Adventures in Dish Hunting 2009

[Blindowl1234]

I missed out on a dish that was on the roof of a Taco Bell. My wife and I noticed they were bulldozing the parking lot one night....looked like they were leaving the building alone....Well next night we went by and the building was flattened! I got out of the truck hoping the dish was just laying there...no luck....just the HVAC ductwork etc...Hopefully the dish got a good home. Blind

 

[Watusi]

Hi all. I need some advice i need to take down this monster, whats the best and easiest way? i've never taken down something this big before.

 

[meinename]

The 2 mesh dishes I have taken down, We worked in this order:

1. Cables, Unhook/cut from actuator
2. If needed, loosen mount pipe bolts and rotate dish around to get to LNBF
3. Loosen LNBF arm(s) and take apart
4. Loosen dish to mount-ring bolts to take reflector off
5. Lower dish to ground. Took 2 guys standing on the ground to do it safely. Took 3 guys to do one off of a 12 foot metal shed roof.
6. If necessary, unbolt dish to split it in half (and again into quarters if necessary)
7. Lift mount off pole. Safely lower to ground. This is the heaviest part!
8. (Optional) Get the pole. Case by case basis on how to. We brought a saws-all and a gas-powered chopsaw (grinder for cutting)

Finally Load in trailer/pickup/handcart

 

[Watusi]

A'l borrow my friends F350 the cables am not worry about, is the bring down the dish part the worries me, ones the bolts are loosen up, if i rope the dish down i have feeling am gonna go down with the dish face first, its just so huge if the roof where higher i wouldn't worry about it but it seems high.

 

[meinename]

A'l borrow my friends F350 the cables am not worry about, is the bring down the dish part the worries me, ones the bolts are loosen up, if i rope the dish down i have feeling am gonna go down with the dish face first, its just so huge if the roof where higher i wouldn't worry about it but it seems high.

The reflector dish won't take you by itself. The mount WILL!

 

[Watusi]

Pardon. i don't wanna sound stupid but are you referring to poll as the mount what's the mount?

The reflector dish won't take you by itself. The mount WILL!

 

[meinename]

Pardon. i don't wanna sound stupid but are you referring to poll as the mount what's the mount?

The mount is the part with all of the nuts and bolts that set the angles and holds the actuator.

Forgive the fact that they are night shots.

The first 2 pictures are of my KTI/Unimesh mount
The last 2 pictures are of the Winegard mount

 

[esteveW]

New dish find in Western WA (update)

I posted this find as a new thread a couple days ago. Anyway! Here is some more info/update on it under the DishHunter 2009 thread.

This is a 3 meter (~9'6") aluminum solid dish. Very good condition and I can't find a dent or bullet hole in it anyplace. The paint on the front face it pretty weathered but no corrosion at all. It's difficult to tell how thick it is but from the bolt holes I would say between 1/16th and 1/8th inch. Very nicely formed with a rolled rim (that may have solid round ring inside), no flex at all while lifting and handling. Must weight about 150lb. My brother (59 out of shape) and me (almost 72 fair shape) lifted it off the mount and into my PU with very little effort.

The mount is pretty basic with a fairly new 20" actuator. No declination adjustment. Just built in. (i might change that)

The LNB is a Laser 2000, no name on the feed horn. Servo is a Chaparrell. I guess that would make it a C band only. I have a Corotor II on my other mesh dish that I may swap over to this one (since I only have one mount pole right now.)

It only took me an hour (after a dozen shots of penetrating oil) to remove the Button Hook mount and actuator and a few other mount bolts. The pole mount pipe/socket is well made and is 3 1/2" IPS pipe so it will fit my existing pole. Another 30 min. to chase down my brother to help me load it on the PU. This sight was only a 1/4 mile away ( I can see it from my house).

What I thought would take a couple days, was done in 2 hours, most. I had promised the donor/old owner I would bring my tractor over and remove the old pole. That ended up taking a couple more hours since it was deeper in the ground than I expected. Must have been at least 4' deep in about 10" of concrete. Since I didn't have my back hoe mounted I used my 3 point post hole auger to drill a number of hole around the base, to about 3' deep. It still took alot of tractor effort to to get it out. I had hoped I could use it but with so much concrete already on it and the pipe only extends about 5 ft above round, I doubt I can. (sure left a big hole in the ground. Took half a loader of dirt/rock to fill it up.)

