This will make some of you cry

[Dee_Ann]

I am in the process of selling the property IE "the lot from h*ll" where all those old satellite dishes where stored by my ex. As I mentioned before, there were, I dunno, like 5 or 6 very large dishes out there.

Well, while I'm waiting on the lawyers to do the paper work and close the deal, I let the new owner of the lot go ahead in so they can cut trees and start clearing the place.

Or that's what I thought they were going to do.

So yesterday my dad and I arrive and there are men there in bulldozers pushing buildings down and scraping the ground bare. OMG.....

Well, they crushed all those old dishes. They didn't ask, they just rolled right over them like they were junk.

I probably could have sold them at least.

The ONE dish they didn't destroy is the one leaned over, still on a pole. I informed them that they are forbidden to touch that dish that I want it and thank you very much for smashing up all the others without asking first.

I thought my dad and I were going to have to take it down and carry it out one piece at a time. These workers PROMISED me they would take it down intact without damage and deliver it to me in one piece. I remain skeptical.

But, they swore they would not harm or damage it at all, not even a little.
I told them it's very fragile and bends easy and the wire mesh things pop out easy.
They promise me it will arrive at my place intact and undamaged.

I sure hope so.

I'm sad that those others were mashed up by a bunch of yahoos, I would have rather given them away free than see them smashed up by a bulldozer.

I probably could have sold them even but still, it would have been better to keep them and just give them away than what happened. I hate to waste anything.

Well.. So that means I'll have a Cband dish here soon and I can start making plans to get it planted and put up.

It's an 8' dish, I think. I need to get it high up so I can mow around it, I have a new riding mower so I need clearance. But if I put it up too high then I can't work on it if it needs. Also, putting it up higher means the pole in the ground needs to be deeper, right?

So maybe I should put it close to the ground so I can use a push mower around it and be able to work on it. Also less pole in the ground. How would I figure out how much pole to buy and what size? I don't know anything about this satellite dish at all except it's BIG.





So.... Finally.. I'm guessing I could have the thing put up within a month. I've got to find someone to dig the hole and do the cement, I sure can't/won't..
I also have to figure out where to get a pole to put it on and what size/kind to get.
I put a little dish up by myself last year on a piece of old fence pole, that was hard enough, this, is way out of my league.

 

[stanleyjohn]

very sad!Im sure someone would of gave you some cash for one!I know i would if i was in your area.If they did this on purpose i would ask for a fair $$ value on each one smashed.

 

[Dee_Ann]

very sad!Im sure someone would of gave you some cash for one!I know i would if i was in your area.If they did this on purpose i would ask for a fair $$ value on each one smashed.

They didn't know..

My dad is helping me make this sale happen and he told the new owner that everything out there was junk.

I just thought I would have time to get out there before they did.
And my dad thought they were just going to cut trees down, he didn't know they were going to start bulldozing it so soon.

They may have jumped the gun a little but I also was dragging my feet on getting out there. The place was scary to me.

Oh well.. At least I caught them before they destroyed the one I was planning on bringing home. And they told me they would have torn it down that afternoon like everything else. So I did luck out there.. Whew........

 

[Anole]

focus on the positive:

Glad you're finally moving on the 8' dish on the bent-over pole.
It did seem the the most attractive, so if you get it delivered and don't get all cut up in the junk yard, you're ahead of the game.


Clearance:
If the dish is 8', then from the lower rim to the middle is 4'.
So, if the pole were 6' out of the ground, the bottom of the dish would be at least 2' off the ground.
Now, consider that the dish is actually aimed up into the Texas sky, and the clearance when the dish is at True South (aimed to the top of the arc) will be more than those 2'.
Only when the dish is all the way east or west, will it be fairly vertical, and close to 2' from the ground.

If you are trying to tune the dish at the top of the arc, the LNBf will be higher than the top of the pole (6'), so think about how high you want to go on a ladder for tune-up. -

I don't see the info on the Geo Orbit site for how deep to bury the pole.
I suspect it would depend on your soil, rain, etc.
Someone will post a good link, I'm sure.

 

[osu1991]

It looks to be the same 7.5ft / 8ft Unimesh I have and that takes a 3.5in OD pole. They are pretty good dishes.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Glad you're finally moving on the 8' dish on the bent-over pole.
It did seem the the most attractive, so if you get it delivered and don't get all cut up in the junk yard, you're ahead of the game.


