Thread: ok, ok... You guys talked me into it.

Ok, I think I'm going to regret this, I think I'm stepping into another tar pit like I did with the KU motor thing but you guys have convinced me.

I'm going to put up (have put up) a big dish. Ugh.. There. I said it.


This will work for Cband right? It seems to be similar to others I've seen mentioned on here.

I need to be able to connect it into my existing pc satellite tuner. I have a
Hauppage Nova-S-plus tuner

and it's connected to an 8x discque switch.

For now I just want to aim it at the satellite that has THIStv but I want the option of adding a motor to it in the near future so my pc can move it around to other satellites.

I called my ex and he says there are no motors for those old satellite dishes he collected, he threw them away along with the lnb things too.

He said there are several 8 foot dishes, several 10 foot dishes and a 12 foot dish out on the "Lot from Hell" aka "Hell’s Half-acre" and they are all most likely totally engulfed in weeds, vines, snakes and goddess knows what else. He started collecting them about 15 years ago and just took them apart and stacked them like big bowls out there.

His advice to me on digging one out? "Don't try it."
I said I wanted one and he said "Good luck, carry a snake bite kit and your cell phone."

I asked about the one big dish that is here in pieces tied to a tree. He said that there are no parts left for it here, it's only the four quarter panels, all the rest of it is missing and long gone. Useless for TV. He said I would do best to make a gazebo out of it.



I guess I need to get out to the lot soon with my camera and take some pictures of what's there and you guys I'm sure could recommend which dish would be the best one to go with as I have no clue in the universe about them. I know zero about that stuff other than what little I remember from way back when we had one to watch and it was constant trouble.

I do recall though, once upon a time, a hurricane came through, we had like 90mph winds and we were able to watch TV all through the storm. It got sparkly at times but it never went out. I can't say that about the little KU satellites. They go out easy.

OH! That reminds me! I saw mention of a weather channel on the cband satellite, is that for real? Still there? I would love to have a weather channel!

I'd have recommended a similar LNBF from one of our sponsors, but I don't know of any reason the one you found shouldn't work.

The front page of our gold sponsor,
WSI/Galaxy

, has a 24" motor on sale right now for $30.
Get some discussion going here, to see if that would be suitable.
To drive it, I'd suggest the
Gbox v3000

from Sadoun.
The details of wiring that into your system will have to be stuff of more serious consideration.

From all difficulties had by so many members, I wouldn't burden you trying to get Ku on a BUD.
Get some C-band, and be happy. -

And as for dishes, I still have dreams of that one you and your buddy found on vacation.
Probably too big , too heavy, and too far away, but still exciting! -
For now, list what channels you want, and I'm sure the guys can come up with some dish sizes to spark your imagination.

ALSO, your first BUD need not be perfect nor your last.
Put up the smallest, lightest one you have, and get some experience.
You may well leave it fix-aimed, and later add a better one to the 'farm', polished, painted, cemented, motorized, et al! -

Originally Posted by Anole

I'd have recommended a similar LNBF from one of our sponsors, but I don't know of any reason the one you found shouldn't work.

The front page of our gold sponsor,
WSI/Galaxy

, has a 24" motor on sale right now for $30.
Get some discussion going here, to see if that would be suitable.
To drive it, I'd suggest the
Gbox v3000

from Sadoun.
The details of wiring that into your system will have to be stuff of more serious consideration.

From all difficulties had by so many members, I wouldn't burden you trying to get Ku on a BUD.
Get some C-band, and be happy. -

And as for dishes, I still have dreams of that one you and your buddy found on vacation.
Probably too big , too heavy, and too far away, but still exciting! -
For now, list what channels you want, and I'm sure the guys can come up with some dish sizes to spark your imagination.

