Found an awesome dish

[Dee_Ann]

Well I scored big times..











I just put a down payment on a Scientific Atlanta 9000 - 2.8m commercial dish. (with the extensions it's 3.2m)

It's a beast! I've got to get Dad out there to take a look at it and see what it's going to take to remove this enormous dish and move it to my back yard.

I know I'll have to have a professional pour a concrete pad to bolt it to in the same way it is now.

The tube it's mounted on seems to be about 16" diameter. It's base is bolted to a large concrete pad with a lot of very large nuts and bolts.
They aren't too badly rusted so I figure some WD40 and a big wrench should loosen them up.

It also has extension panels bolted to the edges that add another 2 feet to it's diameter so it's 11 feet in diameter overall.

I'm figuring on taking it apart in quarters to transport it. But getting it down off that pole? WHEW!! I dunno........

I kicked the pole and it sounds like it's thin sheet metal, not heavy pipe. I can exposed areas of the pole and it's not very thick, about like a fence post would be.
I guess it's massive size makes it plenty strong. Those things have been there 30+ years through lots of hurricanes and are absolutely undamaged except for bullet holes and red neck tractor whacks.

There's several out there, I'm just one of several people getting one of them. There's also a 6' fiberglass Prodelin offset that's arms are all bashed beyond salvage that I bought, I'm going to make that my Dish Network HD dish for 129w.
My 1.2 that's aimed there now, will go to another Dish satellite, ether 110 or 119. I'll figure it out later..

There's a few 14' dishes and maybe a 16' Patriot dish out there too that I would love to get but it's too big to get without a crane. One of the guys will get it I'm sure.
I couldn't get up to measure them because of brush, stickers, mud and mosquitoes. It was pretty rough going out there.

Please don't ask me where this is, I have been asked not to say so I will not share the location with anyone. The dishes are all spoken for anyway. I'm very, very fortunate that I was given the opportunity to make an offer on a few of them and that my offer was accepted. It's not every day that you get an opportunity like this!

If you want to see more photos of what's out there, you can view the gallery here, http://min.us/mqVSLx8Ac#1

There's oodles of little Primestar dishes laying around out there but all the hardware is missing. When I go back I'll poke around and see if I can find any and if they will let me throw in a little more $$ for the little dishes.
There was a 12' Patriot fiberglass dish on the ground in quarter panels but ALL of the hardware is missing. I hate to do it but I'm leaving it behind. Unless maybe, I might get it to make red neck gazebo..

I wish that neighbor I hired to put in my big dishes last year hadn't cheated me out of a bunch of money, I would have hired him to help with this but he's unreliable and he flat out ripped me off.
So now it's between me and my Dad to get that monster to my house.

This is gonna be FUN!!

 

[markbone100]

Sweet! Looks like you found a disbanded headend system

 

[kb0lcr]

Dee Ann, I recently had the opportunity to pick up 6 of those dishes from an old MMDS tv headend, and I passed them up because I had no idea how to get them outta there. You're right -- they are beasts built to stand the test of time.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Sweet! Looks like you found a disbanded headend system

Yes indeedy I did..

Actually, I didn't find them, someone else did, I was just very, very fortunate that they gave me a chance to get in on the deal too..

Dee Ann, I recently had the opportunity to pick up 6 of those dishes from an old MMDS tv headend, and I passed them up because I had no idea how to get them outta there. You're right -- they are beasts built to stand the test of time.

My brain is overheating trying to work out some sort of scenario on how to do this..
I'm not strong at all so brute force isn't an option. So I'm thinking that maybe using ropes and pulleys and levers. Like, tie ropes to the center, then tie it to the base of another dish, unbolt the base then use pulleys to lower it on it's back. Once on the ground we could take it apart and move it.

I dunno. Dad is gonna be the final authority on this, he's the engineer.

 

[Dishman Dan]

Great find "Kook"!!!...

I turned down a few monsters about a month ago! They were fixed and on overbuilt stands. The problem was that they were on top of a building (TV studio) and they only gave me one day to get them down!

Good luck on your adventure!

 

[Dee_Ann]

I just spotted the same exact dish on the side of a radio station that Mikey was at on American Choppers.


A little gum shoeing and I found out it's WPDH in New York. 2 Pendell Road, Poughkeepsie, NY 12602 - Google Maps

 

[cyberham]

...I just put a down payment on a Scientific Atlanta 9000 - 2.8m commercial dish...This is gonna be FUN!!

Yes it will! Reminds me when I found my dream 90-foot freestanding motorized crankup tower in Washington. I bought it from the other side of the world sight (and site) unseen over the telephone. That was an adventure to remove, move and re-install. It took two large concrete trucks full to fill the base hole. Try to keep your digger from going wild when he digs the foundation hole. Concrete isn't cheap. You have to promise to take us on the ride with you with lots of photos as you work your way through this adventure. :

 

[starwatch]

Hey Dee...That camera of yours takes damn good pictures..Really clear..just curious ..looking at the mount would it be possible to move
the fixed attached portion to top and bottom position to provide a polar mount type and attach motor drive to send it east and west..just looking and thinking..What you think?

