1 year later - a new setup.

[iBoston]

Well, after a year of having 2 KU and 1 Cband dish, i have made some late summer changes. On one of my 1.2 motorized KU dishes, i moved it to 125w and then disconnected my USALS motor. I put in two dual output LNBF's . One locked at 125w, and the other LNBF tilted and locked in at 121w.

With my Cband, I found that 121 and 125 were the only two birds i was utilizing on the KU side of it. I then installed a multi switch so that i can watch 121 and 125 simultaneously on three different TVs at the same time.

This summer i put in a new 12' dish. I am still fine tuning that dish and the setup on it isn't 100% complete, but the end result will be that we, as a family can watch two different things on the arc at the same time.

The reason for locking the position of one of my KU dishes is because the USALS HH120 is not reliable with a 1.2 meter dish. The back/forth play in the USALS motor in just one year, is enough to loose the signal, and i have to approach a bird from one direction to lock in the signal. What a pain. I tried hooking up a dual C/KU lnbf, and not having great luck with that either.

By locking one of my KU dishes to what i watch 90% of the time on the KU side, i am hoping i will create a far more reliable setup.

I gotta say, even with the Cband dish, we spend a lot of time watching KU 125w and the PBS suite. That is truly one of FTA's gems out there.

 

[FaT Air]

And it will really suck when they go fibre.
(read rumor posts hear and there)

 

[iBoston]

And it will really suck when they go fibre.
(read rumor posts hear and there)

Now now, let's not ruin my high...

 

[FaT Air]

I also have a 1.2 aimed at 125W

 

[fred555]

I have a 6 foot Ku dish dedicated to 125W also. Great group of channels.

 

[RT-Cat]

And it will really suck when they go fibre.
(read rumor posts hear and there)

That will really be a bad day. Then again, some day all will be gone. We will take our dishes down, go in the house and see that all OTA is gone, and sit back and watch DVD's.

 

[KE4EST]

We will take our dishes down

NEVER!

 

[RT-Cat]

NEVER!

I SURE hope so! Really do not want to pay the mega-bucks for pay TV.

 

[FaT Air]

What? you haven't upgraded to the PuRplerAY disk ??????
Oh well, me neither.
B.O.T.
I myself like the fixed dishes on the most watched Ku satellites. No waiting for 'Moving Dish' to disappear. Makes the recall button on the remote actually work. If I had the resources I'd have it that way for a few "C" sats. Multi LNBF's on one BUD wont quite 'cut it'.
I'd really LOVE one of these (we are allowed to dream, aren't we?)

 

[KE4EST]

I'm hoping their current scheme crashes soon and more ala carte become available. At that time if it is not ridiculous, I would not mind paying for channels I actually watch.

 

[Lone Gunman]

The reason for locking the position of one of my KU dishes is because the USALS HH120 is not reliable with a 1.2 meter dish. The back/forth play in the USALS motor in just one year, is enough to loose the signal, and i have to approach a bird from one direction to lock in the signal. What a pain.

I'm really surprised to read this as "most" of what I've read from others is that the Stab HH120 is pretty much the "gold standard" where Ku motors are concerned and I was actually considering buying one until that idiot reseller in Canada started playing screw around with his prices??

That used Stab HH90 pdiddy gave me is pretty close to zero on the backlash and I'm finally looking to put a 1m dish on that and start using it. When I first got it I had that one running here in my shop for a couple of days with 38lbs of scrap steel clamped to the dish mount tube and it works fine and repeated dial indicator readings for satellite positions without any problems?

Didn't I read somewhere that there's a way to adjust the backlash out of those?

 

[iBoston]

I'm really surprised to read this as "most" of what I've read from others is that the Stab HH120 is pretty much the "gold standard" where Ku motors are concerned and I was actually considering buying one until that idiot reseller in Canada started playing screw around with his prices??

That used Stab HH90 pdiddy gave me is pretty close to zero on the backlash and I'm finally looking to put a 1m dish on that and start using it. When I first got it I had that one running here in my shop for a couple of days with 38lbs of scrap steel clamped to the dish mount tube and it works fine and repeated dial indicator readings for satellite positions without any problems?

Didn't I read somewhere that there's a way to adjust the backlash out of those?

Yea, well, we are pretty windy here at times. I am sure that doesn't help. But, if only after a year, i have that much play, I don't feel like taking it apart every year. I am going to make another attempt to run my KU on my Cband dish. If i can get that working, I am going to FIX the second 1.2m as well.

 

[primestar31]

You guys DO know it's possible to mate a polar mount to a 1.2m dish, and use a standard 18" actuator with a Vbox to move it, right? 6 ft dish mounts work very well. You just have to remember that the OFFset dish has to be tilted DOWN from the top whatever degree offset the dish you are mating it to, to compensate for the fact that it's offset.

Not that much work to do, and works better than the USALS motors that won't last long in certain instances.

P.S. Not only can you do that, BUT, there's a SG person on here that has mated the USALS controller from a motor, to run the polar mount actuator motor. He's posted here in a thread somewhere...

 

[Lone Gunman]

You guys DO know it's possible to mate a polar mount to a 1.2m dish, and use a standard 18" actuator with a Vbox to move it, right?

So where does the polar mount come from?

Last I heard they were hard to find?

Got pics of that install?

I've got two 18" Venture actuators and a 6ft Janel Junior aluminum dish that needs a mount.

 

[primestar31]

You find an old 6 foot prime focus dish that's got a good polar mount, (maybe the reflector is damaged, but the mount is ok) and you swap it onto the offset dish. Not hard to find at all, we have a thread for used dishes all the time. You just have to take the mount off of another dish.

As for pics, there's a handful of threads on here that shows pics from people that have done it, and all the details. Here's a few to get you started:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/polar-mount.329013/

http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/another-channel-master-polar-mount-attempt.201238/

http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/new-project-primestar-to-polar-mount.100414/

 

[scarecrovv]

Didn't I read somewhere that there's a way to adjust the backlash out of those?

I tried that with mine.......still has excessive backlash. Must be wore beyond adjustment.

 

[Lone Gunman]

You find an old 6 foot prime focus dish that's got a good polar mount, (maybe the reflector is damaged, but the mount is ok) and you swap it onto the offset dish.

OK so I was correct about a NEW one then. I think at one time a vendor did have new polar mounts available for the 6 footers but who that was escapes me now.

I know where there's three 6 footers within a few miles from me and those look like Winegard dishes from the road. I guess I need to check on those then as I can move them on my truck with only one helper. This time of the year is good for this type of work, ie, cooler temps but not too cold.

 

[phlatwound]

Here's a possible source:

https://impaktproducts.com/Mounts-and-Pipes-p-1-c-305.html

I wouldn't worry about it being for a 6 footer though, one for an 8 or 10 footer will work fine and probably easier to find in the wild also.

 

[Lehman bud farm]

We will take our dishes down, go in the house and see that all OTA is gone, and sit back and watch DVD's

That day may come but when it does the dvd collection will also have grown. It would be bittersweet!
I doubt many DVD's would be put in the player here as it seems way to easy to rip them and place several movies on a flash drive. That makes it a bit more interesting since that drive makes them more portable.