Saturday, September 14, 2019

Smaller is better....for me!






I decided that if I was going to be successful at this project I needed to make it more manageable. The 10.5 ft dish was to much to do alone. Some of the spars had damage to the ends, it was to heavy to handle by myself and hard to work on without proper work stands. In the end I did what would make most cringe.... I cut 1'3" off the spars, shortened the screen and reduced the diameter to 2.5m or 8'4". I know it will reduce performance and eliminate the possibility of adding 432 MHz but I think it is worth it. With high power available and digital modes I should still have plenty of people to work. Certainly more then I would if I never finish the project. It just made sense.

In the end after all was cut and re-assembled I think it made a world of difference in terms of manageability. Its 25# lighter and far easier to work on. Plus it fits the trailer better and will probably make it possible to move by road in the future.























Saturday, August 31, 2019

Some references. Great article on Polar mounts and the KL6M feed.

Dish Assembly

Some calculations were required once I figured out the dish dimensions. 

  Initial assembly on fence post in order to take initial measurements. 

 Details of polar mount


 Temporary wooden mock up on small 40x48" utility trailer I bought off craigs list for 100$. There is no good view of moon from my yard except the middle of front yard and that won't fly with the XYL. 




 These are fittings for the feed mounting support legs. I will cut them in half, turn a few spacers and use rod ends to get some fine adjustability out of the feed mount. 


 Rung-Fu RF-30 from MSC does a great job!!