I'm still looking for a big dish. I decided to put the trailer mount dish, that I found, on hold and have been knocking on doors & checking Craigslist daily trying to find a suitable dish to hook up to a spare Coolsat 5k that I recently bought. It's amazing how many people think that there dish is worth a lot of money. I found this Birdview today. The home owner gave it to a contractor who is building a rock wall on their property. She told me that he wants it to make a gazebo out of the reflector. The story I got from the guys building the wall is that the contractor will be back Monday and they will have him call me. I told them that I might be interested in buying it. They pulled the dish out of the ground with a skidloader & hopefully have not damaged the reflector. Any comments would be appreciated.
Is this Birdview worth getting?
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In my opinion any Birdview is worth geting damaged or not just as long as you can get it at your price that you are willing to give. I have not been able to buy a Birdview before because the owner wanted to make a gazebo out of the reflector so I know that story all to well.
I told the workers that I would pay $40 for it. Won't know until Monday if he will accept it. I'm going to be there Monday with hopes of talking to the guy, just in case the workers didn't get my phone number to him. If I can get it, I would like to remove the reflector first. The mount & pole are huge & must weigh a ton. I'm assuming that it should have a cover for the motor & worm gear, but I didn't see it laying around.
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Well if the contractor doesn't want to sell it you could at least try to buy the motor mounting pole etc, everything except the reflector considering that is the only part he needs to make a gazebo out of you never know when those parts may come in handy plus its better than nothing. good luck Lonewolf85
If he lifted it out of the ground with that chain in the 2nd picture, it may not be too badly damaged.
The motor and gears appear generally okay.
As for the dish, it all depends on how roughly he dropped it on to the ground when he finished.
The dish is aluminum, so it's not gonna take a lot of abuse from the side.
The pictures really don't tell much about the shape of the dish.
You'd want to put a tight string across it vertically and horizontally, and maybe diagonally as well, to see if they all touch in the middle.
If so, you're probably good to go.
Those mounts and motors are pretty serious hardware.
A good cleaning and greasing and it'll probably run several more decades.
Be sure you get at least the top couple of feet of the pole, and preferably the whole thing.
See Linuxman's threads on going out of town and disassembling and transporting one home from Tennessee.
Then, he's got a bunch of threads on putting them back together and getting 'em running.
The BUD department here should be one-stop-shopping for all the info needed for bringing it on line and tuning it up.
The motor and gears appear generally okay.
As for the dish, it all depends on how roughly he dropped it on to the ground when he finished.
The dish is aluminum, so it's not gonna take a lot of abuse from the side.
The pictures really don't tell much about the shape of the dish.
You'd want to put a tight string across it vertically and horizontally, and maybe diagonally as well, to see if they all touch in the middle.
If so, you're probably good to go.
Those mounts and motors are pretty serious hardware.
A good cleaning and greasing and it'll probably run several more decades.
Be sure you get at least the top couple of feet of the pole, and preferably the whole thing.
See Linuxman's threads on going out of town and disassembling and transporting one home from Tennessee.
Then, he's got a bunch of threads on putting them back together and getting 'em running.
The BUD department here should be one-stop-shopping for all the info needed for bringing it on line and tuning it up.
I'll check out Linuxman's post's. Will be good reading for the weekend. This is the only Birdview that I've seen up close. Looks like pure quality stuff. I started out just wanting a fixed 6 footer, which I would still take, but probably would have to buy new (don't see used one's around here). I've found a couple of 7 1/2 - 10 ft. mesh, but most are pricey. I don't mind paying for one, but most are wanting at least $150. I'm a complete beginner to c band & have only had my small setup for a couple of years. H-H would be a plus for more sports feeds, but Bloomberg on 131w is still my objective. We don't watch enough e* to warrant keeping the package we now have. I could downgrade to the family pack, but I'm a retired 66 yr old, and it's more appealing to me to tinker with this satellite stuff. Thanks again for your replies.
