Adventures in Dish Hunting 2009

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Spoon thoughts:

Got a phone call this morning ...
He said he had a dish he wanted removed ....
.... we walked around back and there was a "Spoon" off-set Birdview. :)

I am thinking about perhaps setting it up as a KU only dish like my Prodelin.
I will have to get it home, and turn it 90 degrees from the way it is setup now, but I think it might be possible.
...you guys let me know if you think it would work as a stationary Ku dish.
Fred on IRC said:
... the dish is 8 foot 3 inches wide, and 7 foot 3 inches tall as it sets right now
... and the scaler is conical
We chatted quite a bit about the dish, and here are some of the relevant opinions:

1). the dish is on a wedge to adapt an offset dish to the stock BirdView H-H mount.
The wedge is sideways, 'cause the dish is sideways.
You take a regular 8½ foot round prime feed BV off it's mount, and put this dish+wedge on it, and it should track the arc (pretty close). - :cool:

2). I'm thinking the reason they did it sideways instead of with the LNBF on the bottom, is to clear people walking under it.
Also, it might give less off-center weight to the mount, if that matters. :up

3). like all offset dishes, how big the dish looks from the scalar, is its aperture.
I'm guessing this baby looks round if you peek through the feedhorn hole, and 7' 3" in size.
That's fine for C-band in 1985 (when the birds were far apart), but modest by today's standards.
Sure, it's beat the hell out of anybody's 6' dish, and probably give the 7½'s a good run for their money!
For a motorized Ku dish, it's absurd, unless you were trying to listen on low power military satellites.
Though, it might be interesting to see what rain-fade is like when watching Ku! - :eek:

4). Would be nice to know the F/D of the dish, just to make sure we don't miss anything.

5). If you rotate the dish and wedge with the LNBF down, it'll track fine that way, too.
And, you want to make it a fixed dish with multiple LNBs, I'd start out this way.
Otherwise, I'd leave the dish rotated, and use if for C, Ku, or both.
The motorized mount under it, along with the 6" stiff tube, is a rock! - ;)

6). might double check the ring spacing in that conical scalar.
If they're too close, they won't work on C-band... it's likely a Ku-only lashup.
But, we don't know.
 
Perfect 10

Here is the latest offered to me, and one I am willing to take.

"It hasn't been used in seven years, and the wife wants it gone!"

"Why not", I said.

Of course I have no room for it, but I'm guessing I can break it into four parts and store it until we move to a larger place. It just looked too clean to pass up (compared to the glass ones I've seen lately).

The wasp will have to find a new home.
 

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Perfect 10:

Here is the latest offered to me, and one I am willing to take.
...The wasp will have to find a new home.
Looks pretty nice. ...or maybe it's your artistic sunset lighting. ;)
Is it close to home?
I think Perfect 10 is the brand, not the size, so what size is it?
 
Anybody run into any legal issues when taking down and hauling off a dish from someones property? Just wondering because people tend to sue for just about anything these days. I'd hate to have to replace someone's lawn. :eek:
 
Primestar Score 1 Won 1 Lost

I drug home another Primestar dish today! :)

My wife was not home so she does not know about it! :p

This one I found in a trailer park and the trailer was just moved out or a tornado took it. :eek: The park owner said to take the dish so I did! This one is a little eliptical in shape and is different than my other ones. On the back the imprint says "PRODELIN INC." and the numbers below are 0179-197. This model has the 3 support arms and is in great shape other than a little crack in the feedhorn cover. There were 2 coax cables that came out and there was a splitter on each one and the cables into the ground and once to a trailer. I put it in the barn for now! ;)

The sad news is that another Primestar that was similar ended up in a dumpster! :mad: I could not locate the owner and the neighbors acted like he was in China! The house was abandoned and I was half tempted to sneak it and leave my name and phone number there! Well the house and Primestar are now scooped up into a dumpster. :rant:
 
Post a picture of that prodelin when you can, curious to see what it is. And I agree with you, even if one has to go to the dumpster, I wouldn't want to grab an abandoned dish without somebody's permission, lawyers cost too much.
 
SGet to his mom's house and as we pull down the driveway I see something....a C-Band dish on its side. I said "why didnt you tell me your mom has a C-Band dish?" and he says "It doesnt work after the fire". Get out and other than the dish being uprooted for some reason, here sits a used 8 foot solid dish (no name on it) with what looks like a newer actuator on it. I checked it out and told him I'd come take it away another time if she wants me too. My buddy kept saying "it doesnt work" and I said the dish is in great shape and yes it would work :) Now to try and find out why this dish was laying on the side with the mast and concrete slab still attached. Dish being solid I think can take a little more strain if its on its side.

well my buddy called me the other day and says "my mom said you can have the dish if you want but ya gotta haul it. They want it gone" :)
(originally it was "they said make an offer" and my offer was "I'll haul it away. You said it got burned so they dont have a use for it". Folks give them dishes away)

I told him the concrete is staying but one of these days we're gonna go up and try and take it apart and haul it away. Now I didnt get a great look at the dish last time (was only there for maybe 10 minutes) but I know that actuator looked newer.

AND YES I'LL BRING MY DIGITAL CAMERA THIS TIME!! ;)
 
Dumpster Rescue

I'd had my eye on this one for a while. Stopped by today when I saw a dumpster in the yard. (property owner recently passed) Daughter said sure, we're just going to make it fit in the rolloff. Measures 10' and the polar mount
is real rugged. Dinged up the edges of the mesh a little getting it down, but I was all by my self. I'm pretty sure thats not a DOT approved transport method, but I got it here...Not bad for free anyway.

Looks like it's all aluminum square tubing, no label or name anywhere on it.
 

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I thought Paraclipse dishes were 12 feet across... or bigger?
What size ya got there?

Well, regardless , it sure is a beauty - :up
Nice that it's not equipped with a button-hook, too.
Search the forum for reference to the brand, and you'll get a lot of great info on renovating them!

As for holding up a car, here's their old advert.
Warning - do not try this at home. - :eek:
 

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I thought Paraclipse dishes were 12 feet across... or bigger?
What size ya got there?

Just got done re-measuring, There's no way I could measure more than 10 feet across the thing. I searched back a couple of years in the forum and found no reference to 10' Paraclipse. It doesn't look like it was modified or cut down, all the edges look factory. I'm told that it could be 30 years old. Strange!

Thanks, Eric
 
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Just got done re-measuring, There's no way I could measure more than 10 feet across the thing. I searched back a couple of years in the forum and found no reference to 10' Paraclipse. It doesn't look like it was modified or cut down, all the edges look factory. I'm told that it could be 30 years old. Strange!

Thanks, Eric


All the literature I have says 12', 14.5', and 16' dishes were made at that time. Later on in the run (late 80's or so) an 8' was made. If you have a 10' Paraclipse it will be a first, but I have to say, it doesn't look as massive as my 12 footer does...either way nice find, especially since you got one with the quad leg LNB arms instead of the bouncy buttonhook...very nice.

EDIT: Looking at your pics again, if that is a long bed pickup truck that will mean 8' bed, and the dish fits pretty well inside the bed. I do believe you have an 8' dish, friend. A 12 footer would be hopeless in a pickup.
 
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Lose signal on dig channels sometimes

Just scored a dish - now what?

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