Getting free C-Band dish this weekend! :)

[Davage]

I am like a kid on Christmas eve. I am very anxious because tomorrow I'm going to claim my free C-Band dish at my wife's friend's place. She bought her house but doesn't want that eyesore of a big dish in her backyard. I'm going to take the dish down, and plant it like a lovely flower in my backyard (No eyesore in my opinion)

The dish is approx 6 to 8 ft off the ground on a pole. I'm hoping to be able to remove the actuator arm to allow the dish to go completely to 1 side, and then with some assistance, lift the dish off of the pole and gently to the ground. Or possibly I may look at disassembling the dish while it is still on the pole if possible. I won't know until I get there tomorrow. I have only seen pictures of the dish on video, so I don't have any still pictures to sit and study to plan my strategy for taking the dish down. I'm hoping to cut the pole off at the ground and salvage it. 8ft would allow me to bury 3 feet in the ground and have 5 feet above ground I'm hoping, or maybe 4ft above and 4ft below. From what I've seen in the video, the dish is either a 6ft dish or an 8ft dish. It is mesh, so hopefully the dish itself isn't too heavy, just the polar mount will be the heavy part. It should be a fun Saturday! Weather is looking great!

 

[Mr Tony]

congrats on the find

Now the real fun begins

 

[mattb]

I am like a kid on Christmas eve. I am very anxious because tomorrow I'm going to claim my free C-Band dish at my wife's friend's place. She bought her house but doesn't want that eyesore of a big dish in her backyard. I'm going to take the dish down, and plant it like a lovely flower in my backyard (No eyesore in my opinion)

Your wife's friend has it all wrong... I would had bought the house just because it had a big dish!

 

[gabshere]

lol what she doesn't know about that big dish won't hurt her

 

[Davage]

A C-Band system would be a selling feature to me

My wife's friend actually tried to make the removal of the dish one of the conditions of the sale of the house, but the people who were selling wouldn't bite. Instead, it was going to cost her over $200 to have somebody come and take it away.

I took the dish down, and took it away. I bought a cutting blade for my grinder, and I cut the pole off as low as I possibly could. I still have approx 8 ft of good pole left, and that might actually be enough for me.

The dish is in excellent shape, and the actuator arm looks good too, althought I haven't tried it yet to see if it really moves.

A few of the bolts were rusted so bad that they broke while I was loosening them up, and 3 bolts needed to be cut off using the grinder. No big deal, because all of these bolts are standard sizes that I can get at my local hardware store.

There were some wasps inside of the feedhorn cover. When I put the dish back up, I'm not going to bother with that plastic cover, because I figure that the LNB and feedhorn if properly assembled are waterproof.

One bonus that I got was about 50 ft of TVRO ribbon cable. That 50 feet may actually be enough for me to install the dish. The ribbon cable has 2 RG6 feeds on it, so a dual C/Ku setup may eventually be an option. Right now I think I am going to stick with my motorized Ku setup for Ku, and keep the big dish for C-Band only.

My next task is to find a spot to plant this dish. My back yard isn't very big, and with a very young son who loves to run around, I don't want to put the dish right in the area where he runs. There apparently is a "no antenna" rule in my area, but I'm going to ignore that rule until somebody says something. There are pizza size dishes all over my neighbourhood, and the neighbour directly behind me has 4 Pizza dishes on his back shed, so I know that he won't complain about me having a C-Band system, he will probably be jealous.