Adventures In Dish Hunting 2010

[ynnedibanez]

i had a good day today!!!!
i was doing a wildblue install the other day and the owner of the house had a 6 foot mesh dish out back and he said i could have it.
so i went to pick it up today and the guy was having a deck built.
while i was taking it down, one of the guys building the deck asked me if i wanted another one. he said he just wants it out of his yard!!!
i said "yeah, sure" and tried not to act too excited
if the one works out that the guy who was building the deck told me i could have, it will be 3 that i have got in the last couple months:up
the one i got today is a 6 foot mesh that came apart into 3 sections, has a superjack 2+ h8 actuator, a chaparral feedhorn, and a norsat 40deg 67db 3.4-4.2ghz lnb
the last one was a 10 foot unimesh with a von weise actuator model v76-5, a chaparral feedhorn, and a california amplifier slimline 2 45deg 65db 3.4-4.2ghz lnb.
it looks like winter is the best time of the year to get these, because both had LOTS of wasp nests in the feedhorn cover.
now if me and my wife could ever find a house to buy that fits our needs, i could finally put up a couple buds!! and see what its like to have more than just ku band!!
man, i cant wait!!
ill try to post some pictures tomorrow.
later guys,
Denny

 

[1captain]

here are some pictures of 5 satellites dishes, of 3 different models that had to be removed back in January of this year. I gave them a price on the removal back in December of 2009 but they kind of drug their feet till the 1st part of January. the time factor on this job 2 days with 2 men at 6 1/2 hours each day.

the dishes where in 2 different areas in their compound service area, all feed into 1 head in a small building. all of the equipment in their head room was not worth anything as of today's standards. an it all feed 286 moble home lots here in Fla. their reason for removal was they needed the extra room in their compound area for motor coach parking of their winter residents, an seeing that our local cable company came in their about 3 years ago to feed all of the lots at 1 set price, they decided to have all removed.

you are looking at a 1 12-foot Andrews solid, 2 Patriot 3.1meter solids they measure 10' 3" across, a little bigger than standard 10-foot dish, an 2 Channel Master 1.8 meter offset ku dishes, that where used for DTV an Dishnet recieption. some of the nice parts from this job are the feeds, an the lnb's, 4 c-band chaparal ortho's, 1 chaparal bullseye, about 7 cal amp extended professional @10khz, an a pair of norsat-3535 new still in their box.

now the only thing that I cared about other than the money, was the 1.8 meter CM dishes, wanted to replace my 1.2meter dish on it H to H mount. that has already happen an I am going to update that old post of well over a year ago.
so here are pictures to enjoy.

 

[putney]

Damn Captain, all that AND you got paid. Behind that mine is kinda punkish.

To follow up on my last post:

The guy wanted $100. After showing up the HTS Tracker System V wouldn't power up. The SuperJack II wouldn't move. And the extra LNB was just an extra Chaparral feed horn (new in box). So I told him I wasn't interested and he asked if I would take it all for free! So I am now the owner of:

8' Unidish
6' of Pole
50' Wire
HTS Tracker System V
SuperJack II + HQ
spare Chaparral feed horn

Not bad for an hours work.

 

[amsoiltek]

Wow, neat finds. I'm not into C-band stuff, where I live within a 10 mile radius there must be at least 20 + dishes. Hey maybe I can start something. Most of the lots here are 2.5 acres and up. I've seen fiberglass and lots of mesh and even a few the old EchoStar stuff.

 

[putney]

Can you fit a dish farm in a small space?

Yes!

My 8' Unidish is in it's temporary position! I live in a trailer park and have very little room. I really wanted a 6 footer to save space, but hey! the 8' was free! Where it stands now, you can't even see the farm from the street. I can't wait to move onto a 5 acre lot with a great southern view.

I'm not sure if the park manager is going to call me out on this one, so I fabricated a temporary base using what ever scrap I had around. It was easy to set plumb, and is actually very stable. Until I get a GBox, I'm having to push the actuator by hand (the tracker V was toast). 91ºw is my southern sat, and I'm parked on 99ºw for now.

The superjack was seized when I got it. A little oil and steel wool got it moving, but the position where it motor sat for 3 years is a little pitted. It binds a little at true south, but then again, that's while using a 12v source. Hopefully with 36v this will not be an issue.

 

[Phottoman]

Putney, you may try this instead of moving the whole arm (or so it looks on your last picture).

Take the motor off the end, you'll find a flat piece of metal that will fit into the motor. I use a vice-grip attached to that flat metal and turn THAT instead of loosening the whole arm. Then you can mark the tube coming out the top instead of moving the whole arm.

My fear (as it looks in your last picture) is that as you are loosening the whole arm, what happens if THAT gets away from you and the dish swings wildly and you hit something.

Photto

 

[putney]

Putney, you may try this instead of moving the whole arm (or so it looks on your last picture).

