Where to buy 15 ft 3.5" OD pole?
 

I'm putting up a satellite dish and I need a 12' 3.5" OD pole, would
Home Depot sell this? I don't want to go to a plumbing store, $$$. I
called some places in the phone book under scrap metal and they said
they had nothing like that. Any ideas?

Thanks
Mike

btw I'm in the DC area

Michael Shaffer wrote in message
news:eCvcd.7789$6P5.1949@okepread02...
I'm putting up a satellite dish and I need a 12' 3.5" OD pole, would
Home Depot sell this? I don't want to go to a plumbing store, $$$. I
called some places in the phone book under scrap metal and they said
they had nothing like that. Any ideas?

Thanks
Mike

btw I'm in the DC area

Are you sure it is 3.5", my dish is mounted on 1.5" galvanized iron pipe
(available at most good sized hardware stores). If that is what you're
looking for, then yes Home Depot should have it (check in the fence section,
chain link pole)

Happy hunting.

"Michael Shaffer" wrote in message
news:eCvcd.7789$6P5.1949@okepread02...
I'm putting up a satellite dish and I need a 12' 3.5" OD pole, would
Home Depot sell this? I don't want to go to a plumbing store, $$$. I
called some places in the phone book under scrap metal and they said
they had nothing like that. Any ideas?

Thanks
Mike

btw I'm in the DC area

Yeah, my first idea is to inquire as to why you need a 12 ft pipe.
Sure, you can get one, but why? Your subject line mentions
it as a 15 ft pole, I figure you're planning on it being 3 ft deep.
That question coming from someone that has mounted several
dishes already. I am not willing to put one on a roof, because there
are plenty of other places they can be put, and more easy access
gained. So my first question is why you want a 12 foot pole.

Michael Shaffer wrote in message
news:eCvcd.7789$6P5.1949@okepread02...
I'm putting up a satellite dish and I need a 12' 3.5" OD pole, would
Home Depot sell this? I don't want to go to a plumbing store, $$$. I
called some places in the phone book under scrap metal and they said
they had nothing like that. Any ideas?

Thanks
Mike

btw I'm in the DC area

Lowes will sell you 3" ID PVC pipe 20' long. (OD will be close to 3.5")
Set it and pour it solid with concrete (about 80-90 lbs) after you get all the
bolts set in it where you want them. I'm not sure how you would break it after
the concrete sets.

Michael Shaffer wrote:
I'm putting up a satellite dish and I need a 12' 3.5" OD pole, would
Home Depot sell this? I don't want to go to a plumbing store, $$$. I
called some places in the phone book under scrap metal and they said
they had nothing like that. Any ideas?

Thanks
Mike

btw I'm in the DC area
Hi,
4x4 lumber wouldn't do it?
Tony

Michael Shaffer wrote:

I'm putting up a satellite dish and I need a 12' 3.5" OD pole, would
Home Depot sell this? I don't want to go to a plumbing store, $$$.

Plumbing supply houses are the ones that sell iron pipe in 20' lengths,
which sounds like what you need, a 20' piece of 3 or 4" iron pipe.
You'll probably want galvanized, or face a lifetime of rust.

You can get the pipe at http://www.asapsource.com

Rich
http://www.garage-door-hardware.com


"Michael Shaffer" wrote in message
news:eCvcd.7789$6P5.1949@okepread02...
I'm putting up a satellite dish and I need a 12' 3.5" OD pole, would
Home Depot sell this? I don't want to go to a plumbing store, $$$. I
called some places in the phone book under scrap metal and they said
they had nothing like that. Any ideas?

Thanks
Mike

btw I'm in the DC area

Home Despot. I just did mine yesterday. Used a piece of 1 1/4
galvanized. Direct TV hardware fit right on. Lumber is not very stable
if it isn't treated.

--
Steve Walker
(remove wallet to reply)

Sorry, should of mentioned it's a 3.1 meter TVRO dish..

John Sullivan wrote:

Are you sure it is 3.5", my dish is mounted on 1.5" galvanized iron pipe
(available at most good sized hardware stores). If that is what you're
looking for, then yes Home Depot should have it (check in the fence section,
chain link pole)

Happy hunting.

"Michael Shaffer" wrote in message
news:eCvcd.7789$6P5.1949@okepread02...

I'm putting up a satellite dish and I need a 12' 3.5" OD pole, would
Home Depot sell this? I don't want to go to a plumbing store, $$$. I
called some places in the phone book under scrap metal and they said
they had nothing like that. Any ideas?

