Adventures in dish hunting and what we find

[linuxman]

when you look at the motor let me know whats connected where

Sure will. I need to take it apart anyway. There is a little rust on the inner tube that needs to be polished off and greased up.

Fred

 

[voomvoom]

Another good find Fred, and thanks for the pictures. I agree with George, you have a Good Plan!

Al

 

[linuxman]

Thanks Al,

Just got off the phone with another guy and am going to look at the dish this afternoon.

Will post pictures later.

I do love the cooler weather. Long Range forecast for next Friday is low of 60° and high of 84° with the same on Saturday with very low humidity both days.

WooHoo!!! Autumn is on it's way.

Fred

 

[linuxman]

Here are the pics of the dish I went to see this afternoon.

It is a 10 foot Unimesh. It is in pretty good shape. A few minor hail dents, but the structure seems solid. Don't know much about Unimesh, guess they are decent dishes.

It has an 18" HTS dish mover on it. Don't know much about them either.

Here are the pics:





I am still looking for the elusive 8.5 foot dish. Does anyone know of a manufacturer who actually made an 8.5 foot dish?

All around here are either 7.5 foot or under, or 10 footers.

I'm going to pick it up Thursday evening.

Fred

 

[gabshere]

i would like to find a couple of 12 fters and save them ... good find , my 7 1/2 fter is a unimesh. it does well for its size but i would like to get my 10 fter working and then get a 12 fter

 

[linuxman]

Hey George,

I haven't ever found a 12 footer except one 12 foot old time solid fiberglass. It was a monster and looked like it would weigh a ton.

I'm still looking all the time.

Fred

 

[gabshere]

i got two 12's and two i suspect are 14 ( i need to measure them) located just waiting for the heat to end and when i get a few days off

 

[linuxman]

That'll be great!!

I hope you get them!!

Cooler air is coming but probably another 3 to 4 weeks for you.

Fred

 

[tvropro]

Here are the pics of the dish I went to see this afternoon.

It is a 10 foot Unimesh. It is in pretty good shape. A few minor hail dents, but the structure seems solid. Don't know much about Unimesh, guess they are decent dishes.


Fred

Unimesh is a very good dish. I had my 12XL since 89, it kicks butt. I have somewhere around here the original brochures for the 12 and 10 foot
Unimesh's from the 89-90 era.

 

[tvropro]

Fred Here's the 10 &12 foot Unimesh Spec sheets. I dug them out and scanned them Enjoy.

 

[linuxman]

Hey Tvropro,

Thanks for the brochures!!

This one doesn't have a 36" center ring. I don't know whether it is older or newer. Probably newer. The center ring on this one can't be bigger than 24" diameter.

May not be the same model dish. I'll have to measure to be sure when I get it home.

Fred

 

[tvropro]

Hey Tvropro,

Thanks for the brochures!!

This one doesn't have a 36" center ring. I don't know whether it is older or newer. Probably newer. The center ring on this one can't be bigger than 24" diameter.

May not be the same model dish. I'll have to measure to be sure when I get it home.

Fred

The 24" mount is the older mount. I actually have that on my 12XL. I have two brand new 36" mounts buried under a ton of stuff in my basement. I got one from Unimesh and one from a dealer in the early 90's. I was going to change it in the early 90's but never did. It was just too much of a hassle to tear it down. It's on a 18 foot pole. It took 7 people to put it up there. It's rare that I could get 7 people all at once willing to help me tear it down change the mount and put it back up there today. It's been fine with the 24" so I just left it as is since 1989. If I move and take it with me then I would put the 36" mount on it.

Unimesh made two other 10 foot dishes the 10 KD and the 10 PL.

 

[linuxman]

I hear you guy. You must have a lot of friends to have seven willing to help you like that.

I too have a lot of friends, and they all have helped me on numerous occasions since I started this hobby.

We'll just have to see when I get it home what model it is.

Will the model number be stamped on it somewhere?

At least I now know the 24" will be solid for a long while yet.

Fred

 

[tvropro]

I hear you guy. You must have a lot of friends to have seven willing to help you like that.

I too have a lot of friends, and they all have helped me on numerous occasions since I started this hobby.

We'll just have to see when I get it home what model it is.

Will the model number be stamped on it somewhere?

At least I now know the 24" will be solid for a long while yet.

