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When picking up a CM120 "in used condition" over the weekend, I had he pleasant surprise of discovering a CM polar mount attached to the back of it.
According to the guy I picked it up from, the dish has been sitting on the roof of a broker firm that used it to download stock rates from 40W. He put it up more than 20 years ago, and took it down again 4 years ago.
Interestingly, he used a polar mount with an official-looking metal bar to fix the azimuth, instead of an AzEl mount. Didn't say why. But it means that the polar mount never really has seen any action - it's been fixed in the same position for over 20 years... wonder if the bearings have survived?
Was this common early on? Did the professional CMs come with a polar mount as default, and a metal bar for locking the mount into place while adjusting the due-south satellite?
And funnily enough, he said that 40W was so low on the horizon that the downward tilt possible with just the mount adjustent (presumably declination) was not enough, and that he had to tilt the pole itself in the wall brackets to get the dish pointing sufficiently downwards. (Why not mount the dish permanently tilted full West, one might wonder?).
Although quite rusty, it still looks workable. Taking the cue from other restoration projects on this site (e.g. remlap's), I am tempted to pop down to the one of the automotive paintshops in the town, and see if they can sandblast / powdercoat the thing.
What do you think? Possible to save? Too rusty?
Would fit nicely to my newly mounted 120, although the range on that mount would be limited to ~55E- 28E...
Suddenly I find myself with three polar mounts; the SMW, the Prodelin, AND a Channel Master (which I though I'd never see)...
(The dish is a different story; it shows signs of some beating (edge is cracked several places, and two arms are somewhat bent). But that's the subject of another thread...)
According to the guy I picked it up from, the dish has been sitting on the roof of a broker firm that used it to download stock rates from 40W. He put it up more than 20 years ago, and took it down again 4 years ago.
Interestingly, he used a polar mount with an official-looking metal bar to fix the azimuth, instead of an AzEl mount. Didn't say why. But it means that the polar mount never really has seen any action - it's been fixed in the same position for over 20 years... wonder if the bearings have survived?
Was this common early on? Did the professional CMs come with a polar mount as default, and a metal bar for locking the mount into place while adjusting the due-south satellite?
And funnily enough, he said that 40W was so low on the horizon that the downward tilt possible with just the mount adjustent (presumably declination) was not enough, and that he had to tilt the pole itself in the wall brackets to get the dish pointing sufficiently downwards. (Why not mount the dish permanently tilted full West, one might wonder?).
Although quite rusty, it still looks workable. Taking the cue from other restoration projects on this site (e.g. remlap's), I am tempted to pop down to the one of the automotive paintshops in the town, and see if they can sandblast / powdercoat the thing.
What do you think? Possible to save? Too rusty?
Would fit nicely to my newly mounted 120, although the range on that mount would be limited to ~55E- 28E...
Suddenly I find myself with three polar mounts; the SMW, the Prodelin, AND a Channel Master (which I though I'd never see)...
(The dish is a different story; it shows signs of some beating (edge is cracked several places, and two arms are somewhat bent). But that's the subject of another thread...)
