🚀 go-pugleaf

lisbon@vpnet.chi.il.us (Gerry Swetsky) writes:

>>As for the antenna installation, to DO IT RIGHT takes about 6-8 hours (IMHO). 

>    Well, imNSho, one hour is plenty of time to install the dish, which
>    is what the phrase refers to <screwdriver and pliers>.

>    We had a tower all set up to accept the dish.  Installed it first
>    on the tower leg at ground level and peaked it to get the elevation
>    and polarity.  Locked them down.  We then took it up twenty feet 
>    off the ground and repeaked the azimuth, using the tone from the 
>    PC100.  Duck soup!  About twenty minutes.

Clever idea (if you have a tower). Even a good idea for some other
applications. 

On the other hand, I can only believe it takes about 20 minutes to
ASSEMBLE the dish, feed, LNB, and elevation mount.  I think that's about
how long it took me too (once I unpacked the boxes and did inventory). 
But that's a long way from a complete antenna and feedline installation
and dosen't even address the issue of how long it took for you to
install your tower (not all of us have "a tower all set up"). I'd say
the majority of my time was spent working on a solid support for the
dish and going back to the shop for more tools.

And did you REALLY climb 20 feet up a tower with that big dish in one hand,
mount it, and re-aim it with nothing more that a screwdriver and
pliers?

I used a box wrench, a socket wrench, a ladder, and a rope myself.  (On
a tower I would have used a climbing belt.) I used UV resistant wire
ties to dress the feedline and needed RTV for the connector and building
entrance.  Did you let your feedline just dangle in through an open
window? No, I guess not.  You probably have a cable tray coming from
your tower that goes into your transmitter shelter. You dropped the
cable into that tray in about 90 seconds.

BTW, I was installing the 1 meter dish and that is definitely a two
person job.  My guess is the smaller dish is also best handled by two
people.


-- 
73 de KD3BJ (Chris Nadovich, chris@kd3bj.ampr.org)