I have all of the dish and mount at home now and plan to pressure wash it today and see if I can find mfg name dish and see if I need to paint the dish face.

I fired up the GI2730R Sat Box last nite and it seems to be working fine. I haven't hooked it to an antenna yet. Welcome to satellitehelp.com was some help but I will eventually need the full manual to take advantage of all the features.

No new(er) pictures yet but here are some more of the dish before I took it down.


Steve

 

[Anole]

similar dishes:

esteveW -

I'm sure I've seen this dish, or one close to it on the forum.
You'll have to search in the FTA Department for these posters, but their pix may be helpful:

Member Nikki777 had a similar dish/mount. Not buttonhook, otherwise very close.
Member CbandJerk had an 8' spun aluminum solid, but the mount was square not round.
Member Jamie had a 10' spun aluminum solid; the mount was square.
Member pommiecj had a 7.5' solid (?) but his pix clearly show how the declination was done. (might give you ideas for your dish)

 

[esteveW]

Spolid Alum Dish, declination adjuster??

Thanks Anole.
That last one, with the link to pommiecj's does give me a very good idea of how to make my mount adjustable without a major modification of the existing mount. Right now the pivot bolt is tack welded to the satationary part of the mount. A good chisel will change that and I can make a slot in the dish mount tab.

I got a lot done today. Pressure washed the dish, front and back most of the old paint came off with the moss and left a very clean surface, however, that ment I had to prime the bare metal. I got all the priming done today and cleaned and treated the rust steel with phosforic acid solution (rust convertor).

Then I took my 10 foot, old mesh dish off the existing 8' pole. I have to use my cherry picker attachment on my tractor to lift this one. Just too large and heavy to handle by a couple pair of hands. The aluminum solid is easy for two and if I just need to move it around the yard, I can roll or drag it by myself.

I also did the rust treatment on the existing pole before I came in for dinner. Now I can paint that as well before a assemble the new(er) dish.

I'm amazed at the progress on this one. It was given to me on Sunday PM, I removed and move to my place (1/4 mile) on Mon. AM and in the afternoon I pulled the old mount pole for the old 'donor' and cleaned up the old site for him as well.

I already mentioned what I did today. This also required a couple trips to the store for metal treatment and paint. (not to mention a very large tub of ice cream). Not bad for a fellow who will be 72 in a couple weeks.

I'll take a few pictures tomorrow. To busy today.

Steve

 

[Corrado]

Birdview Mesh

I have been wanting to take these photos for 2 years to share with you guys. This is the only Birdview dish I have ever seen in this area. They seem to be rare in upstate NY. Located on Rt. 145 in Durham NY.

 

[merkin]

My '09 find

Hi
Long time reader, first time poster.

Pics:
Imageshack - dsc00691fwe
Imageshack - dsc00693u
Imageshack - dsc00696jnc
Imageshack - dsc00697rvr
Imageshack - dsc00698fqb

Package included:
10' M/A COM dish
M/A COM lbn
HH motor(not sure who made this)
M/A COM T6 and T2 (w/out remotes, w/ manual) MACOM Receivers
Gensat Microstar MTS 1200 Multi-tap switch

I wired the T6 and the HH mount to see if I can get it to budge. Unfortunately the T6 is in Parental Supervision mode. Long story short cannot do anything while in PS mode. And I need the remote to unlock it. Remote Codes

What type of universal remote is that site referring to? It has the remote codes for the T6.

What is the easiest way to determine if this motor works without burning a hole in my pocket?

If the motor doesnt move with a new positioner what are the obvious things to check for? Reed switch, etc?

 

[Anole]

Never saw a motor/mount like that.
It appears to be an H-H model (horizon-to-horizon)
Looks like a nice heavy duty one with some castings.
Will look forward to learning more about it, as well. - :up

 

[rodder]

Put A Ad In Local Free cycle 10 days later i Got this 71/2 footer looks like a sami i don"t know.has super jack motor on it but i am still looking for a 10 footer.

 

[mjac]

Put A Ad In Local Free cycle 10 days later i Got this 71/2 footer looks like a sami i don"t know.has super jack motor on it but i am still looking for a 10 footer.

