Old 12' mesh dish - worth keeping or scrap metal?

I grabbed a free mesh dish off a neighbor a couple years back, maybe ten feet, and it sat behind my shed for two seasons before I did anything with it. Ended up pointing it at satellites on 1296 MHz and it works far better than I expected. Mesh with small holes acts basially solid at those frequencies, so don't write the surface off just because it's not a solid panel. Warping matters more the higher up you go, so eyeball the dish from the side and see if it still holds a smooth curve overall. A few dented spots won't kill you at the lower microwave bands, but badly bowed panels will cost you at the top end.

The mount is honestly half the value here. Polar mounts with a working actuator are getting hard to find, and guys repurpose them for all kinds of pointing setups. Even if you never finish a satellite project, that hardware is worth saving from the scrapper. For me the math is simple, it's free and the only cost is a truck bed and an afternoon with a friend helping you wrestle it down off the post. Worst case, the mesh breaks down flat, the steel pole becomes a mast stub, and you're out nothing but gas money. I'd haul it home before the scrap guy gets a call.

I'd be the one telling you to let the scrapper have it, and I say that as someone who made the opposite call. Took home a free 10 footer about six years ago because free gear is free gear. It ate two weekends of my life getting it off the mount, then sat behind the garage ever since. Never pointed it at anything. The truth is a dish that size wants a project person, and if you have never done satellite or microwave work, starting on a 12 footer is like learning to drive in a semi. Pointing accuracy gets critical as you go up in frequency, and if the mesh panels are warped you will spend more time aligning than operating.

Also worth thinking about what it does to your yard and your neighbors. Mine became the thing every visitor comments on, and not in a good way.

My suggestion is to post it on the club reflector or your section email list before the scrapper comes. There is almost always one guy into UHF or satellite work who will haul it away happy. If nobody bites in a week, take the scrap money and put it toward a small used dish and a rotor. You will acutally get on the air with that setup instead of staring at a big dish wondering what to do with it.

Take the actuator arm and the pipe off the polar mount even if you leave the rest, that's my advice after doing something similar with a fourteen footer a few years back. I never finished the dish project either, but the worm gear actuator became the elevation drive on a smaller dish I did complete, and the pole has held my VHF antennas since. One thing to check before hauling it though, ask him to run the actuator in and out with the receiver still hooked up if it exists, because a dead motor is a parts-only item and a working one is the real prize. Nobody wants to discover that in your yard.

I know almost nothing about this stuff, but my dad had one of those big backyard dishes years ago and the one thing I remember is how heavy and awkward the whole thing was. So if you do haul it home, maybe plan how you're getting it off the pole before you're out there with a wrench. My question is, once it's pointed at the sky, do you need some kind of receiver box to actually hear anything, or is it more complicated than that? I keep reading about moonbounce and it sounds fun.