ALSO, your first BUD need not be perfect nor your last.
Put up the smallest, lightest one you have, and get some experience.
You may well leave it fix-aimed, and later add a better one to the 'farm', polished, painted, cemented, motorized, et al! -

That giant dish we found, well, we want to stay away from that area, her estranged husband still lives very near there and we are both afraid of him as he has threatened us both with violence. For our safety, we just stay as far away from him and that part of the world as possible.

And even if it weren't for him, there's just no way in the world to get something like that from there to here or even installed here. It's just waaaaaaay over the top...

Ding-a-ling said all the dishes on the lot are "mesh" type. You can see through them. He said they are not heavy, just big and clumsy to move. He said I could pick one, take it apart and put the pieces in my van to get them home and put them back together again once here.

Welcome to the big dish world Dee Ann, you won't regret it .

At Anik 107ºW there was a channel with weather info, also on one of the NBC mux's in SD there is an occasional weather channel (if you have Ku then maybe you know about it, if not, send me a PM ).

Since you're in southeast Texas, i'd also recommend to you a channel with news, it's in spanish but it has weather reports from that region because it's in México, in a state bordering Texas ---> Nuevo León (New Lion), it's located at one of the Satmex (116ºW) in the Multimedios mux (the channel is called Milenio), there's also a channel from Texas broadcasting news all the time, this one located at 121ºW C (Texas Cable News 3780 V, SR 29270).

I think you'll quickly like whatever feeds and channels you'll get .

Cheers!

Mike

Originally Posted by Dee_Ann

Ok, I think I'm going to regret this, I think I'm stepping into another tar pit like I did with the KU motor thing but you guys have convinced me.

I'm going to put up (have put up) a big dish. Ugh.. There. I said it.


This will work for Cband right? It seems to be similar to others I've seen mentioned on here.

I need to be able to connect it into my existing pc satellite tuner. I have a
Hauppage Nova-S-plus tuner

and it's connected to an 8x discque switch.

For now I just want to aim it at the satellite that has THIStv but I want the option of adding a motor to it in the near future so my pc can move it around to other satellites.

I called my ex and he says there are no motors for those old satellite dishes he collected, he threw them away along with the lnb things too.

He said there are several 8 foot dishes, several 10 foot dishes and a 12 foot dish out on the "Lot from Hell" aka "Hell’s Half-acre" and they are all most likely totally engulfed in weeds, vines, snakes and goddess knows what else. He started collecting them about 15 years ago and just took them apart and stacked them like big bowls out there.

His advice to me on digging one out? "Don't try it."
I said I wanted one and he said "Good luck, carry a snake bite kit and your cell phone."

I asked about the one big dish that is here in pieces tied to a tree. He said that there are no parts left for it here, it's only the four quarter panels, all the rest of it is missing and long gone. Useless for TV. He said I would do best to make a gazebo out of it.

I guess I need to get out to the lot soon with my camera and take some pictures of what's there and you guys I'm sure could recommend which dish would be the best one to go with as I have no clue in the universe about them. I know zero about that stuff other than what little I remember from way back when we had one to watch and it was constant trouble.

I do recall though, once upon a time, a hurricane came through, we had like 90mph winds and we were able to watch TV all through the storm. It got sparkly at times but it never went out. I can't say that about the little KU satellites. They go out easy.

OH! That reminds me! I saw mention of a weather channel on the cband satellite, is that for real? Still there? I would love to have a weather channel!

My ex, aka "Ding-a-ling" (I'm being nice) emailed me some pics from the "Lot from Hell" of some of the stuff that's there. These are some of the pics he took for insurance claims after one of the hurricanes tore everything all up.

In one pic you can see a dish laying on the ground in the weeds. It's one of many 10 foot dishes out there but he says none of the hardware is around anymore and using them for tv watching is not likely to be easy.

There is one dish that's blown half over from a hurricane. He used it back in the 90's to listen to radio while working out at the lot. He said that the motor is on it but is long ago broken beyond repair. The tuner parts are long gone, he threw them out years ago.

