Are motorised dishes OK in the cold?

aekostas

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I am moving house and would like to get a motorised dish. I was reasonably happy with my monoblock Hotbird-Astra set-up in my current home, but HellasSAT may be useful if you are Greek or lack taste or sth. :cool:

I walked into an installers' yesterday and they said they no longer do motorised dishes as they seize in the cold. I am in Midlothian (the area south of Edinburgh, generally 2-3 degrees colder than Edinburgh).

Thanks for any suggestions. :thumbsup:
 
This simply isn't true.
I have myself observed working motorised dishes in Siberia!
They probably become less reliable unless the normal lubrication is replaced with a suitable grease that works ok (without getting too viscous or solid) at low temperatures.
Perhaps a motorised dish owner in northern Scotland might like to add a reply.

Chris Muriel, Manchester
 
If a so-called installer told you that , he must be a crap installer. I live on the North East Coast where it can get very cold in the winter with freezing temperatures and my motor has never siezed .It's a Jaeger 128 , built like a tank .Never a problem , of course it was fitted by myself ,that makes all the difference :)
 
But a Jaeger is not something the average installer knows about let alone stock. :) I have one, no problems at all, but I cut my satellite teeth on a cheap unit from Maplin, I can imagine that being unreliable and it's more likely the sort of thing an installer would use in order to get the prices down.
 
If a so-called installer told you that , he must be a crap installer.

He told me two things I am not buying:

- That I need to upgrade my aerial to a digital one to get Freeview (yeah, right, without even trying the current aerial)

- That I need a 1.2m dish.

Thanks, but thanks.

Any recommendations for decent installers in the Edinburgh area will be much appreciated. TIA!
 
@aekostas, sorry I cannot help you there ...............I dont know of any installers , I've allways fitted my own .There not difficult m8 .I started of 7 or 8 years ago with a polar mount motorised setup , then opted for the H-H because of there ruggedness . If you check around the on-line dealers to find out what's available and prices .As a guide I paid £89 for my Jaeger from a good supplier here in the North East ,as it happens he only does on-line sales now ,I collected mine back then ,If you need more info on his site just PM me.You have a few choices for setup : you could opt for a stab motor , this operates through DiseqC ,depending on your Rx . I have a standalone positioner [Geotrack [36v]] this works independantly of any Rx . I prefer this method . I can do a factory re-set on my Tm1500 and never lose any sat positions [dont have to program anything back]. I use an A-B switch to interchange between my hummy 5400 and the motorised can be used for both . So ,as said theres a few ways of doing things , depending on the the overall cost I suppose. I can certainly help you if you need advice on setup , but you will need the right tools , ladders etc .Like I said , its not difficult , just a little time consuming to get things just right. HTH
 
Have you considered a ground mount ?.If you have a open space in the garden away from trees and roof tops you can bolt a dish and mount to a concrete slab . Some people opt for this method as you dont need planning permission as it is not permanant, you would if your dish is over 90cms [in therory]. But most gardens would be restricted by surrounding buildings or trees so unless your moving to the countryside , this would not be a viable option.
 
Indeed trees and houses are not conducive to this approach.
 
Had my H to H mount for 11 years now - it's a cheap Polish thing and hasn't missed a beat once.

Perhaps you want to suggest to your local dealer that he sticks to Sky installs!! :)
 
:hiya: I fitted my Jaeger u90 mount 10 years ago and as one post above says Jaeger mounts are built like a tank.It has had no prolems,I have just taken it down once for cleaning,other than that there has been no problems.I could only suggest you put some lagging on it,and make sure you move it frequently in cold weather.I live in Liverpool and have 2 moterized dishes,and I have had no problems wiyh either of them.
 
I was told years ago by a supplier , as long as you move your dish on a regular basis , they should last for years. I think if they arn't moved they can tend to sieze .
 
i live near to glasgow airport mate,motorised system since the summer,no probs with the motor at all,just the wind that almost blew the whole thing off the wall on new years eve!!

anyome recommend a cheap installer in the glasgow area who can realign the dish for me as many sats have now been lost!!! aaarrrgggh
 
he wants an arm and a leg to come out and do the job,for what he wants you would be a millionaire real soon if you did a 40hr week for a few year!!
waiting on mall sat finder coming from auction site,if this fails then i shall try phoning around for a resonable price for an hours work max!!
 
I'm in Edinburgh, using a £35 Moteck 2100a off ebay with a 88cm dish (which also cost peanuts on ebay), and it's entirely unbothered by anything weather related. Besides, at this price if it breaks in a few years, so what - you could buy 5 of them for the price some installers charge just to get out of bed. Here's a sample system:

http://***********/y4ezsj

Can't remember if that's exactly the seller I got it from, but there are a few doing similar setups. Add in a Technomate 1500 receiver and you're sorted.

Like Rangers above, the New Year winds (unbelievable weren't they?) blew the dish itself off alignment, but the actual motor itself wasn't damaged in the slightest and the gearing is still working perfectly. Just needed a quick loosen, nudge west a bit, re-tighten :)

Forgot about installers, just do it yourself, it's easy. I knew nothing about motors (or indeed satellite dishes) at all when I bought mine. Forgot satfinders and all that jazz, just get up there with a mobile + handsfree and have someone phone you with the reception quality. If you're watching via a PC card, you can use DVBDream and it will speak the signal quality. Remember and cover the nuts/bolts with silicon spray so you can loosen things in future, else it might rust solid.


ps a 1.2m dish?? Can't see why you'd need that. If you have a particularly channel/sat, just mention it and I'll tell you what signal quality I get - the likes of both Astras, Hispasat, Hotbird are all 100% quality on my 88cm. Hellas and Turksat are fine also. At last count there's 6500 tv channels receivable, and a whole whackload more radio. Maybe a few sats are just out of reach - some of the Nordic aimed ones are just too low to be watchable - but unless you speak Swedish this is unlikely to bother you.
 
Besides, at this price if it breaks in a few years, so what - you could buy 5 of them for the price some installers charge just to get out of bed. Here's a sample system:

http://***********/y4ezsj

Many thanks. If it breaks it's inconvenient and costly in my case...

Forgot about installers, just do it yourself, it's easy. I knew nothing about motors (or indeed satellite dishes) at all when I bought mine.

...because I don't do heights, esp. not above a conservatory where the current sky dish is. :suicide: But your instructions are very useful, thank you very much for taking the time.

ps a 1.2m dish?? Can't see why you'd need that.

The installer in question just tried to take me for a ride. I am watching fine in my (soon to be) old home with a Terrible, I thought. :mad:

One thing that I don't know how to assess *before sourcing it*, is how far towards each direction my dish can go before it meets the wall. Which is another reason why an installer will be a good idea.
 
Ahh, sounds awkward; I wouldn't bother either if it was that difficult. Possibly you could still buy the parts on the net, to save cost there, then get an installer out?

With regard to how far it will go, the 2100A+88cm combination will rotate about 80-100 degrees from one side to the other, depending on how far out the mount is offset from the wall (smaller dish will obviously do more). As long as your wall is south-facing-ish, that means Hispasat 30W to Turksat 42E quite easily. There's nothing much beyond that on either side, although I can get signals from satellites out around 60E.
 

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