Found another Birdview, a solid one

[djkurious]

Here in Tennessee, I see birdview dishes all the time. I guess the neighbors did a lot of talking back then around here!

The best way to get that dish down is to 1st get the dish down , then saw the pole where it meets its foundation. It's probably 4 to 5 feet in the ground, so you can just leave that. It's amazing how they installed those birdview dishes! I wish I could have actually seen the installers install this beauty!

Are there any Birdview installers on this forum? If so, Speak Up!

 

[linuxman]

Thanks djkurious!

I would have liked to watch this install too.

Someone earned his money that day.

 

[gabshere]

Fred
Does your birdview have a special coating ? the solid i looked at yesterday , although it looked like it had been painted, it also looked like a it had a kinda powdercoat / rough coating you know like a anti slip painting on it. just curious

 

[linuxman]

George,

My perfed dish looks and feels like it is powder coated. It isn't rough to the touch though. It feels smooth, but it looks like it might be rough close up.

I wasn't able to get close enough to the solid in person, or by camera to really look at the paint close up. It had a lot of stain and dirt on it anyway.

Hope that helps,

Fred

 

[caddata]

Guys:

All of the solid Birdviews I've ran across have been 9 Ft. spun aluminum painted with a textureized paint, almost like a finish you see on sheetrock. I've never understood why they did that. It seems to attract mold and mildew worse than a smooth finish.

Harold

 

[linuxman]

You would think that they would put a finish on it that would allow the spun aluminum effect to come through. Spun aluminum look great, but you wouldn't want the glossy shine. Maybe that's why they did it.

I have come to like the dark charcoal gray color and finish on the perfed dish I have.

 

[Wayn23]

I have a Birdview solid myself, I see a few of them around here in the High desert
of Southern California.

 

[linuxman]

If you have a picture, or several, I would be interested in seeing them.

Fred

 

[Wayn23]

PM me with an email address and I will send you a few.

 

[linuxman]

Just sent the PM.

Fred

 

[Wayn23]

Pics sent.

 

[linuxman]

Here are the pics from Wayn23's Birdview solid. He said I could post them, so here they are with his comments:

Here is Wayn23's dish,

I got it for free from a guy whose wife did not like it. He even delivered it to me.

Here is a closeup of Wayn23's corotor II mounted to the stock Birdview scaler ring,

I ground down a stander scaler ring and bolted it to the Birdview scaler so I would have a good mount for the feedhorn. I had to open up the birdview scaler center hole a bit so the corotor would fit.

LNBs are Norsat 8115 C band and 4207A KU band.

Here is the bottom of his custom made pole.

The section in the concrete is a .450" wall thickness 6.5" diameter pipe 4 ft. long. The above ground section is a 5.5" pipe with the top of the original 6" pole welded on it. The whole thing together is at least 400lbs.

I have about 30 bags of concrete to hold it in place.

I think it is beautiful!!

Fred

 

[Wayn23]

I am glad you like the dish, I hope people from this forum can put some of these back in service. It would be a shame to have these old dishes ending up in scrap yards.

 

[linuxman]

I agree totally!!!

 

[Wayn23]

I just read your other Birdview thread. I think it was you that said this.

"I have a connective tissue disorder that sometimes makes my joints hurt so bad I can hardly walk, but no matter how I feel, I'll get up and go do some work on FTA, even if it just painting a dish. "

I also have a connective tissue disorder that has made me disabled, I have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. I have severe joint pain also and I had my brother and a friend do most of the heavy work to put my Birdview up. I did put up a few C-band dishes myself when I was younger though.

 

[jayelem]

I am glad you like the dish, I hope people from this forum can put some of these back in service. It would be a shame to have these old dishes ending up in scrap yards.

I have that same Dish as Wayne , I would like to put mine back in service hopefully in Spring , as soon as I'm sure it's going up I'd like to get the distance from the feeder to the center hole , maybe Wayne if you don't mind can get a tape measure thru the hole all the way to the feeder and see what the distance is.

I'm getting some negative feedback from one family member who would like to see it 10-12 ft off the ground , well I still have the original Post and it's about 4ft or a tad more off the ground once it's in Cement , higher up is nice because it will currently be an eyesore for the view in the yard but have you seen the size of that post , geeze it's diameter is so large , I wouldn't know where to look for one that big and 15ft long.

I remember the dish being wonderfull for C-band reception , I would at first have it stationary and then later buy the reed conversion kit so I can move it.

I'm really glad the Birdview Threads have been written up and replied to many times , I'm sure I will use it for reference.

 

[linuxman]

Hey jayelem,

I would keep it as close to the ground as possible. My mast is 48" tall, and the dish just clears the roof when all the way over.

If I lived where I could put mine on the ground, that is where they would go. The wind can do a lot of damage, and even if it doesn't tear something up, over time, the wind will loosen the structure of the dish, and make it almost unusable like my old Winegard.

Fred

 

[Wayn23]

I have that same Dish as Wayne , I would like to put mine back in service hopefully in Spring , as soon as I'm sure it's going up I'd like to get the distance from the feeder to the center hole , maybe Wayne if you don't mind can get a tape measure thru the hole all the way to the feeder and see what the distance is.

You need the distance from the center hole in the dish to the feedhorn?

I have my feedhorn almost flush with the original scaler ring. I read on another forum that was a good position for it, I have not moved it since setting it there because I got excellent reception on both KU and C bands. The way the rods hold the scaler ring you shouldn't have any trouble alligning the feedhorn, the distance is not adjustable so you can't put it together wrong.

 

[jayelem]

ok , I lost the feeder support arms , so I have to modify it somehow , that's why I asked the distance.

Dish last used in 1990 , left it with the house when we moved , current owners didn't appreciate it much , a couple years passed and it was facing straight up filled with soil and a little garden

I've had a motorized 90 cm Fortec dish dish for just over a year , but last summer My brother was passing by the old house and coincidentally the dish was left in the alley , he brought it back and I just shrugged , I wish they would have left the support arms , it would've been so much easier, it needs some work but it is a Solid Spunned Aluminum Dish and I believe a Good Dish .

My minds been working on a modification , I have all sorts of ideas including bending conduit into a support for the feeder.

 

[Wayn23]

I have a bad leg right now so I can't get around too easy to check the lengths of the support rods, if you look at the picture of my dish you will see that there are two non white rods. I made them out of steel tubing and put a short piece of all thread in each end, I drilled and pinned the all thread so it would not move. The two rods I had to replace because I had this dish laying on the ground along with a 10' mesh dish and a monster dust devil as big around as my house picked them both up and deposited them about 30' feet away. The birdview lost the two rods that I had not removed yet and the mesh dish was destroyed.

I will try to get a measurement when I can for you , I may have one of the original
rods in my shed but I think I tossed them.

Do you have the original scaler ring? If not I think Skyvision had a plastic one that was designed to make it easy to use a different feedhorn assembly. I am not sure if they still have it though.