Take the motor off the end, you'll find a flat piece of metal that will fit into the motor. I use a vice-grip attached to that flat metal and turn THAT instead of loosening the whole arm. Then you can mark the tube coming out the top instead of moving the whole arm.

My fear (as it looks in your last picture) is that as you are loosening the whole arm, what happens if THAT gets away from you and the dish swings wildly and you hit something.

Photto

Thanks, but it is temporarily fixed at 99ºw. I'm hoping to have a Gbox soon!

 

[putney]

Well, it's a find to me!

I stumbled on a guy who had just bought out a fork lift company and was selling everything off for scrap (including forklifts) I asked if he had any 3.5"O.D. pipe and he produced one at 13' and one at 20'. He said,"make me an offer". I offered $30 for the 13'. This should get my 8' bud to clear a few obstacles.

 

[PANHANDLER]

I put an add on Cregs list 3 days ago . The heading looks like this ( WANTED 10' OR LARGER MESH SATELLITE DISH ). My first reply was the person wanted to know how much i wanted for the dish ,, OMG what part of wanted don't you understand ,,, LOL. The second reply was someone had an 18" they said i could have it ( here we go again )T he third reply is interesting .They have a 10' unimesh with motor and lnb for $75.00 . I think this is a bit to high , but i'm going to take a look at it and talk them down.Can't wait to see what the next reply is . ;}

 

[Mr Tony]

well I have to update a post from last year.

Last September I spoke about a couple dishes here
http://www.satelliteguys.us/1966280-post368.html

and brother anole gave me crap because I am always forgetting my camera...well not this weekend

Here are pics of the birdview I mentioned...There were a bunch of cars in the driveway so I snapped these from the road

 

[Mr Tony]

This dish is about a half mile down the road from the birdview one.....doesnt look like its in use as the trees are in the way now

Gate on the driveway so couldnt pursue further

 

[Mr Tony]

This one is on top of a bar/grill by the cabin. Called a couple times to speak to the owner but he's never there

Also as a bonus is a Channelmaster UHF antenna

 

[swampman]

Also as a bonus is a Channelmaster UHF antenna

Oh yeah! Thats the one I would take. The CM 4251 was probably the best UHF antenna every built!

 

[Mr Tony]

yeah I know

From knowing the area they used it for the translator stations that were up near the cabin. Most have turned them back into the FCC a couple years ago so it probably isnt being used

 

[woodheat/nooil]

http://www.wade-antenna.com/Wade/uhfparabolic.pdf

looks like a CM 4251?

 

[Anole]

you've acquitted yourself this time!

...and brother anole gave me crap because I am always forgetting my camera...well not this weekend

#1. a beautiful 8½' Birdview spun aluminum.
How I wish you had a place to stick THAT ! -

#2. hard to tell the branches from the LNB support arms, but they appear to be bent before they go to the dish.
That suggests a Channel Master / Andrew BUD of ... I think ... 10 foot size (not 8')
Yea, that's a keeper, too! - :up

#3. if I'd paid better attention reading the C-band section I'd know that mesh, but ...
The extra circular support ring says something about it... is it a 10'er, too?
Nuttin' to sneeze at.

You got great taste in dishes, my friend!
Now find a place to haul one of those, so we can all enjoy the story! -

 

[McGuyver]

I stumbled on a guy who had just bought out a fork lift company and was selling everything off for scrap (including forklifts) I asked if he had any 3.5"O.D. pipe and he produced one at 13' and one at 20'. He said,"make me an offer". I offered $30 for the 13'. This should get my 8' bud to clear a few obstacles.

Nice find for cheap! hell, pipe that size and length can cost a fortune new. I wanted to reply because I really lucked out when a neighbor moved out of state a couple of years ago and left a lot of good stuff on their 2.5 acres. The one thing that I noticed from outside the fence was what appeared to be steel pipe partially buried in dirt with one end showing, I couldn't tell what size it was from afar. When the new owner's took residence, I asked them if they would care to part with the pipe, the husband didn't even know it was out there so we went out to look and to my surprize were two 21' ft lengths of steel 3.5" od pipe with 1/4" thick wall. He gladly gave them to me and even helped move them to my property. I still have one full length for future projects. BTW, each one seems to weigh about 150 lbs or more, ugh!

 

[swampman]

http://www.wade-antenna.com/Wade/uhfparabolic.pdf

looks like a CM 4251?

Somewhat. I think the 4251 was made of a little more stout, larger diameter metal. Nice article here.

 

[sergei]

That's definitely a CM4251 antenna just a poor installation. There's nothing on the market today that can compare to it in the same price range. I paid $110.00 for my 4251 and 165 for the 3617B below it. Unfortunately they are no longer made so if you can find one then I would jump on it.

 

[Mr Tony]

sergei
A couple years ago we had some wicked winds up at the cabin so there are a few antennas that look like that