Wind problems

DublinWriter

I have a motorised 1.1 Triax dish located on the side of my house in a very breezy part of Co.Meath.

Wind is a big problem this time of year, and I'm not talking about Brussels sprouts either!

What could I do to minimise the effect? Could I install two 'sheet' like arrangements either side of the dish to break the wind, or am I better just ground mounting the dish in the back garden?

Shinto

I too have similar concerns. The winds comming in from Galway Bay can get quite rough here.

It'll be interesting to hear any suggestions people may have...

watty

Watch the shipping forcast on Teletext 163 and dismount dish and bring it in if a severe storm threatens.

One reason apart from finance that I am nervous about up[grading from 80/90cm dish on my motor.

lensman

DublinWriter wrote:

I have a motorised 1.1 Triax dish located on the side of my house in a very breezy part of Co.Meath.

Wind is a big problem this time of year, and I'm not talking about Brussels sprouts either!

What could I do to minimise the effect? Could I install two 'sheet' like arrangements either side of the dish to break the wind, or am I better just ground mounting the dish in the back garden?

better if you use that green garden net/mesh on a frame either side of the dish, it will flex/give in high winds so it won't damage your dish, will also take the force out of the wind.

Eurorunner

Its a problem alright. It looks like my second motor has kicked it for this very reason.

andrew3

I have a channel master 2m dish I imported from the U.S. - I got a 2m Steel Pole down in BENG in dublin 22(near coca cola factory) - then I dug a hole about 60cms deep put the pole in a couple of cavity blocks along with a few broken ones around the side - shoved in a bag of cement to secure it and it hasn't moved since! - my actuator is a big "jaguator" haven't had an ounce of trouble from it and I live on wuthering heights here! -(the front door blew in a few weeks ago from the winds!) --just make sure the pole is level!!!

satworld

Thats a good setup you have andrew3

andrew3

Yea its fairly kickin! - Ive used it in nearly everything from broadband to feed hunting.

The recievers I got are fairly cool too

-- Scientific Atlanta 9223 PowerVu
-- Manhattan 2500APCI
-- Strong 4375

The manhattan is the best! - my only problem was with the eprom flash memory (every channel now has to be stored in the favourite channels list and the reciever has to operate from this list) - it has worked with extremely low symbol rates! and was also able to convert an NTSC 60hZ signal to PAL 50hz!!

The strong had nice epg but symbol rate wouldn't go as low and the ntsc conversion part was disabled on a subsequent software release - (they couldn't get it to work properly!) which was suprising considering it cost a great deal more than the manhattan!

watty

Well I find a TV with native NTSC gives better image than converting Sat/ DVD/VHS etc.

Lowest SR I've received is 1500 from DAD1/DAD2 in NTSC. Works on PC Sat card (Hauppauge DVB-s PCI similar to Skystar1 or Nexus-s) and PalcomDSL4.

I heard there is a test SR 1000 signal on 36E. But I get very little on that bird and don't know the frequency.

netwhizkid

If possible try move the dish to say a sheltered side of a house or garage etc. Whatever you do don't face it into the wind which nearly always blows from the West. I notice on my own Minidish (60cms) that when it is very stormy that the picture is disrupted and sometimes lost.

andrew3

In all fairness your actuator shouldn't budge under the extremist of conditions! should be like pushing a car with the handbrake on! -- Although it does depend on the equipment and going from what I've seen in most of the shops here it isn't good!

I'd love to test the tensile strength of a H mount to an actuator.
I've often seen actuators controlling dishes on sky scrapers, war zones, the artic circle - alot of the manufacturers often pride their brand by offering a lifetime warranty!

- couple of things I noticed on sky installs here:

On 60cm triax sky digital dishes after a good wind battering the dish warps back on itself! I noticed on a couple of calls I did that if I pulled the north and south side of the dish together the signal would jump from 40% back up to 80%!!

Alot of the installers have the arm holding the dish pointing upwards! allowing it to collect water and corrode from the inside!! - this has got to stop!

andrew3

watty wrote:

Well I find a TV with native NTSC gives better image than converting Sat/ DVD/VHS etc.

Yea of course - but it was actually for recording on video I needed this function ( I ended up buying a NTSC recorder in the end anyway even with the manhattan).

But it was listed as one of the functions on the reciever and was I dissapointed when it failed cause it meant i couldn't bring the pal tapes to work and to add further salt to the wound the patch that I applied hoping to cure the problem actually removed the feature!

Sponge Bob

Shinto wrote:

I too have similar concerns. The winds comming in from Galway Bay can get quite rough here.

Jayzus , and what about the salt spray rotting the motor about once a year ??

I would not motorise anything above 60cm near Galway Bay and thats before the corrosion factor kicks in. As Watty pointed out the wind loading is in the tons from a 1m dish so its not the motor its the house I worry most about.

My brother lives on the coast of Donegal which is worse again

andrew3

My dish is made out of toughened plastic - once you galvanise the rest of the parts - lnb arms bolts holding dish in place pole mount the dish should last for a long time! channel master do a 1.2m and a 1.5m in plastic as well.. the price of the 1.2 was about 150euro for something thats gonna bring you this much enjoyment its worth the couple of extra bucks! - I even power washed the mildue and the crap off the dish.

that owl eircom dish in galway seems to be standing the testement! - I cant see why others shouldn't

I reckon the number of dips parts should be subjected to is 6 dips - and if you wanted to go further you could even paint the exposed parts with hammerite- (if your using an aluminum dish you should get a non aluminum based paint (astra have great detail on their site about hidden dishes www.astra.lu)