 

[Dee_Ann]

Yes it will! Reminds me when I found my dream 90-foot freestanding motorized crankup tower in Washington. I bought it from the other side of the world sight (and site) unseen over the telephone. That was an adventure to remove, move and re-install. It took two large concrete trucks full to fill the base hole. Try to keep your digger from going wild when he digs the foundation hole. Concrete isn't cheap. You have to promise to take us on the ride with you with lots of photos as you work your way through this adventure. :

I wish I could get a 50' tower so I could put up a BIG OTA antenna setup, and motorize it like Dad's.

The pads these things are on, it's hard to see because the undergrowth was THICK but I'm guessing they were about 4' x 4' square. Who knows how deep they are.
I may take a long steel rod and probe for the bottom. Dad has one for finding buried sewer and water lines. I've used it before. I've had to clean out my own sewer line when it stops up. UGH!!!!!!!

I'm betting there's a whole cement truck worth in there to keep these beasts that solid for that many years. And the ground there is super swampy so I'll bet they drove pylons in a big pit then poured cement in on top of the pylons.
I've seen how they build skyscrapers like that, deeeeeeeeep pylons extend down out of the slabs. I'll have to pay someone legit to build the base for this thing. No jackleg neighbor labor !!! No no no!!!!

And when I get this thing I'm going to restore it to new condition before I put it up. I'll photograph everything. When I take it down I can put the camera on a tripod and a timer to do time lapse.
It also shoots 1080p better than ANY commercial camera made. Problem is, the big movie camera makers deeply feared this thing would put them out of business so they lobbied to have restrictions put on it that restrict it's recording time to 12 minutes in full 1080p or 29:29 minutes in SD..

Hey Dee...That camera of yours takes damn good pictures..Really clear..just curious ..looking at the mount would it be possible to move
the fixed attached portion to top and bottom position to provide a polar mount type and attach motor drive to send it east and west..just looking and thinking..What you think?

It better take good pictures! It cost as much as a car!! My camera is a Canon EOS 5D mkII.. I was tromping around through saplings, stickers and mosquitoes, trying not to trip and fall in the mud and drop my baby so I had it in idiot mode, IE Point & Shoot mode. I wasn't worried about setting up a professional grade shoot. I wanted to grab some photos and get the heck out of there. The real problem was that the brush was so thick it was really hard to get a good shot of ANY dish. Also, the photos, I cut the resolution by 50% to conserve space online and time to upload. The originals I shot in 21mp 5,616 x 3,744 and most were 6mb and up. Had it been sunny out they would have hit 11mb to 12mb each.




Anyway, we THINK there are 5 of the SA9k dishes, one very large Patriot aluminum and one or more very large Prodelin fiberglass dishes. It's really hard to tell though. I think next time I go out there I'll count them, mark them with a sharpie and geotag them with GPS so I know for certain how many and where.

As for me, I don't really care about motorizing mine. I'm aiming it at 87w and there it will sit until they kill off MeTV and ThisTV. RTV S2? HA!! No problem....
Then I'll be free to use my existing 10' Odom dish which is already motorized to prowl the skies for other goodies.
I'm getting a 1.2m Prodelin from out there, I have one in use now and a spare that needs ALL the hardware. I think I'll convert all three 1.m meter dishes for Dish Network, 110/119/129 and then I can watch TV even if the entire Gulf of Mexico comes ashore and we're 20' under..

There's one guy that's getting a dish or two from the lot that does want to motorize his. I'm curious to see how he does that, if he can find an easy and affordable way to do it, I may follow suit.
I do have access to a big HH motor for C-band. My dad found one about two years ago for me but I passed it up since the dish was in really bad shape. I should go back and get it, scrap the dish and do it just to get the motor. It is a really weird looking thing. But motorizing it is a pretty low priority. I'm thinking I could put 3 or 4 lnb's on it and cover all sorts of stuff. Being that it's solid steel I can get ku like a fool too!

Awwwwwwwww yeah!!!

But yeah, it's going to be expensive to take down, to move, to restore and to put back up. IF I get this thing put up before year end it will be a major miracle..




WOA!! Google just took new satellite photos of my area and I can see ALL of my dishes in exquisite detail! I can see and count the individual shingles on my neighbor's roof. I can see a very faint ghost of my 10' mesh dish even!
Dishpointer.com is looking really, really good now! ZERO guessing now. I can drop the pointer on each lnb now. Before I could only drop it in the general area where the dishes are. It's scary how clear this is. The next photos are going to be TOO detailed.. Now I'm afraid to sun bathe out back... As it is now it's already encroaching on breech of privacy. I'm just glad I wasn't outside when they took these. Where do they draw the line on this stuff??
So much for privacy...

You gain a little benefit, you lose a little privacy.

 

[danristheman]

you know what would be nice is the trucks that they use for weather radar that would be nice to have.

