Starband dish pictures - need help replacing mount hardware

[thisBUDsforyou]

The other week someone gave me a Starband dish in pieces with some of the hardware missing. I was stumped as to what the hardware even looked like until I ran across these pictures from Sadoun.

I was hoping some of the extremely helpful people here would look at the attached pictures to identify the hardware I'm missing so I can replace it. See that square thingy the guy is holding in his fingers in the first picture? There are four of those and they're all missing. The dish is attached to the mount with those so that the whole dish can be skewed by loosening them and rotating the dish relative to the mount.

Does anyone know what those square thingies are called and where I can get them?

 

[turbosat]

Looks like something you could fabricate. I'd go to the hardware store and look thru the electrical section at the conduit and related parts,, should be able to find something there you can alter to work on that dish.

 

[thisBUDsforyou]

Looks like something you could fabricate.

But my mom always taught me to tell the truth!

I'd go to the hardware store and look thru the electrical section at the conduit and related parts,, should be able to find something there you can alter to work on that dish.

Yeah maybe this isn't a standard part that I can just buy at Home Despot. Good thing I have a grinder out in the garage. Thanks turbosat!

 

[Mr Tony]

Those things hold the dish to the bracket. I have those on my Starchoice dish. There may be something like that at a local hardware store. Otherwise you could just get some metal pieces and jerry rig something. With a grinder anything is possible

 

[thisBUDsforyou]

Those things hold the dish to the bracket. I have those on my Starchoice dish. There may be something like that at a local hardware store. Otherwise you could just get some metal pieces and jerry rig something. With a grinder anything is possible

Thanks Iceberg. The first thing I'm going to do is hunt through all the junk I have in the basement and garage to see if there's anything I can use. FTA'er heaven is fabricating something with stuff on hand to fix up a free dish! I will have to buy a bolt though to replace one of the four that is missing. Wait, maybe an old toilet flange bolt will work for that!

 

[Anole]

. . . I was thinking some of the extruded aluminum "U" stock might be cut into 1" pieces (whatever is needed), drilled with a hole, and maybe you're done.
You'd have to look, but perhaps 1" wide by 1/2" high side walls...?

While you are at Lowe's or Home Cesspool , you might also want to look at shelf brackets for material.
The kind you put up vertical strips, then lock the shelves into groves on the wall strips.

Or, maybe ask Sadoun. No, seriously.
He might have some, and then you'd really be done!

 

[Larry1]

Looks as if you are going to have to fabricate them. The U is longer on one end then the other for it fits against the part of the mount that turns. Looks like you are going to be using that grinder quite a bit for that part. Maybe just bending one side of a washer into a L shape will work out, then grinding the short length of the L down to the desired length.

Try a StarChoice dealer to see if they can get them for you.

 

[Sadoun]

. .
Or, maybe ask Sadoun. No, seriously.
He might have some, and then you'd really be done!

I think we might have some.

thisBUDsforyou, PM me and let me know your email address, and zip code. If I find them I will send you a Paypal invoice for it and then you can decide if you want to buy it or not.

 

[Anole]

3 choices

There ya go!
If Sadoun finds enough for you, that's your #1 choice.

#2 would be the recommended (above) fender washers.
Just go to Google Image Search and type in "fender washers" for some pix, or look below.
They have a very large diameter relative to the hole.
Use a vice and a hammer and bend the two sides down as required.
I really like that idea, and may use it on some projects. - :up

#3 choice would be the extruded aluminum I mentioned above.
Just choose the right size, chop off a chunk with a hack saw, and drill one hole.
A bit of cleanup with a file or wire wheel, and that should do it.
Well, maybe drill all the holes and THEN slice 'em into pieces...

And after looking closely at those pictures, that's a very pretty dish!
I may have to keep an eye out for one.

 

[Mr Tony]

Anole
Its made by Channelmaster (like the Globecast & StarChoice dishes)

 

[Anole]

Oh, StarBand !
I thought he said StarChoice.
Well, I always get a warm 'n fuzzy feeling when I see the molded dishes.
But all that detail impressed into the back side was really nice!

