Tight a&$ed satellite question. (1 Viewer)

[zaskar]

At the moment, I have an orinary, 660mm diameter, domestic satellite dish on the top of my 5ver for Sky reception.
It's cheap and cheerfull and works a treat EXCEPT in the flippin' wind when it looses it's signal for fun!.........only its not bl**dy funny!oh:

I'd LOVE a Camos dome but there is no way on Gods earth that I'm paying that sort of money for even the static version, it's just not on!:Angry:

So, I got thinking. Could I buy a small, say 400mm dish and make/buy/find some sort of plastic dome to go over it, just like the Camos but at a fraction of the cost? Would the cover blank out the signal? is the Camos dome some sort of special material that allows the signal through it to the LNB?

Any other tight beggers out there had a go?:thumb:

 

[hilldweller]

At the moment, I have an orinary, 660mm diameter, domestic satellite dish on the top of my 5ver for Sky reception.
It's cheap and cheerfull and works a treat EXCEPT in the flippin' wind when it looses it's signal for fun!.........only its not bl**dy funny!oh:

Can't you stiffen up the mounting ?

Remember dish collection is on area, pi * r^2 so once you drop size the signal drops off very rapidly.

 

[johnnerontheroad]

Dome for £149+VAT Link Removed any good?

Dave

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[evans88]

Dishes within domes tend to be lower in height than conventional dishes such as the Maxview even though it is eliptical. I've noticed in France that some people clip a wire onto the dish and anchor it to the body in order to use their dishes in the wind.

 

[hilldweller]

Dome for £149+VAT Link Removed any good?
Dave

Probably not, unless he's worked out how to align the dish without unscrewing the dome first.

 

[zaskar]

Ok, perhaps a bit more info on the current set up would help, and BTW, thanks for your input so far guys.:thumb:

On the roof of the 5ver is the typical American wind up mast which did have an American Wineguard batwing aerial on it. I took this off cos we NEVER use it and just mounted a domestic sat dish to the mast. This can be raised and lowered AND swivelled from inside the rig by means of a crank up handle and swivel ring already fitted.

Basically, all I need is a Camos type dome to go over the dish which at the mo' unlikely as I fitted a 660mm dia dish hoping to improve the reception at the outer ranges of the sat footprint.
In hindsight, this was a mistake as under normal circumstances, we are based in Cheshire where a much smaller dish will suffice and in France, where a bigger dish is required, we never watch the box anyway, so why bother!

My intension is to fit a much smaller dish (Camos quote 400mm for the static version) and this should make it easier to purchase or fabricate a suitable dome, just to keep the wind off.

........at least, thats the theory!

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[hilldweller]

........at least, thats the theory!

Not a lot wrong with that. I suspect Camos use the best possible low noise LNB to make up for the lack of signal gathering power of a small dish.

And where you pivot from behind I bet they pivot at the sides to minimise the sweep of the LNB arm.

It's amazing how "this looks easy" can soon turn into "why did I start this ?".

 

[johnnerontheroad]

Camos exposed Link Removed shows how it works

Dave

 

[Ant&Debs]

At the moment, I have an orinary, 660mm diameter, domestic satellite dish on the top of my 5ver for Sky reception.
It's cheap and cheerfull and works a treat EXCEPT in the flippin' wind when it looses it's signal for fun!.........only its not bl**dy funny!oh:

I'd LOVE a Camos dome but there is no way on Gods earth that I'm paying that sort of money for even the static version, it's just not on!:Angry:

So, I got thinking. Could I buy a small, say 400mm dish and make/buy/find some sort of plastic dome to go over it, just like the Camos but at a fraction of the cost? Would the cover blank out the signal? is the Camos dome some sort of special material that allows the signal through it to the LNB?

Any other tight beggers out there had a go?:thumb:

Hi Zaskar

Prob not much help but I use a tripod, but when not able to peg to ground use a bag of sand hung from the centre (like they do with temp road signs).

Ant

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[zaskar]

Hi Zaskar

Prob not much help but I use a tripod, but when not able to peg to ground use a bag of sand hung from the centre (like they do with temp road signs).

Ant

Got one of those, and set it up last night due to the wind!.........which along with the rain was REALLY enjoyable!oh:
That's what i'm trying to avoid.:thumb:

 

[hilldweller]

Camos exposed Link Removed shows how it works
Dave

That looks quite nicely done, one obvious omission is angle adjustment of the LNB, but I'm not sure if that is an issue.

The most important part is underneath, the software. I watched one of the naked dishes trying to find a satellite once, flailing around before it finally gave up.

 

[pappajohn]

Camos dome appears to come in two sizes.....30cm and 40cm and the dish is a lower hieght profile than a standard dish so your dish wont fit anyway.

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[mikel]

Maybe you could ask around if anyone has a spare Supermarine Spitfire cockpit canopy thingy. There's a bulge in the middle, certainly in the photo I'm looking at, and I reckon you could fit inside the hump bit a 60 cms dish.

Have a look on Ebay or maybe someone has one at the bottom of the garden or maybe a water trough in an allotment ?

Bets of Luck.

 

[olley]

Hi Zaskar I found this on a yank site.

You can make them by a blow molding kind of process. I worked on an Extreme Makeover Home Edition show, and they had some guys build a thing to make big plastic domes. The same process could work for smaller ones too. Basically you sandwich a piece of plastic between two pieces of plywood, the lower piece has the hole cut out of the size (diameter) dome you want. The upper piece needs an air fitting that you can hook compressed air to. Then you heat the form assembly to some temp (I don't recall exact temp, I think it was 200F maybe?) that makes the plastic soft enough to start stretching, then you put some air to the upper part and the bubble grows.

Be aware that even with fairly low pressure, that thing will generate huge force trying to blow the form apart, use enough screws or clamps to hold it. together.

The thing they made used an old electric oven in an insulated plywood box (about 4'x4'x4') with the plastic form inside on the top where it caught the heat. The domes were maybe 18" to 30" or so, I don't recall exactly, 2 or 3 diff sizes. They pumped it fairly slowly to keep it uniformly expanding. They came out almost hemispheres, used different colors of plexiglass (1/8") and they looked very cool.

For small ones I would think you could warm it up in the oven, hit it with some air, see how it goes and heat it more if you needed to.

Sound doable?

Olley

 

[pappajohn]

No offense Mikel, but some folks have the strangest ideas

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