Channel Master/Laminas 1.8m project

[Captain Jack]

Welp, today, I picked up a 1.8m Channel Master dish. For me, it's the Holy Grail of dishes (even the 2.4m has less appeal for me - maybe it's TOO big?!) and finally I have it!

The dish, the Az/El mount and the stand cost me a grand total of £41. There are no LNB arms with it, so I sourced these .. for a price. Added that to the cost of hiring a van and diesel, it cost me a grand total of £236! Not so cheap after all!

That said, I am still happy that I have it. The condition of the dish, the Az/El mount and the stand is excellent - being only 18 months old, I'd expect it to be!

It's all very heavy and awkward to handle. My 1.5m Gibby is a paper bag in comparison. Unless a tonne of bricks falls on it, it will outlast every dish out there. The dish itself is not THAT heavy (33kg springs to mind), so here's my first question.

Is anyone running this dish off a Jaeger 1224 motor? If I was to do it, I would strengthen the body with some pig iron, but is the mechanism up to swinging the dish back and forth? I think someone here (@scopus ?) is, in fact, running it of the 1224... thoughts?

If that fails, I do have a beefy polar mount - it's was designed for a prime focus dish but once I add declination control to it, it won't matter.

It won't be installed any time soon - not until I move - but I'll start the work on polar mount in the mean time.

Some pics. Dish:-



The "small" one is the 1m Channel Master:-



NPRM:-



Polar mount to be modified:-

 

[Archive-8]

Nice one Alex, when do you hope to have it up and running?

 

[Captain Jack]

Hopefully by the end of this year. We are looking at our first batch of houses tomorrow - the Dish Pointer app will be working hard!

 

[Costactc]

Looks awesome.

 

[remlap]

Still a great deal for under £250!

How long till you can have photos of the feed arms?

 

[Captain Jack]

I'll get the feed arms on Wednesday - but they are not that exciting!

 

[remlap]

Anything special to incorporate multiple LNBs?

 

[Captain Jack]

Anything special to incorporate multiple LNBs?

I am not sure how I will do it yet. The simplest way is put the C band LNB on top of the Ku one but it does mean that I would be restricted to either circular or linear polarisation at any one time. I could put two LNBs over each other but not sure how well that will work.

I know st1 and martin-f will be making their own feed arms, so I'll probably nick one of their designs

 

[nelson_b]

Nice one --C.J.
It will last a lifetime :-) never regretted buying mine - it must be over 25 years old now - they are a brilliant dish !!!
regards Nelson .

 

[timo_w2s]

(even the 2.4m has less appeal for me - maybe it's TOO big?!)

Er, nope.

 

[RimaNTSS]

CJ, congratulations again, this time on bringing dish home. When you have some time and proper mood could you make precize measurments of your dish? Vertical and horizontal axis and depth. @martin-f did measurements on his dish, but if you do completely independently that would help to find true dimensions with great precision.
For feedarms, I would suggest something like that. This design will help also making multefeeds. Something like that I made on one of my Prodelins.

The "small" one is the 1m Channel Master

Is that really 1m dish? Maybe 1,2m?

 

[Captain Jack]

Yeah, that's what I had in mind, Rimant. Or maybe similar design to what you get on the 1.5m Gibby or 1.8m Laminas. We'll see - no hurry at the moment.

Will measure it when I get the chance. It's currently buried behind a ton of junk in the garage.

Is that really 1m dish? Maybe 1,2m?

Nope, it's a 1m CM dish.

 

[Archived-1]

Very pleased for you Alex, I personally would forget about Jaeger 1224 motor even beefed up, you have a lot of weight there, remember how strong the winds have been over the last two years, you would not want that dish going airborne, but at the end of the day its up to you, if I can help in any way just give me a shout pal .

 

[scopus]

CJ, my H to H is basically a stronger 1224 and the casing was made by a satellite company called Unicorn Satellite Systems and they really beefed up the casing, it weighs a ton. I have had mine working 6 years now without any problems, even in the gales over the last two years or so. The owner of this company called Bill Bryant sadly passed away a few years back and they are no longer made. Satellite Superstore now do a polar mount for the 1.8, but at a price!

 

[Captain Jack]

CJ, my H to H is basically a stronger 1224 and the casing was made by a satellite company called Unicorn Satellite Systems and they really beefed up the casing, it weighs a ton. I have had mine working 6 years now without any problems, even in the gales over the last two years or so. The owner of this company called Bill Bryant sadly passed away a few years back and they are no longer made. Satellite Superstore now do a polar mount for the 1.8, but at a price!

I have no problems strengthening the case. I can put a thick piece of steel inside and some metal "frame" on the underneath and it should be strong. Or something like @RimaNTSS did - a thick pate underneath.

My concern is the wear on the mechanism itself. Has that been upgraded or is it standard still?

I would much prefer a H to H type motor (Ajak 180, anyone - @Trust1 ?!) to a polar mount. I think I will end up with that solution. I do want a very good quality jack though - none of that SuperPowerJack rubbish. I know @martin-f had an eye on a few of those on the other side of the pond, so probably something like that. Pricey, but you get what you pay for.

 

[scopus]

I have no problems strengthening the case. I can put a thick piece of steel inside and some metal "frame" on the underneath and it should be strong. Or something like @RimaNTSS did - a thick pate underneath.

My concern is the wear on the mechanism itself. Has that been upgraded or is it standard still?

I would much prefer a H to H type motor (Ajak 180, anyone - @Trust1 ?!) to a polar mount. I think I will end up with that solution. I do want a very good quality jack though - none of that SuperPowerJack rubbish. I know @martin-f had an eye on a few of those on the other side of the pond, so probably something like that. Pricey, but you get what you pay for.

I don't think the mechanisim has been upgraded, it looks the same as my ther 1224 inside. the bottom plate is a good half an inch thick though. This motor was second hand when I bought it some 6 years back, so it seems to handle OK as regards to the gearing, no wear as I can see on the cogs.

 

[Archived-1]

Will you post up a few pictures from a few different angles of the PM please Alex.

 

[lovelyperson]

The dish, the Az/El mount and the stand cost me a grand total of £41. There are no LNB arms with it, so I sourced these .. for a price. Added that to the cost of hiring a van and diesel, it cost me a grand total of £236! Not so cheap after all!

Congrats CJ..........looks the part and for that money you did great......you also have the added bonus of the knowledgeable members here around you and sure to be an interesting thread to follow.

Neighbours and friends say I treat my dishes with love and care....I have three babies....one a 27 year old son and two 1.8m dishes.

Be safe CJ.

 

[Captain Jack]

Martin, here are the pictures as requested. The mount is very heavy - as heavy as the Az/El one from the CM one. The bearings are knackered as they make clicking noises when moved, so need to replace them. They are some fancy ones though as they have a nipple for injecting grease into them. Something tells me they'll be expensive...




I will attach a square metal frame like this and have the dish swivel on some sort of joints (spherical maybe), like my Gibby.

 

[Captain Jack]

So the bearing is of a flange bearing type. On the housing it says Asahi FT203... So I can either get the same bearing together with the flange or just replace the bearing itself. Though not sure what kind of bearing needs to go there... Spherical, yes, but I guess I need some special one for it to accept the grease.