Mesh sourch for older BUD?

[alteng]

Recently when I was out running around the area I noticed an old 8' BUD that had been unceremoniously yanked up from the ground and was obviously about to be scrapped.
To make a long story short, I saved the BUD and pole from the torch, but in the process one small mesh panel was damaged.
I'm hoping that someone can help ID the dish brand and suggest a source for a new matching mesh panel. The pop-riveted panels are approx 17.5" at the widest point, and the oblong mesh holes are approx 1/8" at their widest point. BTW, the label on the dish is from some installer/dealer it appears, but it reads: "Laser Recreational Sports and Imports - made in USA". Any pointers on finding mesh, etc. appreciated, as I'm a newbie on BUD stuff (but several years exp with KU).

 

[KS55]

no big deal on the mesh. from your pic its in 75% better shape then mine. mine has 4 or 5 holes in it an it still works fine. mine is set to one sat.

 

[Anole]

Looks like a nice dish. Good catch!
I can't see any damage in your picture, so ...
I'm sure it'll operate just fine the way it is.
You might get some stainless steel fishing wire and weave/sew it across the tear.

edit: oh, and was Laser a brand name of some BUDs?
... or am I confused?

 

[mikekohl]

Laser was a private label brand for antennas distributed by R S & I, a major (mostly west coast) distributor back in the good old days.

 

[B.J.]

That dish looks real similar to a 6' dish I have, I think it's a Winegard (or possibly Channel Master, but I think Winegard). I got it used and set it up initially without a mount, just leaning against a log just to try it out, and it seemed to work OK. But then I made two mistakes. (1) I stored it just lying on the ground for a couple years, through rain, snow, freezing, etc. The dish I have, has ribs that are hollow square tubular construction, and the ribs somehow filled with water, due to the orientation it was in lying on the ground didn't allow the water to drain. The water then froze, and the ribs kind of expanded and even cracked a bit. I think it significantly distorted the dish's shape. (2) And it didn't help that when I finally decided to use it, that instead of putting it on a trailer to move it from one part of my yard to the other, I rolled it a couple hundred feet across the yard, further stressing the structure.
Anyway, the dish now doesn't work very well. I've tried to bend it back into shape, and it does work on C-band, but not at all on Ku. Too bad, because it seems like a nice dish.
Anyway, if you live in a cold climate, and that dish has square tubular ribs, check to see if they are bulging from freezing of water trapped inside.

 

[alteng]

Sorry for the slow reply guys. I was expecting an email notification to replies, but it didn't happen.
Murphy strikes yet again.
KS55, the pic was taken just before the damage occurred. Still, the damage is minimal.
Anole, thanks for the suggestion. I'm sure you're right and the minor damage won't stop it from working - I'm just a &^%$ perfectionist. Doh! (best Homer S. voice)
Mikekohl, thanks for the distributor info. That should help a bit with ID.
B.J., thanks for the heads-up on the tubular frame - this one does indeed have such a frame and I'll check it. The previous owner pulled it down and it could be warped. Still, the price was right (zero), so I couldn't look the proverbial gift-equine in the hay-hole. Since I work on PCs (among other things - many hats), I'm giving him an older PC I have lying around for being nice enough to give it to me. I'm hoping to eventually find an exact panel off a scrapped dish to buy. It's the perfectionist in me poking thru.
Worst part is that I know the location of many other dishes just begging to be rescued before they're scrapped..... moan. So little time... and so many dishes. If I rescue them all I'll need a concrete pad the size of Texas to set them up.

 

[Gray1]

I cant see the back side, but it looks like a Perfect 10 to me.

 

[alteng]

backside pic added

Sorry about no backside pic Gray1. I knew I should have added one but got busy and failed to do so. I'm not on my main OS right now, but I do have one rather poor backside pic on this HD partition. This was taken during disassembly for transport, so it may not look very logical... and the viewing angle isn't great. Having made my feeble excuses, here's the pic. Hope it helps and thanks for your input.

​

 

[alteng]

Latest C band technology!

