Primestar Metal Dish?

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Gray1

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Aug 11, 2005
308
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St. Louis, Missouri
I have never seen a Primestar metal dish. It is 39'' tall and 36'' wide. Does that make this a 1 meter dish? There are no numbers on the dish but on the mount
there is MSI/Eagle and an eagle logo. (Pic is not too good). Can someone help me identify this dish and tell me who its made by? Is it indeed a Primestar dish?

Thanks for the help
 

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I am sure somebody will jump on and be able to identify it. I have heard of these Primestar dishes and saw some pics before. I know ChannelMaster made most of the elliptical dishes, but I have no clue about this one.
 
Pix are pretty small.
Could we get a side view of the mount, and a 3/4 view of the LNB?
The mount looks somewhat proper, but hard to tell.
LNB might be a Dove Bar without the cover .... ?

Or did you just Photoshop the "Primestar" logo onto the dish? - :D
Sure is an odd beast.

And I agree, if it's 36" wide commercial dish, then it would be rated as having a 36" aperture.
Now, on the stamped dishes that are imported, they measure them by their height.
While not inaccurate, it does leave one comparing apples to oranges.
 
I have never seen a Primestar metal dish. ...

About two weekends ago while going to a meeting I went past an "abandoned" house with a Primestar next to it. I went back the next day after even more snow fell and found a guy at a nearby house stuck in his driveway. I approached him since he was not going anywhere and ask about his neighbor. It turned out that he is the caretaker of the house while the owners fly south for the winter. He claims that this Primestar dish is made of steel. The caretaker would like to see the thing gone because it is in the way for mowing. He says that while mowing he bumped into it several times over the years and that is how he says that he knows it is steel. It kind of looks like fiberglass to me! I could not get to it because of the snow to check it out. Hopefully this weekend I can get back there and it looks like most of our snow should be gone! I will let you know what it is when I can get to the thing. Either way it is a steel or I mean steal! :D
 
I might be wrong

I might be way off base but I think the dish is fiberglass and one of the last type dishes Primstar used which means it's a kind of rare find. Very few got out to the public before Prime ended it's glory. I have one very similar to that and I know positively it was Primestar. If I can find the link again a guy has a total history of PrimeStar dishes. If I can find it, I will post it for you to check out.

A lot of people would say they never had a duel feed horn with 2 lnb's too but they sure did. The very early PrimeStars had 2 lnb's one for horz and the other for vertical. They also had a couple of different shaped dishes out there and people argue that as well.
 
what you have is a 90cm Eagle dish, they are very good performers. I compiared mine here to a 90cm Fortech an it beat it for signal hands down. the only down side to that dish is that they are very heavy in weight, but are built very well, with a nice mount. I ran 1 on a SG2100 motor, an it only lasted about 9-months before the gears strip out, now it is on a Pan-900 motor for a good 5 years now, an still runs fine.

those dishes where made for the Alpha-Star people (sub company of StarTrack) which was based out of Ontario Ca an Miami Fl. they where the predisors before PrimeStar, then the Primestar came out about 10 months latter an then they played hard ball with the bank that fianced Alpa-Star, an that lead to their closing of their doors. I know this from dealing with both company's back in the 90's. then that left a lot of satellite dealers an supplyer's with several of these dishes in stock an where sold at a cut rate of their orginal price, so it does not suprise me that you got one with a PrimeStar logo on it. they aslo had a 75cm dish too but it has a different mount than the 90cm does.

here are a few picture's of mine here.
 

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Learned something there, lol. Never heard of a metal primestar, that sure is a good looking dish. Hey Gray1 I'll trade you an old gray cat for it!
 
Waa Hoo thats the dish. Thanks alot. I know what I got now. Your right it is heavy. 1captain: If you dont mind me asking, how tall is that pole you got the Eagle Dish mounted on. My pole is about 7 feet tall and is galvanized thick wall water pipe. Was wondering if my pole would support this dish with or without a motor.

By the way I paid 30 bucks for the dish, maybe a little too much.

Hey turbosat, I like that gray cat you got as your avatar :)

Thanks again for identifying my dish
 
gray said "Hey turbosat, I like that gray cat you got as your avatar :)

LOL
Not the one I meant, but I could probably catch him for you!
 
Waa Hoo thats the dish. Thanks alot. I know what I got now. Your right it is heavy. 1captain: If you dont mind me asking, how tall is that pole you got the Eagle Dish mounted on. My pole is about 7 feet tall and is galvanized thick wall water pipe. Was wondering if my pole would support this dish with or without a motor.

By the way I paid 30 bucks for the dish, maybe a little too much.

Hey turbosat, I like that gray cat you got as your avatar :)

Thanks again for identifying my dish

Hi Gray1, I have a 90cm KTI dish that is comparable in dimensions and weight. It's an older dish made of thick guage steel and weighs about 25 lbs or more, I haven't weighed it. Your mounting clamp looks like it's for a 2 3/8" diameter post and if your post is solid and made of water pipe then you should have no problem even with a motor. I've used mine with a motor on a similar post with no issues. And $30 bucks for one of those is a deal IMO because they're rare and they don't make 'em like they used to. If you have rust problems in your area it wouldn't hurt to use stainless steel hardware also.
 
He claims that this Primestar dish is made of steel.

This Primestar is a fiberglass one like I thought when I saw it from the road. The guy bumped into the steel arm and thought that the whole dish was steel! I am still waiting for the final ok to remove this one! :D
 
I have never seen a Primestar metal dish. It is 39'' tall and 36'' wide. Does that make this a 1 meter dish? There are no numbers on the dish but on the mount
there is MSI/Eagle and an eagle logo. (Pic is not too good). Can someone help me identify this dish and tell me who its made by? Is it indeed a Primestar dish?

Thanks for the help

Actually the 1 meter variety measures about 40" across and 43" high.
 
Update

Since we all like pictures. Here is a pic of the metal Primestar/ Alpha-Star/ Eagle Dish. Its not finished, but its getting there. Feedhorn was in worse shape than I thought. It is made out of aluminum. Under the paint was a white powder.
Paint just peeled off from it.
 

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Its finished. SQ on RT and Al Jazeerra is 10 points higher than the 2076 Winegard. So size does matter. Im very pleased. I also posted some pics on how I mounted the multiswitch. It may be unconventional, but it was cheap and I like cheap. We will see how long it lasts before getting brittle.

Thanks to Stogie5150 and Anole for helping me out.
 

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Last edited:
SQ on RT and Al Jazeerra is 10 points higher than the 2076 Winegard.
So size does matter.
Yep, that's the bottom line: size matters.

We had quite a little chat about paints, and how to prep for 5, or 20 year life.
In the end, it probably doesn't matter a whole heck of a lot. :)
Looks like a fine effort, and well expended on a quite unusual dish!

I also posted some pics on how I mounted the multiswitch.
It may be unconventional, but it was cheap and I like cheap.
We will see how long it lasts before getting brittle.
I think local weather has the most to do with such matters.
I tuck things under the eaves of the house, where possible.
But the shady side of the dish is good, too! :)
Worst case, see about stabbing a couple of tiny drain holes in the low side of the box.

And if you have trouble with bug incursion, maybe try one of those plastic insecticide strips, or a ball of cotton sprayed with RAID.
I don't have a bug problem here, so can't guarantee results, but I offer the idea.
Thanks to Stogie5150 and Anole for helping me out.
Some people will listen to anyone! - :rolleyes:
 
I've got a 36" metal Primestar looks just like that. Heavy compared to the Winegard 2076. I certainly get a better signal on the 36" Primestar hands down. I gave $35 about 18 months ago for it....Blind
 
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