Newbie to FTA

Troch77 · Jul 3, 2016

Hey guys, I was thinking about starting a FTA farm ,mainly as a hobby but obviously to check out what's available out there.

Obviously I want to start off small.
I have a Superbuddy 29 meter, so I shouldn't have any issues dialing in many satellites KU or KA.

But I have no clue where to begin with Buying a receiver and a satellite dish.
But right now I'm thinking KU for now.
Maybe C band when I get a little more advanced.

I think I want to start out with either a 30 inch or 39 inch dish.

But again no idea where to start.
So all information is welcome.
Thanks.

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KE4EST · Jul 3, 2016

Welcome to the FTA side of the forum Troch77!

I would start out with a 1 meter dish and LNBF.
You can grab one here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/36-Inch-90-...hash=item1c683b7122:m:mARR27kXDIyvEc6TXCU4sIQ
I have owned several of these, they are a great dish for Ku.

As far as a receiver the popular nice one right now that works great is the linkbox 9000i here: http://hypermegasat.com/Linkbox 9000i HD.htm
They also have a local version for a bit more to tie your OTA antenna into.

An entry level one is here: Amazon product ASIN B01GP5SMH6

Troch77 · Jul 3, 2016

Okay cool, Thanks.
As far as OTA, that's not an option for me.

I need an extremely large antenna, and even then it's only about 4 or 5 channels.

Okay so I'm guessing no Switches are required?

I'm not sure I want to spend $180 though on a receiver just yet, but I may want to go a bit more than $30.

Like $75-$100 range on a receiver would be okay. I just really don't know what's the actual difference.

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Troch77 · Jul 3, 2016

KE4EST said:
Welcome to the FTA side of the forum Troch77!

I would start out with a 1 meter dish and LNBF.
You can grab one here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/36-Inch-90-...hash=item1c683b7122:m:mARR27kXDIyvEc6TXCU4sIQ
I have owned several of these, they are a great dish for Ku.

As far as a receiver the popular nice one right now that works great is the linkbox 9000i here: http://hypermegasat.com/Linkbox 9000i HD.htm
They also have a local version for a bit more to tie your OTA antenna into.

An entry level one is here: Amazon product ASIN B01GP5SMH6

I was looking at this.

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KE4EST · Jul 3, 2016

No need for DVB-T2 in NA.

You also have to watch on a lot of those receivers on ebay, some good some are not.

KE4EST · Jul 3, 2016

Troch77 said:
Okay so I'm guessing no Switches are required?

No switch for a single LNBF and one dish. Switches will come into play if you add more LNBF's either on your same dish or add more dishes like C-Band.

Troch77 · Jul 3, 2016

Okay, then I think I'm going to go with the cheap one from Amazon for now, and I'll order the Dish .
And Start from there.

Thanks I'll post back in a few weeks when It's up, and you guys can point me to the proper satellites.

A quick question though,
I have 2 Dish EA2 dishes
1 EA 1.4k and a 1000 plus Dish.

Will any of these work for FTA?
If Not I'm going to most likely sell a few of them, Otherwise I may add them to the system in the future.

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KE4EST · Jul 3, 2016

Once you get set-up and get the hang of FTA, you could modify one to pick up some of the stronger transponders.
They are not large enough though for everything. Most FTA stuff is not pumping out the same wattage as DISH.

Troch77 · Jul 3, 2016

KE4EST said:
Once you get set-up and get the hang of FTA, you could modify one to pick up some of the stronger transponders.
They are not large enough though for everything. Most FTA stuff is not pumping out the same wattage as DISH.

Okay, so Maybe I'll keep the 1000 Plus dish because that's the biggest.

And I'll Ebay the rest I don't need.

I have a decent LOS , from about 55-129 degrees

The 129 is extremely hard to even get here with the 1000 plus dish.

Plus I have trees over that way.

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KE4EST · Jul 3, 2016

Nothing FTA on 129 so your good.

FTA4PA · Jul 3, 2016

Welcome to FTA Troch77! Excellent advice from KE4EST as usual!

Once you get into the hobby you'll likely want to add a motor to that ku dish so make sure you get that pole nice a plumb.

Troch77 · Jul 3, 2016

FTA4PA said:
Welcome to FTA Troch77! Excellent advice from KE4EST as usual! Once you get into the hobby you'll likely want to add a motor to that ku dish so make sure you get that pole nice a plumb.