While I'm at it I thought I'd share the latest in C-band technology - Mobile C-Band!
OK.... I confess... it was just me taking the BUD in question home. Fortunately the return trip was along a short stretch of desolate gravel road, at slow speed, thus minimal tie-downs. I did raise a few eyebrows from a farmer (only vehicle I saw), who had his pickup over-loaded with a King-Kong size, industrial-strength outhouse. Wish I had a pic of the two of us passing out there in the boonies, where you rarely see ANY vehicle..... much less a giant outhouse passing alongside a mobile BUD!

​

 

[Gray1]

This is a 7 1/2 foot Perfect 10. It's originall color was silver before I painted it black. It appears to be almost identical to me.
I am a wee bit jealous though. I had to pay 20 bucks for mine.

 

[Anole]

BUD on a truck:

Mobile C-band:

I'll see your perf, and raise you a solid.
Note mine are facing up.
Can't find the signal unless you look where it's at! -

edit: you might want to re-center and re-aim your LNB after that trip.
I left mine unstressed.

PS to Gray: Beautiful install!

 

[melgarga]

Good old 7.5' Laser. Using one just like it. Works good on C and Ku. They are all over the place in Texas as well. They made 10 footers too. Got one of those too in really good shape I'm going to put up this spring..........uh oh...it almost is spring...........lol Depending on the 'damage' you may be better off straightening out and repairing a rip w/ ss wire as suggested. Unless it's near an accessable edge, you will need a couple of blocks of wood and a helper to flatten out the ripped away part. Changing the entire mesh panel is quite an undertaking and you may compromise the performance of the existing good portion of the sector if you unintentionally add ripples to the parabole. I know a guy that has one sector completely gone and has no issues on any of the 4DTV birds. He didnt mention rainy day performance though.........lol
All in all a good catch.
I dont know if it is me, the perspective of the pic, or what, but those lnb arms look whack. It really doesnt matter as long as the lnb is centered, face parallel to the center of the dish, and the right focal distance, but those arms look a bit odd in the pics.
Being new to polar feed dishes, might I suggest a visit here -

 http://www.geo-orbit.org/sizepgs/tuningp4.html

You will find quotes from these pages all over the 'net, but this is the origin of all that material.
Lot of invaluable C band dish related info on the entire site, I just used this page because I love the dish arc graphic depiction............a picture is worth 1000 words.
Congrats and good luck.

 

[Inno]

My 10' Orbitron has some minor dings and a couple rips in the mesh, my signal quality on 4DTV and FTA is just great! I wouldn't worry about it unless you simply don't like the look of it. It looks like a fine dish!

 

[alteng]

Thanks for the ID, etc. guys!

Thanks for the ID guys! Gray1, no need to feel jealous about the $20. The donor was kind so I'm giving him an old PC I'll build from spare parts I have lying around. Naturally I found later that I'm out of old DDR RAM for it, so it'll cost me a bit more than $20 to buy some. Doh! BTW, your black looks great. I may do that too. Anole, I would have taken more care regarding stress but the dish and pole had been yanked up and unceremoniously dropped on the ground by a front loader when I got it. And, the trip to my place was short and slow. Only visible damage to speak of was to the actuator and one LNB support (fingers crossed). It should be "l@@king where the signal is at ?" Maybe that's why my mobile- C-band signal was so weak (heh, heh)! So, I'm expecting to replace the LNB/feed with a better one, and adjust all parameters. Luckily I have a new/surplus actuator in the "junque box". I'll either use the laser method to check alignment, or maybe an idea I have: lay the unmounted dish on it's back and insure that it's level with the earth from corner to corner, then suspend a string/line from the LNB throat and see where it lands - hopefully dead-center of the dish. Then hope for no major warpage in the panels. Anybody tried that method? That solid looks great Anole (drool drool). I have my eye on a couple of those right down the road from the one I just picked up. One is a Birdview with the hefty HH mount/internal motor. One has a damaged dish, but the mount/pole looks like just what I need to automate several of my solar (photovoltaic) panels as they're quite large and heavy. Well inno, I think it's just my &^%$ perfectionist genes poking thru! You are of course correct. Yep melgarga, I think maybe Spring hath sprung while we are on this post! You're right about the arms, and I plan/hope to realign the "whole enchilada" as mentioned above... at least that's the plan. But, you know how best-laid plans oft go awry for mice and men. Hmmm... good idea for a poem, methinks! . Great minds think alike on using a wooden block on the mesh. Having done a fair bit of car body work, I had the same idea. Looks like a great link you provided! Don't know how I missed it, but I did. I'm usually an online research monster, but too many irons in the fire right now. I'm extra busy destroying....err..rebuilding an old Victorian house (single-handedly) at the moment. BTW, on these old houses there's a fine line between building and destroying. In fact, it seems like you have to do the latter before you can begin the former. Why does that remind me of this whole dish episode I just described....hmmmm....

