Found worlds largest Primestar dish?

[shadyone]

Hi Guys, I am on the site eveyday but rarely post. Today I had to share my latest find with everyone. About lunchtime a friend who is a realtor called and told me about a foreclosed house with a primestar dish in the yard. He said the new owner wanted the property cleaned up including that "awful" dish What makes this unusual is the fact that primestar service was never that popular here. (Eastern S.C.). I hurried to the house(20 miles). When I got there I was shocked to see a round Primestar dish that measured 52 inches by 49 inches. Thats right more than 4 feet:up I removed the dish from the mast and started to dig up the pole. The mast was shc. 40 pipe of about 3 inch O.D filled with concrete, buried four feet deep, with about a 12 inch ring of concrete I finally got it all up and loaded.

This evening I called a friend who worked for primestar here in the early 90's. He said that all the dishs he put in back then were this same >4 foot size!

I have two questions 1. Has anybody here ever seen, heard about, or used a primestar this big? 2.Now that I have this wonderful find should I use it for a simple fixed dish, a multiple lnb dish or maybe as a mini bud.

My next step is to start a serious hunt for more of these dishes. Imagine a dish farm with a dozen of these all as fixed dishs

 

[gillham]

Where's the photos?

 

[shadyone]

It was dark when I unloaded the truck. I'll try to get some photos tomorrow and upload them. I'll make sure to put a tape measure in the photo so no one will accuse me of telling a big fish story.

 

[Mr Tony]

I believe ya. Those Channelmaster dishes I have seen that big before but they were used in remote locations where a bigger dish is neeed

 

[Anole]

we belive you

The four foot dishes (1.2 meters) are the largest of that type, so far as I know.
I've seen them reported before, though they do tend to be a bit rare.
I think someone in the north-west corner of the US said they had some...

We don't want the pictures for proof of your sanity, but so we can all lose ours, admiring your good luck. -

 

[shadyone]

I have long since given up on being sane. My wife says I'm crazy and I only have 5 dishes ( 1 31 inch motorized, 3 fixed superdishes and a dish500 for nasa) not counting the directv sub dish and my 3 OTA antennas. She would have pitched a fit when I brought the four foot dish home today except that saturday is my birthday and she is trying to be extra nice.

 

[jayelem]

Well that is the icing on the cake , congratulations on the find and enjoy your birthday.

 

[gillham]

Well that is the icing on the cake , congratulations on the find and enjoy your birthday.

Yup, that is an awesome birthday present! Happy Birthday.

 

[rv1pop]

HAPPY Birthday.

 

[Stargazer]

I have seen a few of these large round Primestar dishes that were used. I think this was the first ones that they used and the round ones were probably all that big before they went with the large oval Primestar Dish. I think they might have later on used a smaller oval dish. Perhaps the satellites kept getting more powerful as well.

 

[Tron]

Nice find, and Happy Birthday! Those large Channel Master dishes are great for FTA, I use the 1.0 meter version on G18. The 1 meter version uses a 2 3/8" mount, but some of the 1.2 meter versions use a 3" mount.

 

[tvropro]

Nice find, and Happy Birthday! Those large Channel Master dishes are great for FTA, I use the 1.0 meter version on G18. The 1 meter version uses a 2 3/8" mount, but some of the 1.2 meter versions use a 3" mount.

My 90 cm Primestar uses a 3" mount. Those 1.2m are awesome.

 

[dem0nlord]

I have one of these ratholed, it's a normal 1.2M Channelmaster. I manged to get one of the polar mounts they used to make for it when they were still available. Both it and the az/el mount are 3".

 

[chadzx11]

The four foot dishes (1.2 meters) are the largest of that type, so far as I know.
I've seen them reported before, though they do tend to be a bit rare.
I think someone in the north-west corner of the US said they had some...

We don't want the pictures for proof of your sanity, but so we can all lose ours, admiring your good luck. -

There is one on Hwy 82 west of Strong, Ar. It was still there last time I went by, but that was a year ago. Right out in the front yard.

 

[chadzx11]

I think this was the first ones that they used and the round ones were probably all that big before they went with the large oval Primestar Dish.

+1 I did a service call on the one I mentioned, but that was 8+ years ago and the thing was already bleached white. The guy said he was one of the first to get P* in that area.

Any of you ever checked out "miniature satellite dishes" by Dr. Frank Baylin? I have a copy of the second edition I made my employer buy me back in 98. He lost my original copy. I bought it to study for the Louisiana technician's test. That one and "home satellite TV installation and troubleshooting" (also by baylin) were required reading to study for that test. Anyway, the minature one has lots of P* info.....

 

[eurosport]

Those 1.2m ChannelMaster/P* dishes are awesome.:up ...They'll get Ku in a hurricane as long as the power stays on! (Done it here before!)

 

[Pismire]

I use one. Works great even during heavy rain. Recently they burned a house down near me (controlled burn) and one of these was mounted near the house. Needless to say they melt pretty good. Was a sad sight. Contgrats on your new dish.

 

[Greg Mueller]

They did indeed use them here in the NW. I have collection of them and they are easily adapted to do your bidding. When I was a Dish Network HD subscriber I made an adapter to get the 129° bird as we have signal strength problems up here by Seattle. People are glad to get rid of those semi-BUDs

The VSA

Since I quit DN I have put the original LNB back on and use it for FTA and it works great

 

[Anole]

Don't know if there was an interim solution for Dish's 129° HD problem.
I didn't think the new Ceil satellite at 129° was operational yet.
Should be in a month, or two, I believe.

But when it is, all those people with the larger dishes, can go back to Dish 1000-family dishes.
That should free up much fine FTA class hardware!

Oh, and when I read about the big-dish solution for 129° in the North West, I thought a 24" or 30" dish was just the ticket.
Sounds like 48 inches was kind of overkill! - :up

 

[Greg Mueller]

The whole problem was this yoyo cycle that the 129 bird had. While at the top of the cycle it would have enough power and everything was fine. But when it's power cycle started down it would drop down to about 35 and at about 45 the DN 211 receiver would lose lock and the picture would turn into big blocks and quit. Then in a minute or so the power would come back up and you'd get picture again.
Using the bigger dish you'd still have yoyo but it would not fall low enough to lose lock. On the peaks it was about 100-104 on the downward cycle it might hit 90, but rarely. I never had a problem after that except there was nothing on that I hadn't seen about 10 times.
I got the 1.2m and that was the next dish bigger than the Dish 1000 that I had, so I used it.