Brought home a Birdview today

[N6BY]

I found a Birdview 8 1/2 solid on Craigslist and picked it up today, along with the base stand, motor/mount and some LNBs that the guy had in his garage. He was going to make a 'tracking solar concentrator' out of it, but his wife didn't want it.

He had two solid dishes about the same size for sale, $25 each. One was the Birdview I got, and the other appeared to be a stationary dish with the name 'Home Satellite' on the back. He says if he doesn't sell the other dish he'll take it to be recycled.

I plan to try to restore this dish and motor and get it tracking the arc again. The first photo below is from the ad and the rest are after I got it home.

 

[FaT Air]

Should be doing a Happy Dance! Those are a Nice dish & mount. Take your time to refurbish the mount/motor and update it to a reed switch sensor and you'll be 'set'.

 

[N6BY]

A good day for sure. The motor looks decent up close. The LNB arms that came with it do not look like they are the original, so I'll have to adapt something for this.

 

[FaT Air]

IIRR the factory arms held the scalar/feed so as it's not optimum. (Users experiences I've read now in the digital age) So maybe that's why (??) To be sure, Measure and calculate then if necessary, make them adjustable to fine tune it. Parabola Calculator 2.0 may save some pencil lead.

 

[N6BY]

The photo below shows the 2 sets of arms that came with it, such as they were . He only had 2 of the dark gray arms, so I'll either use the other set of 3 or find some others.

I will give this (new to me) Birdview the care and attention it deserves!

 

[skysurfer]

welcome to the birdview club! I love the birdview 8.5 I picked up a few years ago (there's a thread in here somewhere about it) and use it every day! I was lucky I only had to drive about 1500 feet to pick it up (the satellite gods must have been smiling on me that it was someone in the neighborhood who was looking to get rid of it to a good home).

I will admit I didn't do the reed switch conversion since I had an existing dish mover device I built that sends plus or minus volts to the motor that determines the direction of travel and I watch my spectrum analayzer for optimum peaking.

I may have to snap and post some pics of the feedhorn (or go look at the mod I did and tell what I had to do). I remember coming up with and doing a mod that got rid of the huge LNA (or LNB?) w/BNC connectors and put a corotor or ADL feedhorn in its place so I could use my analog receiver for polarity switching and norsat dro's for C and Ku LNBs.

 

[N6BY]

Thanks skysurfer. I would like to see how you modified yours.

I should be able to rig up something temporary on mine tomorrow and see what it can do (assuming I am able to sleep). Its nearly 3 AM now.

 

[radio]

Welcome to the BV club! The tripod mounts were somewhat rare, and early. Many were used by dealers for demos on trailers. I was lucky enough to get one, but if you use that, make sure there's plenty of concrete BELOW. As a rule, the regular consumer poles had fins at the bottom to keep the large pole from rotating in the ground, the lockdown keeps the top level and secure. You are correct, these are NOT the original supports. If the "nubs" are still on the dish itself, you can get some aluminum stock, thread the ends and use the original "hexopod" mount. Should you want an original Scalar to play with, I may have a few left around here, and my modification was to have a friend with a lathe mill-out the center hole a little larger to accomodate today's LNB's. I have one BV dish as a c/ku motorized, and one aimed at 137 West for Alaskan TV right now as part of a 7-dish setup. You'll love owning one! The fact that it is not the original feed puts it at the later 1980's when Birdview got a bit smarter, abandoned their proprietary dual-LNB feed for multiple rooms (their receiver's frequencies were not the same as standard receivers and the "new" IRD's of the day) and they started offering upgrade kits of reed kits and "high block" LNB's....The other explanation for your odd supports is that somehow the original mount was damaged, and more 'standard' parts were used for the retrofit.

A thread on a birdview I helped install at a friend's place is here:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/thr...her-h2h-c-band-sub-added.249797/#post-2503333

My own early Birdview upgrades and installs here (before cleaning) for your reading and learning:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/thr...ion-dsr-410-ready-or-922.233623/#post-2382107

today's dish farm picture with more additions attached........(we've finished adding the 7th dish, of course.)

If I can lend any ideas or info, don't hesitate to ask. I no longer subscribe to any services on C-band, but use my setup exclusively for FTA!

 

[N6BY]

Thank you radio, I appreciate the wealth of information that you have provided.

The "nubs" on the dish are still there. A couple of them are plugged - the rods may have broken off inside. Your suggestion to get some aluminum stock and thread it is excellent and I will start looking for some. If you still have a scalar you're willing to part with then that would definitely help get this dish up and working sooner.

