Picking Up My First BirdView C-Band Dish

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allen75960

Active SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Jun 21, 2015
23
11
Moscow tx
I'm new to this. I do have microhd and a small dish. But I found a 10ft solid aluminum dish a few miles from my house. I'm going to pick it up tomorrow. It will probably be a few days before I can get it level and in ground. I Wanted to get some info on it and now I can't seem to remember the name. It was something bird. From the looks of it the lnb is the size of my head. Enormous. I believe the owner said they bought it around 1986 and that's the last time it was used.
 
Welcome to SatelliteGuys!

Post up some photos and we might have some tips to simplify the move and install. Maybe a Birdview? If so, a great dish!

If the owner still has the old receiver, grab it to move the dish until you get a better solution.


Mark everything if you need to disassemble anything on the dish. Try not to disassemble or minimize the breakdown of the reflector and mount if moving a short distance. Quite easy to lift it complete onto a trailer then set onto your new pole. Often the dish only needs to be rotated on the post without any other adjustment if the old location is close to the new home (50mile radius).

Make sure that the pole is sunk deep into an appropriate amount of cement with a welded tab/rebar or through bolt to prevent the pole from spinning in the cement.

Enjoy the install and we are here to help!
 
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I thought the name was two words second being bird. I will post some pics in morning. I live only 4 miles away so I will try my best to just take it off the pole and bring it whole. Infortunately they don't have the reciever. Will I be able to point it with geosat pro?
 
Welcome to SatelliteGuys allen75960!
You will not be able to move the dish with the microHD. You will need a dish mover. Either a vbox/gbox or the Titanium ASC1(Highly recommended).
Once you have a way to move it you can aim it with the microHD. Your best bet is to set-up a small table or other similar structure out at the dish.
Run a drop cord out to it and set up a small tv and the receiver.
 
Welcome to the forum. You will find a treasure of useful information and helpful people here. If you post a photo or two of your dish we can identify it. Did it come with a motor base?

I have an 8.5' solid Birdview that I restored, and am now using for both C-Band and KU. Having done this recently I should be able to help you get the motor and position sensor working.
 
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The dish being that old and not being used since, the feedhorn electronics may be too "old school" and require upgrade before using. Definitely a photo of the electronics and close-up of the labels. To control the polarity of the current feedhorn polarity servo motor you would need the Titanium ASC1 controller or an old legacy receiver. An easy and inexpensive option is to swap out the current feedhorn and electronics and replace with a C-band LNBF (keep the feedhorn if you someday decide to upgrade the electronics for better performance).

Temporarily, use a 12 volt battery (or car battery charger) on the two motor terminals to move the dish actuator. Reverse the leads to revers the direction of travel.
 
...Temporarily, use a 12 volt battery (or car battery charger) on the two motor terminals to move the dish actuator. Reverse the leads to revers the direction of travel.

That works well. And I am not sure about the colors but the motor wires are typically the 2 larger ones...you do not want to hook your power source to the (smaller) sensor wires, it will burn it up.

If the dish is actually a Birdview I'd say there is about a 99% chance that it is 8'-6" in diameter. They made some that were 9'-6" but they must be fairly uncommon...I have only seen one documented 9 1/2 footer in captivity. Any size BV is an excellent dish though, they just need some modification to bring them into the 21st century.
 
Yes it's birdview
 

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Nice dish. Needs some TLC & a new home (provided)
A power wash and a fresh coat of paint will make it BEAUTIFUL! (Don't use high gloss paint)
Think it's best to swap out the electronics with a new LNBF. Use the existing scalar by opening up the center hole a bit. (Titanium PLL ?)
Depending on it's age, it may be a 10 turn pot for a sensor. If so a pulse conversion will be necessary to use a new mover. (GBox, VBox, Titanium ASC1) Unless - you use the receiver that came with it as a mover. (??)
OR can use a battery to move it and an ohmmeter to monitor it's position.
Some pictures of the gear box will 'tell'. Drop the cover off and on the right side of the 'screw".
Simplified alignment instructions (by me) at www.wisgeise.net/BUD Note: BV dishes have fixed declination, so ignore unless you want to really 'peak' it.
 
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image.jpg image.jpg So it's the 8 1/2. Birdview. I finally got it home. Got a few more pics. But was wondering if it's ok to clean with bleach?
 
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Also I have the c/ku lnb that came with microhd. I can make a bracket to hold it in place if that will work
 
c/ku lnb that came with microhd
Model? anyho, should slip right into the existing scalar. May have to open the hole a bit. Measure the dish side protrusion of the existing , and mount it with the same measurement. Can fine tune later.
 
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That's a KU only lnbf, and really isn't meant for a large prime-focus dish. It's made for the smaller KU off-set dishes. It is possible to retro-fit it to a large dish, (strapped next to the c-band lnbf) but it's likely it'll actually give you better quality signal on a off-set 39" dish, than a 10 footer.
 
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