Santa's Deliverables

[cyberham]

Santa drop-shipped. I need to pick them up tomorrow.

 

[cyberham]

Had a chance now to look at this Pansat PM900 motor. It's looks nice. No rust. I can actually read the scale on it. Since I obtained it locally, it appears to already be set for use at a 49-degree North or so latitude location where I am.

It looks stronger than my current SG2100. It was made in Slovenia. The spec sheet says it can turn up to a 1.4-metre 12 kg dish +/- 95 degrees in azimuth. Dish speed when used with an 85 cm dish is 2.3 or 1.7 degrees/second depending on polarity. This is the same as my SG2100. It has 30 memories to store azimuth positions and supports the Go To X function for use with USALS.

I searched in history on this site and found a few remarks about this motor with trouble experienced but that may have just been those ops not having experience with installing a motor in general.

I plan to install it for use with my 4-foot dish on C-band. It's been a while since I've had the 4 footer on C-band. Then I can have a motorized dish on both Ku and C at the same time.

I wonder if anybody has first-hand experience using a PM900? If so, was it a problem or did it work well?

 

[primestar31]

Had a chance now to look at this Pansat PM900 motor. It's looks nice. No rust. I can actually read the scale on it. Since I obtained it locally, it appears to already be set for use at a 49-degree North or so latitude location where I am.

It looks stronger than my current SG2100. It was made in Slovenia. The spec sheet says it can turn up to a 1.4-metre 12 kg dish +/- 95 degrees in azimuth. Dish speed when used with an 85 cm dish is 2.3 or 1.7 degrees/second depending on polarity. This is the same as my SG2100. It has 30 memories to store azimuth positions and supports the Go To X function for use with USALS.

I searched in history on this site and found a few remarks about this motor with trouble experienced but that may have just been those ops not having experience with installing a motor in general.

I plan to install it for use with my 4-foot dish on C-band. It's been a while since I've had the 4 footer on C-band. Then I can have a motorized dish on both Ku and C at the same time.

I wonder if anybody has first-hand experience using a PM900? If so, was it a problem or did it work well?

As always, the WEIGHT of the dish all by itself isn't the problem, it's the WIND LOAD that'll kill it quickly. So my best advice, is to install it somewhere that has good sighting to the satellites, yet is VERY sheltered from any possible wind blowing on it.

 

[cyberham]

I do recall your advice on this subject. We get good wind storms, but it will be shielded on two sides by very tall trees which helps protect it. Also, the whole motor dish assembly tends to windmill some by design on its tripod during peak winds which means I lose signal during storms but the least resistance to the wind results. I can quickly and easily re-position the assembly (almost by eye) to where it belongs when the wind dies.

Due to the trees, I don't have a lot of choice about where I can install my motorized dishes and still see 150W to 82W which I prefer.

The spec sheet says its maximum permissible wind speed is 140 km/hour (85 cm dish) and 80 km/hour (1.4-metre dish).

 

[primestar31]

I do recall your advice on this subject. We get good wind storms, but it will be shielded on two sides by very tall trees which helps protect it. Also, the whole motor dish assembly tends to windmill some by design on its tripod during peak winds which means I lose signal during storms but the least resistance to the wind results. I can quickly and easily re-position the assembly (almost by eye) to where it belongs when the wind dies.

Due to the trees, I don't have a lot of choice about where I can install my motorized dishes and still see 150W to 82W which I prefer.

The spec sheet says its maximum permissible wind speed is 140 km/hour (85 cm dish) and 80 km/hour (1.4-metre dish).

Maybe drill a hole on each side, big enough for a bungee strap hook. IF you get some really bad winds, strap it on both sides to something to stabilize it, so it can't flap around and strip the gears inside. Also, IF that dish has a heavy metal mount, maybe you can fabricate a lighter mount from aluminum angle, and save some poundage. That might also help a bit.