"Jimmie D" wrote in message
...

"Jimmie D" wrote in message
...

"Sal M. Onella" wrote in message
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"Euro-Motors" wrote in message
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Hello i am looking for a dish steerable in both ways vertical and
horizontal
second hand
hard to find guess
anybody?
regards
willy

A few of these are/were made for customers who intended to simply aim
their
big dishes and leave them. The type of mount you described is called
an
AZ/EL mount, short for azimuth / elevation, which are separately
settable,
usually by means of hand cranks but sometimes motors. They may or may
not
have built-in calibration scales. Your best source would be the phone
company, cable company or TV station. As more and more entities get
fiber
optic connections, their dishes are becoming available for sale (or
even
giveaway). Many small AZ/EL mounts are sold, but most are for small
dishes
only (0.8 -1.5 meter) and these would be too flimsy for your dish. A
subset
of the AZ/EL dish is the "ring mount" or "patio mount." These are
essentially for portable use. I cannot see one of these for a dish
over
about 2 meters.

The other type mount is called a polar mount, because it pivots on an
axis
that's parallel to an imaginary line connecting the poles; it couples
azimuth and elevation changes together as it tracks a smooth arc. Most
people bought them because they intended to change satellites often --
homes, bars, restaurants.

I only have the polar mount in use here, but I offer up these names
that
I
might simplify your search.

It is not unreasonable to build your own AZ/EL mount out of wood. I
did
it
for a 1.5 meter dish with only a few 3/4-inch pine planks. (Bigger
dish --
bigger lumber.)

Good Luck.



I am familar with someone using a TVRO antenna is this manner, azimuth
rotation was enabled by slidng another piece of tubing over the mast.
More
information I dont have.

Jimmie


I think he only had a few degrees of rotation and he used a linear
actuator
to turn it. Im not sure of what he was using it for, maybe TV. I had
assumed
that it was something else at the time because of the modification


I used another method. I regret I don't have any pictures to link but I
will try to describe what I did:

I took two pine planks of a size that would make nice shelves, joined them
at one end with a hinge and laid them flat. Call them #1 & #2

I bolted the dish to the top plank (#1) so it was facing the sky. By
propping up the top plank (#1) using a toothed rod, I could set the
elevation to any value I wanted. I used a homemade inclinometer to set the
elevation whenever I changed satellites. (Plank #2 stayed flat on the
ground all the time.) I experimented with calibrating the toothed rod
itself but I was never happy with it. The inclinometer was perfect every
time.

I placed a third plank (#3) on the ground under the hinged end of plank 2.
With plank #1 temporarily raised very high, I drilled a single hole through
both planks #2 and #3 as they lay flat on the ground and inserted a bolt
through the hole. A nut on the bolt made the connection snug but not tight.

I put casters under plank #2 at the end opposite the hinge. The hinged
planks (#1 & #2) pivoted around the bolt for the azimuth setting. Plank #3
never moved after being placed.

For azimuth calibration I determined where the edge of my sidewalk was with
regard to true south. I made a photocopy of a protractor and taped it to
Plank #3. I attached a paper-clip pointer from the end of plank #2 to read
out the azimuth. This was not entirely satisfactory. Parallax error was a
bitch. I could get it close but usually have to tweak it in on a station.

This bizarre arrangement is not an entirely original idea; it's actually an
adaptation of the ring mount, using some material I had on hand. I had the
full arc, minus blockage from my neighbor's nut tree

There is no reason you couldn't use a lazy susan or an old swivel chair base
to vary the azimuth. A see-saw arrangement could vary the elevation,
eliminating the hinge and one plank. Remember, I just used what I had.

Good luck.