SN. 001 General Dynamics DKET Antenna assembled in Duluth, GA Nov. 2009. I left Afghanistan for close to a month to be part of a three man crew assembling and testing the antenna. I also took photo's to document the assembly procedure for when the antenna was later delivered to me in Afghanistan.
CLICK ON EACH PHOTO TO SEE IN LARGER SIZE.
Album by Q-DF Archives. 1 - 35 of 35 Total.
enlarge 76KB, 639x479 1 Delivery to site.
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enlarge 60KB, 640x480 4 Center anchor mounting into foundation.
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enlarge 58KB, 640x480 6 Anchor bolts in pad must be accurately set.
enlarge 69KB, 639x479 7 Inside the attached storage are all of the parts for the antenna assembly.
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enlarge 97KB, 640x480 10 Ladder used to hold the end of a radial support while a man on the ground bolted each of them to the hub.
enlarge 101KB, 640x480 11 Radials installed.
enlarge 77KB, 640x480 12 Where do the outer support ribs attach on the radials, the holes at the end or the ones further in? THE 2nd MOUNTING HOLES IN FROM THE END.
enlarge 78KB, 640x480 13 Getting ready to fasten outer rib supports for petals.
enlarge 62KB, 640x480 14 Placing outer ribs
enlarge 59KB, 640x480 15 fastening outer ribs with screws and nuts. Full tightening of the hardware must not be completed until the petals are fully secured to the radials.
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enlarge 106KB, 640x480 18 Antenna elevated to finish placing outer ribs at ground level.
enlarge 70KB, 640x480 19 After all of the outer petal support ribs are installed the inner lacing supports are bolted to the radials but not tightened until after all of the petals are secured.
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enlarge 70KB, 640x480 21 Azimuth jack attachment point has several holes left and right of center to allow different Az sweep ranges to be set.
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enlarge 66KB, 640x480 24 One of the twenty petals being carried which is then handed off to a worker standing on top of the attached storage hut (or individually carried up). The end of the petal is then fed between the radials to an installer standing on the hub inside the center of the antenna and laid down on top of two radial supports and fastened with screws and bolts to each radial but NONE of the screws are fully tightened until all of the petals are in place.
enlarge 69KB, 640x480 25 After the petals are in place and tightly secured to the radial supports the feed assembly is mounted at the center of the antenna, then the four sub-reflector support structure arms are then bolted to the main reflector. The sub-reflector is then inserted into place at the center of the mount and adjusted for position and flatness above the feed.
Note: at least one leg of the mount must be loose or removed to be able to insert the sub-reflector assembly in place. If all four are tightened down to the reflector first the feed cannot be inserted.
enlarge 78KB, 640x480 26 Checking center alignment of the sub-reflector above the feed.
enlarge 84KB, 640x480 27 Measuring sub-reflector centering from edge of dish to edge of sub. This measurement is taken at all four sides of the dish closest to where the sub-reflector mounting legs are attached.
enlarge 86KB, 640x480 28 Next, the lightning protection ground wires are secured to each lightning rod and run down the back side of the antenna structure to be bolted to the base of the antenna and grounded.
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enlarge 69KB, 640x480 33 DKET Communications Shelter being offloaded from delivery truck.
enlarge 56KB, 480x640 34 Back end of DKET Communications Shelter.
enlarge 68KB, 640x480 35 This shows the side door on the DKET Communications Shelter but the end of the building is obscured in this photo.