He said the pipe could be sawed off to get the dish down to the ground. It would have to be taken apart and carried out in pieces. The problem is going to be that there is no electricity out there anymore for a saw. "You're going to have fun with it hunny..." Ha. Ha. Right... Thank you for your support. Not....

So anyway, the one that he says I'll be most likely to get working is 8 foot around.
He has no idea of the brand and knows nothing about the lnb inside the nose cone thingie. He said that the lnb is probably ruined because at the angle it is now, it's probably been full of water for years and whatever was in there is now scrap metal at best.

His suggestion is to count on buying a new motor and a new lnb.

He said to forget the 12 foot dish, it's broken up, the "ribs" are made of plastic and several of them are broken. And that it would be just waaaay too big to be of any real use anyway.

I'll try to get out there once the weather gets a little better, we are in for a week of nasty rain and I'm sure not going out there with that going on. I want to take my Canon and get some detailed photos of what's out there.

Anyway, here's the pics he sent me. Maybe one of you guys will know what these dishes are or if they can even be used or not.

Originally Posted by Anole

ALSO, your first BUD need not be perfect nor your last.
Put up the smallest, lightest one you have, and get some experience.
You may well leave it fix-aimed, and later add a better one to the 'farm', polished, painted, cemented, motorized, et al! -

With that said, the 2nd picture looks like an encouraging dish.
You say it's eight feet across? Good size, too.
From the pix, it doesn't seem to be distorted. (do the string test to be sure)
Has all its panels, too.

If you were to take it off the mount... or even the dish 'n mount off the pole, ...
... I'm sure you and one other could carry it whole where you needed it.
Yes, it's mostly awkward, not all that heavy.
Just put on a pair of cotton gardening gloves to keep your hands clean and so you don't get cut by any edges.

You were going to use that LNBF you found on eBay, so any water in the nosecone won't matter too much.

More pictures with better lighting will get your more suggestions. -

Originally Posted by Anole

With that said, the 2nd picture looks like an encouraging dish.
You say it's eight feet across? Good size, too.
From the pix, it doesn't seem to be distorted. (do the string test to be sure)
Has all its panels, too.

If you were to take it off the mount... or even the dish 'n mount off the pole, ...
... I'm sure you and one other could carry it whole where you needed it.
Yes, it's mostly awkward, not all that heavy.
Just put on a pair of cotton gardening gloves to keep your hands clean and so you don't get cut by any edges.

You were going to use that LNBF you found on eBay, so any water in the nosecone won't matter too much.

More pictures with better lighting will get your more suggestions. -

There is a deathtrap jumble of collapsed buildings and machinery all around where that dish is. It's like surrounded in debris 6 feet deep. It's highly dangerous just to get into that little area. I went in there once after the hurricane and I thought for sure I was going to die, impaled on pipes and machines.

So there is no easy way to get to that thing, it's going to be pretty rough going.
I asked the ex to help me get that dish out of there. He laughed at me and wished me luck. That's about right though, we always stayed out of one another's business and I guess nothing has changed. Eh.... Whatever..

Well, when I do make it out there I can try to figure out a way to get that thing out of there. It's going to be difficult and dangerous. I have a feeling that the entire project, start to finish is going to be a HUGE pain...

As Anole said, the second dish looks fine.

As for the debris, i don't know, maybe more photos could be of help, if theres A LOT maybe a little ingeniosity will help: get help from guys around the block , or even a tractor or some vehicle similar to push/pull all the debris out of the way, of course if it's too much then it'll be a whole lot more tricky.



M.

Dee, If you like KU band...You'll love Cband. In my opinion there's a lot more up there. This Tv, Nasa, CW--3Channels, My Family TV, AMG Tv, QVC, HSN....a bunch. I started out with an old Cband dish that was fixed on one sat. It's still there.
Along side is my 6 foot dish with it's acuator. To me Cband was a lot easier to line up and get a picture on the tv, than KU was. Blind