As a preliminary test of the Von Weise motor, I measured 3.3 ohms across the leads. Is that good? I am ignorant of what it should be if the windings still OK. All I know is that either zero or infinite would probably be bad.

Also, I took the cover off of one of the LNBFs. Inside I found a living beetle (visible in the photo), a camera shy Black Widow, and a wasp nest. I released the beetle into the field behind my house. Anyway, I can identify the insects but have no clue what brand of LNBF is in the photo and if its any good or not?

 

[FaT Air]

Looks like an old Gardinar or norsat LNB. There's a label on the side, #'s?

As a preliminary test of the Von Weise motor, I measured 3.3 ohms across the leads.

yep, not shorted or open. Connect a battery and see if it goes and what it sounds like. Using a 5 amp fuse inline will tell you if it's struggling and draws too much current.

 

[radio]

Happy to provide a scalar! It'll still leave me with one spare here, and if you'll PM me your address, I'll drop it in a box and send it. This is the original Birdview Scalar component which can be milled and drilled for today's LNB's. Some people say you need to readjust the struts if you restore them and the BV to it's original hex mount, but I've had strong signals with just manual adjustment within the original scalar by pushing, pulling, and rotating today's LNB's. Depends on the accuracy of your install, location, and choice of LNB! You can probably drill into the stuck "ends" of the broken off rods, and turn them out. May need light lubrication to "seep in" first, but then you could, conceivably replace the struts with new.

NO charge for the scalar plate, if you truly can use one, glad to send it...I have had excellent help and even some "freebies" sent my way by others on this site when I first got in to FTA....and it's time for ME to do the same for someone else!

Good luck, ask any questions you want! You'll love the ideas, support, and information YOU"ll be sharing with others here, through your asking.

 

[phlatwound]

http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/search/484244/?q=birdview&o=date&c[title_only]=1&c[node]=53

Some great reading threads in that link, lots of knowledge scattered through there.

 

[N6BY]

Looks like an old Gardinar or norsat LNB. There's a label on the side, #'s?
...

Its a 'Model 5085' Serial #B 50102126. Made in Japan.

Happy to provide a scalar! It'll still leave me with one spare here, and if you'll PM me your address, I'll drop it in a box and send it. This is the original Birdview Scalar component which can be milled and drilled for today's LNB's. ...

I forgot about the center hole needing to be drilled out, so I won't need it after all. But thanks anyway.

 

[N6BY]

Today I found some pre-threaded rods that I can use to support the scalar ring. They're 5/16" with 18 threads per inch and fit the Birdview's 'nubs'. In case anyone needs some, I got them at Lowes, SKU # 44596 (photo below). Currently they are less than half the cost if purchased in-store vs. on their website. These rods are steel and the only ones they had that would fit. They weigh a lot, so eventually I may want to locate some aluminum rods.

I would be all set to attach a scalar ring, except that I have to extract the broken off rod ends in a few of the nub holes.

 

[Titanium]

Maybe attach the thread mounts to the end of a conduit pipe or aluminum tube to create the legs?

 

[radio]

The milling of the center is really no big deal and probably VERY inexpensive at any local shop with a lathe. If you want that plate, the offer's still out there. Just send PM if you decide! It makes using the struts easy!

 

[N6BY]

The milling of the center is really no big deal and probably VERY inexpensive at any local shop with a lathe. If you want that plate, the offer's still out there. Just send PM if you decide! It makes using the struts easy!

You convinced me, PM sent. It should make for a better end result. Thanks.

... I started to extract the broken off rod fragments. I got most of the metal out and discovered that one of the holes has stripped threads and epoxy residue from a previous owner's repair attempt. Will try to re-thread it at 5/16" and maybe take it up to 3/8" if I have to.

 

[phlatwound]

You can find my hillbilly method for enlarging the scalar opening here:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/phlats-birdview-install.154646/

I've done it on 2 scalars now, with good results.

If you end up going to 3/8" that would allow you to use allthread...and to extend the focal distance at the same time without additional adaptation.

 

[Jason S]

You convinced me, PM sent. It should make for a better end result. Thanks.

... I started to extract the broken off rod fragments. I got most of the metal out and discovered that one of the holes has stripped threads and epoxy residue from a previous owner's repair attempt. Will try to re-thread it at 5/16" and maybe take it up to 3/8" if I have to.

Instead of tapping the hole larger, have you considered a Helicoil kit for the existing hole?

 

[Wayn23]

I enlarged the scaler hole with a cheap sanding drum I got from Harbor Freight, I was missing a couple of the scaler support rods and used hollow tubing with a short piece of all thread pinned in each end. There are some pictures of my dish on this forum somewhere posted by I believe Linuxman.

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