Thanks
Mike

btw I'm in the DC area

"Michael Shaffer" wrote in message
news:eCvcd.7789$6P5.1949@okepread02...
I'm putting up a satellite dish and I need a 12' 3.5" OD pole, would Home
Depot sell this? I don't want to go to a plumbing store, $$$. I called
some places in the phone book under scrap metal and they said they had
nothing like that. Any ideas?

Go the a plumbing supply house. They are not as high prices as you may
think.

IIRC, most poles for that sized dish have to be sunk about 4' deep.
Consider renting an auger to dig the hole.

"John Sullivan" wrote in message
...
Are you sure it is 3.5", my dish is mounted on 1.5" galvanized iron pipe
(available at most good sized hardware stores). If that is what you're
looking for, then yes Home Depot should have it (check in the fence
section,
chain link pole)

Did you see the type of dish he has? Yes, he need a large strong pole.

"Rich" wrote in message
news:m%ycd.2783$fP3.658@trndny05...
You have to call them and speak to a rep for a price quote.



The web page has prices of 88¢ an inch for 4" pipe. Discount it 50% and
then add shipping and you still have very high prices. Some things just
don't lend themselves to mail order.

Okay, it's a 10ft dish. So again I ask, why the 12' height?

Michael Shaffer wrote in message
news:l3ycd.7801$6P5.2197@okepread02...
Sorry, should of mentioned it's a 3.1 meter TVRO dish..

John Sullivan wrote:

Are you sure it is 3.5", my dish is mounted on 1.5" galvanized iron pipe
(available at most good sized hardware stores). If that is what you're
looking for, then yes Home Depot should have it (check in the fence
section,
chain link pole)

Happy hunting.

"Michael Shaffer" wrote in message
news:eCvcd.7789$6P5.1949@okepread02...

I'm putting up a satellite dish and I need a 12' 3.5" OD pole, would
Home Depot sell this? I don't want to go to a plumbing store, $$$. I
called some places in the phone book under scrap metal and they said
they had nothing like that. Any ideas?

Thanks
Mike

btw I'm in the DC area

Michael Baugh wrote:

Okay, it's a 10ft dish. So again I ask, why the 12' height?

No kidding. Hey original poster: Is there going to be any
shielding behind it up there??? Preferrably, the only thing
hitting your LNB/LNC should be what's bouncing off of the dish.
They *really* work better with something like a building or a
hillside behind that dish, not free air (and stray RF).

--
The real Tom Pendergast [ So if you meet me, have some courtesy,
aka I-zheet M'drurz [ have some sympathy, and some taste.
Accept no substitutes! [ Use all your well-learned politesse,
$1 to Mick for the .sig ---[ or I'll lay your soul to waste.

Michael Shaffer wrote in message news:eCvcd.7789$6P5.1949@okepread02...
I'm putting up a satellite dish and I need a 12' 3.5" OD pole, would
Home Depot sell this? I don't want to go to a plumbing store, $$$. I
called some places in the phone book under scrap metal and they said
they had nothing like that. Any ideas?

Thanks
Mike

btw I'm in the DC area

Mike
Try using 3 inch Rigid Steel Conduit. It comes in 10 ft. lengths and
each length has a coupling.

JRW

Edwin Pawlowski wrote:
"John Sullivan" wrote in message
...
Are you sure it is 3.5", my dish is mounted on 1.5" galvanized iron
pipe (available at most good sized hardware stores). If that is what
you're looking for, then yes Home Depot should have it (check in the
fence section,
chain link pole)

Did you see the type of dish he has? Yes, he need a large strong
pole.

No he doesn't. He should put the dish on the ground. Do you think 12 feet
out of 24,000 miles is going to make any difference?

Besides, putting a ten-foot circle of metal twelve feet in the air is a
disaster waiting for a victim.

"Michael Shaffer" wrote in message
news:eCvcd.7789$6P5.1949@okepread02...
I'm putting up a satellite dish and I need a 12' 3.5" OD pole, would Home
Depot sell this? I don't want to go to a plumbing store, $$$. I called
some places in the phone book under scrap metal and they said they had
nothing like that. Any ideas?

Thanks
Mike

btw I'm in the DC area

Yellow pages under steel supplier. They usually sell to the general public.
You could probably get some from a scrap dealer at 15% of what new will
cost.

