How To Get Free Satellite Dishes! 

Your grandkids are going to love you in their twenties!

When I was young, in my 20s, cars were MUCH more important to me. Then later, I got married, had kids, went through a few vehicles. Now, like you, I think of them as conveyances, and evaluate them based on the able-to-haul-stuff axis.

You are a terrible influence. I like it

The hoarder's secret weapon. Free removal

Unfortunately you won't see this size of dishes in Europe. Sometimes commercial companys have this, but are never willing to donate or give it for free. Your'e a lucky guy. 73's

Ahh a man of my own heart. Warning...you will still have most of your collection .... when you're old.

Dude, I installed dozens of those back in the day. I agree with another commenter, Those Drake's were pretty high class in the day. I remember all that stuff like it was yesterday. And most of that equipment didn't use LNB's. They used an LNA and a downconverter. The receiver sent a tuning voltage out to the downconverter to tune your desired channel. Love seeing this! Keep it up!

The actuator can have either one of two ways of decking travel either limit switches or a potentiometer. but be careful running the actuator with out the limit sensing as it can shear the safety pin or strip out a gear. I use to install these dishes. The extra wires on the LNB is a small stepper motor to rotate the actual antenna from vertical to horizontal. There might be two LNA's one for C band and one for KU. Thats the reason for two coaxes.

Such a random fun channel

Someone once said to me, "My car works for me. I don't work for my car."

Ive always wondered if you pointed a parabolic mic 🎤 at one of the sold dishes 📡 if it would add and more depth of sound reflection

Those actuator arms usually have reed switch sensors, the positioner boxes usually have signal ground and signal, the 4wires were commonly paired up brown and ground - orange and green for failsafe, very old positioners used a potentiometer however they are very temperature sensitive and were abandoned for the more stable pulse signal. Those drake earth stations are a very good platform to learn grom due to their discreet component design. The three small wires near the low noise blockdownconvertor are for the polarotor to adjust the polarity of horizontal and verticle for peaking the signal.

The Drake boxes are an analog satellite receiver and an audio decoder box to decode 2 channels of audio from analog satellite tv signals. They used to use 6.2 and 6.8 mhz subcarriers for audio. There is probably not any more analog signals to pick up but you can get a dvb rdigital receiver pretty cheap and pick up all kinds of stations.

3:20 Intercepting messages from WASP-12b! Who knew it would bee this easy? lol

You sir are a scrounger extraordinaire and I salute your resourcefulness

For a moment I didn't think you even had a roof rack! Good attitude as ever. Love this channel.

The smaller gauge cable with the 3 wires is for the servo motor, it is how you change to horizontal or vertical polarity. You can move a dish with a 9 volt battery, I used to do that to set my due south aiming. You will want to look out for a dish with a horizon to horizon satellite mount, they are much nicer and more accurate.

Was very fun watching you guys disassemble! I truly enjoy this channel. Thank you for all the hard work put into the content.

As always, STP's greatest youtuber delivers!

You have 2 coax cables for c band and ku band. You have the other 3 small wires with the coax for the servo motor to switch between hoz and vertical . The 5 wires are for motor and position sensor. The drake esr receiver is old lna and uses a downconverter that i didnt see in your video. It came out before lnb systems. Just look in yards as you drive. U can find them.

I've seen a bunch of them in the 80's - built developments out around the outskirts of town. Rural enclaves with cul-de-sacs and split level homes. Many such cases. Upper Midwest rules!

So many projects but also so many uploads! Respect, but keep an eye out on yourself. Warm greetings from The Netherlands!

We used a 10' Birdview dish my entire childhood before everything was scrambled... ours always had wasp nests on it too! When we finally got rid of the dish in the early 00's we made about $300 scrap since it was solid aluminum.

I had a Big Ugly Dish for years. I loved the thing! I watched a pretty Japanese news anchor pick her nose during a commercial break on a live feed. Ahhhh good times! lol

It's always great to see human kindness in practice. Great tips, I'm in Europe though, C-band dishes were never in popular use here, they exist in private ownership but only by dedicated sat-autists. Maybe in Iceland or Greenland they were more common.

I’m also an antenna geek, and I hope you keep making videos like this! Great info, and just in general you make me smile. 👍 📡

It would be cool to see an array of dishes. Like maybe use 3 of your RV dishes together and compare to the results of a previous test that used only one dish.

