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Very imposing structure leaning against the pergola ready for the lift.
This shows the relationship of all the dishes to each other. The only one eclipsed at any time is the
small offset dish underneath the 2.4 metre dish. Otherwise all dishes can see all satellites together all
the time.
actually tapered up and made a sturdy tower.
Mid-November I dug the hole to a depth of
2.4 metres and 50 cm square. Then a big rain
storm came and filled the hole with, dare I
say it... rainwater, what else.
The statistics so far: A dish twice the diameter
of the Perfect 10, four times the area and
so far eight times the trouble. Besides, its still
in four cardboard boxes. The adventure does
not end here. About this time I went to New
Zealand for a rest away from satellite tv.
Have you ever spent Christmas in another
country raced around sight seeing and came
home relaxed? No I didn’t either. The dish is
still in the boxes. The hole has now caved in
a bit and is only one metre deep. It still has
water in it. Each day I would dig out a wheel
barrow of dirt, put it in boxes and take it to
work and dump it on the contractor’s site.
They did not mind as they were putting cubic
metres of earth there every day.
At one time the pile of uncompressed dirt
at my place was a metre high, and this needed
to be removed constantly. The hole was
eventually dug out to a bit over two metres
deep and 600 x 800 mm.
Remember those two pieces of angle iron?
They were too long to negotiate down the
side of the house so they were put through
the front window and marched through the
house and out the back door. They looked
really impressive lying on the lounge room
carpet and disappearing into the dining
room. Flattened the pile on the carpet while
they were lying there though. This problem
was fixed by shampooing the carpet.
Now to turn these cardboard boxes into a
wok. Remember the pole? It is mild steel and
has surface rust. A good rust inhibitor on the
inside and outside is needed. The pole needs
to last at least five years or ten and usually
more. How do you paint inside a 5-inch by
3 metre pole? Anybody into ceramics and
pottery do it all the time. Put one end of the
pole in a shallow tray, raise the other end
and pour that tin of expensive rust inhibitor
down the centre, rotating the pole as you
do it. It need not be messy. Then get the
paint out of the tray pour it back in the tin
and start again. Get a good coating on the
inside, especially if you intend filling it with
concrete. Paint the outside with a brush and
when it is all dry give it a few liberal coats
of your best all weather paint. I used a nice
black gloss.
One thing I did was to read the construction
manual over and over again. I carefully
opened all the boxes and laid the parts out
and counted them. Most important is to
count the number of nuts and bolts and
ensure that you identify each batch correctly.
In my case I had to bolt 18 ribs to a centre
hub with bolts of two different sizes. Thirty
six in all. With this done, place it on the
mounting ring and bolt the 18 supports to
it. Another 36 nuts and bolts of another size.
While doing all this do not tighten all the nuts
up tight yet. You need a little flexibility in getting
the dish true.
An besides, if you don’t have anyone
to help you put this together you have to
encourage your wife, girlfriend, whatever to
become interested in satellite TV. You need
someone to get under the dish to hold the
bolt heads while you tighten the nuts.
When it’s time to slide the mesh panels in
you may find they are a difficult fit. What
happens here is the panels are cut using
a guillotine, as the blade comes down it
crushes the mesh and bends the edges down
slightly, these need to be straightened out
by placing the edges on a flat piece of steel
and lightly tapping with a hammer or a small
steel block with a flat surface. You are then
left with a straight panel instead of one that
is turned slightly at the edges. They should
now slide in easily. When installing panels
in a large dish the ribs need to be supported
with a rope around the perimeter in order to
bring the dish to its correct shape otherwise
the panels will just drop out. As you insert
panels attach the outer ring and work your
way around the dish until you get to the last
set. Remember you have not tightened all
the bolts up yet. One of the reasons here is
that you need to draw the dish edges up so
as the last piece of the rim will fit, when it is
all secured, it is time to string the dish.
With the dish still sitting on its mounting
ring, check the diameter of the dish from
three or four opposing sides, that is two measurements
90° opposed to each other. These
should be the same but if one measurement
is larger than the other get your helper and
lift the rim on opposite sides at the larger
distance. As the dish is still flexible this has
the effect of narrowing this measurement
and increasing the other one. Eventually you
will get it round. While making this adjustment
start tightening all those loose or just
nipped up bolts. The dish now starts to lose
its flexibility and become rigid. It is string
time now, get a ball of string and stretch it
across the centre of the dish over the edge of
the rim at 90 degrees and also make a star or
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