1.8m Channel Master off ebay

[cs3007]

Nobody seems to want to do the installation job, so with being short on time have started it myself. Managed to get it mounted, shortly going to see if I can aim it in the right direction

Anyway here are the pics, I am also planning inserting slabs in the spaces on the pallet to add more weight and a paint job if it does what I want.

[BGonaSTICK]

You can align it

Nilesat probably requires the dish face to actually lean very slightly forwards from the vertical. Maybe a degree. Start off about there anyway.

Don't want to nag, but you are going to need some serious weight on that pallet to stop it blowing through your windows behind. That really should be bolted to the ground - big style.

[crossbones]

Yes got to agree there with stick. As you know its very heavy!

Its cleaned up very nice 8)

I would also suggest getting a matched feed horn and C120 lnb for squeezing every last drop of signal in.

[Analoguesat]

Have to agree with the last 2 posts as well. A couple of slabs poked into that pallet arent going to be anywhere near heavy enough to stop it moving in a gale.

My workplace had a 1.2m on the roof weighted down with slabs and sandbags. A severe gale in 2001 bucked the supporting structure, and the motor punched a hole in the roofing felt as it went over!

Heres the description from my web site:

This rather forlorn dish was wrecked in the severe storms of January 2002. It was located on the roof of my work place in Galashiels, and nicely illustrates the perils of an inscurely fastened dish.

For many years it had been used by the Modern Languages department, mainly for reception of the French channels on the Telecom satellites. The dish is a 1.2 m diameter offset, motorised, and controlled by an ancient Salora XLE 8901 receiver. There was a separate SECAM transcoder to change the signals back to PAL, and the lnb had a mechanical polarisor.

The dish had fallen into disuse for several years, but at the beginning of the year I had started discussions with the Languages department with the view to getting the system at least partially operational again. I had been planning to permanently point the dish at 5W for Telecom 2C.

At the end of January 2002, a severe storm hit the area, with sustained wind speeds of well over 60mph, and gusts around 90mph. This was reckoned to be the worst gale for about 20 years, and many trees were blown down in the area.

We knew something was wrong with the satellite dish when we started hearing thumps from the roof as the wind strengthened. Peering out of a window we saw the dish rocking backwards and forwards....

The dish had been bolted to 3 very heavy paving slabs, with sand bags heaped on the slabs. One of the tripod legs started to bend under the onslaught of the gale, and then the end was inevitable. One of the slabs can be seen to have been hoisted into the air as the wind knocked the dish over. The rotator mechanism for the dish punched a hole in the roofing felt when the dish finally went over! (that black squarish blob behind the dish).

The dish was removed a few days after the gale, and was lowered down off the roof by rope. The slabs were cut free from the dish, but the dish itself was heavy enough to require 2 people to move it safely. The slabs could just be lifted by 1 person.

[wod]

where you going to mount it as surely not there outside your patio door ?

also i'd bolt it to a paving slab as strong wind would rip the dish from that pallet and into the patio door

[Jimdefruit]

The dish is not as exposed as it would appear. The site is protected by fencing all around and may be ok.

[wod]

from the picture the dish doesn't look too big for a 1.8m and i'm tempted to try out the fortec star 1.8m for playing around with and cause it will be fixed to a pallet or paving slab the council cant do you for it because its not permanently fixed

cs3007, you got a bargain there enjoy it

to get the hang of aligning the dish aim to pick up thor 1west, you should get even the nordic tps on that size and then move it across to 7west

[cs3007]

Originally Posted by Jimdefruit

The dish is not as exposed as it would appear. The site is protected by fencing all around and may be ok.

Yes, you are correct, it is very sheltered where it is located.

[cs3007]

Originally Posted by wod

from the picture the dish doesn't look too big for a 1.8m

I don't think you realise how big these things are until you see one in front of you. What I imagined they would look like and when I saw it are totally different. And to think I was contemplating getting a 2.4m

[cs3007]

Originally Posted by wod

to get the hang of aligning the dish aim to pick up thor 1west, you should get even the nordic tps on that size and then move it across to 7west

Didn't have any joy tonight trying to tune it. I am starting to get confused about the settings, as on the SMWLink software, it tells me to set elevation to 29.18, but on the graph it has the dish facing quite high above the trees. But if the dish is Horizontal then surely this would indicate that the 7w is low on the horizon, but SMWLink is saying different (in the illustration)? If it is then I am not hopeful of ever being able to get 7w, as I do have some obstacles at that height.