I've picked up a few free dishes at local Hamfests (Ham Radio flea markets). Guy had 10 dishes of various sizes. And Yes,,, lots of dishes in back yards that home owners would love to get rid of. I am paying particular attention to your videos. Great Ideas.

Nice to see, that these big dishes get a new life. In Europe mostly the Ku band was (and is) used and smaller dishes were in use. But the same actuator was used, mostly these have reed-relays to measure the position. Just open the cap at thre rear, you'll se how to connect it. Some motors have also limit switches.

Love to see what you do with the BUDs! I have a secret desire to pick up a few again for 'projects', just need to find a way to sell it to the wife :).

I was in the BIG satellite business for years starting in 1980's and transitioned to the small direct to home dishes such as DirecTV and Dish network. I removed countless 8, 10 and 12 ft C-band and C/Ku band dishes, (I wish I had some of them back to day). That first dish that you showed is a C/Ku band dish. You can tell by the mesh. I had a technique for removing them, first I would remove the dish from the pipe by running the dish to it's center position on it's polar mount using the motor and if the motor did not work I would slip the saddle clamp that attached the motor to the polar mount and move the dish to the center position and lift the dish off the pipe with the polar mount still attached to the dish. To remove the pipe I would dig a trench on the side of the pipe that I could get my truck close to. The trench would as deep as the pipe was in the ground next to the pipe and it would get shallower as it went out from the pipe the trench only needs to be about 5 ft long. Then I would attach one end of a chain around the top of the pipe and the other end of the chain to the trailer hitch on my truck and use gentle tugs to get the pipe to move, once the pipe moves it follow the trench up out of the ground. Once I had the pipe out od the ground I would use a sledge hammer to break the concrete from around the pipe and trough back in the hole where the pipe had come out of and I would refill the hole and trench. Easy Peasy. I used the dishes and pipes for projects that still required BIG dishes such as the one that I did for the Manatee County School system in Manatee county Florida. A video io that job can be seen on my RU-vid channel. That job had all new dishes with some of the recycled pipe made in to ground mounts.

I worked for the company that installed the two 12f dishes that was on top of the Student activity center at USC Aiken over 30 years ago. I also did all the cable work for the entire campus when I went to work for the Media Services of USCA. Every spring I would have to pump out one man hole vault that would always flood and the Trunk amp would fail. Until they finally installed a sump pump just before I moved to NC.

FYI most of those positioners will put out about 24-36VDC. The motors will run on less, probably nominal 20V or so (voltage drop for long cable). The polarity changes direction.

Bees are inside these Always bring a case of 12 cans of wasp and bee spray I did EXACTLY the same thing that you did I had the dish on the top of my van You are just like me ❤

So much free stuff! I am working on getting my shop cleaned out making some new videos finally!

That's likely a 36vdc moved and the other 3 wires that go to the LNB are for a servo to change the polarization of the LNB.

Ah neat. Maybe I should take the small satellite dish off my roof, grab some thing to read it into a computer and see what it can pick up. I'm a cable guy but the previous owners had satellite for some reason. The dish just kinda sits there, staring at me. I'm gonna go watch your video on the weather satellites now.

I love your attitude! Get free stuff, recycle it and discover more cool stuff, nice.

I tinkered with a much smaller dish a few years back, about 2' diameter. I coated the inside with aluminium foil and used it to focus the sun, It was part of a plan for a water heater. I have lots of plans.

The Tracker 1 is very easy to setup and use. The two screw terminals marked motor are the 12 volts DC that go to the actuator arm that moves the dish. They go to the BIG wires on the terminal block inside the actuator arm and the two screw terminals marked sensor go the the same terminal block but the connect to the terminals for a read switch. There is a magnet that in on a wheel that opens and closes the read switch and that provides pules when the motor is running so the box can tell where the dish is pointing. It is very easy to test and see if the box works by putting a volt meter in the motor screws and then pushing the left or right arrow buttons on the front of the box and you should see ether +12 volts or -12 volts it will only be there for a little while with out the sensor connected but you can simulate the sensor by putting a wire on one of the sensor screws and intermittently touching the other end of the wire to the other sensor screw while pushing one of the two arrow buttons.If everything is working correct you should see the number change on the LCD display the should count up or down depending on witch arrow button is being push if you push the other button they should count the other direction.

Picked up another sat hat for the subbie!!

Thank you! Its always really interesting to learn more about satellites and other tech on your channel.