I have a little DirecTV Phase II that I'm very fond of...
Another molded beauty.
...too bad it's not big enough for much of anything.

 

[Mr Tony]

they're pretty much the same as a Primestar dish. 37x27 usually. Difference is the Primestar dish the LNB skews whereas the StarBand & StarChoice the dish skews

 

[Anole]

Well, the performance of the Primestars is legendary.
Either that, or everyone is in on the conspiracy. -


And while not an Andrew/ChannelMaster, I'm still thinking I have a chance to bag one of these 6' molded, some day. - :up


But, in the mean time, Primestars, ChannelMasters, Andrews, Star-everything.
Yea, put me down for some! -

 

[Dah-Henny]

Unbelievable...I just threw my Starband dish in the dump. I still have the modem and the TX/RX feed arm if anybody wants it.

 

[DirectDishNet]

Unbelievable...I just threw my Starband dish in the dump. I still have the modem and the TX/RX feed arm if anybody wants it.

I got about 4 starband dish's on the side of my house. What?, Are they worth something?

 

[Mr Tony]

they work great for free to air

 

[Tron]

Unbelievable...I just threw my Starband dish in the dump.

AAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH! These are even better than the Channel Masters used by Primestar because they can be skewed using the mount. An excellent dish....

The transmitter is of no use, but the receive LNB is very useful for FTA.

 

[thisBUDsforyou]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I found a piece of U-shaped shelf support in my basement, the kind you screw into the wall and put shelf brackets into for supporting shelves. I drilled holes in it about one inch apart (there were already slits cut in it for the shelf brackets, which made it easier to get the holes started). I used a hack saw to cut off four pieces, adjusted the height and cleaned them up with the grinder, and they worked fine.

I also ended up having to replace the bolts that hold the mount onto the back of the dish. I was missing one altogether plus I was missing the nuts for the other three. I couldn't find relplacement nuts - it seems to be an odd non-standard thread size that I couldn't find a match for either English or metric so ended up buying carriage bolts as replacements. The heads on the carriage bolts were too large to fit into the recessed holes on the receiving side of the dish so I used the grinder to cut down the diameter of the bolt heads.

Got the whole thing put together and mounted temporarily but had a lot of trouble getting signal. Finally took off the factory LNB assembly (this dish has a transmitter as well as a receiver) and replaced with a standard 10750 LNB attached to the LNB arm with a coat hanger and was still having trouble. Finally figured out that I was several degrees low on elevation and got signal on several satellites. I'm going to try putting the factory LNB assembly back on to see if I can get it to work, maybe removing the transmitter part (that sucker is heavy!).

The yardstick from top of LNB to bottom of the dish method used with an angle finder didn't seem to work on this dish. On the other hand I found that an angle finder placed on the back of the mount gave an answer that was about two degrees more than the actual elevation of the dish so I used that method (with the two degree adjustment) with some success. My Craftsman angle finder has a magnet in the base so it would just stick to the mount which made it convenient.

One wonderful feature of both the Starband and Primestar dishes is the bolt in the bracket for fine tuning the elevation adjustment. Instead of having to loosen two bolts on either side of the mount (and then having it slip on you so you have no idea how much you are adjusting) you just give the fine adjustment bolt a turn with a wrench to go up or down about one degree. Works great.

 

[thisBUDsforyou]

they're pretty much the same as a Primestar dish. 37x27 usually. Difference is the Primestar dish the LNB skews whereas the StarBand & StarChoice the dish skews

My Starband dish has the mount that allows you to skew the whole dish. The factory LNB assembly also has skew marks on it. Is it better to skew the whole dish as opposed to just rotating the LNB? Do you get more signal by rotating the whole dish? I'm guessing the LNB assembly has skew marks on it because it was also used on dishes that don't have mounts for skewing the whole dish.

 

[Mr Tony]

skew the whole dish...more signal for the lnb to grab