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Thread: ACESAT Satellite Dish Information

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    Post ACESAT Satellite Dish Information

    Hi, I'm sorry if this is the wrong place for this.

    I've come to be incharge of looking after some old ACESAT dishes. 2.4m, 3m and 3.7m primarily.

    I've been trying to locate any literature on them, primarily manuals, spec sheets etc.

    I've had no luck looking through the web or the old files left by the last guy who looked after them.

    Any help with this would be very much appreciated.



Look Here ->
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    Thread moved to correct section.

    Those old dishes were likely for Sky Racing to pubs, etc.

    What exactly do you need to know?

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    Quote Originally Posted by mtv View Post
    Thread moved to correct section.

    Those old dishes were likely for Sky Racing to pubs, etc.

    What exactly do you need to know?

    Basically what I'm after is technical specifications for the 2.4m, 3m and 3.7m ones to be able to do link budgets (both C and Ku band),
    but also preferably assembly/installation manuals.

    Overall, I'm somewhat embarrassingly stuck on changing the elevation of them. f/D, LNB skew etc is fine. I just need to drop
    elevation enough to service the LNBs, but the ACESAT dishes aren't a design I'm familiar with.

    Any pointers, advice etc even, would be helpful.

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    why dont you google acesat dishes theres heaps of info there also use search on this site for articles

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    I have a 2.7mt variant of the same dishes, I can understand your frustration in getting info. It’s not readily available because of the dishes age. Nearly 30 years old. As a long shot, which worked for me, I contacted Sky Racing technical support (be it 12 plus years ago now) an they still had some archived Dish technical data available. You might be lucky an still have the small description plate on the back of the dish to help find exact model.

    But in most cases a parabolic dish is a parabolic dish, somost online c band sat design engines will give you a fairly good indication of what you need as long as you input the exact data of your dish eg diameter and depth. Then everything else falls into place. If you are planing to use these dishes on c band rather then ku be aware the feedarms length may need to be modified slightly.

    Good Luck and remember “Google is your freind”.

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    Quote Originally Posted by hinekadon View Post
    why dont you google acesat dishes theres heaps of info there also use search on this site for articles
    I've found a small amount via google and this site, but not much.

    Quote Originally Posted by cmoore View Post
    I have a 2.7mt variant of the same dishes, I can understand your frustration in getting info. It’s not readily available because of the dishes age. Nearly 30 years old. As a long shot, which worked for me, I contacted Sky Racing technical support (be it 12 plus years ago now) an they still had some archived Dish technical data available. You might be lucky an still have the small description plate on the back of the dish to help find exact model.

    But in most cases a parabolic dish is a parabolic dish, somost online c band sat design engines will give you a fairly good indication of what you need as long as you input the exact data of your dish eg diameter and depth. Then everything else falls into place. If you are planing to use these dishes on c band rather then ku be aware the feedarms length may need to be modified slightly.

    Good Luck and remember “Google is your freind”.
    Yes, sadly being 30 odd years old, these dishes are older then I am. Thank you for your help and advice, mate. I'll try my luck with sky racing. They might happen to still have some info.

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    I can tell you the figures if you give me the diameter and the depth of the dish from measurements . if they are 30 y-old dishes they will be prime focus dishes from memory they had a polar mount with built in declination are they the steel dish or alloy ones . If they are the polar-mounts design you can just loosen the rotational adjustment and swing it around to get the feedhorn at the bottom elevation and reach it of a ladder , but a photo of the mount will save a great deal of time , most went on a 4" pole from memory ? cheers don

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    I don't recall any of them being a polar mount, just adjustable azimuth and elevation.

    Some were pole-mounted and others ground-mounted on a frame.

    Yes, they were all prime focus dishes.

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    Quote Originally Posted by hinekadon View Post
    I can tell you the figures if you give me the diameter and the depth of the dish from measurements . if they are 30 y-old dishes they will be prime focus dishes from memory they had a polar mount with built in declination are they the steel dish or alloy ones . If they are the polar-mounts design you can just loosen the rotational adjustment and swing it around to get the feedhorn at the bottom elevation and reach it of a ladder , but a photo of the mount will save a great deal of time , most went on a 4" pole from memory ? cheers don
    Hi Don. I know the size, but not depth off the top of my head. I'll try and measure that during the week. All of them are primes. From what I've seen, all Acesat dishes were primes (please correct me if I'm wrong). Definitely has the inbuilt declination, though they are AZ/EL due to having no polar rotational gear. They all are pun aluminium, though the 3m and up ones are cut into 4 panels for transportation. As for pole mounts, they very depending on location. some are and some are up 2m+ poles to clear obstructions.

    Bellow is a link to some photos of one of the 3.7m ones.



    I am happy to go into detail with what I've tried, in relation to dropping the elevation.

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    yes ok thanks for the photos , if you want to get to the lnbs you can remove the diagonal stays and use the vertical pivot to lower the feed point you may find that its still impossible to get at it as you have to be over the side if the building . Is there a particular reason for wanting to get at the feed point ?

