Setting up in the back yard involved lugging the dish through the garden gate, but that was about the extent of the exercise.
With a whole yard to choose from, set-up took an hour, now we're finally getting to the point where we have a mobile installation.
After four years of lugging a 1.8m (well, 2.0m) dish around the country, I finally got around to buying a smaller set-up. The hardware is almost identical, the biggest difference is that the transmitter is now 2 Watt, instead of 1 Watt.
Whilst driving through Broken Hill, on the trip from Millmerran to Perth, I finally had a spare moment to drill some holes into the bull bar and line those up with holes in the mounting pole.
I hadn't yet attempted to use the mount, but Richard was keen to see my set-up, because all he'd seen to date was photos.
So, if it weren't for the lost cable, it would have taken less than 30 minutes to set-up, from start to finish.
That really means that we now have a truly mobile kit.
You cannot see the black electronics boxes, but I've left the red steel behind in Millmerran and changed over to water proof Pelican cases. Not sure how we'll go with the heat, but from a water/moisture perspective, this is all good.
Every two years, the Australian Camp Oven Festival is held in Millmerran, Qld. In 2006, Fran was responsible for running the office and I offered to provide the festival with Internet connectivity during the week long event.
Arrival at the show grounds was at 6:00am and by 7:00am I was on my way home with a dish all tuned and ready to go. This was a true test of the mobile nature of our new dish and it worked to perfection.
The festival was a great success and many visitors from around the world came to look at and taste genuine Australian camp oven tucker.
I played a minor role as one of the folks sitting on a quad directing campers to their sites and reuniting long lost friends.
A good time was had by all.