Steve

"JerryMouse" wrote in message
No he doesn't. He should put the dish on the ground. Do you think 12 feet
out of 24,000 miles is going to make any difference?

Besides, putting a ten-foot circle of metal twelve feet in the air is a
disaster waiting for a victim.

It wont be 12' in the air. At least 4' should be in the ground. Then he has
to reach to the center of a 10' dish. That sucks up about 9' already.
There could be another reason to lift it another couple of feet to clear a
rock or something.

Done right, it will not be a disaster.

I used to use my 10' dish as a UHF antenna, with a bowtie
in place of the LNA. Got extremely good distance reception.
But my question of why so high still hasn't been answered.
This is a repair group. You know that whatever gets put up
will need some tinkering. So why put it up any higher than to
clear the ground?
True, there may be horses, kids, whatever that need to have
it above them. That's fine. But why a 10' instead of 18", and
why so high? Inquiring minds want to know.

Edwin Pawlowski wrote in message
. com...
It wont be 12' in the air. At least 4' should be in the ground. Then he
has
to reach to the center of a 10' dish. That sucks up about 9' already.
There could be another reason to lift it another couple of feet to clear a
rock or something.

Edwin Pawlowski wrote:

"JerryMouse" wrote in message


No he doesn't. He should put the dish on the ground. Do you think 12 feet
out of 24,000 miles is going to make any difference?

Besides, putting a ten-foot circle of metal twelve feet in the air is a
disaster waiting for a victim.



It wont be 12' in the air. At least 4' should be in the ground. Then he has
to reach to the center of a 10' dish. That sucks up about 9' already.
There could be another reason to lift it another couple of feet to clear a
rock or something.


For me, it would be 3' of snow.

Done right, it will not be a disaster.

On Sun, 17 Oct 2004 16:41:41 -0500, "JerryMouse" wrote:
Edwin Pawlowski wrote:
"John Sullivan" wrote in message
...
Are you sure it is 3.5", my dish is mounted on 1.5" galvanized iron
pipe (available at most good sized hardware stores). If that is what
you're looking for, then yes Home Depot should have it (check in the
fence section,
chain link pole)

Did you see the type of dish he has? Yes, he need a large strong
pole.

No he doesn't. He should put the dish on the ground. Do you think 12 feet
out of 24,000 miles is going to make any difference?

How's he going to point it at the satellite when it is laying on the ground?
The flattest elevation angle in the mid-latitudes is 49 degrees for a bird
that's at the same longitude in the Clarke belt as the ground location,
and gets steeper toward either end of the arc. The lower lip of the dish
must clear the ground at minimum beam elevation (dish 90 degrees to
the Earth's surface) in order to cover the entire arc.

That means the mount point must be more than 5 feet above ground level
for a 10 foot dish. But that's not enough if he wants to maintain a reasonable
antenna noise temperature. To do that, the major dish sidelobes must
clear all terrestrial obstructions.

In flat terrain without a raised horizon, and assuming a typical 2 degree
half angle for the first major dish sidelobe, that means the bottom edge
of the dish needs to be at least 3 feet above ground level. For rougher
terrain, or locations where there are far field obstructions (buildings,
trees, etc) out toward the horizon, the dish will need to be higher.

So *at minimum* he needs a mount pole that sticks 8 feet out of the
ground. A 12 foot pole lets him do that, with 4 feet set in concrete in
the ground to resist the overturning moment.

Besides, putting a ten-foot circle of metal twelve feet in the air is a
disaster waiting for a victim.

That's why he needs a heavy pole. 3.5 inch diameter pipe is actually
a bit on the light side for this size dish. I have my "small" 12 foot dish
mounted on 6 inch pipe. The larger one (a 10m Scientific Atlanta dish)
is mounted on a 24 inch diameter heavy wall steel pedestal designed
for the dish.

The overturning moment on medium to large size dishes is very
high in even moderate winds. My big dish needs a mount capable
of withstanding over 250,000 foot-pounds in a 50 MPH wind.
You need a well engineered reinforced concrete base to withstand
the forces, and a heavy enough pole to avoid bending under the
load.

BTW, as a source of pipe for the pole, I'm using 6 inch oilfield well
casing, aquired as free scrap from a friend in the business, for my
small dish. The pedestal mount for the larger dish was custom
fabricated by Scientific Atlanta, and came with the dish. There's
7 yards of concrete in the base.

