sonnetpete
Grumpy Old Retired Moderator and quiz inquisitor..
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2008
- Messages
- 8,949
- Reaction score
- 3,496
- Points
- 113
- Age
- 73
- Website
- wordpress.com
- My Satellite Setup
-
Laminas 1.2M fibre dish with an IBU, on a Clarke Tech USALS motor, covering 57E - 24.5W to an Octagon SX88. Displayed on a 20" Dyon LED TV.
Seperate 80 cm dish on 28E with a Humax Freesat for SWMBO.
Free Sat V8 meter. Sony Bravia 46" LCD, Sony BluRay and Home Cinema.
- My Location
- Normandy, France
Hi,
Rather than wait for someone to turn up to give me a hand I decided to try and install this on my own. Luckily the dish can be accessed with only a two section (loft!!) ladder as it's less than 3 metres from the ground.
I first unpacked everything and assembled the dish in the living room to make sure there were no missing parts. It all went together brilliantly and I was impressed by the additional nuts welded onto the bottom of the wing nuts, the plastic inserts on the nuts to hold the dish surface onto the mount and the hinged cast metal lnb holder, with a bolted and sprung allen keyed arrangement to hold it onto the arm. If you had a couple of spare holders it would make swapping over lnb's really simple. The allen key clips onto a plastic mount stuck onto the dish bracket so it's available whilst working on the dish outside.
I took it all apart and installed the dish mount onto the motor stub, trying to ensure it went on in line with the centre of the stub. I then installed the dish support bracket with attached lnb and arm and wired up my lnb to the motor.
Now for the difficult part. I thought it would be fairly easy to offer up the actual dish surface to the support bracket, fitting and tightening the bolts whilst up the ladder. I did it but it wasn't easy, trying to lean backwards, hold the dish and a screwdriver in the bolt end whilst tightening on the back with a small ratchet socket.
If I were taller than 5'4" or blessed with extra long arms it would have been more straightforward and I would not contemplate this method higher than gutter level. Even then I would use a standoff and rope myself up.
I set the dish elevation to the same (25°) mark as I had had on the Triax, although the azimuth required a little more adjustment than the elevation. In all the install took just over two hours.
I did rough alignments with a cheap needle/tone meter so it will require finer adjustments with the aid of a tv and receiver. Luckily I can place these where I can easily see them while tinkering.I'll post transponder results comparing it with my Triax TD88 later this week if I get time.
Pete
Rather than wait for someone to turn up to give me a hand I decided to try and install this on my own. Luckily the dish can be accessed with only a two section (loft!!) ladder as it's less than 3 metres from the ground.
I first unpacked everything and assembled the dish in the living room to make sure there were no missing parts. It all went together brilliantly and I was impressed by the additional nuts welded onto the bottom of the wing nuts, the plastic inserts on the nuts to hold the dish surface onto the mount and the hinged cast metal lnb holder, with a bolted and sprung allen keyed arrangement to hold it onto the arm. If you had a couple of spare holders it would make swapping over lnb's really simple. The allen key clips onto a plastic mount stuck onto the dish bracket so it's available whilst working on the dish outside.
I took it all apart and installed the dish mount onto the motor stub, trying to ensure it went on in line with the centre of the stub. I then installed the dish support bracket with attached lnb and arm and wired up my lnb to the motor.
Now for the difficult part. I thought it would be fairly easy to offer up the actual dish surface to the support bracket, fitting and tightening the bolts whilst up the ladder. I did it but it wasn't easy, trying to lean backwards, hold the dish and a screwdriver in the bolt end whilst tightening on the back with a small ratchet socket.
If I were taller than 5'4" or blessed with extra long arms it would have been more straightforward and I would not contemplate this method higher than gutter level. Even then I would use a standoff and rope myself up.
I set the dish elevation to the same (25°) mark as I had had on the Triax, although the azimuth required a little more adjustment than the elevation. In all the install took just over two hours.
I did rough alignments with a cheap needle/tone meter so it will require finer adjustments with the aid of a tv and receiver. Luckily I can place these where I can easily see them while tinkering.I'll post transponder results comparing it with my Triax TD88 later this week if I get time.
Pete