[Ground-station] Update from Doug Phelps on dishes

[Michelle Thompson]

Doug wanted me to post this for him, and I added him to the list filters so
he can reply directly. About half of the dishes have been spoken for as of
today.

Doug describes the plan for adjustable feed platform.

Any interest in us looking at duplicating the mounts?

-Michelle W5NYV

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delay but work has been hectic.  I am receiving the dish request Emails and
will be compiling a list and will send out the list of requests I have
received so no one gets missed.

This is just the fiberglass dish (what did you expect for free) but it is a
damn nice dish  .The dishes are 1.2 meter (4 foot), Class 2, off center
fed.  These dishes are fiberglass outside with the metal sandwiched inside
the fiberglass.  The fiber glass dish is stiffened by a series of ribs, in
the rear of the dish, that makes the dish rigid.  The fiberglass is is more
resilient than a metal dish, especially when it comes to dings. These are
the parabolic section (off center fed) only, no mount and no feed horn.
They were previously used in the Ku band so I doubt the feed would have
been helpful.  The feed mount amounts to 3 pieces of electrical conduit,
attached to the dish bottom and sides.  I plan to get the conduit
dimensions so that locating the feedpoint will be a matter of creating the
3 conduit pieces and bolting them to the dish.  I  envision an adjustable
platform, at the feed point, that will allow customization with various
type of RF feed design and experimentation.  I have attached 3 documents
showing the dish and its specs, an assembly manual which will give you
everything you need to build your own mount and learn more about the dish,
and a paper detailing what a Class 2 dish is (as compared to a Class 1, 3,
or 4).

Right now, I am trying to determine the cheapest way to send the dish.  4
foot circles are not easy to ship.  In addition, these dishes are an 8 hour
drive from my location so I also have to figure out how to move them and
how to store them.   In the meantime, I will keep a list of all requests.
If, based on the documentation, you no longer want the dish but have sent
me a request, please post an Email asking me to remove you from the list.

If anyone has an idea about how to ship these dishes cheaply, I would
appreciate your input.  Shipping a number of dishes to a common location is
one idea.  I will send another post when I have the logistics figured out.

-Doug
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