsewhere.

I want to pain the dish face green/yellow to match the bushes, What paints should I be using?

Most modern non-metallic paints.
Good option is car spray-paint. Most other members use this.

How much of the arc should I be able to realistically track with the original channel master 6033 polar mount? I want to get 36w - 42e, I'm hoping 60W- 60E is possible, especially when i have the proper solid foundation in place.

The mount will probably let you do H2H, but with an actuator, you need to decide on west-facing or east-facing setup (actuator left or right). Actual range is probably 80-100 degrees or so (I would guess), with the step-size being coarse with the actuator extended fully.

There are various schemes to moving the fastening poinst for the arms for achieving more centered range.
There are several threads that touch upon this on the forum.
 

Ragnarok

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much progress made but not 100% finished. The dish had to go from the tripod as it's nearly time to put the vegetables in the veggie patch it was temporally setup on.

I used a 4 pint milk bottle to make and LNB cover, it's making a hell of a difference in the rain, an not impacting the dish much at all.





Managed to get a 12 bags of pose Crete at a not unreasonable price , cheeper than the local TP ballast + cement :) .




The Hole, I went about 41 Inches deep, i was gunning for 1m deep. and about half a meter in diameter. hard work but nailed it. much like the channel master manual said but a little bigger. The biggest hold up was moving compost bins to dig the hole here.



Preparing the pole with anti turning bar, I had a 1m bar to cut in in half and bent it down like the channel master manual said. and finding somthing to hold it up right which was easy in my case. with an old cole bunker right next to the hole. I managed to get the pole within 0.04 of dead plumb whatever way I tried to measure it with the digital angle finder.



Then The Concreting bit.


I did put an extra bag of post Crete in there to top that off, I also wasn't always seeing enough cement at the top of the post crete mix so i also got an extra bag of cement and kept throwing that on and adding water still it stopped disappearing

A week later even though post Crete goes off real fast.....



It's up, I was doing the finishing touches in the dark, but the good news is I'm getting 36w- 53e just droping the dish as setup on the tripod and aligning east and west on 1w, and a tiny tweak to back elevation bolt. I should be able to go even further east if I wish to with a few minor adjustment at the expense of westerly sats, but there is not alot past 36w there currently in KU band..

However the pole does need some stabilisation struts which will happen, the sway doesn't actually affect the signal much at all, maybe 0.2 db tops, The tree needs some shaping, as it's affecting 16e-42e partially, I was able to get MBC on 26e on the new transponder, but 26e is gone currently with the tree blockage. but i do also want the tree to hide it from the neighbours a bit, and I got a can of green spray pain to help it blend in. and try to lower it down a but shorten the pole as long as i can still see the Clark belt clearly.
 
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Captain Jack

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Great write up and congrats on a tidy install! Nice pictures too but please upload them to the forum and not hot link it externally. The biggest versions are not working when I click on them.

To stabilise the pole, I find that filling it with concrete does wonders without having to attach braces.
 

Ragnarok

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Ah ah, now I know why the channel master manual says fill it with concrete. I'm a little worried that it'll make the pole brittle. I figured between the wind never rarely if ever hitting 90mph let alone 120mpg , If I went with the 120mph specs I might be able to get away with having the pole up higher. then if the pole can't take it it's bye bye pole. I think the safer way would be to brace it personally, but I could be wrong possibly very wrong.

I remember seeing a near dire warning about filling the pole with concrete before, I just cannot remember where exactly.
 

blademedia

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Nice install well done, another way for stabilizing the pole would be to do what ive seen on this forum, I cant find it at the moment :-dohbut it was a nice neat job, lots better than looking at a big pile of slabs/bricks, I know @nelson_b did the modification maybe he can help.
 

purplemarina

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you could brace it with 4 wires to mounting points and turn buckles for tension. i used this on one of my dishes but watch out for them when you are making adjustments its easy to trip over
 
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much progress made but not 100% finished. The dish had to go from the tripod as it's nearly time to put the vegetables in the veggie patch it was temporally setup on.

Great installation!
You can go a long way with just some instant concrete and a spade, as you seem to have found out!

However the pole does need some stabilisation struts which will happen, the sway doesn't actually affect the signal much at all

Not quite sure why it sways - If you have 1m deep by about 50 cm across, you've got about 300 kg of concrete fixed to the pole.
That should be quite solid.
Perhaps the soil is really loose, has it been dug recently?
How high is the pole? if you've 1m in the ground, and 2m above, you will of course exerience some lever-action, but still...

you could brace it with 4 wires to mounting points and turn buckles for tension. i used this on one of my dishes but watch out for them when you are making adjustments its easy to trip over

I agree; if you can live with the trip-hazard, a good way to fix the pole is probably with wires to something solid (such as buried conrete postholders, or even ground spits hammered in, and fitted with a concrete crown to fix it sideways movement).

Looking forward to the full camouflage and reception report! :)

A gentle suggestion: Pls next time upload pics to the forum instead of linking to external sites.
 

Ragnarok

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The pole it about 3m in total, 2 meters above ground high and aluminium. Thats why it had room to sway a bit, the bottom of the pole it solid and locked into the concrete.
 

daro2096

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Used to have a Channel Master 1.2m dish 17 years ago. They are the best dish in their class. Even when covered in snow you will still get a picture on your receiver. Downside is they are big and heavy and require a 3 inch pole. As for wall mounting it I suggest Satellite Superstore for their custom built heavy duty wall mounts.

I got my wall mounts on a deal from them as they haven't rust proof painted them yet and they lasted 7, 8 years without rusting(the mounts required a rust primer and a top coat, can't remember what the proper names for the paints were). I was local to them and was able to pick them up.
 
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