Pictures of Members' Systems

[Biggles does Greece]

I'm gonna be in East Anglia tomorrow so I'll bring one with me! As the pikkies are there, I'd better caption 'em. The 2nd has the view of Vravrona which is a big hill hiding the port of Porto Rafti, the 4th shows part of the scorched earth that was an olive grove two days ago and the last one is (obviously) south, looking towards the town of Marcopolo. One & three are of the solar panels and 1.2m. I know the make of neither dish and would appreciate any help. The 1.2 was bought here in Greece and the 1.7 I bought 2nd hand of a guy who brought it in from Italy. Gilbertini perhaps?

 

[wod]

the 1.2metre looks deffo like a gibertini cause of the lnb arm and no idea of the 1.7m dish

 

[BarMoo]

One & three are of the solar panels

And just when I thought you had a couple of plasma TV's up there - one for each dish, LOL.

Joking.

.

 

[martz]

here we go, my gibbi finally installed!

 

[gameboy]

Above the conservatory - just like mine.

Sleepless nights during storms then.!

 

[rolfw]

Looks good martz, apart from the T&Ks being the wrong way around, T should be at the top, having said that, I normally use two K brackets and a T for that sized dish.

 

[wod]

nice one martz

the back plate on the dish looks massive

how far above the gutter have you got the dish ?

also what fixings did you use ?

 

[gameboy]

Looks good martz, apart from the T&Ks being the wrong way around, T should be at the top, having said that, I normally use two K brackets and a T for that sized dish.

LOL - That could make you even more nervous! !

 

[martz]

oh, i didn't realise, is it a problem? yeah it is huge, the bottom of the dish starts just under the gutter and the rest is about 90cm above, i just used m6x50 coach screws with some washers, its more stable than it looks!

 

[rolfw]

It should be strong enough, but I always like to over compensate. If you do eventually add a motor, then put another K bracket in the middle.

 

[martz]

will do ;)

 

[wod]

It should be strong enough, but I always like to over compensate. If you do eventually add a motor, then put another K bracket in the middle.

rolfw so you need two k brackets thought one set was enough ?

now i've got a decent sds hammer drill i'm gonna use sleeve anchors on mine

how much pole can you have above the guttering ?

 

[rolfw]

I nearly always use 2 K brackets and 1 T bracket for a motor mount, just gives a little more stability. I use the Fischer 10/35mm sleeve anchors, inexpensive but effective on anything up to 1m and the 12 or 14mm anchors for anything larger..

PS. Depending on the size of the dish, you probably want to allow for only as much mast above the brackets, as is between them. Smaller dishes perhaps 1/3 below, 2/3 above.

 

[femto]

I'm just about to put a 1m Gibbi up with a polar mount and 12 inch jack.

At the moment I've got a K bracket and a T bracket already bolted to the wall with M10 rawlbolts. My idea was to use the pole that I used for my ham radio antennae (vertical white-stick and 3 element horizontal beam for 50MHz, sitting on a hefty Yaesu rotator).

I can vouch for the strength of the mountings as they've gone through the last two winters and not budged at all, though I know that a dish has far more sail area than even that ham radio beam did.

The K bracket is on the top, about two thirds of the way up the wall, about 12 feet up and the T bracket is about 6 feet off the ground.

The pole, which is a thick-walled 2 inch steel pole, reaches about 3 feet over the gutter (north-facing wall) when standing on the ground. This will mean that the brackets don't have to support the weight of the pole or the dish - just the forces applied by wind.

If I add another K bracket nearer the top, would this be the best thing to do?

Thanks!

Edt: Here are some pictures of what I am using now and the beginnings of my upgrade...

Picture 1: My ex-Sky Analogue dish, pointing at Hotbird 13E on my super-hi-tech patio mount.

Picture 2: The easterly view.

Picture 3: Some lovely trees which may hinder my 36E reception - we'll see though...

Picture 4: The view towards the Astra 1 area.

The rest of the horizon is about as clear. My only obstacles seem to be those two trees but the evergreen ones are a good 40 metres away and the bigger ones about twice as far.

I've also included some pics of my brackets. Any comments as to their suitability will be useful, bearing in mind what I mention above about the pole standing on the ground...

Thanks!

 

[rolfw]

I would be more inclined to put the T above and the extra K below, but perhaps not quite as low as the one you have at the moment.

PS. Looks like nice countryside around your way.

 

[femto]

Yes the countryside isn't too shoddy. I live just south of the Yorkshire Dales and the Easterly view shows Baildon Moor, next to Ilkley Moor,

What I'm going to do is put the pole up first, then add the extra bracket as then I won't need to measure anything. When these brackets went up originally, I used a plumb line to ensure one was directly above the other.

It doesn't matter that the T bracket is that low really, as the pole goes all the way to the ground! If the pole stopped at the T bracket, I imagine I'd have several huge chunks missing from my head!

EDIT: Right. I've put the pole up to show you all. Is it too tall? If so, I can cut some off the bottom and slide it down through the clamps.

I'm going to mount the dish in this way:

1. Polar mount on pole
2. Push up above gutter line
3. Dish face on polarmount
4. Jack on polarmount
5. Line up to the arc.

Is that the easiest way - other than watching someone else do it?!

 

[martz]

holy (rude word!) cow, that pole is huge!!! beware, the higher you have to take the gibbi, the harder it is, i only took mine about 8 - 10 foot up and man was it difficult, even with help from my dad!

 

[femto]

Yeah it's a beast. 21 feet long, that pole.

Heh, when I had my ham radio aerials on it, I had a rotator on the top which took it up a foot and then another 4 foot 6 inch pole in the top of the rotator with the aerials on it. Nearly 27 feet and then the vertical aerial, which was on top of that, was 7 feet long. 34 feet tall. Well, I did work South Africa, South America and Japan with it...

Trouble was, I was also in rather good contact with the house alarm, 6 doors down the street! :-downt

Yes, having thought about it, I'll shorten it so that it's just long enough to get the Gibbi above the gutter line. I don't think the roof will get in the way of any satellites as they're pretty high in the sky towards the south I think.

 

[BarMoo]

It took a while to get my orientation of the house (sic) - but then I thought " why not mount everything at the back of the house?" (where the current minidish is). Surely, you wouldn't have to go so high-up and would have a better sweep of the sky (or does that house behind the garage spoil things?).

And, the obvious, you wouldn't attract undue attention from ze neighbours with that side of house affair.

BTW, that is one long poll!

Just my penneth.;)

 

[femto]

Well, good idea but three things are:

1. The roof is higher at the back
2. I want to be able to get the atlantic sats, i.e. Telstar 12 at 15W and Hispasat at 30W.
3. I already had brackets on the side of the house. If I drill any more holes in the house, it'll be like living in a piece of Swiss cheese!

I'll perhaps be moving house in a year or so and I'll look for something that has a south-facing back garden so I can ground mount the dish.