Clearance:
If the dish is 8', then from the lower rim to the middle is 4'.
So, if the pole were 6' out of the ground, the bottom of the dish would be at least 2' off the ground.
Now, consider that the dish is actually aimed up into the Texas sky, and the clearance when the dish is at True South (aimed to the top of the arc) will be more than those 2'.
Only when the dish is all the way east or west, will it be fairly vertical, and close to 2' from the ground.

If you are trying to tune the dish at the top of the arc, the LNBf will be higher than the top of the pole (6'), so think about how high you want to go on a ladder for tune-up. -

I don't see the info on the Geo Orbit site for how deep to bury the pole.
I suspect it would depend on your soil, rain, etc.
Someone will post a good link, I'm sure.

Woa! Mr. Math to the rescue!

One thing I have to consider is hurricanes and we have this crummy black clayish type of soil here that the locals refer to as "Gumbo Mud".

I dries out in the summer and cracks really badly and zillions of enormous cracks open up that you can put your arm down some of them.

My fence gets loose and wiggly when it doesn't rain for a month and the little dishes do too. I figured out the way to keep them stable is to dig around the top and put more cement and about once a week, water the area so the soil expands back to normal.

When it gets wet, which it does, my yard floods badly and stays flooded for an average week at a time after all rain has ceased, the ground gets very mushy and soft.

Neither scenario is very good for stability. It's caused the slab of my house to crack badly and tip over like the Fun House at Silver Dollar City.

So I'm thinking that the deeper I plant it the better. I just don't know how deep to start with. The little dish I planted last year, I put it in at 2 feet deep. And that's for like the PBS satellite kinda dish.


To the gentleman below with the pole measurement, thank you!
Is that something that I could buy at like Home Depot or Lowe's and have them like cut it for me and deliver it? I have a BIG old timey Chevy van (my dog transporter) that I could probably put a 12' pole in and if I left the back doors open I could let some of it stick out the back.

So maybe like a 12' pole? 6 foot out of the ground (your solution sounds good) and 6 feet in the ground? Would that be long/strong enough?

Thank you!!

 

[Dee_Ann]

It looks to be the same 7.5ft / 8ft Unimesh I have and that takes a 3.5in OD pole. They are pretty good dishes.

Thank you so much!!

 

[sanjap]

i am crying. this world is really a funny place. One man's meat, is another man's poison.

 

[turbosat]

8' of pipe should be enough D, sorry you lost your dishes. Didn't you even get to save any of your small ku dishes you were watching? Too bad, but glad you're getting away from Salem's lot .lol

 

[mick d]

Hey Dee, I live in Texas, I say we form a posse and bring those savages to justice. :

 

[Anole]

...Didn't you even get to save any of your small ku dishes you were watching?

I think there was her back yard with storage shed, . . . then another property some distance away.
The distant lot got cleared.
It's the one with the brambles, the blown-down buildings, and the BUD collection.
So, truth be told, she didn't loose much that she was going to actually use.

From what I recall, she had already identified a number of at-home Ku dishes, and has them installed in her sometimes soggy back yard.
Last picture I saw, they looked like a bunch of mushrooms - they're all about waist level. -

 

[McGuyver]

There's a lot to consider Dee Ann, the pole has to be thick wall pipe and it's expensive and very heavy. I recommend 10 ft length, you can always cut it shorter but can't extend it if needed so give yourself the extra edge so to speak. It will likely cost at least $6 bucks a foot or more depending where you buy. Check the scrap yard for a piece, price is much less. I would suggest at least 5.5 ft under ground, this will give you 4.5 ft above, a adequate height for the dish profile considering winds and your soil type. Having it lower to the ground will make it easier to install and offer better stability.

