Date: Thu, 28 Jul 1994 08:14:56 -0700 Sender: HOMESAT - Home Satellite Technology From: Bob Wier Subject: painting the dish,feed cover Another brief technical note... Occasionally someone asks if there is a special paint which should be used to repaint a dish which sets off great merriment in the group :-) I vaguely remembered that somewhere I had seen an answer on this. Well, I finally ran across it from a Ask the Tech Editor column from awhile ago (like 1988). They say - Do the usual pre painting surface prep on your dish - wash it and make sure the surface is free of dirt and oil. If it's extremely smooth, you may need to give the surface some "tooth" for the paint to grab onto by roughening it up via sandpaper or steel wool. Note that if you have a dish where the reflecting surface is exposed (ie, spun alum or mesh) I would NOT advise doing that, but it would be ok on a fiberglass surface. Paint it first with a high quality oil based primer which is non photo-reactive such as Fuller O'Briens Ful - Prime 320-04 (I've not seen that). Then apply the finish color of choice, with latex perhaps being better since it's more flexible to tolerate any movement/bending during movement due to the actuator or wind. It is also suggested to paint it with a color which isn't too reflective so as not to concentrate heat on the feed. Last summer, I painted the BACK of my 6' fiberglass a green color so it would blend in somewhat with the foliage background as seen from the street. I just used a dark green from a Tru Value Hardware store. It came thru last winter fine and isn't showing any signs of flaking or anything similar. In the same column there is the usual question about the advisibility of using feed horn covers. One thing they suggest is to use one, but pack it with insulation to slow down temperature changes. That would also tend to discourage insects from building nexts indside, etc. I might try that the next time I have the cover off, but of course I'll have to be careful to seal the holes in the cover since I wouldn't want rain/snow to get inside ( wet insulation would not be a good idea :-) Back to painting - I've occasionally seen paints which are specifically advertised for use on metal /and/or fiberglass, but havn't experimented with those. If anyone here can say anything about those, please do. THANKS ===== Round Up the Usual Disclaimers! ====== Bob Wier, keeper of the Adobe Photoshop, Icom radio (WB5KXH), and Motorola HC11 mailing lists wier@merlin.etsu.edu currently in Ouray, Co at 8,000 ft. elevation (this is a *high level* system :-)