Commercial ku Dish at Blockbuster's

[cyberham]

Just drove by the local abandoned Blockbuster's. Sitting on top of a 10-foot pole is a beautiful (probably) 1.2m commercial dish...the type used for satellite Internet access, I presume. Is there a chance, with the right maneuvering, I could get that for myself? What is best strategy? The shop appears boarded up, it's for lease, nobody is physically at the place. If I could get the dish, is it good for FTA? The LNB is about a foot or more long and looks impressive to me.

 

[Dishman Dan]

I would get the phone number on the "for lease" sign and give them a call.

If that don't work then get a satellite installer uniform (At least some Channel Master patches) off of Ebay plus put a name on your truck and...

 

[RT-Cat]

Just drove by the local abandoned Blockbuster's. Sitting on top of a 10-foot pole is a beautiful (probably) 1.2m commercial dish...the type used for satellite Internet access, I presume. Is there a chance, with the right maneuvering, I could get that for myself? What is best strategy? The shop appears boarded up, it's for lease, nobody is physically at the place. If I could get the dish, is it good for FTA? The LNB is about a foot or more long and looks impressive to me.

More than likely the transmitter. Pull it off, build a simple mount for the LNB and set to go. That is IF you can get someone to let you have it. Good luck.

RT.

There was a big one here.

 

[Dee_Ann]

That dish can absolutely be used for FTA and Pizza.

I have one. I used it for linear to get 123w for about half a year then I just converted it to circular for the HD feeds on 129w once I became a Dish subscriber.
Works like nothing you've ever seen before..

I would get it. Rain fade? HA! What's that??

 

[T4Runner]

If the LNB looks like this, it is a great 1.2M dish and LNB. I eventually pulled the transmit part off and have been experimenting with a C Band on it, but ended up replacing it with my 5ft C Band.

 

[cyberham]

It looks exactly like that.

 

[rrob311]

I see those dishes all over the place. Does anyone have any insight on to what they are used for and if they are still in use? I noticed most gas stations have them. When I worked at Gas stations for a few years I think it was used for fuel price updates but don't quote me on that. This was in like 1999-2001. We certainly did not have TV.

If it was me I would call a blockbuster that has a dish on the roof and ask how much to buy it and see if they even use them and inquire what they use them for. Then if I really wanted the one there I would track down who owns the property and make a deal with them.

 

[cyberham]

You can't call Blockbuster. They are bankrupt and shut down with no personnel at any outlets any longer. This particular outlet is a vacant shell with nothing left inside. Even if you could phone them, I trust a likely response to your question would be something like "Huh?". I guess I always assumed they used these dishes for transacting customer credit card purchases and as a link to their head office for any business that needed transacting. Just a guess.

 

[rrob311]

O wow I thought they had a few open still. I would start tracking down property owners at every one I could find until I caught something.

 

[Dee_Ann]

I see those dishes all over the place. Does anyone have any insight on to what they are used for and if they are still in use? I noticed most gas stations have them. When I worked at Gas stations for a few years I think it was used for fuel price updates but don't quote me on that. This was in like 1999-2001. We certainly did not have TV.

If it was me I would call a blockbuster that has a dish on the roof and ask how much to buy it and see if they even use them and inquire what they use them for. Then if I really wanted the one there I would track down who owns the property and make a deal with them.

Credit card transaction processing.

Some places had them for Muzak as well. I have a 1m that was originally born to be a Muzak dish and was at a lumber/hardware store that went out of biz.
I have other 1m and 1.2m dishes that were used at drive in grocery stores for credit cards and lottery systems once upon a time.

I see them on top of abandoned buildings everywhere. Very common. Most businesses have one these days.

 

[Dee_Ann]

You can't call Blockbuster. They are bankrupt and shut down with no personnel at any outlets any longer. This particular outlet is a vacant shell with nothing left inside. Even if you could phone them, I trust a likely response to your question would be something like "Huh?". I guess I always assumed they used these dishes for transacting customer credit card purchases and as a link to their head office for any business that needed transacting. Just a guess.

There was a BlockBuster near here that folded, they sold EVERYTHING. The dish is still there (I'm not interested though). The building is up for sale and has some out of state property management company sign in the window.
I would guess most others will be like that, you'll just have to call the property owners and see if they would sell the dish. I wouldn't just walk up and take one.

Seriously, they are pretty easy to come by if you put your mind to it. I've done pretty well at finding them. My dad even found a bunch in his travels and he just called the numbers on the signs and most property owners let him buy the dish for cheap.


Oh, and Blockbuster is owned by Dish Network now but I'm sure they are dumping the physical properties, they just own the name now.

 

[Mr Tony]

Oh, and Blockbuster is owned by Dish Network now but I'm sure they are dumping the physical properties, they just own the name now.

correct. BB went bankrupt and Dish bought them at a bankruptcy auction. They still have stores open but as the leases expire they are closing them