ID this dish

[coinmaster32]

Didnt have a camera with me. It was black in color. It had squared edges like a paraclipse, but the sides were only about 1-1.5 feet per side more like a conifer dish instead of the 2-3 feet sides the paraclipse have. It also had round rings going through the ribs instead of the squared ones a paraclipse has.

The dish had ribs on the back of it, like a SAMI, then large plastic ribs on the back of them. The mount was a large circle about 2.5-3 feet in diameter, and driven by a vonweise actuator.

It had a button hook on it. The most unusual part that in the center of the buttonhook where it went into the dish, there was a black aluminum or plastic cone, about 1.5 feet long that the rod of the button hook went into, and the cone was attached to the center of the dish with about 10 screws.

The dish's mesh was channeled into the ribs then held in with screws.

The dish was HUGE about 13-16 feet in diamter.

The ribs scream paraclipse, the squared roundness is too round to be a paraclipse, and the intermediate rings were round too. The mesh is held in with screws where as a paraclipse uses clips.

Man I wish I had a camera. Of all the dishes I've seen, never seen one like this.

 

[ACRadio]

Sounds like a Janeil Dark Star.....

 

[turbotoy]

Agreed, sounds like a Dark Star, which would make it 12' in diameter likely. I would guess ~1/4 of the dishes in my area were that model, the local dealer sold a lot of them, probably because they were so cheap for the same size compared to a Paraclipse. I actually just saw one a mile or so down the road from me disappear within the last few weeks when some new owners moved into the home.

I've heard a lot of folks here say that the plastic ribs get brittle and fail easily due to UV exposure. That's likely true, but there are still a ton of those dishes that look perfect in my area. I'm guessing the issue comes when one tries to disassemble/move/reassemble one.

 

[coinmaster32]

EDIT: Found it, it is a dark star. They did make a few with actuator drives. Here is a movie of one being victimized. What is the black cone for?

YouTube - Death to the Dark Star