Newbie showered with BUD's

[rangergord]

Just as I am preparing to travel several hundred km's to pickup a nice free 10' mesh dish this weekend, my local ad for BUD's kicks in and got me two more calls today! I just went to visit one a short ways down the road from me. It was a nice black mesh dish 10', although I did not have a tape to check it handy and forgot my camera. It has a von wiess actuator, don't know what make the dish is but it is in pretty nice shape except for a single gash about 3" long a couple inches from one edge of the dish. Is that a problem? Can it just be stitched together with some wire? He wants 100 bucks for it and it seems to be in nice shape. It has a nice pad mount stand which might save me some trouble and expense when it comes to installation.

 

[primestar31]

The gash is not a problem nor will it cause any signal loss. You can use a body hammer and a block behind it to flatten it out, and some wire used like thread to stitch it back together for looks.

Pick the best dish or two, and go with the flow! lol

 

[Anole]

Which is best? It all depends.

Without any pictures, it's hard to offer advice.

The only rule of thumb that comes to mind, is that Buttonhook feed supports are less desirable than 3 or 4 legs.

Most dishes have a single or dual band corotor.
Some members will use them, but I consider 'em junk.
So no points, either way.

Now, if you found a dish with a (rare) single- or (really rare) dual- band ortho feed, I'd likely take that dish.

And of course there are (also rare) horizon-to-horizon motorized mounts!
I would take a junker dish for an Ajak 180! :up


Edit: I'm not fond of pad mounts.
Easy to take the dish, but hard to install.
You'll have to dig a hole and fill it with rebar.
Dropping a pole in a hole seems easier to me.
If you have some clever solution, please share.

 

[rangergord]

Hey Anole, next time I promise to take a camera but today I got excited. It does have 4 arms supporting the feedhorn. Was unable to see any markings on it from the ground but it did have a circular element on the LBN. I must still be pretty ignorant because I have no idea what a corotor is!

You may be right about the pad mounts but I am figuring on at least using them in a more temporary fashion to determine which spot in my yard would be best for a permanent post. I dont want to cement in a pole that is not in the best spot I could have chosen.

 

[ftageekyyc]

If you end up passing on that Dixonville dish let us know.

There's a fella over on Digitalhome who's in central/northern Alberta who's starting to look for one.

 

[rangergord]

For sure. I am planning to go to Dixonville this weekend. Hopefully it is worth my time and fuel being supposedly "free" It will be an adventure! And depending on just what I find out about it, I may buy the one close to home as well.

 

[FaT Air]

Bring your tools. Save a BUD today. May be used for barter tomorrow. If not that, spare parts, if not put back into service.

 

[rangergord]

I just got an offer for a solid aluminum dish. Are they worth pursuing?

 

[FaT Air]

If it's in good condition. And of thick enough material to be 'sound'. Not warped, No big dents. A few small hail dents don't really hurt C band performance. Could it be a BirdView? That would be a nice find.

 

[ftageekyyc]

rangergord,

Before I forget again - on the topic of tools.

Living in Northern BC, you must have a good farm jack for hoisting your truck out of the ditch in the winter. I found that having some chain and a few chunks of 4x4 I could use as a bunk around the hole helped to hoist the pole out of the ground on the first dish I retrieved. And a good long pry bar was useful to poke around the concrete to see how far down it went.

 

[rangergord]

rangergord,

Before I forget again - on the topic of tools.

Living in Northern BC, you must have a good farm jack for hoisting your truck out of the ditch in the winter. I found that having some chain and a few chunks of 4x4 I could use as a bunk around the hole helped to hoist the pole out of the ground on the first dish I retrieved. And a good long pry bar was useful to poke around the concrete to see how far down it went.

I got a bar but no jackall unfortunately. I did not know I could lift the pipe out of the ground. Been prepared to cut it or leave it. It would have to be down at least 4 feet in this region.

