Hello,
Unfortunately, we are all out of the $69 dishes and have been for a while. However, you may be able to find a dealer online who may still have several pieces left in stock.
1. I'm not sure if anyone remembers the reason why the dishes were price so low. Just to refresh your memory, these were special order & manufactured according to specs from a particular customer. Once they were almost done being made, the customer cancelled the order so we were forced to bring them here to the States and sell them. Since the deposit paid by the customer was non-refundable, it helped lower the price to $69 and we priced it low to be able to move them all quick.
I want to make sure that you know that these dishes were not made according our quality standards. They were made extremely substandard & according to the customers specs. The WSI standard is much higher & we do not stock anything that is of this quality, but we'll manufacture according to a customers specifications.
As mentioned back a long time ago when I had first advertised them here, a couple of the issues that I remember were:
A. The gauge of steel used was high (thin) for a 180cm dish.
B. If I recall correctly, some had several missing nuts & bolts, or washers... but don't recall exactly which ones or what quantity.
All & all it does get the job done and give you the opportunity to pickup some C band for less than $70.
2. In regards to the quality between the three dishes you have mentioned, I will tell you that if you are looking for quality 6-foot dish antenna, do not purchase the $69 bargain dish (if you can still find someone who has them in stock). As many people here reported, & as I've mentioned, this is not an extremely good & solid dish. It will get the job done for you, however it is a bit on the flimsy side. As far as I'm aware, since Fortec closed their office here in N. America, no one has the Fortec dishes in stock anymore. We used to be a Fortec distributor as well and that was one of the first things that they stopped selling. The quality was not bad at all. It was not great, but good. As for the dish from Sadoun, I can tell you that it's probably the best out of the three dishes in question. It's a nice sturdy antenna and it's one of the better quality dishes in it's class I believe.
So my personal rating would be like this with #1 being the better of the three:
#1. Sadoun
#2. Fortec Star
#3. $69 Bargain Dish
Even though we are the company who offered the bargain dish, the truth is that this is not a quality that we stock.
Anyway, if you are going to be getting a "big dish", why not just get the eight-footer and rest assured that you'll be able to pickup most of what's out there? Or even a ten footer?
You may not even have to buy one or you may pay much less than what you have in mind. Check on Craigslist or even eBay classifieds (
www.ebayclassifieds.com). I see more and more "BBD" (Big Beautiful Dish) popping up on Craigslist and other similar websites every day. Heck, you may be able to even get a 10 footer.
Anyway... Good Luck!!!