How I made a C only BUD work on KU

FaT Air said:

Mount an offset dish to the lip. Here's how I did it
I cut 1 inch angle irons to span the mounting holes of the dish, a .75m Channel Master.(30 inch) I mounted the angle irons to the dish and placed the "barn door" hinge between the angle iron and dish and marked and drilled holes to mount the hinge to the angle iron. I also made a small angle to place at 90 degrees to allow the turnbuckle to pivot. Extra washers were necessary between the dish and angle iron. Another small angle was mounted to the bottom of the BUD for the other end of the turnbuckle. Because a 1/4 inch bolt doesn't fill the holes in the ends of the turnbuckles, i used a rubber grommit on the bolt and fender washers to take up the play.
I drilled a small hole on the sides of the offset dish in line with the lip of the BUD. For E-W adjustment, one side has a spring between the Ku and BUD lip, the other a small turnbuckle.

Alignment: aimed at a southern sat with C and Ku transponders active. Peaked C with the actuator.(tracking the arc as well as I can make it) Then adjusted the turnbuckles on the offset for max on Ku. That was it.
Time, fabrication: 2 hours. Alignment: 20 minutes

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MrFTAMan said:

Does that extra weight interfere with the C Band performance?
At one time I thought about mounting a Directv dish on my dish to see if I can track the circular signals of other satellites (No, no hacking)...
I doubt anything is up there that the FTA receivers can pick up. Am I right, Iceberg? I remember getting the ION and NASA stuff.

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MrFTAMan said:

I doubt anything is up there that the FTA receivers can pick up. Am I right, Iceberg? I remember getting the ION and NASA stuff.

Click to expand...

FaT Air said:

Mount an offset dish to the lip. Here's how I did it
I cut 1 inch angle irons to span the mounting holes of the dish, a .75m Channel Master.(30 inch) I mounted the angle irons to the dish and placed the "barn door" hinge between the angle iron and dish and marked and drilled holes to mount the hinge to the angle iron. I also made a small angle to place at 90 degrees to allow the turnbuckle to pivot. Extra washers were necessary between the dish and angle iron. Another small angle was mounted to the bottom of the BUD for the other end of the turnbuckle. Because a 1/4 inch bolt doesn't fill the holes in the ends of the turnbuckles, i used a rubber grommit on the bolt and fender washers to take up the play.
I drilled a small hole on the sides of the offset dish in line with the lip of the BUD. For E-W adjustment, one side has a spring between the Ku and BUD lip, the other a small turnbuckle.

Alignment: aimed at a southern sat with C and Ku transponders active. Peaked C with the actuator.(tracking the arc as well as I can make it) Then adjusted the turnbuckles on the offset for max on Ku. That was it.
Time, fabrication: 2 hours. Alignment: 20 minutes

Click to expand...

FaT Air said:

I forgot to mention the BUD is a USS (United States Satellite, Thief River Falls, Mn.)steel dish, designed for the northern cllimes nasty weather. Very HD. The dish mounting ring is 1/4 inch by ~3 and about 30 inch(a guess at this time) dia. All ribs. mesh, everything, HD steel. The mesh is welded onto the ribs. I have stood, albeit, back when I was a bit lighter, in the dish to tweak the skew, without affecting it. No, there has been no effect on the C band performance. It does shade a small portion of the BUD, But this area is quite small in proportion.
For those that may want/need to do it on an aluminum dish. My thoughts were guy wire(s) from the lip where the Ku is mounted, to the center or mount ring of the BUD. Well it's only a 30 inch. and performs as. well, as a 30 inch should. The only thing I know I don't get is Montana PBS and some feeds on AMC 15, all else (est. 95+%) is good. A new metal 39 inch would probably be lighter than the commercial 30in Channel Master. But I don't have one, Think that would work even better. Tracks the arc as best as can be expected. Get the C tracking, the Ku is locked in. If it had Ku mesh, I would have kept the ADL feed and LNB's. BTW, you'd need a Prime Focus Ku LNBF.
Mounting a Ku feed to the left or right would only require another sat position be programmed a bit E or W of the C band position, for the same sat..
The Problem I had, using an ADL C/Ku feed, with a good Ku lnb, was poor Ku performance. It worked, but knew it should/could be better. I had the 30 inch (fixed) and the BUD aimed at the same sat and the 30 inch easily would get twice the transponders. My problem is the mesh used. Expanded sheet metal. It's not smooth and the holes are too big. Expanded, if rolled smooth, with small enough holes would probably work a whole lot better.

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