Bagging the 10 foot mesh, North of 53

[ftageekyyc]

I believe the result of today's hunt deserves to be mounted.

10 foot mesh dish with a Global Image logo on the feedhorn cover, and same logo on a blank serial number sticker without any actual serial or part numbers.

Mesh in good condition on all panels except for one with a dent. Dish hadn't moved in years - the white that you see on the dish in this picture is surface lichen. (Picture 1)

Sleeve is rusted but we were able to spin the mount, detach and remove the dish, then lift all of the other hardware off the post intact. To my untrained eye this looks like a nice clean method to attach the dish to the mount. Steel laps over two ribs then is through bolted. (Picture 2)

The sleeve for the mounting mechanism has some surface rust, mostly under flaky paint. Looks like it can be cleaned up OK. (Picture 4)

Broke dish down into two halves for loading on the trailer, then nested them and zip tied the halves together so they didn't bounce around too much in transit. Dish would break down completely into four quarters, you can see in this shot that the ribs have been tacked together at the centre. (Picture 3) This method needs only four carriage bolts to tie the front and rear plates together at the centre of the dish, as opposed to one bolt per rib on the 12 foot mesh I grabbed on the weekend.

I also like that with this dish I have some reference marks to use which might help for aiming. (Picture 5)

Pole was set into concrete, could not have saved enough after cutting to even bother, owner will dispose of it with other metal clean up. Existing direct buried run of cable had been reused for a Bell dish so nothing to salvage there either.

So, my thinking is to hunt down some pipe long enough to mount a 12 foot dish in case I change my mind later, then mount this 10 foot on it. I'll break down the 12 foot for safekeeping, and store the mesh from the 12 in a safe place in case I need to repair any panels on the 10.

And I got a reply to my "looking for a BUD" ad today...

Thoughts?

 

[toucan-man]

I like your plan for the pole. Are dishes a bit scarce up your way? They've all but disappeared here. What did the reply to your BUD ad say?

 

[FaT Air]

Looks like a nice dish. A little wire brushing and some krylon should do it. :up

 

[turbosat]

Nice find. I must've missed out on the ending of the 12' dish story-I'll look back for it. Hey-you're motor is on the wrong side of the mount! LOL
(that alwasys looks strange to me, being so far east than Alberta)

 

[ftageekyyc]

I've had two replies to my "looking" ad. First one on the same day I posted from someone who wanted to know what he had to do to get his working. Second one was today, 10 minutes after I had left on my retrieval journey...

[TD="class: td1"]
"I have a BUD, wife wants it gone. If you're still looking for some, come take ours." I responded asking for pictures.
[/TD]

There are still quite a few big dishes around the lake, but I am in a rural/"rurban" area. I can drive to half a dozen within 10 minutes from here. I drove by a bunch on my way back today from Sherwood Park on rural roads that seem to be in active use.

I think I have seen 6, 8 to 12 foot BUDs advertised on Kijiji in Alberta since I started looking actively around February of this year. There was a solid aluminum(?) posted in January in Innisfail, I missed out on a Calgary 10 foot mesh in March, I now have two of the mesh ones I have seen listed in the Edmonton area, and I think there is still that 12 foot Paraclipse and an 8 foot fibreglass advertised in Edmonton.

 

[Lone Gunman]

That polar mount looks identical to the one that I looked at yesterday on that dish with the BB holes in it. Couldn't find a name on the one I looked at though but it looks very much like this one.

 

[Anole]

Looks like a nice haul. :up
And let us know about the guy who called you to take his!

 

[ftageekyyc]

If I get any pictures back from the guy who want's someone to take his away, I'll post them.

Now "all" I have to figure out is LNBs, motors, mounts and aiming.

Even though the motor may be on the wrong side, I'll be happy if I can hit from 87W to 107.3 - 147.4 to 171.5 degrees True from my location.

The two motors I've picked up look similar to me. I have not cracked open the first one, the second one had a pop bottle covering the connections.

The LNBs are both Chapparal, could not find any part number info on the first one.



Second one

 

[Anole]

Take a look at the construction of this ChannelMaster 10' perf.
http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/311276-10-CM-Perf-on-AJAK-H180
Could your dish be a copy?
Or maybe they ordered the raw dish panels from CM, and fitted their own mount 'n legs?
Mesh would have been less expensive and just fine on C band. :up

 

[Magic Static]

The center plate on this dish is the same as my new Channel Master. Those center plates are unique. I would bet it's a CM

 

[ftageekyyc]

I noticed that.

I wonder if ChannelMaster would have been the actual manufacturer of the frame, or if both companies might have used the same subcontractor.

Maybe "back in the day", when the run rate of new dish installs was really smoking along, someone could have done a good business just cranking out components.

 

[SatelliteAV]

Many regional Ma and Pa dishes were simply part by part copies of a popular dish design. I remember one shop in the NW advertised the fact that their parts were completely interchangeable and cost x% less.

 

[Cham]

Kajiji in Manitoba has the odd BUD. Looked at a supposedly perfect aluminum 12' but it looked like someone had dropped it off the roof or something... Owner said it would be easy to straighten it out... good luck with that. There is an apartment building in Winnipeg selling several large dishes but I haven't had time to look at them yet. The latter would have to be dis-assembled and removed by the purchaser. I know a tower rigger that I used to work with that often buys these up and has quite a collection but treats these as his retirement fund.
There are dishes available... just have to be patient and observant.