Gary

Michael Shaffer wrote in message news:eCvcd.7789$6P5.1949@okepread02...
I'm putting up a satellite dish and I need a 12' 3.5" OD pole, would
Home Depot sell this? I don't want to go to a plumbing store, $$$. I
called some places in the phone book under scrap metal and they said
they had nothing like that. Any ideas?

Thanks
Mike

btw I'm in the DC area

Take a drive down to Annapolis and check out the rigging and boat
yards, particularly over in Eastport along both sides of Back Creek.
Sounds like you could use a piece of somebody's cast-off aluminum mast
section. There is a fair bit of it lying around in the yards out
there -- ask around, you'll probably find somebody to sell you a
length for not too much money, since it wouldn't be much good for
anything else.

Regards,

Bob

On Sun, 17 Oct 2004 20:50:34 -0400, Gary Coffman
vaguely proposed a theory
.......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email

OOI, and PMFJI

Is there any reason not to use a pyramid tower made up of smaller
poles, to give a nice spread base? Most windage is overcome this way.
************************************************** ***
Have you noticed that people always run from what
they _need_ toward what they want?????

Michael Shaffer wrote:

I'm putting up a satellite dish and I need a 12' 3.5" OD pole, would
Home Depot sell this? I don't want to go to a plumbing store, $$$. I
called some places in the phone book under scrap metal and they said
they had nothing like that. Any ideas?

Thanks
Mike

btw I'm in the DC area

3.5 inch OD pipe is schedule forty 3 inch iron pipe. You will not
find it at home depot. You will have to go to a plumbing supply and
one that deals with utility pipe.

--
Robert Allison
Rimshot, Inc.
Georgetown, TX

"Robert Allison" wrote in message
...
snip-----

3.5 inch OD pipe is schedule forty 3 inch iron pipe. You will not
find it at home depot. You will have to go to a plumbing supply and
one that deals with utility pipe.

--
Robert Allison
Rimshot, Inc.
Georgetown, TX

That's true, but it's also true of pipe schedule from 5S through XXS. Pipe
outside diameter doesn't change, wall thickness (and inside diameter) does.
For a sturdier mount, one could go to a higher schedule, assuming cost was
not an issue.

Harold

Maybe you can tell why, nowadays, a 10' dish for TVRO?

Gary Coffman wrote in message
...

The overturning moment on medium to large size dishes is very
high in even moderate winds. My big dish needs a mount capable
of withstanding over 250,000 foot-pounds in a 50 MPH wind.
You need a well engineered reinforced concrete base to withstand
the forces, and a heavy enough pole to avoid bending under the
load.

BTW, as a source of pipe for the pole, I'm using 6 inch oilfield well
casing, aquired as free scrap from a friend in the business, for my
small dish. The pedestal mount for the larger dish was custom
fabricated by Scientific Atlanta, and came with the dish. There's
7 yards of concrete in the base.

Gary

Michael Shaffer wrote in message news:eCvcd.7789$6P5.1949@okepread02...
I'm putting up a satellite dish and I need a 12' 3.5" OD pole, would
Home Depot sell this? I don't want to go to a plumbing store, $$$. I
called some places in the phone book under scrap metal and they said
they had nothing like that. Any ideas?

Thanks
Mike

btw I'm in the DC area

Lots of suggestions and sidetracks (interestin) in this thread. To
reply to 'where to find it?' - go to any welding shop or business
using iron in construction (farm equipment & fertilizer in this area).
They will have stock sizes in 20 ft lengths. May even cut to size at
no cost. I doubt if you will find it any cheaper anywhere else except
a scrap yard. I suspect plumbing shops would be higher.

Harry K

even with a fairly large size pole, you will still get quite a bit of wind
sway with a dish on the top.
I would instead make a tripod of much smaller tubing (1 sch 40, maybe). The
resulting structure will
be much more rigid.

bill

"Michael Shaffer" wrote in message
news:eCvcd.7789$6P5.1949@okepread02...
I'm putting up a satellite dish and I need a 12' 3.5" OD pole, would Home
Depot sell this? I don't want to go to a plumbing store, $$$. I called
some places in the phone book under scrap metal and they said they had
nothing like that. Any ideas?

Thanks
Mike

btw I'm in the DC area

The best place would be a metal supply business. I break my spinnaker
pole too often, and I can pick up a replacement aluminum pole and
reinstall the fittings far cheaper than by buying at a chandler.

