H180, 6foot dish, C&Ku Analog, DVB & DCII

[pmb1010]

the answer is I'm not sure. I haven't had the dish/motor too long, only a few months.

I think we had 40mph winds -- but the issue is the dish is not pinned in its temporary spot. So it just rotated out of position.

I didn't know there was any wind load issue with this motor.
If the wind breaks it I guess I'll just deal with the problem at that time.

I'll have snow too. Western NY we get lots of snow.

[wejones]

I really appreciate you sharing your experience with this install since I'll be doing the same soon in NW Pennsylvania.

I have a comment/question. Have you had any strong winds since you did the install? The web page for the motor pretty clearly states that the combined load factor can't be too high or it will damage the motor. I'm going to have to deal with both snow and wind at my location and am looking ahead on that. RSVP al

I wouldn't worry about the wind so much, but snow is definately an issue. That's one of the few advantages of offset dishes over prime focus, ie offset dishes are almost vertical, and don't collect snow, but a prime focus dish will collect a LOT of snow. I used to park my dish to the west, when a snowstorm was expected, hoping that it would keep the snow off, and that does help, but now my motor is getting so old that I have trouble getting it back from the west in the winter (which is unfortunate because the winter is the only time I can get reception of the western sats due to leaves).
Anyway, every snowstorm, I have to go out with a broom on an extension tube, and brush the snow off. For a light fluffy snow, all I have to do is bang the dish, and the snow slides off, but heavy wet snows are hard to get off, which is why my dish is all dented, since I generally have to bang on the mesh from underneath to loosen it, and I now have softball sized dents in the dish. Hopefully the snow won't stick to a solid dish as much as it does to my mesh dish.
Besides the extra load on the motor, you'll probably find that the weight of the snow pulls the dish out of alignment. Ie I used to think that the snow was absorbing the signal, but actually it was pulling it off aim.

? What part of NW Pa?

[wejones]

the answer is I'm not sure. I haven't had the dish/motor too long, only a few months.

I think we had 40mph winds -- but the issue is the dish is not pinned in its temporary spot. So it just rotated out of position.

I didn't know there was any wind load issue with this motor.
If the wind breaks it I guess I'll just deal with the problem at that time.

I'll have snow too. Western NY we get lots of snow.

I used to live in Md, and when a hurricane came up the coast, we had some pretty strong winds. I had a hole drilled through where the mount goes over the pole on my 11' dish, and had a medium sized nail through the hole to mark my true south. THe strong winds rotated the dish like a weather vane, and cut the nail. If it hadn't, I suspect the dish might have been damaged.
So you live in a cold place with a lot of snow, and don't have fireplace and have to give away your firewood or wood stove? Nothing like sitting in front of a fireplace when you're snowed in and the sat dish isn't receiving anything.
I've been cutting lots of firewood for NEXT year (has to dry out for about a year before you can use it), unfortunately, I still don't have a view to the west.

[Vitruvius]

PMB1010,
How is that 6 feet dish doing? How many stations are you pulling in? I am contemplating getting the MC-1 package from Sadoun. It will be a lot of work for me since the location for the dish will be about 100 ft from the house. My powered shed will be 30 feet from the dish, and 70 feet from the house, so I thought I could put an inline signal booster in the cable there, or even the controller for the motor. Everwhere I read that an 8 ft dish is really the smallest for C band, but if you are getting a good amount of content why not just get the motorized 6 feet dish. I just have a Mercury II, so would you recommend getting an analog tuner (922)? And a HDD-200 for the HD content?

Regards, VIT

[pmb1010]

I'm still sorting things out, but yes I do have access to a lot more of the sats on the arc now.
Still assessing things, only on the 4dtv 920 receiver, mostly DCii type stuff as I have not fully migrated off the 4 foot/Ultra yet.
My Diseqc 4 port switch quit working, of which I had the C signal split for a while which had the ultra connected via a splitter for a while.
At this point everythings on the 4dtv box.

Seeing what's FTA, what's not. I dont have the guide so trying to figure out whats on what channel is very time consuming.
I did find a few in the clear channels on 4dtv, some are infomercial channels.

I think your best bet is find a used 7.5 foot dish that someone is getting rid of.
I went with 6 foot for a few reasons, one is I have no way to transport a used dish without much difficulty.
And I wanted new. Is there anything I'm missing because of 6 foot rather than 8? I dont know. The BSC621's C band gain makes up a lot of dish size differnce. I have not run into issues where the frequency stability is an issue. It's working. I'm getting TV particles to display on my screen.

More to come.

[reho33]

Hey Bill did you try the Kings Rain Shield spray on your large mesh dish? Because it may not prevent snow build up but might make it easier to clean.

[wejones]

Hey Bill did you try the Kings Rain Shield spray on your large mesh dish? Because it may not prevent snow build up but might make it easier to clean.

No. I guess I was always a bit skeptical that that stuff did any good. It does sound like it might help with snow on a solid surface dish, but I'm not sure about whether it would work with a mesh dish. Dry snow is never a problem, I just bang or shake the dish, and it slides off. But wet snow, that sort of starts to melt, then re-freezes is the stuff that's hard to get off, and I think it kind of goes through the holes, freezes and locks itself to the mesh, kind of like the lathe that they use for plaster walls.

[lumpkin666]

I remember "back in the days" having a shaker device that was connected to both sides of the dish and connected via coax inside the house. Press a button inside the house and it'd shake the snow off the dish. It sure made a lotta noise though (My dish was close to the neighbor's house behind me.. so eventhough I was unaware of the shaker noise, they would inform me the next morning if it bothered them during a 2am sky-scanning session *laf*)

[Vitruvius]

Yes, this was a great thread. Is the 2 1/2" EMT piping strong enough for this dish? Do you think 2" EMT would work? Or is Schedule 40 plumbing pipe the way to go?

Reade

[rainman]

Yes, this was a great thread. Is the 2 1/2" EMT piping strong enough for this dish? Do you think 2" EMT would work? Or is Schedule 40 plumbing pipe the way to go?

Reade

go with the schedule 40 pipe. I use black gas pipe which is schedule 40 for my dish and no problems.