ok, ok... You guys talked me into it.

[Dee_Ann]

The jury is out on the Odom dish for now.
I think your other dish is probably easier to work with and in better shape.
That's a trade-off with the trouble of rescuing it, so it's a decision you'll have to make.
Personally, I'd get the 8'er up 'n running and by the time I'd conquered that, this 10'er would no longer seem such an effort.

However, let's talk about the Odom:

In picture #2, & #3, you have the mount.
You can see which end of it goes on top of the pole.

The big bent threaded rod is the elevation adjust, and will probably work as-is.
Worst case, you might run some nuts onto both ends, then slip it into a vice, and give it a little nudge to straighten.
I think I'd just give it a good wire-brushing with a wire cup brush in a drill, then put on some light grease to protect it.

See the big ring in picture #4?
Note the two heavy tabs welded onto it.
One is longer than the other, and has several holes in it.
You attach the ring to the ends of the long heavy box tubing of the mount.
Probably have to examine the parts and see what needs cleaning, brushing, lubing, and maybe replacing.
This picture on Geo-Orbit will give you a basic idea how the ring fits to the mount, and to the back side of the dish.
The ring goes on with the longer tab to the top, and you select one of the holes to set the general declination.

You motor bolts to a tab on the ring or back side of the dish, and to the short stub (box tubing) on the back of the mount.

Not finding the original LNB mounting arms is a disappointment.
However, they are easy to fabricate.
Again, this all is a job for another time, but if you break it down into little parts, none are really that substantial.

If you can find a pole, that might be a head start for the 8' dish... so look around.

OH!!! Ok.. Thank you! That link explained things but the pictures really straightened me out. I never saw the thing assembled and really have no idea where ding-a-ling even got it.

I did ask about all those other out at the lot and he said that back when the little satellites first came onto the market he would stop when he saw a house that had a little dish AND a big dish and knock on the door. He said people would give them to him free just to get it out of their sight. One of them he put up for listening to radio at work and the rest were going to be some hair brain solar water heater project that, like all his other projects, never happened. Bottom line, he is a junk hoarder with grandiose dreams of pie in the sky.

The one he brought and left in the back yard here, I can only assume he had intentions of putting it up while I was away. I used to travel a lot and was rarely home. He could have gotten away with it for months before I found out.

As to this big one, the odom dish, I think I'll just set it aside for now, considering there are a lot of parts missing and save it for a future date.
Considering how light the thing is , I don't feel as intimidated by it as I did the other day. I thought these things were like 450 tons or something crazy.
It just floored me that I can pick up those sections on my own. Wow..

Thanks!

 

[McGuyver]

Oh......

Whew.. Well, it seemed far too light then I saw it was empty so I thought for sure I was ripped off. Whew...

One thing that I've noticed is that all the quality LNB products (mostly older models) have what appears to be Brass probes, the newer and cheapies use steel probes (clad plated looking). This may have an effect on performance IMHO. They may be brass clad plated with steel, they are much thinner than the quality products also. I have an older LNB that has much thicker brass probes. Steel is conductive as in a magnetic sense where brass is not. It seems to me that if there's any electromagnetic signals inside the throat of the LNB (which I believe there is) that the steel probes may become magnetized to some extent causing a reduction and/or interferance with performance where brass cannot become magnetized. Just my thoughts on this topic Maybe other's have some thoughts about this they could share.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Well, I found these little gems in a icky old closet while cleaning up this weekend.
I never open it because it's really only used to access the plumbing behind the bathtub and it's just, icky.

I try to pretend it doesn't exist.

So for some reason unbeknownst to me, I opened it at random and discovered this nasty little pile of what appears to be satellite tuners. And to be honest, I don't even want to touch the things. I used gloves to try to move them around to get pictures of them. Ewwwww..... Ick......

I don't recognize any of them so the one we used to use a long time ago at our old place, it's not in there. So I don't know where he got these from. Maybe the people he got those old dishes from gave him these things with the dishes. I can only assume.

I doubt they are of any use, they look a little rusty on the connectors and they weigh a ton. Just ONE of them is almost too heavy for me to pick up. OMG, did they make these things out of concrete and lead?

I assume these are good for the scrap pile IE curb. Unless someone says "NO!!!!! DON'T!!!!!!! It's made of solid GOLD!!!"

 

[McGuyver]

You may be able to sell those antiques to a dealer. check online for vintage satellite receivers and/or equipment and contact them, they love that old stuff