I would, however, offer an alternative suggestion. Try to find a ham
radio operator, or a club, in your area, and ask for their advice. I am
thinking that what you really need is a guyed mast, and they will know
where best to get them. Basically, this would look like an erector set,
but you would have cables from the top to form a triangle and keep the
mounting point immobile.

Michael Shaffer wrote:

I'm putting up a satellite dish and I need a 12' 3.5" OD pole, would
Home Depot sell this? I don't want to go to a plumbing store, $$$. I
called some places in the phone book under scrap metal and they said
they had nothing like that. Any ideas?

Thanks
Mike

btw I'm in the DC area

--
SPAMBLOCK NOTICE! To reply to me, delete the h from apkh.net, if it is
there.

"William Brown" wrote in message
...
The best place would be a metal supply business. I break my spinnaker
pole too often, and I can pick up a replacement aluminum pole and
reinstall the fittings far cheaper than by buying at a chandler.

if you're breaking a spin pole often, you're either doing something wrong or
need a bigger/thicker section. try a carbon fiber tube which actually aren't
that hard to make.

I would, however, offer an alternative suggestion. Try to find a ham
radio operator, or a club, in your area, and ask for their advice. I am
thinking that what you really need is a guyed mast, and they will know
where best to get them. Basically, this would look like an erector set,
but you would have cables from the top to form a triangle and keep the
mounting point immobile.

Michael Shaffer wrote:

I'm putting up a satellite dish and I need a 12' 3.5" OD pole, would Home
Depot sell this? I don't want to go to a plumbing store, $$$. I called
some places in the phone book under scrap metal and they said they had
nothing like that. Any ideas?

Thanks
Mike

btw I'm in the DC area

--
SPAMBLOCK NOTICE! To reply to me, delete the h from apkh.net, if it is
there.

Michael Baugh wrote:

Maybe you can tell why, nowadays, a 10' dish for TVRO?

Ability to receive C-band. (Dish and DirecTV are Ku-band)

--
The real Tom Pendergast [ So if you meet me, have some courtesy,
aka I-zheet M'drurz [ have some sympathy, and some taste.
Accept no substitutes! [ Use all your well-learned politesse,
$1 to Mick for the .sig ---[ or I'll lay your soul to waste.

"Ken Finney" wrote

The polar mounts for these
dishes are designed to fit around 3 inch pipe, and it would be a PIA to
make
them work with something else. Not impossible or even difficult, but a
PIA
never the less.


A weld on bell reducer and a pup of pipe would do it if the reduction was
needed at the end of the pipe. If it were needed in the middle, then the
cost of the pipe would be even cheaper for a 3" OD pipe.

Steve

"Michael Baugh" wrote in message
. ..
Maybe you can tell why, nowadays, a 10' dish for TVRO?

snip

C Band TVRO is TOTALLY different than DBS satellite TV. DBS (Dish, DirecTV)
is a prepacked set of channels designed to appeal to the largest audience.
C Band is a totally different beast; you get to decide which of the hundreds
(when you include audio services, thousands) of channels to watch (listen)
to. DBS didn't, and never could, replace C Band. For the "average" person,
DBS is the right answer. But then again, the average person doesn't machine
metal, either.

According to Ken Finney :
I was buying a "less than 21 foot" piece, so I'd expect to pay more per foot
than for a full piece. Also, I didn't shop around, I just went to a place
that
I expected to have it and paid retail. FWIW: The polar mounts for these
dishes are designed to fit around 3 inch pipe, and it would be a PIA to make
them work with something else. Not impossible or even difficult, but a PIA
never the less.

Metal suppliers tend to charge by the pound because it's a standard commodity
item, and the shape doesn't matter much. 3" sched 40 is 7.6 pounds/foot.

At the place I like going (it's not a HUGE industrial supplier, but it definately
isn't a consumer boutique either ;-) I was last paying about $1CDN/pound. Couple
of dollars per cut if they bother charging.

A friend of mine built a 12' dish mount with some 3" (for a radio telescope) for
a mount.

Should be plenty strong. Just wasn't quite so sure of the welds on the diagonal
bracing (it's bolted on top of a concrete slab, instead of embedded)..
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

According to William Brown :
I would, however, offer an alternative suggestion. Try to find a ham
radio operator, or a club, in your area, and ask for their advice. I am
thinking that what you really need is a guyed mast, and they will know
where best to get them. Basically, this would look like an erector set,
but you would have cables from the top to form a triangle and keep the
mounting point immobile.

