[BC] Comtech Dish...

[Mark Humphrey]

Burt,

That's interesting to know.  Has anyone else had similar problems with
these?   Does the sag degrade its directivity in the azimuth plane, or
just cause an elevation angle shift which can be corrected by cranking
the bottom jack?

We recently acquired a used Comtech 3.8 at an unbeatable price -- the
cost of picking it up.  Surplus from a consolidation project, it had
been disassembled, was stored indoors and appears to be in good
condition, but before we spend money pouring the foundation, I would
feel more comfortable if I knew that it hasn't sagged appreciably.
At least I'm planning to put the reflector back together and pull two
strings across the rim just to see how close they meet before we
proceed.

If we invert the mounting 180 degrees, might this help the sag to
"cancel out" over time?

We plan to replace a 3.0 m Harris Cassegrain (was it AP or UPI that
once used those?) which is marginal on AMC-8 but works better than I
expected at our Western NY location.

Mark

On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 9:47 AM, Burt I. Weiner <biwa at att.net> wrote:
> Edwin,
>
> My experience has been that the 3-section Comtech dishes do not hold
> shape.  After a few years they begin to sag.