when to take dish down

[vvovv]

When should someone take the dish down

wind MPH
25-50
50-100
100-125
125-150
150+

 

[techno935]

T.S. Fay is on her way. I'm not taking any chances.

The dish wasn't put back up after my OTA upgrade, so there was not much to think about there. I'd rather wait til Fay goes away and we'll see.

I didn't have my dish up for Wilma, so I couldn't tell ya. I doubt you would even get a solid signal with all the swaying back & forth.

Maybe a backup tripod for when the storm passes, bring out the tripod to hold you over until things dry up.

 

[Comptech]

My dishh 500 never moved during three hurricanes. For Faye my 1.2 meter and my six footer will ride it out with some extra blocks added to the NPRM. We will see what happens. I am worried about the HH180 snapping more than anything but I wil not have time to get it down tonight after work. By the way I am about 80 miles North of Techno in Stuart

 

[eurosport]

...and a related question....

Not to be a "hijacker" but, this thread got me thinking about my 2 C-band dishes... How should they be "parked" during a storm such as Fay? I always run 'em all the way down so the actuator is fully retracted. I have heard to leave them straight up too, as in true-south, but I don't think that's nearly as safe. Any thoughts?

 

[thiggin2]

I took my FTA dish down just to be on the safe side. I leave my E* dishes up because there smaller and there mounting poles are alot shorter so there is very little movement from wind on those. Were not suppose to get very high winds but I'm not taking any chances. It only takes 1 good windgust.

 

[Mr Tony]

on a side note, stay safe you guys that are possibly in the path

dishes can be replaced...lives cant

 

[Comptech]

on a side note, stay safe you guys that are possibly in the path

dishes can be replaced...lives cant

Thank you Iceberg.This won't be anything like the hurricanes of 04 and 05, but it is starting to blow and rain hard now with a few tormadoes touching down.Everybody down here please be safe and use common sense.

 

[Tron]

Fay looks to be a Cat 1 at landfall, same as Cindy when she hit New Orleans directly about a month before her big sister Katrina hit in 2005. For Cindy, I left both dishes (the motorized and the 1 meter CM) up on the roof. We had 85 mph winds, and both dishes stayed put and properly aimed (although during a few gusts I thought they'd go flying). On the motorized, I was able to tune NASA during most of the storm, only losing signal briefly during horizontal rain. I lost Ku on the CM for most of the storm, but G-10R was weak in those days. If you want to play it safe, simply unbolt the reflectors from the dish mounts, keeping the mounts where they are. That way, there will be no wind resistance, and minimum work to re-tune once the storm has passed.

 

[Ronnie-]

Had a superdish make it through Ivan without needing a repoint, and the superdish and slimline came through Katrina without any problems

 

[1captain]

Not to be a "hijacker" but, this thread got me thinking about my 2 C-band dishes... How should they be "parked" during a storm such as Fay? I always run 'em all the way down so the actuator is fully retracted. I have heard to leave them straight up too, as in true-south, but I don't think that's nearly as safe. Any thoughts?

Eurosport: I always leve mine here in the birdbath location (due south satellite), an from what i learn years ago when the wind blows across the dish it will have down-ward push along with resistance verse just leaving the dish in a down position where it will get all the wind load.

Now I am also down in Fl, south central west coast an glad that Fay fizzeled out, but I do pull down my mess dishes (2 10-foot Channel master) but leave up my solid dishes (10-foot commercal & 1.5m ku channel master), reason why is had hail 1 time with a hurican an it just beat up the dish bad, to where ku was not working well at all, an had to replace that dish.

An with any dish, mess or solid when the wind gets over 60mph it does not matter wheather its solid or a mess dish with big hole in the reflector, the dish or dishes will still have the same wind load to them.

 

[Radioguy41]

How should they be "parked" during a storm such as Fay?

Straight up is the recommended position. It offers the least amount of sail to the wind.

 

[techno935]

I was just gonna add that comment. Straight up, as to avoid the possibility of the sail effect.

My wall/fascia mounted dishes stayed up. They are Ku and mounted a little more securely.

My motorized was on an antenna mast that was previously used for my micro (pirate) FM station back in the day (2001-2003). The mast was taken down recently and I put a broadband UHF yagi up for better OTA reception. By the time I was getting ready to put the motorized dish back up, Fay was at the door. I figured I'd wait.

Now that it's down, it's a good time to research for a good NPRM.

(EDIT) As of 12:30 PM EDT, Fay is on her way out and no damage. We dodged a bullet on this one.
(EDIT) I'm also worried about Gainesville, Fay may be on her way. First game is August 30th.

 

[Corrado]

For the smaller Ku dishes it's normally 4 bolts to remove the reflector. That way no repoint would be needed for reinstall.

If a hurricane was headed here, I would even unbolt my 6' Prodelin dish from the bracket.

 

[Comptech]

Looks like I am in the market for new dishes.

They were holding up great until we had a tornado hit. The one1.2 may be fixable but the six footer is mangled. The hh180 snapped the shaft right off. the 1.2 fell over and bent the lnb support arms. Good news is the house is fine. No such luck for the gas station at the end of the street,major damage and also a truck and two cars flipped over.

 

[Radioguy41]

Wow, sorry to hear about the damage but at least the house, and everyone in it, is safe. I have relatives near Gainesville we're a little worried about. Got our fingers crossed. I can't believe all the tornadoes this storm is spawning.

 

[techno935]

Sorry to hear about it. Gotta be careful in these storms.
I wish I had the pictures of the mangled C-band dish at our radio station from Hurricane Wilma. You should see how bad it was.