It's an idea, however, the antennas that radio operators use tend not
to be large relatively flat surfaces.

The dish may be perforated, but it doesn't matter. I don't remember the
exact number, but it's something like any dish made with perforations
smaller than about 1" is darn close to equivalent to unperforated sheet
metal w.r.t. wind pressure calculations.

The perforations save weight, not wind pressure.
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

According to William Brown :
I would, however, offer an alternative suggestion. Try to find a ham
radio operator, or a club, in your area, and ask for their advice. I am
thinking that what you really need is a guyed mast, and they will know
where best to get them. Basically, this would look like an erector set,
but you would have cables from the top to form a triangle and keep the
mounting point immobile.

It's an idea, however, the antennas that radio operators use tend not
to be large relatively flat surfaces.

The dish may be perforated, but it doesn't matter. I don't remember the
exact number, but it's something like any dish made with perforations
smaller than about 1" is darn close to equivalent to unperforated sheet
metal w.r.t. wind pressure calculations.

Even if it's made out of wire screen and the actual metal surface area
is really low.

The perforations save weight, not wind pressure.
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

"Michael Shaffer" wrote in message
news:eCvcd.7789$6P5.1949@okepread02...
I'm putting up a satellite dish and I need a 12' 3.5" OD pole, would Home
Depot sell this? I don't want to go to a plumbing store, $$$. I called some
places in the phone book under scrap metal and they said they had nothing like
that. Any ideas?

Thanks
Mike

btw I'm in the DC area

This is Turtle.

You need to call the scrape metal places and ask for 2" or 3" Drill stimb used
on oil well drilling. They should get a lot of it for they can only use it so
many times before the just dump it and buy new. This stuff will not bend or
break no matter what you do to it. To get the size right buy you a 3" or 2" to a
3.5" reducer and weld it on the end to fit your 3.5" dish adapter.

I can't believe a scrape metal company don't have 3" Schuale 40 or 80 pipe !
Angle iron and iron pipe is their biggest items they deal with. Maybe it's the
3.5" pipe they don't have but 3" is a common pipe they get.

TURTLE

On Mon, 18 Oct 2004 05:48:49 -0400, "Michael Baugh" wrote:
Maybe you can tell why, nowadays, a 10' dish for TVRO?

C band performance during rain fade, or for receiving satellites near
the ends of the visible arc. A 6 footer just won't cut it in those cases,
you need the greater gain.

While lots of people just subscribe to the packaged Ku band DBS
feeds (DirecTV, Dish Network, etc) which only require a fixed 18 inch
dish, there's much more out there to be found on C band (also a lot
to be found on Ku band that an 18 inch dish won't pick up). I can
receive raw back haul feeds from news and sporting events, foreign
TV from European satellites low on my horizon, some commercial,
government, and military closed circuit feeds, etc.

Much of it isn't interesting, some is. One of my favorite TV shows
comes from TV Dubai. It is in Arabic, so I don't understand what they
say, but I know what it is. I've dubbed it Arabian Bandstand because
it is a direct ripoff of the old American Bandstand show. The host
even resembles Dick Clark, with a moustache. They play older
American rock and roll, with the lyrics redubbed in Arabic. It is a
hoot.

I used my bigger dish to follow the Clementine probe to the Moon.
I was getting the raw data same as NASA was. That was cool,
and once I whipped up some decoding software, allowed me to
crosscheck what they were posting on the web about what it was
discovering.

Even my bigger dish can't receive the signals from the Mars rovers,
but technical advances, and the higher power missions planned
for the future, should one day make signals from Mars receivable
on my setup. (I did follow Mars Express out to 4 million miles before
I lost the signal.)

I suppose the real answer to why a large dish is *because I can*.
In a way it is like, why listen to shortwave radio? There are a lot
more voices out there than just the formula pap fed to us here.

Gary

"Ken Finney" wrote in message
I thought he asked a perfectly good question, it was the responses that
were all over the place! FWIW: All big dishes use 3 inch schedule 40
pipe (at least those from 6 foot to 12 foot). I just had to buy some
myself, and it is about $10 a foot, from a metal supply place.


Extremely expensive!!! It can be had for less than half that price. I've
not bought pipe in months but I paid that for 20". Steel has jumped
recently though.

It is possible to buy used pipe that is in good condition. I'd also ask
around at a couple of weld shops.