Well the story starts sad enough. Down here in a Katrinaville (New Orleans) we have these monsterous debris trailers all over the place hauling storm debris. These things can haul as much as 2 or 3 dump trucks at a time.
Today while waiting for the wife to come out a store, I spotted a debris trailer FULL (and I do mean full) of satellite dishes... headed to the dump. All sorts of BUDS and VSAT dishes. I could CLEARLY see 2 solid 4 foot dishes with high stability Ku LNFs perched right on top.
I waved the guy down in traffic but there was no way for me to get any of them. He was stuck in a lane of traffic headed over a long bridge and he could not get out of it. They were gone... To the dump. I was almost ready to cry.
But I did think fast enough to ask where we was hauling them from. He didn't get me a real clear answer but I was able to put it together. It was a commercial satellite shop that had lost its roof and was clearing out the back yard to let the roofers in.
I drove home, got my van and headed over to the place before he could get back from the dump to make another load. Along the way I called Tron who I knew only lived about 8 miles away.
By the time I got there, the pickings were sorta slim. But buried behind about 5 other buds was a 6 foot solid aluminum broadcast dish. (The kind you see on the satellite trucks in the field.) It was a little dusty and had some vines growing on it, but it was in very good condition.
When Tron got there, he and I both had our eye on it... He wanted it more than I did but had no way to get it home. I had my van but I presently have more dishes than I have time to play with... So the next thing you know I had a 6 foot dish strapped to the top of my mini-van with the feed arm pointed straight up in the air as we headed for Tron's house. We looked like a red-neck broadcast truck.
The traffic to Tron's house was downright scary but we made it in one piece.
As we speak, Tron is the proud new owner of a 1 piece aluminum dish that somebody paid more for when it was new than I paid for my first car. In the next week or so he should be partaking of that C-Band FTA bliss.
I'm glad he'll put it to good use, but I told Tron he could never get rid of it without giving me a call first! (It's just the right size;-)
We couldn't save all the dishes but we managed to snag at least one good one and give it a new lease on life.
Today while waiting for the wife to come out a store, I spotted a debris trailer FULL (and I do mean full) of satellite dishes... headed to the dump. All sorts of BUDS and VSAT dishes. I could CLEARLY see 2 solid 4 foot dishes with high stability Ku LNFs perched right on top.
I waved the guy down in traffic but there was no way for me to get any of them. He was stuck in a lane of traffic headed over a long bridge and he could not get out of it. They were gone... To the dump. I was almost ready to cry.
But I did think fast enough to ask where we was hauling them from. He didn't get me a real clear answer but I was able to put it together. It was a commercial satellite shop that had lost its roof and was clearing out the back yard to let the roofers in.
I drove home, got my van and headed over to the place before he could get back from the dump to make another load. Along the way I called Tron who I knew only lived about 8 miles away.
By the time I got there, the pickings were sorta slim. But buried behind about 5 other buds was a 6 foot solid aluminum broadcast dish. (The kind you see on the satellite trucks in the field.) It was a little dusty and had some vines growing on it, but it was in very good condition.
When Tron got there, he and I both had our eye on it... He wanted it more than I did but had no way to get it home. I had my van but I presently have more dishes than I have time to play with... So the next thing you know I had a 6 foot dish strapped to the top of my mini-van with the feed arm pointed straight up in the air as we headed for Tron's house. We looked like a red-neck broadcast truck.
The traffic to Tron's house was downright scary but we made it in one piece.
As we speak, Tron is the proud new owner of a 1 piece aluminum dish that somebody paid more for when it was new than I paid for my first car. In the next week or so he should be partaking of that C-Band FTA bliss.
I'm glad he'll put it to good use, but I told Tron he could never get rid of it without giving me a call first! (It's just the right size;-)
We couldn't save all the dishes but we managed to snag at least one good one and give it a new lease on life.
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