Dan Rose

 

[Dee_Ann]

you know what would be nice is the trucks that they use for weather radar that would be nice to have.

Dan Rose

My son said he sees those guys where he lives all the time, he lives in Yukon and works in OKC so they are always buzzing around, there's one that looks like a ghetto tank and some other red rig. The guys with the red one live in Yukon so he sees them a lot. He sees the big radar trucks everywhere, long parades of them. And zillions of idiots following them to get a free thrill. Um yeah, let's play with gasoline and matches today!!

 

[Tron]

Very, very nice dish Dee!

I can remember a time, not too long ago, when you were hesitant to put up a 6 footer! See what this hobby does to people! ...

Looking forward to the pics and stories, maybe you should start a dedicated project thread!

 

[cyberham]

...I'm betting there's a whole cement truck worth in there to keep these beasts that solid for that many years...

You'd be surprised what is under large heavy things, concrete-wise. Here's a clip showing installation of a different toy, but with probably a similar procedure.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Very, very nice dish Dee!

I can remember a time, not too long ago, when you were hesitant to put up a 6 footer! See what this hobby does to people! ...

Looking forward to the pics and stories, maybe you should start a dedicated project thread!

Yeah..... It actually has become an obsession.
Originally I wanted ONE small dish on a motor, ONLY. But the HTPC I was left to work with wouldn't (and still won't) drive a motor.
That forced me to use multiple dishes and switches because that was during the time when there was a ton of good stuff up there, hint: Equity days.

Then when they folded I had to play whack-a-mole to find other things to fill the huge gaps left behind.
This led to a 6' WSI (which I still never got to work right) that led to my 10' salvage restoration which led to THE BEAST... I think I'll name this one Big Bertha.
And to be honest, I'm Jonesing for the REALLY BIG Patriot dish out there. It's 14' to 16'.. The brush was too thick to get close enough to measure it but it's BIG..
I would love to have it. But getting it down, apart, moved and back up again, oh boy! I dunno!

I'm going to run it past my dad and see what he thinks. If he thinks we can take it down, I'll make an offer on it.

So yeah, I guess I reached the cave in point. I resisted and held out for a pretty good while until I finally caved in and now I'm like "Oh what the heck, let's go for it, I'm all in on this!"
I figure I'll landscape around the dishes and plant stuff to make it look nicer. I think I'll also plant bamboo to hide them from view. They also give me some privacy, they do a great job of blocking the view of Mr. Creepy that lives behind my yard. :behindsofa: This new dish will totally block a good portion of his view.. k:

You'd be surprised what is under large heavy things, concrete-wise. Here's a clip showing installation of a different toy, but with probably a similar procedure.

Wow! I wouldn't mind having a tower like that for my TV antenna! But then the hawks and turkey buzzards would land on the elements and break them and I will NOT climb that high to fix it..

I wish I could get a digger machine like those guys had to lift those dishes and dig the hole for the pad. But I would think it would be expensive as heck to hire one.

I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew! This isn't exactly a DIY project anymore, not when you have to hire people to move things half the size of your house!

 

[RT-Cat]

That was sure some neat installation cyberham. Goes to show you what can be done when you have too much money and just don't know what to do with it. Nice tower!

RT.

 

[cyberham]

Yes, that former owner had too much money but I think he knew what to do with it. It's nice I've never been in that situation. I sold the tower when I moved and rumour has it that it's retired to a small acreage in Hawaii now.

 

[Dee_Ann]

My backyard project, summer 2012

 

[toucan-man]

My backyard project, summer 2012

Can I go for a ride on the big dish when it's up and running?

 

[TimLones111]

I wish I could get a 50' tower so I could put up a BIG OTA antenna setup, and motorize it like Dad's.







WOA!! Google just took new satellite photos of my area and I can see ALL of my dishes in exquisite detail! I can see and count the individual shingles on my neighbor's roof. I can see a very faint ghost of my 10' mesh dish even!
Dishpointer.com is looking really, really good now! ZERO guessing now. I can drop the pointer on each lnb now. Before I could only drop it in the general area where the dishes are. It's scary how clear this is. The next photos are going to be TOO detailed.. Now I'm afraid to sun bathe out back... As it is now it's already encroaching on breech of privacy. I'm just glad I wasn't outside when they took these. Where do they draw the line on this stuff??
So much for privacy...

Dee:
Reminds me of the skit in the Horror Movie Show I mentioned earlier from WJW-TV Cleveland in another thread..

Channel 8 weatherman Dick Goddard was bragging about the station's newest Weather Radar "Super Doppler Googleplex" when the camera pans in closer..closer..closer..until we see an attractive lady taking a bath..Goddard sees this and tries to cover it with his suit coat..a little too close..lol

 

[Dishman Dan]

Can I go for a ride on the big dish when it's up and running?

You can even go put the Christmas lights up for her on that thing because you posted a photo last season of yourself doing such a nice job on your own monster BUD!

Hmmm. BUD - Bohemiath Utopian Dish!