Sat dishes vs snow (was "Re: [BC] KFI Tower replacement ?")

[Cowboy]

On Wednesday 04 January 2006 11:11 am, khcs at juno.com wrote:
>In a message dated 01/04/2006 09:42:28 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
>Robertm at broadcast.net writes:
>
>> Just hang a tarp across the front of the dish, attach at the top put some weights
>> on the bottom. It will flap in the wind and shake the snow off.   
>
>and Willie responded:
>
>>That would be fine, if there was much wind blowing. When this mess sticks
>>the worst, is when it's falling nearly vertical, with no wind. 
>
>--------------
>
>Not that I am an expert on snow (<g>) but Robert's suggestion is elegant
>in its simplicity.  Maybe you could hook up an electric motor and a cam to shake the tarp periodically.   
>
>Glen Kippel

 The tarp idea is the best I've ever come up with, except
 that I used bungie cords to put tension at the bottom, rather than weights.

 It works for several reasons.
 It shakes in the wind.
 The surface of the tarp isn't dished, so more snow tends to slide off
 from the git-go.
 If it isn't windy, a smack with a broom will shake it enough for the snow
 to fall off, so it minimizes the cleaning work in those few instances when
 it might fail. Pretty much takes a dead calm for it not to work, though.
 A non-conductive tarp is transparent to the radio signals, so it doesn't
 affect the performance of the dish.
 There's no electric bill, as there would be with heaters of any kind.
 It's simple. KISS !

-- 
Cowboy

http://cowboys.homeip.net

Old soldiers never die.  Young ones do.