Looks like my 7.5 footer. Most think it is an Odom.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/c-band-...526-identification-help-pls-two-7-5-buds.html

 

[esteveW]

Found 3 BUDs at the Scrap Metal yard!

I stopped by the local auto and scrap metal yard in Shelton WA today and there were 3 maybe a 4th BUDs. Not being scrapped but set aside.

The owner wasn't there but he was saving them for the right guy to come along.

There was one nice 6' mesh and one 10' mesh (kinda beat up from rough handling) and a 10 ft Paraclipse. Might be a second 6 or 8' in the mix.

They were disassemble to varying degrees and leaning against a fence. The Paraclipse was towards the back appeared to be in half sections while others were in quarters. There were a number of mounts and at least 3 actuators and that many LNBs. Some, still on their button hooks. Only one Corotor II plus (that's mine). The others were just C band. They all seemed in good condition.

The actuators were one Super Jack and a couple Saganaw,

I'm going to check with the owner next week and try and get a 24" Saganaw or the SuperJack and the Corotor feed horn/LNBs. I already have more dishes than the I will ever need (is that possible).:

Steve

 

[brentb636]

Lots of goodies there ! Wish you luck. I have my eye on a pristine 6 foot mesh locally, on the north side of Lake Macatawa , in Holland.
It looks great , but there's a tree growing in front of it, and I can't see how it gets any signal. I'll be working on this in the next couple weeks.

 

[aquarious46]

I love my c band and have been collecting 10 foot dishes for five years now. i have a total of 6 left after hurricane destroyed about three. I go to the other systems only when i can get it free.

 

[crackt]

crackts 09 dish hunts...

so i guess ill share my 09 finds. if anyone has any info on any of them please share. mostly i string and measure and compute to find the dishes specs.

bud1 -> buddy scored me it for free with a uniden ust9900 reciever. its a 10ft. 8 piece solid aluminum. weighs a ton. literally. the mount alone must be 300 lbs. i had to completely disassemble it to get it off the pole myself. haha. the things we do for dishes. lnb was junk and the actuator is a rafsco ive been told. its waiting for me to find a permanent spot for it. or more the 750 lbs of concrete its pole needs.

bud2 -> i heard about a young girl in town who bought a house and couldnt stand cutting grass around this big dish. a phone call the next day and i had a 7.5 ft. mesh from a block away. set it up a few days later and started tweaking. its an awesome little dish. locked most s2 decent with a dmx741 lnbf.

bud3 -> so i got bit by the bug. called an ad in the local free classifieds about a "big big" spun aluminum. went for a rip out to see it. 2 days later i hauled a 7ft 8" spun into the yard. buddy told me the lnb was bad. but it had a new 18" vonweiss 48ct. i started refurbing it. got half painted and more dishes came my way.

bud4 -> was sposed to be a 12ft mesh. drove out with a trailer and some beers and started laughing when i first saw it. it is the same dish i scored in my second adventure. another 7.5ft mesh. but spare parts are good.

bud5 -> so i dropt and ad in the free classifieds seeking big dishes. got a call about a big spun aluminum. decided id gamble on the reciever. drove 3 hours one way to pull down a 9ft spun. it had an ancient looking low count von weiss actuator. the guy even loaded it on the truck with his tractor. in the pic it is semi set up in my yard the next night. haha. still tweaking it but im getting good results with it.

bud6 -> to make the 6 hours of driving worth while i stopt and pickt up a 10ft. 2 " mesh dish on the way home. haha. had a nice 24" von weiss 48ct actuator i swapped onto bud5. so quiet. anyways. its waiting on the ground for me to decide on the solid dish. its nice when you can pick and choose.

so thats up to last weekend. i still have about 5 weekends left so im hoping to hit atleast 10 buds this summer. im not overly agressive anymore. almost trying to hunt for quality rather than quantity. haha. then tonight i bought myself a dsr920 to almost complete my setup. only thing i cant do now is blind scan s2. its still early for good hardware in that area so i think i can wait. happy hunting.

crackt out,

 

[rodder]

this is the 71/2 footer i picked up today anyone heard of this brand
Home cable Concepts.