Found a free 10' BUD, what should I look for

[dashaund]

Thanks to Freecycle, I found a FREE 10' BUD. The lady wants me to take the dish and pole down and I can have it for free. The pole aside (which there's no way I can take it down...just saw it level with the terrain maybe), what should I look for as far as condition when I take a look at the dish. I can't test the LNBs of course. I know the dish must be perfectly round and all. How should I check out the armature? What other things should I keep in mind? Not sure if it comes with a motor or not, she doesn't know a whole lot about it. I don't know a lot about the specifics with BUDs, so I'm turning to you guys. Don't want to haul all that stuff home and end up with junk! Thanks in advance, you guys always come through!

 

[Covack]

You didn't mention if it was fiberglass or mesh, if It is mesh You can stretch 2 strings across it from top to bottom and side to side and see if the string touches in the middle, if it is close, You should still be alright, you also need to check your panels, dented real bad or broken, some panels can be replaced, but if it alot of them are broken up, You can find Yourself doing alot of work to get it up and going. check your mounts for slack, a little slack counts off on alot of quality when locking signals, especially on ku .Good luck , glad for your find, nothing like the Bud.

 

[dashaund]

She didn't specify if it was solid or mesh...I'm assuming mesh but waiting for her to e-mail back. Not sure what you mean by slack on the mounts though...can you specify? Like I said, I'm a BUD idiot. Love the avatar BTW.

 

[Covack]

You can do an eye inspection of the polar mount, You can lift up on the dish to check for slack, watch close for the slack to be in the actuator arm, if it is, you can just replace it, and the dish and the mount might be good, look for rusted out places on the mount, bushing, loose bolts etc. hopefully it is a mesh dish, unless you have some help to move it (f/glass). thanks for the comment on the avatar.
keep us updated

 

[drhydro]

If it is mesh make sure the holes are smaller than 1/8th". BTW, keep the pole, you can weld a plate on it and construct a "pole mount". I highly recommend doing a pole mount in any area that has a lot of freezing/thawing, if the pole should go out of plumb you can re-plumb the the pole.

 

[dashaund]

Okay, sounds good. Here in Travelers Rest, SC (near Greenville) we don't have fairly mild winters. One or two snows at the most, and it gets above freezing every day. The first time I'd ever heard of a frost line came when I was studying up to mout a C-Band dish.

 

[GrumpyGuy]

Take pictures of EVERYTHING before you unbolt ANYTHING. Bring a camera with you to the site.

If your intention is to use this dish for C-band only you can be much less picky than if you want to use it in a dual C/Ku setup. For Ku, Doc's 1/8 max. hole rule is a good one, but for C band don't worry about it. (My very first C band setup employed chicken wire (!) as a reflector surface. Not recommended, but it worked ... sort of.)

The fact that it is a 10' dia. dish gives you some additional wiggle room - the general condition of the reflector is less critical than it would be if you were dealing with an 8 or 6 footer - a 10 footer with one or even two panels completely missing can continue to provide a perfectly usable signal if you are solidly in the footprint of the target bird, so a few dents or tears in the mesh should only be an aesthetic issue.

...but better is better. Take great care not to beat it up in the transplanting process.

Document the position of the feed horn as early as possible in the relocation process. While it is obvious that it should be centered over bottom of the dish, the proper spacing from the bottom of the dish to the mouth of the feed horn is not so obvious. For now, I would just assume the current distance to be correct, and document it. If there is no plastic cover over the mouth of the feed horn GET ONE. Insects love to build nests in feed horns. You will have a very delicate cleanup operation to perform if this is the case - don't bend the stub!

Pound out and/or mend whatever blemishes may exist. Check for loose/missing fasteners. Use Covack's String Law to check the overall geometry, and rebend as necessary.

This will be a good time to inspect and lube the actuator and the mount bushings.

10 foot is a wide (or tall) load. Think about the route from pole to pole. Early Sunday morning may be a good time to be making the trip home. Be safe.

 

[dashaund]

Okay thanks. Due to my sometimes overloaded schedule, it's getting hard to get everything together to even make a trip over to take a look at the dish. I explained this to the lady and she understands. Maybe next week...