I've got one of these at the top of a 15 ft pole. Might even still have the controller/receiver somewhere. I doubt the actuator still works it hasn't been moved in decades.

Here you have a wide selection of satellite dishes. With the wire mesh one, you could mount it on the bed of a pickup truck and use it while driving. I think the dish allows enough air to pass through to keep the wind load very small; that was the idea behind the design. I find the topic very exciting and look forward to new videos on the subject.

I've been enjoying a lot of your videos lately. This is the one that got me to subscribe. Thank you!

I just drive around until I find them. Then go knock on the door. I even just scored 3x 12 footers doing this up in Mn. Very nice Zenith on that rooftop by the way, have the same one.

5:00 might be equipment for the Muzak service (mad groovy)

Use a permanent marker on the faded label. Just mark across the label and wipe it away with your finger while it's still wet. A lot of times it will reveal the old ink underneath that is sun damaged

If your going to setup any of those c band dishes for fta satellite tv use the 10 ft dish and use your axe man motor actuator controler for it will work for they use 36 volts dc. Just use it manually for the hal sensors dinner work right. The controller I wired a switch on the hall feed for the East button to make it work .

I like what you do keep up good work Thanks 😊

Thanks for Craig's list lead.

Im always learning from you ! Thanks !!!

See if you can do a 30 mile high speed 5GHz Wi-Fi connection? Extra points for keeping inside the EIRP rules.

Lovely vid to end the night

lots of people use those as solar trackers, with cheap solar tracker controllers

You are great, brother!

Very good job, keep going 👏🏼 👍🏼

Some of your dishes will be azimuth/elevation (X/Y) and some of them will be polar mounted. I did see a polar mount on the dish that you took down, that is the axle that is running north/south at an angle. This allows you to track the Clarke Belt and hit all the geostationary satellites without adjusting the elevation. The East/West sensor input sometimes looks for pulses from a tachometer (hall effect sensor) to count the number of rotations on the shaft. This can be translated into an exact East/West position in the controller. You may be dealing with either hardware limit switches (on the shaft) or software limits (in the controller). These are really tricky and you might have to jumper around a limit switch if you can't adjust it. They are set up so that if you run into the East limit, you can only move the dish West, and vice versa. The other mystery wire going to the LNB could be a polarity rotation motor to fine tune the pol CW/CCW. This is often done when it is too big to rotate the entire dish, you just rotate the LNB/Feedhorn assembly instead. This sometimes has a potentiometer attached to it, so it gives position feedback to the controller. There are a few standardized builds and a lot of really proprietary designs from manufacturers that went out of business 30 years ago, so you would be really lucky if the TV stations kept the documentation for their old equipment. Sometimes on really big dishes where it would be impractical to move the entire dish's elevation up and down, there is a small motor on the end of the arm that will move the whole LNB/Feedhorn assembly up and down a few degrees for fine tuning. This is called a "wiggler motor". Makes me sick to take down a 5 or 6 meter dish and discard it, but it's very expensive in labor to take it apart and truck it somewhere else, then they'd need a purpose-built foundation to set it up on, a crane, a flatbed truck, and liability insurance. The biggest one we got rid of was a 6.1m C-Band Vertex king pole. All told, I think we've discarded four or five in the last five years, as we have consolidated our operations. Glad to see that someone is getting some use out of these. I did see a local amateur astronomy club set one up as a radio telescope.

Trying to get all my stuff situated. After a long time watching your videos, I finally have a desk built in my shop for a garage sale computer, communications, a side on my shop to put up a tower and dish, and other things to start catching satellites . And I’m in the middle of nowhere with big open areas so I definitely think I will have some serious luck! Thankyou for peaking my interest into something I have no clue about! Pretty sure I’ll also get a crisp set of divorce papers too! 😂

We had the same model (I think) of dish at our Rideau Ferry observatory site. The panels slide together. Very well thought out, so we deployed it in our "flower garden" of dishes for our FRB discovery project. Then, one, day, I"m taking a much closer look at the dish, and realize that it is distorted. Which is why I got it for almost nothing :(

Thank you, keep working.

Oh good, another one of your videos making me wish I had space for stuff like this. :P

My house had a 10ft’r and I took it down and put at end of driveway. It was gone that day.

Thanks 👍

8:20 Thanks for recording.

