Installing a satellite dish

This is a replacement dish for the Comtech dish destroyed in a downburst event a few weeks ago.  The first part of the job entailed the placement of the new dish on the ground.  The town code enforcement officer was much happier with this idea than mounting it up above roof level along the back of the building as the old one was.  Of course, this is possible due to the shift in satellites last year to AMC-18.

Finding a good spot on the radio station property was fairly easy.  The studio is located in a business district, thus the sideyard requirements were zero feet, which is great.  The building inspector required that we dig a test hole to see what type of soil was there.  It turned out to be fill.  That required the footing design to be changed somewhat and stamped by a licensed engineer.  Not a major problem.

Satellite mount pole, waiting pre-pour inspection
Satellite mount pole, waiting pre-pour inspection

The footing is 36 inches wide by 7 feet deep.

A little bit of water in the bottom of the hole
A little bit of water in the bottom of the hole

The mounting pipe has flanges welded to the side of it to prevent it from spinning in the concrete.

Footing poured and cured
Footing poured and cured

After the pour, we let the concrete set up over the weekend.

New dish bolted together
New dish bolted together

The dish is assembled and waiting for lift.  We used a backhoe to lift the dish onto the mounting pole, unfortunately, I was not able to take a picture as I was on a ladder attaching the dish to the pedestal with U-bolts.

Viking 1374-990 3.7 Meter R/O dish installed
Viking 1374-990 3.7 Meter R/O dish installed

Here it is installed and aimed at AMC-18. I used the Satellite Buddy, which makes the aiming job much easier. Once the signal is acquired, I like to peak the Eb/No on the West Wood One carrier, which seems to be the most sensitive to any type of change.

Viking 1374-990 3.7 Meter satellite dish, back view
Viking 1374-990 3.7 Meter satellite dish, back view
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