Newbie Help, 10' Orbitron assembly instructions needed.

[WesTheTinkerer]

I got a 10' Orbitron but I have no idea which model. All I can find printed on the dish is a serial #. I would like to disassemble it and clean it up but I don't even know if it was put together right in the first place. All I can find out so far is it's supposed to be assembled on the pole. Is that because of the stressed rib design? It has no intermediate plate that I can see from the outside. The mesh panels seem to have been cut a little small in my opinion as they don't overlap the ribs by more than a third toward the middle if that much. Buttonhook feed, stressed rib design, spinclination, all black except the ribs which are plain aluminum, and the holes in the mesh are diamond shaped like expanded aluminum sheet. I'll take some pictures and some measurements when it gets light out. Happy New Year!

 

[primestar31]

Try this one: http://www.satelliteguys.us/downloads.php?do=file&id=180

 

[WesTheTinkerer]

Try this one: http://www.satelliteguys.us/downloads.php?do=file&id=180

Thanks Primestar. I saw the intermediate plate on my dish when I was taking pictures last evening. I was expecting it to be much bigger than it is.

 

[WesTheTinkerer]

Here are some pictures of the Orbitron. That shiny round thing in the next to last picture is a dime.

 

[primestar31]

The mesh holes look a little large for good KU use. I would suggest if you get it together properly, you only use it for C-band. Get a separate at least 1 meter dish for KU.

 

[WesTheTinkerer]

Yes, I think the mesh is too big for Ku. I have 99 x 90 cm offset I use for Ku. A fellow on the Yahoo group HuntsvilleFreecycle gave me another 90 cm dish with an Invacom Quad polar LNB on it but I don't know yet if the Invacom is any good as it has been raining and cold since I got it. I contacted Skyvision for some replacement mesh and mesh clips (it doesn't have any clips at all) for the Orbitron. If it costs too much I may try to get that 7 footer I saw and maybe I could re-cut the good panels from the 10 footer to replace the ones in the 7 footer. Do you know of anyone using hardware cloth to make mesh panels? I found some 1/8" mesh size on Amazon that is reasonable. What do you think?

 

[primestar31]

I have heard of people using hardware cloth, but not that it worked well. I have also heard of people using thin aluminum sheet such as soffit stuff to replace panel mesh.

I'd say that's far too much work, and I'd find another dish. I wouldn't even bother with a 7 footer (I had a 6 ft. dis for 1 month or so and found it was too small for dvb-s2). Go straight for a 10 footer, you won't be sorry.

 

[WesTheTinkerer]

It's a ten footer that I have. Someone has offered me some mesh so I'm good to go. Thanks for the advice and, "Happy New Year!" .