The other thing to consider is replacing the surrounding soil with a granite type soil or fine gravel mixed with your soil. AND/OR you can fabricate a horizontal grid that reaches outward in all directions equally, giving the pole a lateral support, this will give the pole greater stability than just using concrete in the hole. You can use various materials such as old metal bed frames for the lateral supports, they should lay flat like a # pattern surrounding the pole and weld them together and to the pole, then pour concrete over the grid. Bury the grid at least one foot under ground, 1.5 ft deep should be ideal for your soil. The hole should be dug first then dig out the area for the support grid about 2 ft deep, place the pipe in the hole, fill with concrete and level it but don't fill above the grid level yet. After the concrete sets ( a couple of days) then fab the grid and work up from there. The wider the grid, the better, in your case I'd use at least 6 ft lengths that will give you a minimum of 3 ft from the pole in any direction. This is an option for you to consider. If you choose not to do it this way, you will likely regret it after a Texas wind hits town. I did my 8 ft solid Channel Master this way and it's solid as a rock even with 60 mph winds. It would probably withstand 150 mph winds before even thinking of moving the slightest.

Take a look at this drawing SatelliteGuys Photo Gallery - My method of planting a ground Post - Powered by PhotoPost
This will give you an idea of what I'm suggesting, the measurements will differ due to your particular soil and wind velocities so just use this as reference and consider what I wrote above. Good luck

 

[starwatch]

Dee Ann what town do you live in. Sounds like the kind of ground Beaumont has...gumbo. If you put the pole at least 3 feet you will be ok, gumbo acts like concrete when its dry, just use plenty of concrete and water together as it will
fill in those gaps as it dries. Don't be in a hurry to mount the dish....let it dry a least 3days. As you know the weather will change in those 3 days at least twice including rain.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Not that anyone cares..

I made a lot of enemies when I b**ched about RTV changing things around.
I saw the nasty comments.

Don't worry, I'm not asking for help, I know I won't get any. That's fine.


I won't be going into Cband now. Not anytime soon.

The people that I sold the lot to were supposed to take down and deliver the satellite dish to me. However their truck broke down so they left my satellite dish on the side of the highway, on their property. When I found out about this I complained loudly and told them to moved it inside their gate so it wouldn't get stolen.

It got stolen.

They did not listen to me, they left it on the side of the highway for a few weeks and sure enough, it was stolen.

It's gone. Period. And I'm furious with them. They are lucky they are hiding from me, they only talk to me on cell phones so I can't find them. If I find them they'll find out what this red hair is all about. :rant:

So now I'm demanding they compensate me for at least $400. I know I can't buy another one as they don't make those anymore but maybe $400 will be enough to find another used one and pay to move it.

I looked on the sponsor sites and all the Cband dishes don't move and just sit on the ground with concrete blocks. That just will not work at all. This is hurricane country. It has to go in the ground and it has to be able to move.

I don't think $400 will even touch a brand new 8' dish that moves. Not to mention shipping fees. It would probably cost me twice that to have a new, 8' movable dish shipped here. I checked Craigslist and there's none on there that I can find.

I do not want a 6' dish, I read that they just don't cut it.

My one and only other option is to revive that 10' dish I have in pieces. It's missing stuff and needs repairs and I don't know anything at all about them.

I know I can not ask for help here anymore and that's fine, I accept my punishment. I won't bother you guys with my stupid questions or stupid comments. That means I will just have to figure it out on my own and do it all on my own.

Being that I don't know what it looked like originally and that there are parts missing, my only option is to spend a lot of time looking at pictures of other dishes and see if I can somehow make up something like when I used a lawn chair leg to fix one of my primestar dishes. I didn't know what I was doing but it looked close enough so I did it.


I guess I'll take the money, IF they compensate me, which I doubt they will do but if they do I guess I'll use the money to patch up that big 10' dish I have here. I just know that it's not possible to replace that stolen dish for only $400.


I'll figure it out quietly, on my own. I don't see any point in posting here anymore after reading what so many people had to say. I'll just look at pictures and read a lot and figure things out by myself.

Or maybe I'll just give in and get pizza dish tv.

For the help I have received in the past, thank you.
For my transgressions, I apologize, for what it's worth.

Best wishes to you all..

 

[goaliebob99]

What I dont get is if the property hadnt of allready closed then why were they on it? Here, if the property isnt closed, you dont touch it or do anything afterwards until the deal is done.

 

[guapoharry]

Fail to plan, or plan to fail.

YAWN...

 

[turbosat]

gharry has it right there. I would think looking around you could find another c-band dish somebody isn't wanting any more. Sometimes it just pays to ride around a little in the country looking for one. No grudges here Dee, we all have to live with the outgrowth of our choices. Lesson learned for you I hope.