I say go for it. If you pay $40.00 for it , its still worth it if the dish is ok. I went to Texas from Florida to get a Birdview and paid for the price of diesel fuel to get it. In the end I have what I want and it was worth it for me. You seem to be a whole lot closer! From the photo's it appears you are missing the gear box cover. See if you can locate it there. If you do get it follow what Linuxman said about breaking it down. Now thats its out of the ground you might be able to break away some of the concrete from the pole. You will need the pole as it has a bolt on the top of the mound securing it to the pole.
Good Luck,
Tom
Good Luck,
Tom
Thanks! I hope it works out too. All depends on how bad the contractor wants it. Not sure about why anyone would want to use it for a gazebo. I'm thinking that he might want to sell the aluminum reflector for scrap. Aluminum is bringing pretty good prices. He might have more than $40 in scrap metal. I read your story of coming to Texas for the Birdview. Good reading. I've got a 16' trailer to move it and only have about 13 mi to haul this one.
I hope that you get it too. You're not too far from where I got mine. At least not as far as I had to travel to get mine. When I was told of the address for my Birdview in Plano TX I looked it up on Microsoft Virtual Earth to see the dish. I found it and also noticed that there is another big solid white dish about 5 blocks away! Not sure if its a Birdviev or what. So I do hope that you get this one, if not PM me and I will tell you where the other one is.
Tom
Yeah you're right Truckracer it could be. I'm hoping that when the contractor took it out of the ground he put it down easy and didn't have the dish hit the ground hard. Glater if you re read post number #5 Anole gave you some great advice. Make sure you give it a string test to make sure its ok and not warped.
I'm also hoping that you found the cover for your gears. It was missing in one of the photo's. Looking forward to more images, Send us more pictures.
Tom
I'm also hoping that you found the cover for your gears. It was missing in one of the photo's. Looking forward to more images, Send us more pictures.
Tom
The possibility of it being warped is a concern of mine also. Some of the front end weight appears to be on the edge of the dish and some of it appears to be on the mount. It seems like I would need to remove the reflector from the mount or have them raise it a little bit to get the weight off of it before doing a string test. That's a 6" pipe and the mount looks heavy. I'll be asking about the cover for the gearbox also.
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I wouldn't worry about it being warped just yet.
They are pretty heavy duty reflectors and can take a lot.
The 6" mast is 1/16" steel, so it isn't as heavy as it looks. The mount will weigh around 120 lbs.
Wait until you have it apart before making any judgments.
They are pretty heavy duty reflectors and can take a lot.
The 6" mast is 1/16" steel, so it isn't as heavy as it looks. The mount will weigh around 120 lbs.
Wait until you have it apart before making any judgments.
LInuxman, Thanks for you input, I'll try to unbolt the dish 1st, then let the contractor load the rest of it as is, with their skidloader and hopefully be able to strap the reflector across the fenders on my trailer. If there is anything that I'm missing, would appreciate the input. I've learned a lot from reading all of you guys dish hunting experiences and don't mind knocking on a lot of doors if this one doesn't work out. Thanks
Take lots of PB-Blaster with you, and don't be afraid to go squirt everything down the day before you attempt to take everything loose.
Follow my step by step instructions in Thomas' Texas thread about how to take it apart.
Follow my step by step instructions in Thomas' Texas thread about how to take it apart.
Linuxman, I'm going to Home Depot tomorrow, hope they sell PB Blaster. I downloaded your step by step instructions. The last couple of days, I've read as many posts as I could on Birdviews and I'm impressed with everyones satisfaction with them. If the man balks at my $40 offer, I might have to up offer. Sounds like it would be worth paying more to get one of the best. One question though, I don't know anything about C band lnbs & haven't looked at this one up close, but can anyone tell me if it is strictly for c band or can it do ku also? Thanks to all!
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I looked at your pictures the other day and I believe you have a dual c-band feed-horn there. One side is horizontal, and the other is vertical. It will work real well with a 3x4 multi-switch, but you would need something else for Ku.
Ok, thanks, that makes sense. I've got so much to learn about this stuff. I already have ku on the small dish and won't be changing anything on it until I put my primestar 84e on the ground next to a cband dish. I'm to old to be on a 8/12 roof pitch, but have been fortunate not to have had any trouble with alignment issues for a long time. I need a flat roof like yours.
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