More findings to make you jealous!! Birdview!

[hank123]

Well found this lovely dish.
In amazing shape. I only looked for a few min today and did not test the motor. Over all shape has to be 9/10.
Now the debate comes should I pick her up or look for something a little bigger. I could still get the 12 foot paraclipse but she needs some heavy work.

I did not have a tape on me but I think she is a 8.5 foot and has a HH motor.
Do you think she would run better then my setup now?

 

[Wayn23]

I had an 8.5' solid and thought it was undersized for many C-band feeds, my 10' mesh outperformed my Birdview as long as it was not too windy. I live in California so maybe I was not getting as much signal as the middle of the country.

The Birdview mount was excellent for stability and accuracy tracking the arc, the dish also was a great performer for Ku.

 

[primestar31]

Take it if for nothing else but to re-purpose the HH mount.

 

[N6BY]

Well found this lovely dish.
In amazing shape. I only looked for a few min today and did not test the motor. Over all shape has to be 9/10.
Now the debate comes should I pick her up or look for something a little bigger....

I would definitely get it!

I have an 8.5 Birdview also and use it for both C and KU. The worm gear motor drive is great -- far better than a linear actuator IMO. Chances are the Von Weise motor is working and will continue for many years.

You might need to update the motor with a magnet wheel and reed switch to send pulses to your motor controller. But that is relatively easy and several of us here have done it (including me).

 

[Magic Static]

The BV is a well built dish for sure but it has some detractors that keep me from wanting one. The biggest fault is the H-H mount. It only will cover about 90° of arc right in the middle. Where I'm at I would lose 50.0W thru 85.0W because of that. Not good The scalar is BV specific and needs modified to use other LNB(F)s. The position sensor came stock as a potentiometer style and needs converted to a reed switch. They made conversion kits years ago. It may already have one. Great dish, but not for my location.

 

[norman881]

The BV is a well built dish for sure but it has some detractors that keep me from wanting one. The biggest fault is the H-H mount. It only will cover about 90° of arc right in the middle. Where I'm at I would lose 50.0W thru 85.0W because of that. Not good The scalar is BV specific and needs modified to use other LNB(F)s. The position sensor came stock as a potentiometer style and needs converted to a reed switch. They made conversion kits years ago. It may already have one. Great dish, but not for my location.

Thanks for the information Magic Static. I have an elderly neighbor that has the same BV. She asks my wife if we want it every time she sees her. It is atop a 25 foot pole that is connected to her home. My wife says there is no way that I am taking it down.

 

[Wayn23]

A Birdview on a 25' pole? I would not even want to try and guess how much the pole it is on weighs, my two piece pole weighed about 450 lbs. If I am remembering correctly.

 

[hank123]

Well I may stay with the AJAK I have now. The gain got from this beauty may not give me what I am looking for.

 

[norman881]

A Birdview on a 25' pole? I would not even want to try and guess how much the pole it is on weighs, my two piece pole weighed about 450 lbs. If I am remembering correctly.

I will try to take a picture this weekend. She lives in a large mobile home. The pole is in the ground and also strapped to the side of the home. She said they used it from 1982-1992 when her husband died. It looks real rusty and rickety from the street.

 

[N6BY]

The BV is a well built dish for sure but it has some detractors that keep me from wanting one. The biggest fault is the H-H mount. It only will cover about 90° of arc right in the middle. Where I'm at I would lose 50.0W thru 85.0W because of that. Not good ...

Not sure where you heard that, but it doesn't match what I am seeing with mine. Mine covers from 50W to 121W on the Eastern arc, and 121W to the other side of the international dateline on the Western arc. That is about 70 degrees on each side of the arc, not 45.

I'm using it right now (with a home made helical feed) to monitor AERO on Inmarsat 54W.

 

[Magic Static]

Not sure where you heard that, but it doesn't match what I am seeing with mine. Mine covers from 50W to 121W on the Eastern arc, and 121W to the other side of the international dateline on the Western arc. That is about 70 degrees on each side of the arc, not 45.

I'm using it right now (with a home made helical feed) to monitor AERO on Inmarsat 54W.

Well you are right. I never have used a BV but I tore a mount down last year to use on another dish and found the motor was bad. The main gear is cut in a way that makes it look it's only 90° of a full circle. But when you actually look at the geometry, it's like you said.

 

[N6BY]

The actual angle looks somewhere around 140, but I definitely see why you thought it was 90. You get an extra few degrees if some of the worm gear teeth are past the edge. To get 54W (67 degrees off center), mine has a few teeth past the edge. Its OK as long as at least one tooth is engaged.

Here is a photo of mine at 54W. Still have 3 out of 5 teeth engaged.

 

[Wayn23]

I will try to take a picture this weekend. She lives in a large mobile home. The pole is in the ground and also strapped to the side of the home. She said they used it from 1982-1992 when her husband died. It looks real rusty and rickety from the street.

