How to drag a 1.0M Channel Master across six lanes of angry, morning-rush traffic...
Well, I was out running errands (bringing some heavy video equipment to my self-storage room) this morning when I saw it... IT was a 1 meter Channel Master dish laying beside a dumpster next to a retail building which was undergoing renovation. It was across the street (a six-lane street full of drive-time motorists), but I still recognized what it was. I have one of these on G-18, and it performs admirably. "SWEET!", I thought as I returned to my car after placing my items in storage.
After merging across traffic and making a U-turn down the street, I pulled up next to the building (and dish). There were plenty of workers about, so I went to the foreman and asked about the dish. "It's trash, I don't care, take it", was his answer. Almost there! Now, I had to figure out how to get this thing home.
It was NOT going in the car. It MIGHT have fit had it been disassembled, but I had no wrenches or socket set. Additionally, it was still mounted to a rusted out, worthless NPRM frame. What was I going to do? In retrospect, I probably could have asked the workers to borrow a wrench, but I didn't want to push my luck. Then I looked across the street and noticed the building where my storage room is located...
How hard can it be to drag a 1 meter Channel Master and what was left of a NPRM across six lanes of traffic? Well, all I can say is that I'm still alive I did get some funny looks as I hauled the pile into the freight elevator in the storage building and deposited it in my room on the fifth floor...
Once I got it to a safe place, I looked it over. Its in great condition, albeit very cruddy (probably lots of exhaust pollution where it was installed, in a very busy traffic corridor). I can tell it was deployed by Primestar, as I can still barely make out the logo. Also, it has one of those "Dove Bar" LNBs on it, with dual outputs (presumably hardwired for H and V, although I haven't looked carefully). First time I've ever seen one of those animals in person. It'll get replaced with a Dish FSS stacked LNB, just like the one on my other CM.
Tonight, I'm going up there to disassemble it and bring it home. I'll probably get a few more funny looks at that time. It'll either find a parking spot on AMC-21 or AMC-9, although I'm favoring AMC-21 at the moment, due to the HD content. I'm sure a large dish there will also help with adjacent interference from G-18, as well as the LPB DVB-S2 mux. It WILL look funny, with two identical CM 1.0M dishes apparently looking at the same spot in space...
Well, I was out running errands (bringing some heavy video equipment to my self-storage room) this morning when I saw it... IT was a 1 meter Channel Master dish laying beside a dumpster next to a retail building which was undergoing renovation. It was across the street (a six-lane street full of drive-time motorists), but I still recognized what it was. I have one of these on G-18, and it performs admirably. "SWEET!", I thought as I returned to my car after placing my items in storage.
After merging across traffic and making a U-turn down the street, I pulled up next to the building (and dish). There were plenty of workers about, so I went to the foreman and asked about the dish. "It's trash, I don't care, take it", was his answer. Almost there! Now, I had to figure out how to get this thing home.
It was NOT going in the car. It MIGHT have fit had it been disassembled, but I had no wrenches or socket set. Additionally, it was still mounted to a rusted out, worthless NPRM frame. What was I going to do? In retrospect, I probably could have asked the workers to borrow a wrench, but I didn't want to push my luck. Then I looked across the street and noticed the building where my storage room is located...
How hard can it be to drag a 1 meter Channel Master and what was left of a NPRM across six lanes of traffic? Well, all I can say is that I'm still alive I did get some funny looks as I hauled the pile into the freight elevator in the storage building and deposited it in my room on the fifth floor...
Once I got it to a safe place, I looked it over. Its in great condition, albeit very cruddy (probably lots of exhaust pollution where it was installed, in a very busy traffic corridor). I can tell it was deployed by Primestar, as I can still barely make out the logo. Also, it has one of those "Dove Bar" LNBs on it, with dual outputs (presumably hardwired for H and V, although I haven't looked carefully). First time I've ever seen one of those animals in person. It'll get replaced with a Dish FSS stacked LNB, just like the one on my other CM.
Tonight, I'm going up there to disassemble it and bring it home. I'll probably get a few more funny looks at that time. It'll either find a parking spot on AMC-21 or AMC-9, although I'm favoring AMC-21 at the moment, due to the HD content. I'm sure a large dish there will also help with adjacent interference from G-18, as well as the LPB DVB-S2 mux. It WILL look funny, with two identical CM 1.0M dishes apparently looking at the same spot in space...
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