I need help locating large C Band dishes for a photography project

[zibs]

I am a graduate student living in North Carolina. I am studying photography in hope of obtaining my Masters of Fine Art in Photography. I am currently working on a project concerning technology and waste created with due to our quick advancements in technology. I am interested in photographing the large C Band satellite dishes that are still part of our landscape across the country. I am seeking dishes within 3 hours of my home in Banner Elk, North Carolina.

Do you have a dish? It does not have to be connected, working or installed. Would you be willing to be part of my project?

Join my facebook page and hunt for dishes:
https://www.facebook.com/cbanddish

Thank you for your time and consideration,
Cheryl

 

[KE4EST]

Let's welcome Cheryl to the site and
Anybody within 3 hours of Cheryl?
Give her a hand.

 

[migold]

We're not wasting these dishes, we are reclaiming them and 'recycling' them for use... I am about 4 hours from there, I think. But I have seen several in the area around Gatlinburg, TN, which should be fairly close to Banner Elk.

 

[phlatwound]

Most television or radio stations will have some.

 

[N6BY]

... I am currently working on a project concerning technology and waste created with due to our quick advancements in technology. ...

Why the focus on satellite dishes? We like them here. I think far more 'e-waste' is created by outdated TV's, computers, printers, and set-top boxes.

Whenever I go to the local landfill I always see piles and piles of the above. I have yet to see a single satellite dish.

 

[lfp302]

TV satations, Cable head-ends, rural areas not wired for cable.

 

[spongella]

You might find C band dishes at at older hotels, motels, fire stations, county government sites, colleges. While some of these dishes go to the scrap yard due to their value as metal, there are folks like us who look for these unused dishes and rehabilitate them for our own use. Others have re-purposed them into gazebos. Good luck with your project and I find that topic fascinating.

 

[danristheman]

All I have is a mini bud so I am out.

 

[Comptech]

How about the guy who basically started cable TV. He has a lot of dishes and just lives less than a mile from me. If you are in NC, you might want to google Travelers Rest SC cable operators. I won't post a name or address but a search will reveal him and he has a large dish farm at his house.

 

[bobvick]

I wouldn't go so far as to say Robert Coleman "basically stated cable TV" he was the first to ever use GaAs FET transistors for a "homemade" LNA in about 1977 and did help to make (LNA's) affordable. He then did go on to start his own cable systems and from what I understand became quite wealthy from their sales.

 

[Comptech]

He had the first widespread cable system that spanned Travelers Rest and Marietta SC back in the mid seventies. Ask Bob Cooper or Mike Khol they will tell you how important he was to the cable industry

 

[Comptech]

That post was a little harsh so let me clarify, because of his advancements cable became more affordable and more widespread. And yes it was in cables baby days. Cable became more available as his systems sold to both big cities and small rural towns. As this spread our now major cable companies bought out the smaller ones and created the cable networks we know now. By the way Charter bought Colemans system a long time ago and got huge. This is why I say he is the father of cable TV.

 

[bobvick]

I was just going by Bob Cooper's book "Pirates: Hiding Behind your Television Set" and the video "5th Anniversary of TVRO" in that book and on the video, he (Cooper) makes it sound like Coleman got into Cable after he began experimenting with microwave and TVRO. That is where I got that. I did not know that information that you posted. As far as a "father of Cable TV" that is debatable between systems that started in Pennsylvania in the early 1940's and up into the late 1940's and then there was the one in Astoria, Oregon in 1948. I haven't read about Coleman doing anything that early. So, he might have been the "Father of Cable TV" in that area of South Carolina, but there were systems in other areas much earlier.

 

[Comptech]

I was just going by Bob Cooper's book "Pirates: Hiding Behind your Television Set" and the video "5th Anniversary of TVRO" in that book and on the video, he (Cooper) makes it sound like Coleman got into Cable after he began experimenting with microwave and TVRO. That is where I got that. I did not know that information that you posted. As far as a "father of Cable TV" that is debatable between systems that started in Pennsylvania in the early 1940's and up into the late 1940's and then there was the one in Astoria, Oregon in 1948. I haven't read about Coleman doing anything that early. So, he might have been the "Father of Cable TV" in that area of South Carolina, but there were systems in other areas much earlier.

Those people were redistributing over the air signals, not sat signals. I promise you that in 1940 no one was broadcasting HBO or TBS.

 

[bobvick]

Those people were redistributing over the air signals, not sat signals. I promise you that in 1940 no one was broadcasting HBO or TBS.

I know that, but it was still CATV/Cable. I am not so stupid to think there were cable networks and satellite distribution in the 40's. Coleman did not invent the concept, which is what your comments seem to allude to.

 

[Comptech]

That was a large CCTV system not a cable system like we have now. Let me rephrase this He was the first to distribute satellite channels. Do you feel better now? Now I have to edit again Satellite for home use.