Well I'm back at it. 2 weeks ago I ran a free ad in a local paper looking for a BUD. The first week I had but one call, a lady with a DirecWay dish, which I may pursue at a later time but that's not what I really want right now.
I thought that was gonna be it, no other calls.............until it ran for the 2nd week. I won't say that the phone was ringing off the hook but I did get 4 promising calls.
I started with the one closest to me figuring that'd be the best. Went to have a look at it on Sunday morning. It was a 10' mesh, probably made by Star Trac. There are a ton of Star Trac dishes in this area as we've basically had only one installer of C-band for the past 20 years or so and he put in a lot of 'em. It was just what I was looking for until I started to get closer, then I noticed a sizable "dent" in one of the lower right hand panels.....damn!
Then just looking across the dish I could see that it was very badly warped. Might work so-so for C-band but out of the question for Ku.
Judging from it's placement and the fact that it's all still together, it looks like they just picked up the whole thing with a big machine (cement slab and all) and moved it, probably resulting in the damage.
There are 3 others I still need to look at, the most promising one so far is one that belongs to a teacher that I know is careful with things. His is all disassembled and he says that the only known damage is a few hail dents. Perhaps if it's in good shape I may get that one and see if I can get some parts from the other one (if they are the same) and make one out of two.
Another one is quite close to here, no idea what it is yet (girlfriend took a message) but the guy claims it's all complete and working and he has all the stuff for it.:up
And the last one is one I've actually worked on in the past, I know it to be functional (all but the actuator) as recently as this past spring. It belongs to a little old lady, used lightly (although I think it was driven more than just on Sundays) just for a handful of channels. Now that her favorites have gone digital it's of no use to her and she's not interested in upgrading as she also has a subscription to Star Choice. I can't remember how good a shape it's in but I think it's at least workable.
So there you have it, the start of some promising hunting..........there are others I see on a daily basis but I think some of them are still in operation. I may just have to knock on some doors!
I thought that was gonna be it, no other calls.............until it ran for the 2nd week. I won't say that the phone was ringing off the hook but I did get 4 promising calls.
I started with the one closest to me figuring that'd be the best. Went to have a look at it on Sunday morning. It was a 10' mesh, probably made by Star Trac. There are a ton of Star Trac dishes in this area as we've basically had only one installer of C-band for the past 20 years or so and he put in a lot of 'em. It was just what I was looking for until I started to get closer, then I noticed a sizable "dent" in one of the lower right hand panels.....damn!
Then just looking across the dish I could see that it was very badly warped. Might work so-so for C-band but out of the question for Ku.
Judging from it's placement and the fact that it's all still together, it looks like they just picked up the whole thing with a big machine (cement slab and all) and moved it, probably resulting in the damage.
There are 3 others I still need to look at, the most promising one so far is one that belongs to a teacher that I know is careful with things. His is all disassembled and he says that the only known damage is a few hail dents. Perhaps if it's in good shape I may get that one and see if I can get some parts from the other one (if they are the same) and make one out of two.
Another one is quite close to here, no idea what it is yet (girlfriend took a message) but the guy claims it's all complete and working and he has all the stuff for it.:up
And the last one is one I've actually worked on in the past, I know it to be functional (all but the actuator) as recently as this past spring. It belongs to a little old lady, used lightly (although I think it was driven more than just on Sundays) just for a handful of channels. Now that her favorites have gone digital it's of no use to her and she's not interested in upgrading as she also has a subscription to Star Choice. I can't remember how good a shape it's in but I think it's at least workable.
So there you have it, the start of some promising hunting..........there are others I see on a daily basis but I think some of them are still in operation. I may just have to knock on some doors!
