Large Birdview Satellite Dish In Michigan

[kryan]

Hi, excuse my ignorance on the subject but I am located in Lansing, MI and have a large satellite dish. I am not sure if birdview is a brand or a style, but mine looks like other dishes listed as birdview. I am looking to find somebody to pass the dish on to. I also have some of the old receivers and even the original wiring running through the house if that can be salvaged for use. Make me a reasonable offer and the dish is yours. It has a very heavy duty mount, but I believe the dish comes apart into 4 pieces. I am able to help as needed to move it, and you would be able to back right up to it. I do believe it is cemented in the ground. PM me if you are interested, I will try to answer any questions best as I can.

 

[KE4EST]

to SatelliteGuys kryan!

 

[comfortably_numb]

Why does everybody on this board seem to live in Michigan?!

 

[primestar31]

Why does everybody on this board seem to live in Michigan?!

Duh, because they won't let us LEAVE of course! LOL.

 

[primestar31]

Hi, excuse my ignorance on the subject but I am located in Lansing, MI and have a large satellite dish. I am not sure if birdview is a brand or a style, but mine looks like other dishes listed as birdview. I am looking to find somebody to pass the dish on to. I also have some of the old receivers and even the original wiring running through the house if that can be salvaged for use. Make me a reasonable offer and the dish is yours. It has a very heavy duty mount, but I believe the dish comes apart into 4 pieces. I am able to help as needed to move it, and you would be able to back right up to it. I do believe it is cemented in the ground. PM me if you are interested, I will try to answer any questions best as I can.

Kryan, what's a "reasonable offer"?

That appears to me to be a multi-part fiberglass dish, and 30+ year old fiberglass dishes just aren't worth much except possibly salvage of the mount and such.

Even if it's in exceptional shape, I wouldn't expect much more than somebody offering to take it off your hands for free, and possibly cleaning up the site for you. That's just the reality of all this. There ARE certain dishes that are "Holy Grail" stuff and worth some money ($100 - $200~, 1 piece Spun Aluminum dishes are well worth pursuing).

P.S. LOL, I just noticed that it's so old, it even uses an old-school tv antenna rotator motor to change polarities! I haven't seen that setup since 1985.

 

[kryan]

Thanks for the response, I did not realize it was so old it is my grandparent's so I don't know anything about it. I don't have pictures of the receivers but I figured there was at least some value in those. However I have a lot of respect for all kinds of hobbyists, so if someone wants it to repurpose it and not just scrap it they can have it for free as long as they have the correct equipment to remove it cleanly.

 

[Phalaenopsis]

Why does everybody on this board seem to live in Michigan?!

We’re trapped in Michigan! Long cold snowy winters that last 7 months!

 

[comfortably_numb]

Long cold snowy winters that last 7 months!

That's one of the reasons I left Ohio. Columbus has an average of 266 cloudy days per year, which is more than Seattle. It's no wonder psychologists do well there; it's depressing!

 

[kryan]

Is there a realistic chance somebody will want to take it for free, or am I better off cutting it down and scrapping it?

 

[Phalaenopsis]

It depends on its condition & location. If there is a close by FTA’er then they may want it and remove it. The only problem is that fiberglass dishes aren’t very rare/valuable due to there inability to perform well on KU. Scrapping it won’t be much better either because they are made of fiberglass and there isn’t much metal worth salvaging inside. I’d keep it up for a couple of months to see if someone wants it. Also post it on Facebook Marketplace, Letgo, OfferUp, Nextdoor, and Craigslist to see if anyone wants it there. Or you could use it for FTA reception! There are lots of FREE channels on C-Band.

 

[primestar31]

Is there a realistic chance somebody will want to take it for free, or am I better off cutting it down and scrapping it?

There IS a chance somebody might want it for free. I highly recommend you also post this on your local Craigslist, and if you are on Facebook, post it on Facebook Marketplace. You might even want to post it on the Facebook group "Mid Michigan Man Stuff for Sale" The large version of that group has over 210,000 members! I'll bet you'll get a bite pretty quick. Find a local farmer or somebody with a front-end loader, and they can wrap a chain around the pole, and hook it to their bucket, and pop it right out of the ground. (After the dish is removed). I've even popped them out of the ground with a long 4x4, some large muffler clamps, and a short log for the fulcrum. You set it up sort of like a Teeter-Totter. That method just depends on it hopefully not having 1,000lbs of cement holding it down. If so, add a sledgehammer to bust it up a bit. The cement will likely break off into pieces fairly easily with a couple good blows of the sledge.

 

[radio]

The last time I remember seeing an Alliance Tenna-rotor used for polarity was at a now defunct religious station in Battle Creek, MI. I worked Sundays at the commercial station up the road a way, and got a call that they couldn't get their programming! The part-timer had no knowledge of satellite technology, and someone had apparently moved the adapted terrestrial antenna rotor off-kilter enough to knock out their signal. That had to be about 1988.
Lansing's close to me, but...I'm still waiting to get the time to put in my two extra perforated BV dishes. I did look at this thread, hoping it was a Birdview...but..nope. However, for someone wanting a fixed dish for 99 west, 101, 103, I don't see why it wouldn't be a good learning dish for someone starting in FTA!
Granted, fiberglass dishes warp..but...if not using it for sky scanning, I would like to hope someone would want it.

We just removed and put a fiberglass former AP dish on our scrap pile at the sister station which was also in panels. Similar build. Don't know if it went away yet or not. I suspect not.

Hope the one posted here finds a home.

 

[kryan]

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