I spent my 4th of July down at linuxman’s house, disassembling and packing up the two Birdview dishes to bring back to Iowa.
I borrowed a pickup and a trailer, and hit the road at 4 AM on Monday. It’s about a five and a half hour drive to linuxman's house from Des Moines. I pull in at 9:30, and we go right to work. His neighbor helped us take these down off the roof of the building, so a HUGE thanks to him for all the hard work he put into this project. He wouldn’t accept any money for the job. Thanks!
We separated the dishes from their horizon-to-horizon mounts, removed the 30 concrete blocks that were holding them down to the roof in the NPRM (and threw those over the side to the ground), and disassembled the mounts.
During the morning, the sky opened up and rained on us for quite a while. We continued to work through the rain, as there wasn’t any lightning along with it. It eventually stopped raining, and the sun came out - and got really hot, really fast. And muggy. We were working on a flat tar roof in puddles of water and 90+ degree temperatures. I started feeling a little weak, and realized that I hadn’t been drinking water at all.
We took a break, grabbed a hot dog at the local gas station, and I drank a quart of Gaterade to replenish my electrolytes.
After everything was disassembled, and lowered down off the roof, his neighbor had to take off.
Because the sides of the borrowed trailer were so high, I had to fabricate a box mount underneath the dishes to raise them up, so the dish edge would protrude out over the fender wells. 2x4’s across the top keep the dishes down on the base. In the picture below, the feet of the NPRM are also loaded in the pickup at this point, on either side of the wood base...
The dishes have two pieces of styrofoam between them, so they don’t bump into each other on the ride home. With this setup, the dishes are secured in the wood frame, without the top of the frame touching them. This allows the whole crate to be strapped down very tightly, without bending or damaging the dishes.
There’s a picture of the whole thing loaded and ready to hit the road from linuxman’s house at 4:30 Monday afternoon. I thanked him and his son, who also helped load the motors into the pickup, started up the truck, and crept carefully out of the parking lot.
I pulled in the driveway at 10 PM on the 4th of July, so I got to watch the fireworks of all the Des Moines suburbs on the way into town. It was a nice greeting back!
I left the dishes in the trailer overnight, as I had no help to unload, plus I was exhausted. I pulled the whole rig, trailer and all, to work on Tuesday morning. I recruited a friend to help me unload the trailer on Tuesday after work. It was mostly overcast with a slight breeze. Nice compared to the 4th.
I unloaded all the small stuff that I could, and when my buddy showed up, we made quick work of the rest of the big stuff. The feet for the mast, and the dishes are under the deck in the back yard.
Next step: Assemble one of the dishes and point it to 91W to pick up the C-band and Ku band stuff transmitted from there…
I borrowed a pickup and a trailer, and hit the road at 4 AM on Monday. It’s about a five and a half hour drive to linuxman's house from Des Moines. I pull in at 9:30, and we go right to work. His neighbor helped us take these down off the roof of the building, so a HUGE thanks to him for all the hard work he put into this project. He wouldn’t accept any money for the job. Thanks!
We separated the dishes from their horizon-to-horizon mounts, removed the 30 concrete blocks that were holding them down to the roof in the NPRM (and threw those over the side to the ground), and disassembled the mounts.
During the morning, the sky opened up and rained on us for quite a while. We continued to work through the rain, as there wasn’t any lightning along with it. It eventually stopped raining, and the sun came out - and got really hot, really fast. And muggy. We were working on a flat tar roof in puddles of water and 90+ degree temperatures. I started feeling a little weak, and realized that I hadn’t been drinking water at all.
We took a break, grabbed a hot dog at the local gas station, and I drank a quart of Gaterade to replenish my electrolytes.
After everything was disassembled, and lowered down off the roof, his neighbor had to take off.
Because the sides of the borrowed trailer were so high, I had to fabricate a box mount underneath the dishes to raise them up, so the dish edge would protrude out over the fender wells. 2x4’s across the top keep the dishes down on the base. In the picture below, the feet of the NPRM are also loaded in the pickup at this point, on either side of the wood base...
The dishes have two pieces of styrofoam between them, so they don’t bump into each other on the ride home. With this setup, the dishes are secured in the wood frame, without the top of the frame touching them. This allows the whole crate to be strapped down very tightly, without bending or damaging the dishes.
There’s a picture of the whole thing loaded and ready to hit the road from linuxman’s house at 4:30 Monday afternoon. I thanked him and his son, who also helped load the motors into the pickup, started up the truck, and crept carefully out of the parking lot.
I pulled in the driveway at 10 PM on the 4th of July, so I got to watch the fireworks of all the Des Moines suburbs on the way into town. It was a nice greeting back!
I left the dishes in the trailer overnight, as I had no help to unload, plus I was exhausted. I pulled the whole rig, trailer and all, to work on Tuesday morning. I recruited a friend to help me unload the trailer on Tuesday after work. It was mostly overcast with a slight breeze. Nice compared to the 4th.
I unloaded all the small stuff that I could, and when my buddy showed up, we made quick work of the rest of the big stuff. The feet for the mast, and the dishes are under the deck in the back yard.
Next step: Assemble one of the dishes and point it to 91W to pick up the C-band and Ku band stuff transmitted from there…