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    Hi Don. I was able to get in contact with the engineer who's very big shoes I am filling. I had already swung the dish away from the edge and he walked me through dropping the azimuth. We never got manuals when the dishes went in, in the 90's. But he did send me what documents he has.

    I'm going to write up a document on the process, for the other states (I only look after one state) and will post it here for anyone else in the future.

    Thank you for your help and advice.

    Zakk.

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    This might be of assistance.

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    Quote Originally Posted by mtv View Post
    I don't recall any of them being a polar mount, just adjustable azimuth and elevation.

    Some were pole-mounted and others ground-mounted on a frame.

    Yes, they were all prime focus dishes.
    Who can forget Olga and Doug Sawtell...Did a few jobs for them back then .. Yes they were Polar Mounts they had declination adjustment and a threaded rod to fix the Azimuth. The square base tube with the 2 grab bolts on the side..brilliant design.. The skins came from Metal Spinners Canada and the mounts were fabricated in a workshop next to Acesat's place at Caringbah NSW.

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    Sadly they were well before my time, but found reference to them in a few places.

    Personally, the smaller ones aren't too special but the 3m and 3.7m ones are really something. After having gotten the hang of them, they really are fine dishes. I originally wasn't 100% sure about them being polar mount, until I got them properly moving.

    I managed to get my hands on some 90's photocopies of a few of the mechanical diagrams for the 3.7m ones. I'm happy to post them and the cleaned up copy I made.

    For curiosity sake, did they design the dishes themselves?

    I'm still hunting for the dish specs but for now have enough info to do a few rough calculations.

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    trying to remember the designer ?? from memory he was a German but he was in hong kong I know he was a ham and he had a drake ?tr5 i think think it was seperate tx and dx type of hf rig that must have been in 1977/79 area . Helmet rings a bell ? Too old for that stuff now cheers Don

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    Quote Originally Posted by YEETUS View Post
    I managed to get my hands on some 90's photocopies of a few of the mechanical diagrams for the 3.7m ones. I'm happy to post them and the cleaned up copy I made.
    There are several members here that would probably like a copy, so yes, please post them.

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    Quote Originally Posted by mtv View Post
    There are several members here that would probably like a copy, so yes, please post them.
    Yes I have a 2.4 metre Acesat dish (Ex-Sky racing Channel I think)


    By the way do you have one of the large dishes (3.7 m etc ...) pointing to Optus D1 by any chance ?

    I also have a 1.8 m solid "Cheap" dish and I can get a lot of channel seven Australian signals but they come and go (like they either turn them on or off when they want to .... or increase the signal strength when they want to ?) .... I was wondering if they are there permanently on a larger dish ?
    Last edited by OSIRUS; 21-04-20 at 12:16 PM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by YEETUS View Post

    For curiosity sake, did they design the dishes themselves?
    The skins (reflector panel) and the back support ring, all the span parts were designed and manufactured by AMS in Canada, came piled up in a container. above 3 meters were sliced in to quarters. The mounts, all the poles, wall and ground mounts were designed and manufactured in Caringbah.

    Below youtube of another company DH... the skin manufacturing process was the same as AMS's...


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    Quote Originally Posted by mtv View Post
    There are several members here that would probably like a copy, so yes, please post them.
    I'll post them when I'm home. I'm aiming to get some more of the drawings cleaned up this week too, hopefully.

    Quote Originally Posted by OSIRUS View Post
    Yes I have a 2.4 metre Acesat dish (Ex-Sky racing Channel I think)


    By the way do you have one of the large dishes (3.7 m etc ...) pointing to Optus D1 by any chance ?

    I also have a 1.8 m solid "Cheap" dish and I can get a lot of channel seven Australian signals but they come and go (like they either turn them on or off when they want to .... or increase the signal strength when they want to ?) .... I was wondering if they are there permanently on a larger dish ?
    The dish I have pointed at D1, is either a 2.1m or 2.4m solid spun. I'll have to double check.

    As for channel 7, it's only FTA broadcast is on D3/Optus 10 via Foxtel and VAST. I can't remember what bird is used for it's feeds etc, but if its pointed at any other bird, you might be just seeing channel 7 feeds. (Don't recall it being encrypted when I worked there).

    As for dish size, a 1.8m is more then enough. 90cm would even be fine.

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    Quote Originally Posted by hinekadon View Post
    trying to remember the designer ?? from memory he was a German but he was in hong kong I know he was a ham and he had a drake ?tr5 i think think it was seperate tx and dx type of hf rig that must have been in 1977/79 area . Helmet rings a bell ? Too old for that stuff now cheers Don
    Quote Originally Posted by B52 View Post
    The skins (reflector panel) and the back support ring, all the span parts were designed and manufactured by AMS in Canada, came piled up in a container. above 3 meters were sliced in to quarters. The mounts, all the poles, wall and ground mounts were designed and manufactured in Caringbah.

    Below youtube of another company DH... the skin manufacturing process was the same as AMS's...
    Thank you both for adding in some history/background information. Being only mid 20's, this was all before my time but I find it fascinating nonetheless.

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