Advice Required on Precision Antennas Mason Road Stratford Upon Avon

Dish size is not going to be your limitation, unless you are really unlucky with guttering or overhangs. Motor is on the correct side, best way to check on actuator type is to move dish through the extremes of East/west and subtract distance between eyelet max and min .

It won't help much over stand off of the mount until you get the actuator though, since they also move about as a result of the dish angles. You'll find out soon enough though.

Good afternoon Channel Hopper,

Yes all is now clear, there is a window on the wall which is recessed about a bricks depth, so that may help as it is on the jack side.

Alternately SSS make a mount for over the gutter use, the bracket could be fixed where the weather station is so that the dish and jack are above the balcony rail.

As you suggested I shall move the dish East West to sort the jack size and the clearance required.

Mounting so that the dish is above the balcony would be good as I can then have two systems running, which will assist in identifying stations and satellites.

As far as I know the satellites do not transmit an identifying signal that the Technomate can display.

If the individual channels also did this, it would help when the scan adds channels from an adjacent satellite instead of having to rely on moving the dish to see.

Getting it up and running is the most interesting part for me, the V box has just arrived from SSS : )

Regards Allen

Good evening from a wet and misty Mullion Cove Cornwall.

As I was advised by a member, an 18 inch jack when fitted to my recently acquired Precision Antennas mount protrudes a fair way out due to the design of the mount.

Unfortunately I cannot use the ground stand it came with and have to wall mount it.

The largest mount that SSS do has a stand off of 550 mm, from the centre of the pole I assume.

There is a window behind where the jack motor will be which is recessed 5 inches or so, but even with all this the jack motor is going to require at least a further 3 to 4 inches, that is as far as I can tell with out mounting it.

If I make the pivot point that the extending end of the jack meets the dish mount closer to the pole, it would require shorter a jack for the same movement.

There would be less leverage so the jack would have to work harder. and it would also receive more force on it when wind hits the dish, but a diseqc motor is in a similar situation being on the centre of the dish.

Another way I think would be to extend the pivot point further out so that the jack was on an angle rather than pointing straight out, this could be done with out drilling holes.

There is only one mounting position for the fixed part of the jack, I do not want to drill into the metal as it will then have a point that is not galvanised.

Any help much appreciated.

Kind Regards Allen

You can get 24 inch T/K. possible to flip the mount upside down on your type makes more room in certain situations
24 inch Stand Off Brackets Galvanised - TK24

Spiff said:

If I make the pivot point that the extending end of the jack meets the dish mount closer to the pole, it would require shorter a jack for the same movement.

There would be less leverage so the jack would have to work harder. and it would also receive more force on it when wind hits the dish, but a diseqc motor is in a similar situation being on the centre of the dish.

Another way I think would be to extend the pivot point further out so that the jack was on an angle rather than pointing straight out, this could be done with out drilling holes.

There is only one mounting position for the fixed part of the jack, I do not want to drill into the metal as it will then have a point that is not galvanised.

Click to expand...

If you do use the very extreme of the bracketry directly behind the reflector, you will have more accurate positioning as a side effect, but the motor will be travelling further and will take longer between satellites.

I mentioned earlier to check distance between eyelets, but if you try to find a distance equalling 12" or 18" from the fixed hole on the rear of the mount to the furthest limit of travel, (east or west) onto the reflector bracket and make a hole at this point, it will allow you to use which ever motor you settle for at its most effective. At this distance you will also be able to work out the point behind the post that the gearboox might interfere with sinnce it will be a straight line and roughly the worm travel length, plus the gearbox.

Channel Hopper said:

If you do use the very extreme of the bracketry directly behind the reflector, you will have more accurate positioning as a side effect, but the motor will be travelling further and will take longer between satellites.

I mentioned earlier to check distance between eyelets, but if you try to find a distance equalling 12" or 18" from the fixed hole on the rear of the mount to the furthest limit of travel, (east or west) onto the reflector bracket and make a hole at this point, it will allow you to use which ever motor you settle for at its most effective. At this distance you will also be able to work out the point behind the post that the gearboox might interfere with sinnce it will be a straight line and roughly the worm travel length, plus the gearbox.

Click to expand...

Good evening Channel Hopper,

Thank you for your reply.

I have spent most of today trying different positions with the jack.

I left the jack case fixed on the left side of the motor bracket, and moved the extending end of the jack to a new point on the right of the dish bracket so that the jack was on an angle.

It all looked good until it reached over to the left side, as the jack became more parallel with the motor bracket, it reached a point when the weight of the dish made it pivot on the jack case fixing flopping to the left : )

As you suggested I have turned the dish East and West, it looks as if a 12 inch jack would be sufficient for most of the ark.

I may mount it off the balcony wall, which will mean that the jack just hangs over the balcony, the length would not then matter and the travel East West will have no limit. ( :

I shall have to move my weather station and first check with SSS the width of their bracket fixings because of a window and the end of the balcony wall.

The other thing that had made me a little reluctant, was that the balcony wall South facing is also more exposed to the South Westerlies 50 yards from the sea : )

Still it looks a very solid dish and mount, it is such a pity that I cannot use the ground stand as it is a very solid piece of kit.

Never mind unlike the Elephant trunk motor I could simply un-bolt the dish if a 100 mph storm was on the way, it will also leave me the workshop wall free for a fixed dish, or somewhere to try out the Motec H180 I purchased just before this Precision Antenna turned up.

Kind Regards Allen

That is the problem with polarmounts at one extreme, which can be minimised by moving both eylets away from the hinge, but as you know the tradeoff is a longer actuator to compensate.

Since you have a window behind the final resting place you could pre-install a couple of guy cables on the reflector mounting points, and tighten these to a wall stay in the event of a looming storm (just remember to untie before scanning next morning)

Channel Hopper said:

That is the problem with polarmounts at one extreme, which can be minimised by moving both eylets away from the hinge, but as you know the tradeoff is a longer actuator to compensate.

Since you have a window behind the final resting place you could pre-install a couple of guy cables on the reflector mounting points, and tighten these to a wall stay in the event of a looming storm (just remember to untie before scanning next morning)

Click to expand...

I have just been reading a previous thread about this mount with great interest.

One comment was made about a specific jack being low on counts, my thought was to add another reed switch the other side of the magnet wheel.

If it was wired in parallel would it not double the count ?

Regards Allen

Yeah. But no, but yeah.