1.8 meter Prodelin

[Tron]

Hi Satellite guys and gals! Been away for awhile with family business and other things, but I hope to start following the forum again soon. I am posting this thread to document a dish rescue that is ongoing at a local TV station.

They are tearing down an old studio building, and I have been recording the demolition on 3D GoPro cameras. Today I disassembled a 1.8 meter Prodelin dish on the roof of the studio. Hopefully I will be able to get it safely to the ground two stories below.

I'll be updating this thread with my progress...

 

[KE4EST]

Welcome Back Tron!
Always like to hear and rescue story, and thanks for the pics.
Are you gonna upload any of the video anywhere?

 

[spongella]

Nice dish Tron, looks like it's in good shape and ready to be put back in action. Have fun setting it up and keep us posted on your progress. And above all, think safety!

 

[primestar31]

Hi Satellite guys and gals! Been away for awhile with family business and other things, but I hope to start following the forum again soon. I am posting this thread to document a dish rescue that is ongoing at a local TV station.

They are tearing down an old studio building, and I have been recording the demolition on 3D GoPro cameras. Today I disassembled a 1.8 meter Prodelin dish on the roof of the studio. Hopefully I will be able to get it safely to the ground two stories below.

I'll be updating this thread with my progress...

View attachment 110636 View attachment 110637 View attachment 110638

They are heavy enough, but I highly suggest you separate the reflector from the mount before lowering it. Unless you are going to use a crane?

With it separated from the mount, you and one other person can easily lower it with ropes, to another person or two on the ground.

 

[KE4EST]

I highly suggest you separate the reflector from the mount before lowering it

Check out the last picture he posted.

 

[primestar31]

Check out the last picture he posted.

That's FAST WORK, I only just posted that, lol.

 

[phlatwound]

How long will it take you to ROLL that one home?

 

[Corrado]

Good find, Tron.

I love those 1.8m Prodelins and have rescued 3 of them. When completely disassembled, everything fits in a full size pickup truck.

 

[Bongu]

I have a kti polar mount looking for a good home that wants to be attached to one of these 1.8m Prodelins.

 

[primestar31]

I have a kti polar mount looking for a good home that wants to be attached to one of these 1.8m Prodelins.

Unless that's a very heavy and strong polar mount from like a 12ft fiberglass dish, don't even bother trying it. I tried that over a year ago, and the polar mount couldn't handle it. That dish is larger and heavier that you can imagine. Once you mount it and tilt the front down from the top to compensate for the offset angle, it changes all the dynamics and the mount can't move.

Try to get your hands on the larger Ajak HH mount instead. There's a couple threads here where people have mounted them to those, and they worked fine.

 

[Keith Brannen]

How long will it take you to ROLL that one home?

For those who might not understand the humour in phlatwound's reference:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/my-epic-all-night-paraclipse-odyssey.102529/

Good to see you back, Tron!

 

[waylew]

Unless that's a very heavy and strong polar mount from like a 12ft fiberglass dish, don't even bother trying it. I tried that over a year ago, and the polar mount couldn't handle it.

Might be the only reason to ever rescue a Janiel Dark Star,they did have a pretty heavy duty mount.Just the dish itself was a POS,I know,I had one.

 

[KC Band]

I wonder whats the purpose of the fan that we can see on the roof!???

 

[catamount]

Looks like an A/C unit?

 

[Bongu]

The fan is obviously being used to circulate air on a hot spot of the built up roof. I thought it was a blown over dish until i zoomed in.

 

[Tron]

Hi everyone! A little update...

I got the dish down with much appreciated help from the engineer, but we had to do it in a hurry. We went up there the morning of the day demolition was starting. I threw all of the disassembled metal from the NPRM over the side of the building, and it fell two stories. One or two pieces got a little bent, but nothing serious. The mount was extremely heavy, and we didn't have time to lower it gently, so I threw it down too. The threaded rod that sets the elevation on the dish got pretty badly bent, but I think I can straighten it. Otherwise, the mount is ok.

Lastly, I had the not so bright idea to tie some coax from Master Control (they had hundreds of feet of very expensive Belden 1694 that got trashed) to the reflector and lower it using coax as a rope. I didn't have many other options, as the demo crew was waiting for us to get out of the building. Coax isn't very strong when it comes to taking the weight of a 6' fiberglass dish. When we slid the reflector off of the roof, the coax broke from the weight of the reflector. The reflector cracked about an inch into the dish, which I think can be fixed with some fiberglass repair material. I will take some pics and post them over the weekend.

All in all, a little damaged, but at least it didn't get bulldozed like a lot of other nice things did. A friend is going to help me load the mount and dish into a pickup truck and take it away. I will try to get some additional pictures when I go back over there tomorrow. Thanks to everyone for their welcome back messages and support, I really appreciate my family here at SatelliteGuys!

 

[FTA4PA]

Glad to hear you were able get it down before the demo. Hopefully the minor damage can be repaired and you'll have yourself a nice dish!

 

[spongella]

A good scrubbing followed by a coat of paint and that dish will look brand new. Glad you got everything down. Have fun setting it up and let us know when you are receiving FTA.