Help me start my satellite farm

hank123 · May 8, 2016

I found this yesterday. Looks like its in ok shape. the mesh is bent in one spot that can be bent back and a few dings from hail.

Let me know if you think its worth taking down.
Also found a fiberglass today a block away from my house.

I have room to set up a sat farm.

fred555 · May 8, 2016

Welcome to Satellite Guys!

I would get that dish.
What is the diameter?
Sort of looks like a 10 footer.
Is it a freebie?
If not how much are they asking?

That one little tear is no big deal.

hank123 · May 8, 2016

Free. Dude wants its gone. I may grab it Monday.
I contract for DirecTV so I run into cool stuff all the time people want to get rid of. We have a load of C band dishes in Colorado.

I think it is a 10 foot dish.

Should I get the fiberglass dish as well? It looked to be a 10 footer.

What else should I keep an eye out for?

Thanks for your help.

fred555 · May 8, 2016

Free is excellent. And its a 10 footer, get it ASAP.

Do you have pictures of the fiberglass dish?
The back of the dish where it mounts to the pole would be good to see too.
Interested to see if it has a stationary, or polar (motorized and movable) mount.
Just be prepared for the fiberglass dish being heavy.

I would look out for 3 to 4 foot oval Ku dishes too.

hank123 · May 8, 2016

Word up! No I don't have pics of the fiberglass however its only a block away from me so I will pick it up tomorrow.
If its not worth the time ill take it to the dump. No big deal.

I can have a pole in the ground this coming week.
I'm also picking up a S2 HDVR 1200 by GeOSAT pro with a dish and motor.

Figure this will give me a good start.

The 3-4 foot KU dishes, are these like the ones on top of gas stations or other buildings? Look like they are on a non-pen.

Thanks for your help so far.

fred555 · May 8, 2016

hank123 said:
Word up! No I don't have pics of the fiberglass however its only a block away from me so I will pick it up tomorrow.

If it does not have a polar mount, you can always make it stationary and park it on your favorite bird.

hank123 said:
I can have a pole in the ground this coming week.
I'm also picking up a S2 HDVR 1200 by GeOSAT pro with a dish and motor.

Ok I see you will have a Ku dish soon.

hank123 said:
The 3-4 foot KU dishes, are these like the ones on top of gas stations or other buildings? Look like they are on a non-pen.

Yes those are good too. There are others here that know the best ones of those to get.
Post lots of pictures, And I can't wait to see what you find.

FaT Air · May 8, 2016

Hey, nice haul(s) C band ROCKS! You may want to replace that feed/lnb combination with a LNBF so you don't need another piece of equipment running the polarity servo. and a GBox to move the dish - OR get the Titanium Satellite ASC-1 which cane move the dish (with an actuator) AND operate the servo (all via the sat receivers remote)
For FTA dishes need to be larger than what's used for DSS. They should be nominally 90cm across although some can be received with a 70cm. (30 inch) modifying a DSS dish for FTA is 'experimenter territory' IMHO.

Should I get the fiberglass dish as well?

It's so close, I would. If you have the room, why not? Set one up for the CONUS satellites w/ linear polarity, the other for Atlantic satellites with circular C band is one possible arraignment Another is one moveable and the other stationary on a popular 'bird'. Maybe 'string test' it first. (Search forum for procedure)
FWIW: My 'farms' Group Shot - & IIRR you need to make 10 posts before uploading images is enabled, then upload at will, we like pictures.

hank123 · May 8, 2016

Hey guys thanks! I will pick up both this week and get set in the ground. I don't mind throwing a little money at this as I will be getting rid of my DirecTV service here in a few months.
I have a few questions but maybe I should ask they best way to start building this out.

Am I able to use a 6x8 switch or a 4x8 powered switch? I plan on feeding 3 TVs in the house. I can fish dual cables to each location.
Give me an idea of what switch to look out for. As I said I come across all kinds of odd stuff.

