Progress on the 2.4m dish for 23cm

So far, so good...making progress on the installation. Everything had to be assembled, from the steel tripod to the dish itself.

I have many wounds from that mesh, but it's on there and will never darken my door again (until the next time).

The tripod is quite robust at around 145 pounds; it's adjustable, and the footprint can expand more than I have I have room for here. With the dish 'bird-bathed', there's a 7.5ft clearance for heads.

I have this pointed at the sun, and the shadow of the feed support (diamond-shaped) surrounds the center hub.

The next photo will show how I fabricated the counter-balance system to unload the elevation mechanism.
 

I used two pieces of the smaller steel uni-strut, each 30 inches long. Each is fastened to the back of the dish on opposing sides to the same horizontal mast piece the dish is fastened to, and bolted to a flat plate. Each plate is then fastened to the mast with 2 muffler clamps.

It took about 30 pounds (total) of weights to balance it all out, and another 6 pounds once the feed was in place. The weights are fastened to the uni-strut ends on long bolts, and held to it with a nut and large washer.

That's it so far...now for all the electronics.