Satellite LNB

[seawolf]

Recently I was making my dumpster rounds and came across a few satellite LNB units (the part on the front of the satellite dish) I disassembled them and found the circuit board was plated almost solid on one side and with a considerable amount on the other side. I took a piece about 2 inches square and put it in the toaster oven and depopulated it. I cut it into 1 inch squares and dropped them in a small beaker and covered with 50 - 50 nitric. In a few minuets the gold foil floated free. I am saving the boards for a larger lot that I will weigh and process then weigh the foils then process and weigh the button.
Mark

 

[Claudie]

I took one of these apart too. The plating looks pretty thin on the back side (the side that is completely plated). I haven't gone any farther with it though. Many people picking up junk on spring clean up week leave these behind and the streets are full of them. It does look promising, I am curious to see the results of your yield experiment.

 

[Claudie]

After researching this on the internet, I am not sure we are both referring to the same parts. The part I recovered was the motherboard from a triple LNB. I see from my search, that the single receivers have a smaller circuit board in them that is actually a part of the LNB itself. The motherboard I removed was from the base of the LNB. They both appear to have enough gold to make them worth picking up. :lol:

 

[Ocean]

They do look promising, yet using the "eye" test, I think the "gold" is alloyed with something.

It is a silvery looking gold, not a yellow looking gold.

But I am also excited about them.

I've got a source of these boards, and if your experiments go well, I can supply some base material.

 

[TheSatelliteGuy]

Recently I was making my dumpster rounds and came across a few satellite LNB units (the part on the front of the satellite dish) I disassembled them and found the circuit board was plated almost solid on one side and with a considerable amount on the other side. I took a piece about 2 inches square and put it in the toaster oven and depopulated it. I cut it into 1 inch squares and dropped them in a small beaker and covered with 50 - 50 nitric. In a few minuets the gold foil floated free. I am saving the boards for a larger lot that I will weigh and process then weigh the foils then process and weigh the button.
Mark

..........I LITERALLY have HUNDREDS of these LNB's. I have DirecTV & Dish Network ones...singles, duals, triples...even some that pull off of 5 different satellites! I'm new to the forum...but! it sound like this 15 year accumulation is something that I don't want to start thinking about throwing away now!? I'd be real interested to see what you come up with on these! I should take apart one of each kind and just see what I might have? Some of the older LNB's I have weigh almost twice as much as these newer ones?...More GOLD maybe??? I also have a TON (Probably more) of old satellite receivers...literally hundreds of these things I've accumulated in the last 15 years. I even have a bunch of the old Prime Star receivers, but, mostly DirecTV and Dish Network. I wonder if there is anything of much value in any of these? As I said I'm new to this forum. I've never really done any refining...I've just been hoarding up all of the sterling and other silver and gold scrap that I can find. Thought it was time to figure out what to do with some of it as far as refining. When I saw this topic about Satellite LNB's, it just got me thinking? I wondered before if any of this old satellite equipment would be worth anything? I've even thought about pulling the boards out of all of these old receivers and putting them on eBay! If anyone has any thoughts or links about these old receivers I would be glad to here! Thanks.

 

[hfywc]

here's a couple of listings in ebay....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110651826853&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT



this one just ended....

http://cgi.ebay.com/Gold-scrap-silver-recover-refine-cards-satalite-radio-/160544725754?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item2561361afa

 

[seawolf]

I am still collecting the LNBs and as time permits pulling them apart. When I get about ten pounds of boards I will process. BTW they are pretty.
Mark

 

[Ocean]

I like those Feebay prices..

 

[turtle]

what brand of dish was it? Do they all have this board?
Thanks, Turtle

 

[seawolf]

So far I have only found Dish Network. Most, 90 - 95% have thes boards a few have a copper looking board and a few have a silver looking board.
Mark

 

[Jimmi_p]

Primestar huh? I havent heard that mentioned in a while. That was back when installing sat systems still actually paid well. $52k a year back in 1997...I miss those days. Some of the older Hughes DTV boxes had full gold traced boards too. I still have a bunch of them. The plating is pretty thin though.
Nowadays installing them doesn't pay nearly as well.
Also be careful about the dish network eq. That company has gotten kinda pissy about dtv installers taking there EQ.. The company I used to contract for even got a few letters from dish about installers allegedly stealing their stuff. My boss told them they could have as many of the boxes we had they cared to come and get but they never did. Maybe I should see if he still has any.

 

[rfran7788]

I ve got plenty too ..but some are saying they aint worth much.....some of the lnb looks like gold to me..and then theres some that look like silver
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=20816

 

[necromancer]

try testing.

 

[King6]

Has anyone gotten any pm results from the boards in lnb's? I have access to hundreds of them, so I'm wondering if there worth going after for pm.