New Orleans LPB Downlink Site

[stogie5150]

Wanna know what dishes the LPB affiliates use to hold 125w all the time while we struggle? I have your answer. Wednesday my lovely wife and I were car shopping, and i remembered I was right by the New Orleans LPB affiliate's down link site.
So I pointed the Honda in that direction, pulled in the back lot, and snapped these:
Check out the actuators...must be 10 feet long...at least I guess thats what that is hanging down.... in the middle pic, the lefthand dish looks like 125, and the righthand dish may be aimed at 87w or something. I didn't wait around to ask....LOL

( oh and we DID buy a car,eventually, too...LOL)

 

[stanleyjohn]

Nice dishes! Wonder what size they are and who makes them!.Hoping made in USA but with the way things are going these days more likely made in China.PS congrads on the new car! What did you end up buying?

 

[Tron]

Those dishes are only a couple of miles from my house ... I never knew that was a PBS facility, I always figured they were part of the University of New Orleans Metairie campus.

The 1 meter Channel Master I found discarded from a roofing job a couple of years ago was about a block from there.

 

[stogie5150]

Nice dishes! Wonder what size they are and who makes them!.Hoping made in USA but with the way things are going these days more likely made in China.PS congrads on the new car! What did you end up buying?

Just a guess, I would say they are at least 10 footers, maybe 12. As far as manufacturer, I have no idea. I don't think they are Patriots, unless they changed logos with all the buyouts and such the went through all the years.

2011 Honda Accord EX 4-banger. Nicest car we have ever owned.

Those dishes are only a couple of miles from my house ... I never knew that was a PBS facility, I always figured they were part of the University of New Orleans Metairie campus.

The 1 meter Channel Master I found discarded from a roofing job a couple of years ago was about a block from there.

UNO RUNS WLAE, Tron. I am surprised you didn't know that.
Anole and I found them on Google Maps by running the addresses. I wanted to go talk to an engineer, but didn't know quite what to say, plus we were kinda in a hurry, so I snapped the quick pics.

 

[Mr Tony]

very nice pics.

 

[Pixl]

They look like 12ft Comtech fiberglass dish to me. We use these at the radio station I work at. Patriot dishes are sectionalized aluminum.

 

[PopcornNMore]

Very nice!

 

[kingofku]

Nice dishes! Wonder what size they are and who makes them!.Hoping made in USA but with the way things are going these days more likely made in China.PS congrads on the new car! What did you end up buying?

The dishes were made by a company called Miralite in Orange County, California. They have since gone out of the dish makin' business and now focus on IP Video delivery. CBS News uses their services to push video stories from their servers in New York to the affiliates.

 

[Tron]

UNO RUNS WLAE, Tron. I am surprised you didn't know that.
Anole and I found them on Google Maps by running the addresses. I wanted to go talk to an engineer, but didn't know quite what to say, plus we were kinda in a hurry, so I snapped the quick pics.

I thought they were still under the Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans... They were located on Carrollton Avenue at the Notre Dame Seminary. I haven't known anyone at WLAE in ages, though.

 

[Anole]

Just a guess, I would say they are at least 10 footers, maybe 12.
Anole and I found them on Google Maps by running the addresses.

Oh, I remember that day! -
We zoomed in on some satellite pictures.
Then, we measured parking lot spaces and compared to the dish to estimate size.
As a backup we also found a car or truck where we recognized the model 'n make, looked it up on the web to see its length, and double checked our dish size.
I don't recall what we came up with, but the two numbers were in reasonable agreement.
Was it 12 or 14 feet?

I wanted to go talk to an engineer, but didn't know quite what to say, plus we were kinda in a hurry, so I snapped the quick pics.

Call or email the chief engineer and say you're a fan of big dishes.
Maybe include a picture of one (or more) of your own.
I'm sure next time you are in the area, he (she?) would be happy to have you drop by. :up

 

[avenger]

Tron, I believe that you were thinking of WYES, which at one time (long ago) and maybe still are run by the Loyola college priests or archdiocese.

 

[Mojo Jojo]

I always found it odd that the New Orleans market has two PBS affiliates. I believe that WLAE is owned by both Louisiana Educational Television Authority/LPB and the Willwoods Community (Catholic organization). I remember a while back that PBS did not want WLAE to air the daily mass [While old news, here are some links to that: PBS board might pull the plug on WLAE's daily Mass | NOLA.com and ]- NOLA.com. PBS primetime programming is majority if not all of the time on WYES. For some reason, I thought that WLAE had Create as a digital subchannel, but WYES has it as a digital subchannel. I think both may have had it, but I thought WLAE had it first as a digital subchannel. Currently, WLAE has LPB 2 during the daytime and MHz Worldview in the evening, and V-me is the third digital subchannel. I am surprised that WLAE is HD on Dish but not WYES. DirecTV has both. It was odd that WYES HD and SD on DirecTV had different programming at times. Now, it appears to be the same.I believe that PBS World is now on WYES 12.2 along with Create on 12.3. I think that both are great, but it is always interesting to see which PBS affiliate has what. However, I always dislike when they both have the same program on at the same time during the day. Both air some great local and original programming, though.

While on the topic of WYES, the station had a groundbreaking recently: WYES Technical Building Groundbreaking Ceremony | WYES I remember that there was damage during Katrina to WYES (FEMA refuses to help local PBS affiliate rebuild | NOLA.com) In addition, the WLAE site seems to have had some changes. For anyone interested, http://www.wlae.com/

I do apologize if I got somewhat off-topic at times.

 

[Tron]

Interesting information, Mojo Jojo. I knew the WYES facilities were badly damaged by Katrina, since I was in touch with one of their engineers before the storm about some of their old MII VTR equipment. Strange thing is, master control and most of their equipment was located on the second floor of that building. I don't think the water level rose that much (over 12 feet or so) in that area, but I imagine there was plenty of equipment located on the ground floor as well.

 

[Anole]

Think this is the satellite view Stogie and I were looking at.
Kinda gives you a whole new perspective, doesn't it?

 

[Tron]

That's the place, Anole. There's a strip mall and a huge post office just to the South of the dishes, and a car dealership to the North...