C-band equipment etc.

[lilyarbie]

I live a short distance from a small community that had a small town cable company in the early 90s. As time progressed, the cable company went under and is no longer in business. Now, Their C-band dishes and equipment lie dormant at the old headend of the cable company. I'm pretty sure that none of the equipment is being used anymore since a Charter headend that serves my area also serves this area. The problem I have is this, I don't know the owner of the property and the property has no address. The only property directly next to it is a Volunteer fire station for this small community. I went down to the lot yesterday and snapped some pictures of it. There are numerous spindles of cable lying around with several hundreds of feet of coaxial cable wiring still on them. There is also a total of 6 C-band dishes on this property. One is lying next to some cable spindles, 2 are lying on the ground on top of one another, 2 are attached to the roof of the headend building and one is directly below these. The building now looks like a run down shed with an old rusty padlock on the front doors. I imagine that there is numerous equipment inside that are lying dormant (cable modulators, receiver (maybe even digital ones???), and other electrical equipment.
Check out my blog below and let me know what you guys think:


http://www.blogomonster.com/lilyarbie/69880/

 

[Mr Tony]

HOLY SH*T talk about a gold mine.

Just a couple thoughts (the honest way and the not so honest way)

Honest way…Is there a city hall? Maybe they have info as to who the owner is (or was). They should have land records of who owns the land at that site. If no city hall, the county should have records.

Not so honest…truck, trailer, bolt cutters late at night

 

[Greg Mueller]

Try the County Tax Assesor's office. Take the address (if there is one) and they should be able to tell you who's paying the taxes on it.

 

[cablewithaview]

How long has this been shut down? That's a hell of a building for a head end. I have a 9 X 12 head end building with 5 racks in it, 8 c band dishes and 2 ku dishes.

 

[cablewithaview]

If you are where I think you are, you are not to far out from me.

 

[dfergie]

HOLY SH*T talk about a gold mine.

Big time ... I need to check out a local rural Cable company near me that sold out to the City Cable system about 20 years ago to see if it is like this one...(it

 

[dfergie]

When I was going to buy my first VCII descrambler I stopped by the rural place and saw the ones they had, they were going to order me one and I ended up getting a consumer model elsewhere...

 

[Change]

My guess is that the cable is probably all junk unless the ends are well-sealed, braided shielding has a wonderful way of wicking water faaaaaaaar into a piece of coax.

 

[Shawn95GT]

I love seeing those hand-crank positioners .

The dishes look to be in excellent condition! I'd definately try and aquire at least one. I'd contact the tax office.

I'm still trying to get one of the decommisioned 1.2M dishes from atop many of the local gas stations that are getting shut down.

 

[gizzer777]

Wow...

I live a short distance from a small community that had a small town cable company in the early 90s. As time progressed, the cable company went under and is no longer in business. Now, Their C-band dishes and equipment lie dormant at the old headend of the cable company. I'm pretty sure that none of the equipment is being used anymore since a Charter headend that serves my area also serves this area. The problem I have is this, I don't know the owner of the property and the property has no address. The only property directly next to it is a Volunteer fire station for this small community. I went down to the lot yesterday and snapped some pictures of it. There are numerous spindles of cable lying around with several hundreds of feet of coaxial cable wiring still on them. There is also a total of 6 C-band dishes on this property. One is lying next to some cable spindles, 2 are lying on the ground on top of one another, 2 are attached to the roof of the headend building and one is directly below these. The building now looks like a run down shed with an old rusty padlock on the front doors. I imagine that there is numerous equipment inside that are lying dormant (cable modulators, receiver (maybe even digital ones???), and other electrical equipment.
Check out my blog below and let me know what you guys think:


http://www.blogomonster.com/lilyarbie/69880/

WOW! Now that looks like a place to make a Homeowner's assoc cringe in horror.....

Keep the Pics...makes for a great "what if"!

Jeff

 

[lilyarbie]

Yeah there is no regulations in that part of the county. You could have a nice fine house in one yard and in the next yard you might have a junked up trailer with tall weeds all around.

 

[deck402]

I worked for a small cable co like you describe. My guess on what is inside the head is a amplified head end, racks of comercial type recievers that only are set up for 1 channel. comercial type VCII that likes to shut down. Depending on how long the co has been out of buisness the VCII may have outdated boards. The dishes probably are set up with dual LNB's one for vertical and one for horizontal. I would say about the only thing that would be of use would be the dish itself and would work very well on C/KU.

 

[JerryK]

I second the guy who suggested the tax assessors office.

Here in Mich you'd call the local County Clerk's office. I believe here in Mich they're "required" to tell you who's paying taxes on a particular property.