3ABN dish sizes

[Corrado]

I recently noticed a former nursing home complex that has quite a few 3ABN satellite dishes mounted on various buildings. From the ground they appear larger than the typical 90cm dishes I've seen. Perhaps just an optical illusion or my hopeful dreaming, but were any larger ones deployed for commercial use?

These look to be about 8-10 years old.

 

[SatelliteAV]

About 12-13 years ago some 1M Winegard metal dishes were shipped. Also saw very few 1.2M Channel Master composites. Most shipped have been 85 - 90cm.

 

[Anole]

Corrado - would be great if you could get those dishes back into FTA service!
Either for yourself, or to give away.
Everybody in their right mind can think of a use for a 1m stamped Winegard or 1.2m molded ChannelMaster/Andrew dish. :up
.
Any pictures of this wonderland?
.

 

[Wescopc]

They also used a KTI dish - it is a great dish as long as the LNB support arm hasn't been bent. Very difficult to find the sweet spot for the LNB once lost. But a great dish if it has suffered no tweaks or drops.
See this old post:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/76708-What-dish-is-this?highlight=KTI
Bob

 

[Grillinessou]

Those old dishes remind me of the ones I used to see on top of gas stations a long time ago.

 

[Tron]

I wonder if they were selling the 1.2M Channel Master for $50... Probably not, but that would have been a sweet deal.

 

[SatelliteAV]

No, but they sold a complete FTA system for $179 - $199 that often included one. For several years, the dish was supplied from one of several vendors. As an installer, one would not be sure what dish or mount the customer would have when showing up for an install.

During those years, I would carry several size poles and many bags of cement. Would never know if the shipped dish was even provided with a mast. Fun times!

 

[cyberham]

Those old dishes remind me of the ones I used to see on top of gas stations a long time ago.

They are still all over at gas stations and commercial retail outlets here. Those commercial LNBs that look about a foot long or more make our baby LNBs look silly.

 

[SatelliteAV]

They are still all over at gas stations and commercial retail outlets here. Those commercial LNBs that look about a foot long or more make our baby LNBs look silly.

The LNBs are only a few inches long. The transmitter (buck) is the big device that you see on the arm. It usually can be easily removed, leaving only the feedhorn, waveguide and LNB.

 

[pwrsurge]

They are still all over at gas stations and commercial retail outlets here. Those commercial LNBs that look about a foot long or more make our baby LNBs look silly.

FYI, those gas station dishes are used to link each gas station's Point Of Sale (POS) and inventory systems to the gas company's main computer at their headquarters. It allows all of these gas stations to be centrally managed so that the regional offices know ahead of time how much inventory and fuel each station has in near-realtime so they can schedule a delivery before they run out. They use a satellite based platform as many stations in rural areas don't have access to a land based broadband network.

As broadband becomes more and more available in rural areas, these systems will eventually be phased out which should hopefully allow many of these dishes to be reused by people like us

 

[cyberham]

It sounds like a good system. In Dartmouth where there is easy access to high-speed all over town, even fiber to residential homes, maybe these dishes are out-of-service already and just have never been removed. Worth investigating.

 

[T4Runner]

The LNBs are only a few inches long. The transmitter (buck) is the big device that you see on the arm. It usually can be easily removed, leaving only the feedhorn, waveguide and LNB.

This is the LNB that is on my 1.2M. Fits what the discussion is describing. Top one is the KU LNB. I swapped out the transmitter for a C Band freq unit, but could not get it to work. This is an outstanding LNBF and dish for KU Band. This is on my get rid of pile.... I'm using the pole for a 2nd c band dish...






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[SatelliteAV]

The feedhorn and waveguides are on these RX/TX units are designed for KU-band frequencies and are often blocked for polarization as well. The feedhorn and waveguide would not work for C-band.