My 10 foot sami is coming!

[truckracer]

As it states above, I have a new 10 foot sami mesh dish coming.

Right now I have a 7.5' sami that has been a great dish that I purchased new 3 years ago. I have it mounted on a 3.5" Schedule 10 stainless steel pole filled with cement that is in the ground 4 feet and an 18" diameter concrete base.

It is rock solid and never had a problem. We have on occasion had 60 mph winds here during some bad storms. No problems.


Should I use the same type of stainless schedule 10 for the ten footer or should I stick with the old standard 3.5 steel sch 40 pole?

I used stainless for its corrosion resistant properties.

I know the steel will rust pretty band in a few years. The reason I used sch 10 stainless it was free! This time I have to buy my pipe.

Is the steel stronger ?

Sch 40 steel or Sch 10 stainless? Which is stronger ?

 

[voomvoom]

I don't know which is stronger, I'm not metal knowledgable. But, I think the schedule 40 is stronger (what do I know?), I know it's strong enough for all average winds in my area and probably most of the rare, to close, near direct hit tornado winds we get about once every 20 years or so. The schedule 40 pipe properly set will be there when the direct hit tornado confiscates the dish and takes it to never never land. I suppose if there is debris heavy enough in a tornado, like a car, it could bend the schedule 40, but who knows? It will take a lifetime for the schedule 40 to rust enough to worry about. You will probably be long gone before that happens? There is also a thing called paint, that will help protect the schedule 40, if it worries you that much?
The stainless schedule 10, I know nothing about. So maybe it's better than schedule 40. Maybe someone else can make it more appealing. If the stainless is at least as strong, it would come down to the price to persuade me?

 

[dem0nlord]

Google is your friend, schedule 10 is significantly thinner, hence weaker.

Comparison of Schedule 40, Schedule 80 Pipe and Schedule 10 Pipe

 

[truckracer]

It is definitely thinner, you can tell that by just looking at it. I didn't know if the stainless steel itself was stronger than steel or not.

I did a little bit of research and it looks like the tensile strength of stainless (t-304) is 2X that of comparable steel (astm 336 standard ? whatever that means) From reading it looks like that is about typical for sch 40 steel.

So with the much thinner wall of the sch 10, I feel safe to say the sch 40 steel will be much stronger. I will paint it of course.

 

[SatPhreak]

Truckracer, there is really need need to paint stainless steel as it does't rust.

I've worked with steel alot but not stainless, so I can't advise what you to do regarding the pole.

 

[turbosat]

Go for the ordinary pipe, stronger than the stainless, thicker. I put my 10' sami up in summer of 95 and I don't think it's budged a bit, even with this 100yr drought we are having here. Since I'm in limestone country, they usually will wiggle when the ground gets really dry, but I beat out a hole in between 2 rows of rock and poured the concrete to it. Sure I take the grinder and wire-wheel to it every few years = looks good with fresh paint and doesn't take that long to do.

 

[Davage]

As it states above, I have a new 10 foot sami mesh dish coming.

Right now I have a 7.5' sami that has been a great dish that I purchased new 3 years ago.

Im curious, why the upgrade?

I know that bigger provides better signal strength etc, but I have a Sami 7.5 that is performing very well for me. I get nice crisp pictures even on analog channels using a 30 degree LNB. Are you looking for stronger signal from any particular satellite to get channels that the 7.5 foot unit won't give you?