Question for the "car tyre" mounting bods...

[Analoguesat]

I wander off to Gloucestershire for a fortnights holiday and come back to find the forum has decided to head off into the decking business....... :?

Well done alcina - an imaginative solution to your problem.

:clap:

[Jimdefruit]

I am really impressed.

Now, how many turns of the handle does it take to wind up the elastic in your sat receiver?

[alcina]

Well...the chalk marks on the patio have been replaced with shiney bits of duct tape, and the duct tape has now survived several downpours so I think I'm safe! They're not labelled, but there's only three positions marked and it's pretty easy to work out which marks relate to which satellite! It took about 15 minutes...shove the right stick up the back of the dish to get the elevation, align the decking to roughly the right direction, then twist the decking slooooowly round waiting for "YELLOW!!" to be bellowed from the living room - which was my lodger patiently watching the tv screen and reporting when the Technomate signal line for the desired satellite turned from red to yellow...indicating I'd hit the right one! Dashed handy that Technomate setup menu!

The only additional modification was to use an old soldering iron to burn in "A1", "H" and "A2" on the relevant peices of wood, seeing as though their chalk marks had also washed off! I tried quickly to make a piece of wood to get the elevation for Atlantic Bird 3 whilst my lodger was around to shout pretty colours for me...I figured roughly on it being about a finger tip shorter than the Hotbird stick (as you can tell I am a stickler for precision!), but alas we couldn't find the satellite I tried raising and lowering the dish without the piece of wood whilst turing it slowly from south to west but the ol' AB3 line just never went yellow. Something to play with another day methinks! I'm quite happy with Astra 1 and Hotbird at the moment..my French is coming along a treat!

I have to say the dish seems remarkably stable! It's been quite blustery recently and it's not budged. It's obviously quite sheltered where it is. Oh...and I have corrected the LNB position Stick...I think one time when the dish had fallen forwards (as it is wont to do without the bricks and string tensioning system) it had pushed the LNB backwards...I'll keep an eye on it to check if it happens again!

Once again...thank you all for your help and advice, I couldn't have done it without you! :clap:

Alcina

[BGonaSTICK]

You're very welcome

I'm sure over time you'll find more and more satellites up there.

Can't wait for phase II (the motor install). You know what ask for at Chrimbo eh?

If you can't stretch to a motor, keep your eye out for an old polar mount on eBay. I've seen them go for peanuts. That will take care of the arc tracking, then you'll just have to control the azimuth.

Anyway, that's for the future. You should enjoy what you've achieved for now. Check back once in a while for updates on what packages are open on patches for your Technomate.

We've enjoyed your threads and your humour a lot, and look forward to the next adventure!

STICK