My pole was custom made of very thick walled steel, there are pictures on this forum somewhere that I believe Linuxman uploaded quite a few years back, I am using a tablet and it is not easy to find the link or I would post it here. My biggest problem with the Birdview was many of the signals I really wanted were to weak to receive reliably, it was fine with 4DTV.

 

[N6BY]

... I could still get the 12 foot paraclipse but she needs some heavy work. ...

Besides the initial work to restore the mesh, the other consideration is the giant hailstones that did a number on it. It might hail like that again -- probably right after a new mesh is installed. You might have to get some really heavy mesh to survive the next one. The Birdview is not fragile like that.

Another possibility -- have you considered getting both dishes? The paraclipse for C-Band and the Birdview for KU?

Just throwing some ideas out there.

 

[hank123]

Besides the initial work to restore the mesh, the other consideration is the giant hailstones that did a number on it. It might hail like that again -- probably right after a new mesh is installed. You might have to get some really heavy mesh to survive the next one. The Birdview is not fragile like that.

Another possibility -- have you considered getting both dishes? The paraclipse for C-Band and the Birdview for KU?

Just throwing some ideas out there.

Trust me I would have 3 or 4 C band dishes up but my wife would have murder charges lol.
I would think my Paraclipse hydro would work fine for KU band. Does anyone have the specs on the Birdview DB gain for C and KU?

I found a 10 footer today, not sure what kind it was. Not in great shape.
The 12 footer, just the amount of work and maybe the cost to re-mesh.
Give me a week or so fellas ill find some more sweet stuff.

 

[lost_mesa]

The actual angle looks somewhere around 140, but I definitely see why you thought it was 90.
View attachment 119764

Yep, I get about 142 degrees out of my BirdView. Routinely use it from 36W to 139W and it will go to maybe 178W, but it is pointed into a hill there. I've had it down to 34.5W a few times, but it definitely won't go to 30W.

When I first set it up, the limiting factor on low elevations was the sector gear hitting the back of the dish. I used some oversized nuts as spacers to move the back of the dish away from the mount. Now the limit is either running out of teeth or the mount hitting the pole. I'm not about to find out which, so I added limit switches.

 

[N6BY]

Trust me I would have 3 or 4 C band dishes up but my wife would have murder charges lol.
I would think my Paraclipse hydro would work fine for KU band....

Same situation here with my wife. When I found a Birdview on Craigslist I had to promise my wife I would take down my 10' Unimesh, which I reluctantly did.

... Does anyone have the specs on the Birdview DB gain for C and KU?....

I don't have the official Birdview specs, but my ARRL Antenna book has the gain formula for parabolic reflectors and a table with estimates for various dish sizes and frequencies. To summarize it, the gain is dependent on the dish diameter, frequency, and surface accuracy.

According to the formula and table, for an 8.5' diameter dish on C Band the gain should be about 36 dB, and the KU gain about 46 dB. This assumes an 'efficiency factor' of 55%, which has to do with the surface accuracy and the feedhorn.

 

[N6BY]

...
When I first set it up, the limiting factor on low elevations was the sector gear hitting the back of the dish. I used some oversized nuts as spacers to move the back of the dish away from the mount. Now the limit is either running out of teeth or the mount hitting the pole. I'm not about to find out which, so I added limit switches....

From your photos, your motor assembly looks like it's in very nice shape, especially compared to mine. Is it aluminum? I'm definitely jealous. Really fits with the title of this thread - 'More findings to make you jealous' !

 

[hank123]

Same situation here with my wife. When I found a Birdview on Craigslist I had to promise my wife I would take down my 10' Unimesh, which I reluctantly did.


I don't have the official Birdview specs, but my ARRL Antenna book has the gain formula for parabolic reflectors and a table with estimates for various dish sizes and frequencies. To summarize it, the gain is dependent on the dish diameter, frequency, and surface accuracy.

According to the formula and table, for an 8.5' diameter dish on C Band the gain should be about 36 dB, and the KU gain about 46 dB. This assumes an 'efficiency factor' of 55%, which has to do with the surface accuracy and the feedhorn.

Thanks for this. Cant give up my H-H AJAK. She will swing so low I can cover the entire sky, small modification need to happen to correct 1/2 degree declination.

 

[hank123]

Yep, I get about 142 degrees out of my BirdView. Routinely use it from 36W to 139W and it will go to maybe 178W, but it is pointed into a hill there. I've had it down to 34.5W a few times, but it definitely won't go to 30W.

When I first set it up, the limiting factor on low elevations was the sector gear hitting the back of the dish. I used some oversized nuts as spacers to move the back of the dish away from the mount. Now the limit is either running out of teeth or the mount hitting the pole. I'm not about to find out which, so I added limit switches.

View attachment 119767 View attachment 119768 View attachment 119769

WOW! That is clean! Show car quality. Thanks for sharing.