Dish sunk

wejones · #1 (**permalink**) 08-31-2006, 08:06 AM

Was sitting drinking a glass of wine last night, and my wife said, "is it my imagination or is that new little sat dish lower than when you installed it?" . I said that I didn't think so, but I'd go out and check. Sure enough, when I installed it, I put the dish at the very top of the pole, however now it was probably 15" below the top. I tugged on the mount to see if the bolts holding it to the pole were loose or something, but I couldn't move it. Can't figure out how the thing got down so low.

Only thing I can figure is that when I was "fine tuning" the alignment, I was loosening the bolts, and moving the mount back and forth on the pole. The thing must have just creeped down the pole without me noticing...... but 15" ?!?!

The potentially bad thing was that I mounted the dish between two big 4' diameter rocks, and for the dish to avoid hitting the rocks when it moved, it had to be at the top of the pole. I know that somebody recently suggested the idea of putting a pipe clamp or something on the pipe below the motor mount, to keep the assembly from slipping down the pole, but I thought nice idea, but too much trouble. Well I'm going to go out this morning and put a pipe clamp or somthing on the pole. :-)

rainman · #2 (**permalink**) 08-31-2006, 08:14 AM

sounds like a plan Bill. I notice while i was setting my dish up it kept inching down the pole also so the clamp ideal sounds good before i start fine tuning the dish.

elgemcdlf · #3 (**permalink**) 08-31-2006, 04:35 PM

I have my new 90cm roughly 13' off the ground. It can creep for 6' or 7' on me and I would still be good

ahoss2000 · #4 (**permalink**) 08-31-2006, 10:29 PM

wejones,

How long did it take for the dish to sink that much? If it could sink this much, it is very possible that it could go off azimuth too. They should include lock washers with the hardware!

wejones · #5 (**permalink**) 08-31-2006, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ahoss2000

wejones,

How long did it take for the dish to sink that much? If it could sink this much, it is very possible that it could go off azimuth too. They should include lock washers with the hardware!

It has been a week or two since I last fiddled with the alignment, but I've been runing it back and forth, and it's stayed in alignment, so it probably wasn't slowly sinking. It probably happened when I was aligning it, and I just didn't notice that it was slipping down while I was rocking it back and forth. On the other hand, my wife didn't notice it until yesterday, so I don't know.... she's usually pretty good at noticing things like that.