 

[rangergord]

If it's in good condition. And of thick enough material to be 'sound'. Not warped, No big dents. A few small hail dents don't really hurt C band performance. Could it be a BirdView? That would be a nice find.

Thanks Fat air, I got a call back from the latest offer and the guy got interested in FTA satellite. I suggested he come here and check it out. I think he will and I have enough dishes to keep me busy at the moment.

 

[ftageekyyc]

I also cut off the first pole, too much concrete on the base.

Did help to jack it though so we could cut it off as close to the concrete as possible.

Sawzall with metal blade - useless. Angle grinder with cutoff wheel worked great.

 

[rangergord]

Got it!

So just got back last night with the dish from
Dixonville. Here are some photos! The LNB is a Chapparal and there are no marks left on the actuator so I don't know the make. It is a 10 foot dish! It may look perfect but there are quite a few holes in the mesh that will have to stitched together. I can see some flat black paint in its future too. So we took it off the pole and found out the pole was much thicker than Schedule 40 must be natural gas pipe or something because it wore my cutting wheel out to nothing in a few minutes along with a couple of hack saw blades. It was in a massive chunk of concrete and was not going anywhere without a cutting torch. So I left it behind. Got the 12 foot long OTA antenna off the house too and again left the mast behind because it was more natural gas pipe from hell. The owner was selling the place and we were part of the cleanup.

 

[rangergord]

Loaded

We got it loaded up with 3 people in total working on it. More ackward than heavy really. Driving back with my unofficial wide load was interesting but went well really. We had a tiring but interesting 2 day trip. It was nice to be able to work at dismantling over sat evening and sunday morning, eat sleep and travel in comfort.

 

[ftageekyyc]

Nice!

Same dish I picked up in Sherwood Park, we should be able to compare notes.

 

[rangergord]

Still thinking of buying another 10 foot dish locally for $100. The dish is in better shape than the "freebie" I just got and it has a von wiess actuator and a pad mount stand. I figure since their not making many more of these dishes I should have one for spare parts. No?

 

[rangergord]

Nice!

Same dish I picked up in Sherwood Park, we should be able to compare notes.

Thanks ftageek!

 

[Anole]

Congratulations on a nice dish.

Hope you didn't damage it during transport or with that ladder.
Didn't see the holes in the mesh, but that's easily patchable.

Was that some sort of camping trailer? Very clever. :up

Sawzall with metal blade - useless.
Angle grinder with cutoff wheel worked great.

I take both.
Which is better depends on what you are cutting and how awkward it is to get to.

On one dish where we needed to cut the 3.5" pipe, we had a few inches clearance at ground level.
Used the SawZall to slice 2/3 through from the backside, then pulled the 9' pipe with 65 lb H-H over and lowered it gently to the ground.
(had removed the dish from the motor, but the Ajak wouldn't come off the pipe!)

I agree the angle grinder with cutoff wheel is the under appreciated tool of choice in many cases. :up
.

 

[rangergord]

Congratulations on a nice dish.

Hope you didn't damage it during transport or with that ladder.
Didn't see the holes in the mesh, but that's easily patchable.

Was that some sort of camping trailer? Very clever. :up




I take both.
Which is better depends on what you are cutting and how awkward it is to get to.

On one dish where we needed to cut the 3.5" pipe, we had a few inches clearance at ground level.
Used the SawZall to slice 2/3 through from the backside, then pulled the 9' pipe with 65 lb H-H over and lowered it gently to the ground.
(had removed the dish from the motor, but the Ajak wouldn't come off the pipe!)

I agree the angle grinder with cutoff wheel is the under appreciated tool of choice in many cases. :up
.

Yes I had a 4.5 " angle grinder with a cutting wheel not just a grinding disk. It was no match for this pipe anyways.

The trailer is a Boler molded fiberglass RV, completely self contained other than needing sani dump services once a week. It is only about 2500 lbs. so I have lots of cargo capacity left.