Fred

I didn't have any markings on my 12 footer that I ever saw. The KD is what they call the knock down, it's in more than 4 sections unlike like the other ones. I was just reading more of my paperwork and the PL uses the 24" mount, if it's extruded aluminum that's probably what you have there. If it's mesh it's probably the older model.

 

[linuxman]

PL uses the 24" mount, if it's extruded aluminum that's probably what you have there. If it's mesh it's probably the older model.

It looked like ordinary mesh to me, but I was looking for hail dings more than focusing on the mesh.

Fred

 

[tvropro]

It looked like ordinary mesh to me, but I was looking for hail dings more than focusing on the mesh.

Fred

You probably have the standard dish. While studying all my paperwork from Unimesh and thinking back how they sold things. On the 10 foot the 24" was the standard mount. The 36" (Super mount) was an option.

I wanted to put the 36" on my 12 foot since Unimesh offered that standard in the early 90's. Mine came with the 24" but I got it in 89. Although I had good luck for the most part with the 24" She's pretty stable after a few mod's I did. So if my 12 foot works well with it, on a 10 foot it's a cakewalk.

Are you going to replace any of your current dishes with the 10 foot?

 

[linuxman]

Are you going to replace any of your current dishes with the 10 foot?

I would replace the 7.5 footer on the side of the building, but the mast isn't high enough to accommodate pulling the dish all the way over on the East side to work on the feed-horn/lnbs.

Depending on the dish and how it is made, I could put in up to a nine footer there, but probably only an 8.5 footer.

What I want to do, hopefully by the end of fall is put up a 5th dish, and leave the 7.5 footer for the computer/tuner and use a VBox II to let the Skystar 2 have it's own dish for recording purposes.

And someday, I would like to have a "test" dish just for testing receivers, lnbs, feed-horns etc. in the event I might develop a business doing this stuff. If that happens, that would be six big dishes.

Fred

 

[tvropro]

I would replace the 7.5 footer on the side of the building, but the mast isn't high enough to accommodate pulling the dish all the way over on the East side to work on the feed-horn/lnbs.

Depending on the dish and how it is made, I could put in up to a nine footer there, but probably only an 8.5 footer.

What I want to do, hopefully by the end of fall is put up a 5th dish, and leave the 7.5 footer for the computer/tuner and use a VBox II to let the Skystar 2 have it's own dish for recording purposes.

And someday, I would like to have a "test" dish just for testing receivers, lnbs, feed-horns etc. in the event I might develop a business doing this stuff. If that happens, that would be six big dishes.

Fred

If I had lot's of money and acres of land I would put up a massive dish farm.

As far as a satellite business goes for the most part the big dish is a dead issue. Except for us wacko's most people have migrated to the pie plates and are happy with there poor quality picture. Just shows how stupid and gullible the public is. They actually believe that the picture on the LSD is good. Hey Maybe I'll open up a shop that sells glasses

 

[linuxman]

As far as a satellite business goes for the most part the big dish is a dead issue. Except for us wacko's

I think that may be true except that I have read that if IPTV becomes a reality and made available through the big dish, there may be a revival of interest in them.

Who knows, the public is fickle. If the word keeps spreading, there may be some interest generated.

Fred

 

[linuxman]

Well I am on a roll.

Went to see the owner about this dish late yesterday which I saw from the highway leaning up against the shed.

It is a 7.5 foot Home Cable dish. It has Unimesh stickers on the back, but the face plate says Home Cable.

I think what is interesting is that last fall I got a 7 foot 3 inch Unimesh which was all beat up but I took it down because I wanted the actuator. It wasn't built with anything near the quality this dish is. Look at the square tubing for the intermediate ring. The other one didn't have that. My 7.5 foot perfect 10 doesn't have an intermediate ring either. This one has a front and rear face plate which the P10 doesn't. I think this dish is built better than the Perfect 10 - 7.5 footer I have on the side of the building, and this one is exactly 7 foot 6 inches in diameter too.

How can the same manufacturer build something of this quality for a private label company, and not sell the same design themselves?

If I don't find an 8.5 footer this fall, I may replace the Perfect 10 with this dish.

As you can see in the picture, the owner had already taken the dish down. I just had to dismantle it.

Here are the pics:



On my way out of this subdivision this morning, I spotted another big dish. It has to be a 10 footer, maybe even a 12 footer, but it looks like they might have hit it with a lawn tractor or something. Didn't have time this morning, but will investigate this evening.

It is amazing how with different light and shadows, you can miss something one day, and see it the next.

Fred