 

[melgarga]

One method I read for insuring a true re-assy and checking warp was to lay the dish face down w/o lnb supports on a known level surface such as a concrete area. I invison a Tennis Court, but there are probably others.........lol. Two strings across the face @ 90 deg should cross in the center and w/o any gap between them if is is not bent out of round. My recent adventures in adding a C/Ku to my Laser has made me think of ways to check centering. I dont know if it will work but I am going to try installing a 3-4" long pipe nipple in the center hole, at a right angle to the plate and use a mirror to 'bore sight' the lnb positition. The nipple is needed to assure a straightened line of sight up from the back of the dish w/ the mirror.
Be sure the BV you want to canabalize the H/H from is un-resurectable, else Linuxman and Anole may show up on your dooorstep witha bucket of tar and a sack of feathers for sacrelidge and desecration of a sacred birdcatcher..........lol. It's a constitutional ammendment.......you know the one that starts out WE THE C BANDERS of the Western Hemisphere.............lol
I looked into a modest on-grid PV setup, but until the gov't entities get serious about credits and rebates it is not viable AFAIC. They are heavy and that H/H would probably handle a fair sized array up close, but very much mass very far from the pivot point may be more than even it can handle. There are other things that I'd love to discuss regarding PVs with a fellow alternative energy buff, but we'll save all that for another thread.
Yeah, that site is a good one and somewhat obscure for some reason. Even though it's info is 'dated' (as is this entire hobby.....lol) it should still be on the required reading list for C band 101.
Keep us posted on your progress.

 

[alteng]

No worries about the old FG BUD I mentioned salvaging for the PV mount being bad. It has a giant gaping crack from one side to the other where a vehicle smashed into it. Anyway, the frame is pretty rusty and will be torch bait soon unless I manage to get it. Flat surface you say? They haven't invented those around here yet. This is "Green Acres" country and I think the two carpenters from the TV show built everything around here. I think they outlawed flat surfaces and plumb structures of any kind decades ago (around here). I'll post back if my earlier mentioned alignment/checkout method works. Oh, BTW the PVs I'll mount have less weight and windage than the cracked FG BUD, but enough off topic chat. Don't want my dishes tarred and feathered. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

[melgarga]

Ahh, so that is where Mr Haney moved to.........lol. Yeah, I suspected as much judging from the topography in your pics that a flat surface would be a quest in itself. That was why I went with tennis court or even an outdoor basketball court at the local Jr/ Sr high school grounds.
The tar and feather response might be on the decline these days, considering the rise in petroleum product prices, but if you do you PV project, be sure to post up some pics, it's always good to see vintage hobby wares still in service. Even if it is destined for the recycle bin, and you decide not to use it, get it anyway for the parts. I suspect some here would gladly pay shipping for the spare parts if you dont want to mess with it.
Remeber, Anoles says, if it's worth designing and building, it's worth posting pics of and sharing with the guys here on the board.
I cant invision a PV panel that would require panning much beyond a few degrees, since they are designed to operate in fixed positiion. Sun tracking is another animal altogether from Clarke Belt tracking. Inclination would be a seasonal adjustment, but declination?.........I have no clue............know any astronomers?

 

[billmarc]

I am curious. Does anyone still sell new 10 foot mesh dishes? My current dish was installed in 1995 and works fine. I've lost a few LNBs to electrical storms, but the dish has withstood all kinds of weather.

 

[melgarga]

I saw post from some of the site vendors that refered to new C band dishes but dont recall which one. I came across a link for Sami's, but they were not inexpensive.

 

[Anole]

these come to mind:

Does anyone still sell new 10 foot mesh dishes?

SatelliteAV, one of our gold sponsors, sells reasonably priced 8 foot solid (petal) dishes.
Global-CM.Net, sells big and commercial dishes.
EyeInTheSky.Net lists BUDs of all sorts.