Thanks for the welcome guys.

Can you add a motor to the 36 inch dish?
How about more LNBs?
Or do you guys think I should future proof and get a larger dish right off the bat?

I don't want to go bigger than 4 feet though, at least not yet.

But if the 36 is good for now, I'll order it tonight, Unless you guys think it's a waste of money even for a newbie?

I don't mind moving manually to check things out, because I think it will help me learn more about it.
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KE4EST · Jul 3, 2016

Troch77 said:
Can you add a motor to the 36 inch dish?

Yes, and the dish I mentioned is designed to work seamlessly with a motor.

Troch77 said:
How about more LNBs?

Yes, you can add more LNBF's, with slight loss. This loss guess worse the further you get from center.

Troch77 said:
Or do you guys think I should future proof and get a larger dish right off the bat?

That would be the way to go if you have the money. Some transponders are harder to lock with a 36".
The issue with those dishes though, is they are too large for UPS or FedEx shipping so the shipping is HIGH.
I have one and it pulls in everything so far, can even be used for mini-budding.

To get your feet wet on C-Band.

KE4EST · Jul 3, 2016

...also want to make note that I highly recommend ground mount.

Much easier to tune
Much easier to add a motor, as you can have a beefier mount
Enhances the look of ones lawn.

FTA4PA · Jul 3, 2016

What he said!

FaT Air · Jul 3, 2016

Troch77 said:
Can you add a motor to the 36 inch dish?

Yes, but not until your comfortable programming the receiver and aiming at different satellites manually. (That's the recommendation)

Troch77 said:
How about more LNBs?

Or you could maybe get 3 or 4 satellites with a multi-LNBF setup.
Take a gander at www.sathint.com/america. Ku is the 5 digit frequencies. (C band is 4 digits) 95w,97W, 103W, are good,

Troch77 said:
But if the 36 is good for now

And next week, and beyond. There are a few transponders that may be weak/marginal or just not there. Keep an eye out for a larger dish in the thread in the C band section (Ebay Craigslist - - -) Quite often Channel Master(commercial quality) 1.0 and 1.2 meter dishes make an appearance. Hopefully in your area. Shipping them is a killer to the pocketbook.
I type too slow, 2 replies while typing.

Troch77 · Jul 3, 2016

KE4EST said:
...also want to make note that I highly recommend ground mount.

Much easier to tune

Much easier to add a motor, as you can have a beefier mount

Enhances the look of ones lawn.

It will definitely be no higher than 6 feet.
Just depends on my final placement.
I may have to go 6 feet up because certain objects, like fencing and bushes, would interfere with the 55-129 degree spread.
But it would be solid location.

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Troch77 · Jul 3, 2016

FaT Air said:
Yes, but not until your comfortable programming the receiver and aiming at different satellites manually. (That's the recommendation)

Or you could maybe get 3 or 4 satellites with a multi-LNBF setup.
Take a gander at www.sathint.com/america. Ku is the 5 digit frequencies. (C band is 4 digits) 95w,97W, 103W, are good,

And next week, and beyond. There are a few transponders that may be weak/marginal or just not there. Keep an eye out for a larger dish in the thread in the C band section (Ebay Craigslist - - -) Quite often Channel Master(commercial quality) 1.0 and 1.2 meter dishes make an appearance. Hopefully in your area. Shipping them is a killer to the pocketbook.
I type too slow, 2 replies while typing.

Okay cool.
I'm hoping I can definitely stay around 55-110 degrees.
That would be ideal.
That would make placement much better for me, especially if I go with a larger dish in the future and I wouldn't have to mount the dish 6 feet up.

But for anything past 110, I'll have to raise the dish to my 2nd tier in my Flower bed. Lol.

But it's extremely wide, so it would be no issue to pour a slab if needed.

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KE4EST · Jul 3, 2016

By ground mount I meant on a pole mounted into the ground.

...as opposed to mounted to a roof or the side of a house.

jasjas · Jul 3, 2016

you can get the freesat V7 for less than 30.00 on ebay.
just buy from someone that has the USA power cord.

Spend the extra money on a good dish, Geosatpro is a very well built KU band dish.

as FaT Air said look for a C Band dish, thats where the good stuff is at.

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