You guys across the pond are so lucky. Here in Europe, we only have the small Ku-Band dishes. Those big ones are pretty much impossible to get, and even in the rare case that one appears for sale, people want ridiculous amounts of money for it 😭😭

You have to do some type EME project with one of those dishes ! I've read a cool article about how FT8 can be used via Moon Bounce the 10 footer and 100W probably enough to pull off a contact.

If we had enough space in our apartment for a satellite dish I think I would be banned from watch this channel 😂

Thanks for your videos, and thank you for motivating me to collect a lot of trash to "use" on vacations at my grandparents house XD

I wire houses and can't tell you how many people have old dishes that they probably want gone. One of these days when I have the space.

Funny you publish this video today, just Saturday a friend brought me a satellite dish that the homeowners on a job site were throwing away 😂

My dream is to have a motor drive for my 10" dish, it's hell having to go out and adjust it :)

Let me know if you need help with it. I got a better look at the back of the The Tracker 1 and the sensor looks like it may use a 1K potentiometer rather that a read switch.

Everyone wants to give me their old Ku band dishes here in the UK. I have quite a collection of them in my garage.

So after watching your videos for a while now i finally bought a rtl-sdr, whats some fun things to start out messing a round with?

Are the smaller modern dishes useful? I have some and im into radio things but very novice. When i take these off our house i definitely would keep them if i might be able to use them for something otherwise scrap pile they'll go. Thank you, love your videos as always.

How exactly does the Prosat 210 work? Do you hold down the West/East button until you start to receive signal and then fine tune or does the unit jump directly from one satellite to another?

That is a nice tv Satelite

When the aliens finally arrive I think you're going to be one of the first they contact.

The wires going to the dingus on the LNB is for skew.

I’m sorry, but you look like wolverine’s brother that didn’t mutate. 😂😂😂. Love the beard

Looks like the commits below got you covered.

I got a Hughesnet dish, it's around twice as the size of a dish network/directv dish. How do I use it to download images from the Goes 16 & 17 sats? I build all my own antennas so I'm confident I can build the antenna(LNB location).

Feel fortunate with all the Gratis Dishes that come to your attention. I’ve been trying to source a large used CBand dish but in Southern California for a while now with no luck. The word is out and those that have are starting to learn their value. The smaller Direct and Dish Tv dishes are easy to find. I’m currently setting up a phased array with the TV dishes. Something to do until get the large dish that I really want. I ve decided to purchase an 8’ C-Ku band dish. I still want to do more research on them before I commit 100%. Specifically on the material they are made of. The dishes I’ve found that I’m attempting to afford are made of sections of fiberglass. Is fiberglass a worthwhile material for RF, μWave, mmWave applications? I’d appreciate any advice or suggestions. Great video as always!

I wish I could organize my bench as well as you

Now people want those big dishes for EME. The ham guys bounce a 2 meter or 70 centimeter signal from Earth to Moon to Earth and talk to each other cross country. Gabe, you need a ham license! It would take collecting equipment to a whole new level.

I'm able to watch 21 tv satellite in central Europe with similar actuator, a bit shorter. Covers about 60 degrees. Fine tuning elevation and lnb skew for that arc was pain... and pleasure. What's yours coverage with actuator in North America? Nice channel, love your Satellite videos. Thank you.

somebody driving by will think you have a nsa listing station !

Wow you really scored with that antenna. It was well cared for and is in immaculate condition. C-band satellite use to be from 3.6 to 4.2 GHz but the FCC auctioned off 3.6 to 4.0 GHz not to long ago to the cell phone companies for 5G deployment. So you're going to need a new C-band LNB as the old ones will get overloaded with the now new terrestrial 5G signals. But I have an idea you're going to use this for something else like S-band HAM or maybe even MOON Bouncing !🚀🌜

Wow. JACKPOT!!!

living the dream 😃

0:19 maybe I'm mad but think they are super mad cool NOT ugly 😊🎉

Man it would be nice to scoop a could up. Have you heard of Meshtastic? I think it would be cool to see you tinker around with one!

Would these be a good size for your geodesic dome?

What is the dish that you have at the intro? AZ EL mount etc? Really interested in that right there.

One of these days you will get a satellite to add to your collection as well

Coop with a cooking channel and make a giant paella or barbecue to collect all those nice signals for your tongue! ;)

have you ever though of receiving transmissions from the james webb space telescope?

With that TV STation C Band, next thing you know, he will be talking to JWST.

NICE getting free stuff😋😋