multiple dish considerations
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mounting multiple dishes
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Wanting more power than a single dish can produce, I carefully looked at the mounting systems that were used on the two different types of dish. The dual satellite dishes are wider than they are tall,and the single satellite dishes are taller than they are wide. I started with the dual satellite dishes, and determined that if I cut off the mounting base at the first level, and mounted both dishes on a simple piece of plywood that the angles were perfect. I mounted the first dish, and only clamped the second to the plywood. I manually aimed the already mirrored dishes at the sun with an easy to view target for the concentrated sunlight. I adjusted the clamped dish towards or away from the hard mounted first dish until both of the focal points overlapped on the target. I hard mounted the second dish in this position. Next I made a cross arm out of some 2X4 stock and mounted the single satellite dishes to also intersect the same focal point. I had to lay the second two dishes over the first to get all of them on the same focus point. I replaced the horizontal drive small caster wheels with some nice ball bearing scooter wheels, and mounted a larger diameter horizontal drive wheel on the gear motor. Once the dishes were mounted, I did a center of gravity determination and drilled holes for two axles that were supported by the same 2X4 U support. The vertical drive gearmotor was remounted to a short aluminum angle arm to give better mechanical leverage.
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