Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Twelve Foot Dish

Here's some pictures of that 12 foot dish I've been working on. When I started, I had a box with eight petals, several bags of nuts and bolts, and a few stacks of angle iron. It's all together now, waiting to go on the pole. The pole is waiting on the hole, and the concrete man.
Happy Days asked why such a big dish... There could be several reasons. We could be on the edge of the satellite footprint. Imagine being in space over the same spot equator, shining a light on the the same spot at North America. The lit part is called the footprint. The signal from the satellite is kind of like the light from your flashlight. Down here in the Caribbean, we're on the edge of the footprint, so a bigger dish helps us get more signal.
Another reason could be that we may receive large amounts of data. Where you are receiving and using only one audio and video channel at a time, the broadcaster may receive numerous CD quality digital audio and video streams simultaneously, as well as data feeds.
Also, I have installed little 30 inch TV satellite dishes, and the strongest signal I could get was about 40% on my receiver signal strength meter. If it rained or got cloudy, you could see the TV picture get worse, or drop out completely. With this dish, I expect to receive 100% signal strength and a signal suitable for Radio Broadcast in any weather conditions.

Although, I must admit, I think we could do just fine with a 10 foot or even an 8 foot dish. But the receiver vendor insisted on a 12 foot and I was given a 12 footer to install.

"The dish is now strong enough to support the weight of the assembler"

The support struts.

Me on top of a dish that looks small in this picture.

Looking up.

4 Comments:

Blogger Penelope Marzec said...

That is a big dish! Maybe you can pull in signals from aliens. :^)

January 17, 2012 8:19 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

OMG!! how in the hell are you gonna get that dish waaaaay up there?!?!????? holy Smokes!! It's huge...what happens whena big storm somes and winds hit that 12 foot dish? eeek....debbie


guess I didn't think about you being so far out of the foot. course I didn't know there was a foot...lol

January 17, 2012 9:35 PM  
Blogger MarkD60 said...

The dish isn't going on the tower! It's going on a pole, next to the tower!

January 18, 2012 6:57 AM  
Blogger yellowdoggranny said...

wow...what a big dish you have.the better to see you with.

January 19, 2012 2:11 PM  

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