jeallen01
Specialist Contributor
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2003
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Good morning
Just come back to the forum after a loooooo..ng absence as I am probably going to get my non-Sky sat systems back in service after them having had a long "rest"!
I was reading a number of the threads last night - and noted several where the weight of the LNBs (particularly Octos and so on) caused, or was reputed to have caused, the arms to bend slightly and thus put the LNB out of the correct position. Strong winds can have the same effect, especially when signal strengths are low.
In my personal experience, this can happen, as can the use of several LNBs on a bar in a multi-LNB setup, and, IMHO, there is a very simple, cheap and quick solution which I have used on at least 2 dishes (and on a Sky Zone 2 dish which I haven't actually erected, but would have an Octo if/when I do):
- go to your local building/DIY hardware supplier (I used a local B&Q) and buy some of the flexible galvanised struts used in roofing and the like - they are about 2-3cm wide and come in various lengths, which you can trim to the required ones.
- you connect one end of a strut to one side of the dish with a self-tapping screw or small bolt and nut, and the other to the dish arm near the LNB mount. Bend that end so that it is parallel with the arm and secure with a another bolt and nut through a hole you make (carefully!) in the arm. Alternatively, a simple car-exhaust clamp or a worm-drive/Jubillee clip around the arm and the 2 strut ends is even easier! Very old pics of that type of arrangement on my old NEC 80cm and Gemini 90cm are attached (altho.
- if you are using an expansion bar to mount additional LNBs, then you can attach further struts from the dish to the end(s) of the bar to stop that wobbling as well - makes alignment quite a bit easier because the expansion bar LNBs don't then wobble around. Don't have any pics of this sort of thing as yet.
Just come back to the forum after a loooooo..ng absence as I am probably going to get my non-Sky sat systems back in service after them having had a long "rest"!
I was reading a number of the threads last night - and noted several where the weight of the LNBs (particularly Octos and so on) caused, or was reputed to have caused, the arms to bend slightly and thus put the LNB out of the correct position. Strong winds can have the same effect, especially when signal strengths are low.
In my personal experience, this can happen, as can the use of several LNBs on a bar in a multi-LNB setup, and, IMHO, there is a very simple, cheap and quick solution which I have used on at least 2 dishes (and on a Sky Zone 2 dish which I haven't actually erected, but would have an Octo if/when I do):
- go to your local building/DIY hardware supplier (I used a local B&Q) and buy some of the flexible galvanised struts used in roofing and the like - they are about 2-3cm wide and come in various lengths, which you can trim to the required ones.
- you connect one end of a strut to one side of the dish with a self-tapping screw or small bolt and nut, and the other to the dish arm near the LNB mount. Bend that end so that it is parallel with the arm and secure with a another bolt and nut through a hole you make (carefully!) in the arm. Alternatively, a simple car-exhaust clamp or a worm-drive/Jubillee clip around the arm and the 2 strut ends is even easier! Very old pics of that type of arrangement on my old NEC 80cm and Gemini 90cm are attached (altho.
- if you are using an expansion bar to mount additional LNBs, then you can attach further struts from the dish to the end(s) of the bar to stop that wobbling as well - makes alignment quite a bit easier because the expansion bar LNBs don't then wobble around. Don't have any pics of this sort of thing as yet.