FaT Air 200 dollars for a controller and LNB is not bad. If its going to do the job right I will pick it up in the next week or 2 as well.
I do have a Birdog USB so I can load to tune.

I am super pumped to get this project moving!

fred555 · May 8, 2016

hank123 said:
Am I able to use a 6x8 switch or a 4x8 powered switch? I plan on feeding 3 TVs in the house. I can fish dual cables to each location.
Give me an idea of what switch to look out for. As I said I come across all kinds of odd stuff.

I use these:
http://gotcband.com/collections/muli-switch/products/zinwell-sam-4803

And 4 port diseqc switches

My setup looks like this:

Old Picture with only 3 multiswitches installed.

To do multiple receivers, you pretty much have to use dual port LNBfs. One will be used for H polarities and the other for V. This way some TVs can watch H polarities on the same LNB while other TVs can watch V. As you can see there is an exception whereas on a sat all you care about is recieving a single polarity, like 125W or 95W CCTV channels show in the diagram.

Diseqc is used to select each Multiswitch and 22Khz tone is used to select the LNB ports on each Multiswitch. All my dishes, 2 c band and 4 Ku dishes are all stationary. I did this because of the multi-reciever setup and the wife did not want motors as she wanted all channels available at all TVs at all times.

Here is some more reading:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/switch-setups-simplified.134124/

http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/forums/fta-faqs.29/

hank123 · May 8, 2016

Got the 8 foot fiberglass today. Looks like a fixed mount. In the center I see a little ding but over all she looks in good shape!

What LNB should I get for her and where should I fix her to?

KE4EST · May 8, 2016

Welcome to the site Hank!!!!

I would get the Titanium C1-PLL. You can either get it from my store or direct from Titanium Satellite.

Where to aim it is a matter of preference and what you like. Also as things come and go in this hobby you will likely find your self moving it over time.

fred555 · May 8, 2016

Nice dish.

If your doing multiswitches, look at this dual output one:

http://www.titaniumsatellite.com/pr...deband-3-4-4-2GHz/p/33459501/category=6743545

Some good sats to start with are 99W 101W 97W
Check out these sights below to see what you want to get:
http://sathint.com/america
http://ftalistings.com/index.php

SatPhreak · May 8, 2016

Pull off the nose cone and take a picture of the lnb. You might be able to use the existing ones. As far as pointing I only have a ku dish so I'm not sure where to point it, but 99w is a good satellite to start with on C band.

armadillo_115 · May 8, 2016

Welcome to SatGuys!
The first dish looks awesome! I know less than nothing about Fiberglass dishes,so I'll let the experts weigh in on that one.Looks like the makings of a dish farm.
Whew... I thought the page would never load...and I have DSL. Thumbnails would make it much faster.

fred555 · May 8, 2016

KE4EST said:
I would get the Titanium C1-PLL.

He was planning on a multi receiver setup with multiswitches. I also gave him the link to C2W-PLL

KE4EST · May 8, 2016

AH! Yes he wants the C2W-PLL for sure.
Thanks Fred!

beavs2112 · May 8, 2016

hank123 said:
Got the 8 foot fiberglass today. Looks like a fixed mount. View attachment 116545

welcome hank123

C-band rules! Why do you think its a fixed mount. Judging by your pic it looks like the dish pivots which would make it a polar mount.

I agree with FatAir. set up the 10 foot for the American sats and the 8 foot for the atlantic sats. (upgrade the 8 foot to a 10 later).

kittyhas1000legs · May 8, 2016

Hank123, are you by any chance on the western slope? If so, I have a couple of 1m ku fiberglass dishes I'm looking to get rid of for cheap. The ad is in the SatelliteGuys Classifieds. If you're on the east side there's a member in Nebraska with a big pile of ku dishes available.

Happy dish planting!

danristheman · May 8, 2016

Welcome to the site Hank nice dish you have there.

Titanium · May 9, 2016

97w has some pretty awesome FTA channels! Worth a dedicated fixed dish. You will need a receiver that does 16psk.

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