A new crown for our venerable lady

Sadie got a new crown today. The weather was fair. We brought the old girl home yesterday. So, I got up on the roof and removed the old, non-functional satellite dish and replaced it with a newer, better one.

This one is a Dish 1000 model. When it is activated, it automatically searches the sky until it finds a satellite. When it has identified the satellite, it computes the relative position of EchoStar 119W and locks on it. Then it computes the positions of EchoStar 110 and EchoStar 129 and adjusts itself so that it is locked on all three satellites. It took about 5 minutes to accomplish all of this on the first try!

Since we will be living aboard for about 4 to 5 months while our new house is under construction, we thought it a good idea to have TV available. The new installation was not especially difficult. In fact, the hardest part was removing the caulking material that was on and around the old unit. Once that was accomplished, it was a matter of setting the new unit in place, marking the screw holes, applying some caulk to the base of the unit and screwing it down...with self tapping screws: no pilot holes necessary (or advised!).

Since this was a replacement operation, I didn't have to spot and drill a new hole in the roof for the cables. I simply removed the cover plate, removed the old cables, inserted the new ones, applied more caulk to the new cover plate, and screwed it in place.

The lower end of the installation was simply a matter of placing some F fittings on the ends of the coax cables and plugging everything in. There was one other task. It was placing the control unit through the side of the box on which the TV is mounted and which contains the power supply. By situating the new control unit through the side of the cabinet, I obviated the need to open the cabinet and fiddle with the controls when setting up or stowing the dish.

So, Sadie now has a first class satellite TV antenna. I'm jazzed. Tomorrow, I will install the new memory foam mattress. Then it is off to the mechanic for some mechanical tweaking.