 

[Dee_Ann]

What I dont get is if the property hadnt of allready closed then why were they on it? Here, if the property isnt closed, you dont touch it or do anything afterwards until the deal is done.

This happened after the close.

My dad let them onto the property to start leveling it off with bulldozers before it was closed. He was handling the sale. I didn't question his motives or methods, I assumed he knew what he was doing. I put my full trust in my dad.

He told me that it was a 100% certainty that the deal would go through, and it did.

The only problem was the mishandling of some of the items I wanted to save from the lot. They botched that up big times. I allowed my dad to handle that too, he told me they would move the things to their property then at a later date deliver it to my place. That's where the buyers screwed up, they left my stuff sitting on the side of the road. I knew it was there and I complained loudly about it, my dad and I got in a big fight about it. I told him it would get stolen and in the end, I was right.

Actually I've decided to demand $900 compensation for the loss of the dish.

I can't even find an equivalent dish for sale anywhere. I require a dish that's at least 8', has a motor that can move it and is C and KU type. One like that with the shipping costs would be astronomical. IF you can even find them anymore.

I'm very, very angry about the whole deal. I'm going to be a b**ch and press them hard for compensation. I'm going to stay on them like a pit bull. I want to be made whole. They lost my property after being warned not to damage or lose it. It was entrusted to their care and they screwed it up.

 

[1ADAM12]

You don't have a leg to stand on!

This happened after the close.

After close? Without stipulation, you are totally at fault.

TOOOOO bad, the damaged dish would have made a great base mount for the one good dish.

 

[Dee_Ann]

After close? Without stipulation, you are totally at fault.

TOOOOO bad, the damaged dish would have made a great base mount for the one good dish.

Well the dish was stolen from their property after the close. Part of the deal, of the sale, was that they were to move my things safely and in one piece to my property.

The dish was taken down by them, against my wishes, before the deal was closed.
I told them I wanted to take it down with the help of my dad and they told me they would do it for me. I told them I did not trust them to take it down without damaging it. They PROMISED me they would take it down without damage. I told them I did not believe they could and I objected to it. They still took it down despite
my complaints. They were in a hurry to clear the lot.

They also crushed half a dozen 10 foot dishes before I had a chance to tell them NOT to do so.

I then requested that they transport it to my property along with other items they were obligated to move to my property.

I went to look at the progress some days later and went by their lot and saw that the dish was inside their fence. I was OK with that, I felt it was safe until they could deliver it to me, they promised me they would.

Then the deal closed. Once again my dad and I went to look at the lot and saw it was razed flat. Everything was gone. We then went by their lot and I saw that my dish and some of my other property was sitting on the side of the road in front of their lot. My things were no longer inside their fence but in the open in a HIGH THEFT ZONE. I freaked out and complained loudly about it.

I started in on my dad as he was the one that made all these arrangements and he was the one in contact with the buyers. He handled it all for me. My dad and I got in a huge fight. He got mad at me because I was complaining. I told him to call the people and tell them to get my dish moved HERE or moved back inside their fence.

The fight got nasty and we hung up on each other in anger. My dad told me not to call back. So I called and talked to my mom and asked her to poke my dad along into doing something about my dish. This just made my dad even madder at me.

I backed off after mom told me that he had called them. I let things ride for a few days. Today I called back to see what was going on and my dad told me that someone stole it last week from in front of their place.

I told my dad "See. I told you didn't I?".. I was so flippin mad that I didn't say much after that. When I say the least that's when I'm the maddest.
The more quiet I become, the closer I am to going off on someone.

I told my dad I wanted compensation and now he's mad at me because he thinks the whole thing is stupid and trivial and that I'm making a big deal out of nothing.

Um, no. It is a big deal. I wanted to keep that dish. Had I not wanted it I would have told those rednecks to crush it with the rest of the dishes they crushed out there. You can't buy those things anymore. Not that I can find. All I can find are little stationary dishes (NOT ACCEPTABLE) and the shipping on those is killer.

To find one like that one and have it shipped would cost a small fortune.
I want a pole mount dish that moves with a motor. Period.
I had one. The people I trusted to take care of it for me lost it. It's their fault, they own me. If I have to I will take them to small claims court.

I'm right. I want compensation. I'll get it. One way or another.:devil: