Hey, buddy...You wanna dish?
March 27, 2019 4:03 PM Subscribe
Is there a market for used satellite dishes?
The house we bought a couple years ago came complete with two DirecTV/Dish dishes up on the roof. They both were already disconnected and the house had cable throughout instead.
Recently, our area experienced some insane windstorms. Like, 60mph winds. I lost shingles, and insurance is replacing the roof. This has me thinking, since the roofers are up there anyway, now would be a good time to get those dishes off the roof. I’m especially concerned that, if we have more windstorms like before, one of those dishes is going to get ripped away, seriously damaging the roof.
So, what do you do with two perfectly good dishes? Is there a market for them. I know DirecTV doesn’t take dishes back, but I’d really hate to toss them in the dumpster. Even if someone would take them for free, that’s better than ending up in a landfill.
Thanks.
The house we bought a couple years ago came complete with two DirecTV/Dish dishes up on the roof. They both were already disconnected and the house had cable throughout instead.
Recently, our area experienced some insane windstorms. Like, 60mph winds. I lost shingles, and insurance is replacing the roof. This has me thinking, since the roofers are up there anyway, now would be a good time to get those dishes off the roof. I’m especially concerned that, if we have more windstorms like before, one of those dishes is going to get ripped away, seriously damaging the roof.
So, what do you do with two perfectly good dishes? Is there a market for them. I know DirecTV doesn’t take dishes back, but I’d really hate to toss them in the dumpster. Even if someone would take them for free, that’s better than ending up in a landfill.
Thanks.
I doubt you could sell it, but there are plenty of folks who would happily take your dishes for things like building a long-distance WiFi bridge.
posted by rockindata at 4:13 PM on March 27, 2019
posted by rockindata at 4:13 PM on March 27, 2019
Certain dishes are prized by hobbyists because they’re easily adapted to DIY receivers, so you can pull raw satellite feeds, I think the keyword to look for is “free-to-air” satellite. They can also be (easily?) converted to WiFi extenders, or cell phone extenders.
I have no detailed information on any of the methods behind these, but know it’s a thing.
posted by furnace.heart at 4:53 PM on March 27, 2019 [2 favorites]
I have no detailed information on any of the methods behind these, but know it’s a thing.
posted by furnace.heart at 4:53 PM on March 27, 2019 [2 favorites]
Sure, I have sold a couple of old DirecTV and similar dishes on Craigslist for around $20 each.
posted by Slinga at 5:13 PM on March 27, 2019
posted by Slinga at 5:13 PM on March 27, 2019
There's a market for the old (huge) C-band dishes for hobbyist radio astronomy, but at least around here (PNW), the unused DirecTV or Dish Network dishes are so ubiquitous they're basically worthless.
posted by xedrik at 10:14 AM on March 30, 2019
posted by xedrik at 10:14 AM on March 30, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by General Malaise at 4:08 PM on March 27, 2019 [3 favorites]