120cm dish owners...

[Shawn95GT]

I guess this is more geared towards the guys who motorized their dishes as they seem to be having all the issues.

If you had to do it all over again, and dish size wasn't a concern, would you have just done a small BUD (5'-6') instead?

From the outside looking in, it seems that the 120cm dishes have all trouble of the bigger dishes (actuators required etc) and you dont' get the benefit of a larger dish.

In my case I can get away with whatever the wife to be will put up with (no HOA).

 

[Dishpointer]

I guess this is more geared towards the guys who motorized their dishes as they seem to be having all the issues.

If you had to do it all over again, and dish size wasn't a concern, would you have just done a small BUD (5'-6') instead?

From the outside looking in, it seems that the 120cm dishes have all trouble of the bigger dishes (actuators required etc) and you dont' get the benefit of a larger dish.

In my case I can get away with whatever the wife to be will put up with (no HOA).

I see this as a fun project. I hasn't cost me that much and it is fun to pull in a few c-band feeds. I don't want a BUD and my wife wouldn't go for it either. The way I see it is at the very least, I have a Kick A** KU setup that will move the dish in 1/3 the time my SG2100 would and I get awesome signal quality. Some people can't do a BUD so this is their only option. It was a fun project.

 

[Shawn95GT]

No doubt about that! I has happy to pull in a little bit of C-band with my little P* dish.

Seeing the outstanding results that the folks here have managed with these micro-buds gave me the itch to try it myself.

The reason I ask the question is that I can probably get into a small BUD, actuator, VBOX etc for well under the new cost of a new 120cm dish alone.

Shawn

 

[vj9999]

Is there really much difference in performancebetween 5-6' BUD and 120cm Ku dish?! Everybody suggest for a reliable c-band performance that at least 10' dish should be used.

6' c-band dish has around 35.5 dB gain for c-band. 120cm dish has 33 db on c-band side.

ANd from all discusions, offsett dish picks up less ground noise so those figures are not much different.

The biggest issue in my opinion is beam width on c-band. 120 cm offsett dish and 6' c-band dish will be picking up too much signal from nearby satelites and it will cause interference if they have signals on same frequencies.

 

[Shawn95GT]

Performance wise - probably not. If anything it would seem that the offset dishes have an advantage.

I was concidering picking up a Fortec or Patriot 1.2M but for the money I think I'll be better off with a small prime focus. The ASC421 I've already got will bolt right up... no special scaler ring needed. I'll want / need an actuator & VBOX to move the dish but from the looks of things I'd be looking a the same with a 1.2M offset dish.

Cost wise - the small prime focus will end up being much cheaper.

Well.... if anything if I get a small prime focus setup we'll have another point of reference for the many baby BUD projects.

On paper I'm barely bettering $100 (plus the dish) to get a PF dish up and running.

Thanks for the input!

Shawn

 

[raydio]

If there was not a wife factor, a HOA and money was not an object then I would have gone with the largest solid dish up to 10' that I could find. But like VJ said, there does not seem to be much difference between the 1.2 meter offset and the 6' prime. I am pretty satisfied with the way mine has turned out with the polar mount. I just need to get the C-Band LNB back on and I'll be set. I am ticked to be getting C-Band on a small dish in the first place.

 

[Cascade]

I'm with rayydio although my Mrs is semi-OKish with my dishes, once we move out of this house with the arc-of-death I'll be scouting round for a 10'+ dish ASAP (Hopefully I'll be able to steal DiamondJims spun alu dish )

The C-Band is a great perk of having a larger Ku dish, we'll always want more though - it's the nature of the game.

 

[Tron]

One of these days I'm planting a BUD. I know where its probably going to go, too.

Problem is the location is about 125 feet from my house so I'll have to bury cable. Not to mention the difficulty level in installing such a large beast

 

[drhydro]

Problem is the location is about 125 feet from my house so I'll have to bury cable. Not to mention the difficulty level in installing such a large beast

You should not have a problem with a 125' cable run. The hardest part of the whole c band install (for me) was getting that heavy, bulky 10 foot dish up on a 9 foot tall pole. Oh, and it sure helped to have a backhoe handy to dig the hole, one thing that grows good in the soil up here are rocks, lots of them ;-)

 

[yuji22]

Intelesat 805 with 1.2 meter dish.

Just bought a 1.2 meter Fortec Dish. I want to embark on this exciting project. Bofore I do so, can someone please confirm that they are getting Intelesat 805 (55.5 West) with this dish or should I get a 6ft dish.

A friend of mine is getting AMC 12 with a 1.2 meter dish in Toronto. Based on that, do you believe that a 1.2 meter dish will work for Intelesat 805.

I am located in Toronto. Your imput will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Shawn95GT]

I decided to go the mesh route - I picked up a new 5' winegard today from Pro-96 out of the classifieds. The dish itelf is brand spanking new and I can't wait to get it setup.

His free extra that he threw is was nothing less than a California Amplifier branded C/Ku feedhorn & polarotor including LNBs!

That was VERY generous of him and it's much appreciated. Going after this one was well worth the trip from Phoenix to LA.

I've got the whole of it sprawled out across one of the beds in the hotel room - lol.

This site is great .

Shawn

 

[Tron]

If I get a true BUD, I'll probably get one that someone wants uprooted from their yard locally. If I can find someone who has one and no longer wants it, they would certainly let me have it if I remove it.

There are plenty of neglected BUDs around New Orleans. You can tell when you see them pointed at the ground or there are some damaged mesh panels

Ideally, however, I'm looking for a 10' solid dish with many panels (easier to transport), such as a Drake or maybe a commercial Channel Master.

 

[raydio]

I've got the whole of it sprawled out across one of the beds in the hotel room - lol.


Shawn

If it would have been me, I would have had it set up IN the hotel room...just to see what it looked like built Nice find!

 

[Shawn95GT]

If it would have been me, I would have had it set up IN the hotel room...just to see what it looked like built Nice find!

I did that when I got home . I had to locate some hardware and some of what I got was wrong but hey I got a good start.

It looks like the SG2100 mount hardware will let me pole mount the polar mount. Now the SG2100 isn't exactly known for it's good quality u-bolts so before I drop $10 on a hardware kit I think I'm going to hit up the local hardware stores in search of some 1/4" or so and about 3 1/2" spaced u-bolts.

My fiance seemed to have mis-understood me when I told her this WAS a small dish so she made me pose for the pic:

Shawn

 

[pro96]

I decided to go the mesh route - I picked up a new 5' winegard today from Pro-96 out of the classifieds. The dish itelf is brand spanking new and I can't wait to get it setup.

His free extra that he threw is was nothing less than a California Amplifier branded C/Ku feedhorn & polarotor including LNBs!

That was VERY generous of him and it's much appreciated. Going after this one was well worth the trip from Phoenix to LA.

I've got the whole of it sprawled out across one of the beds in the hotel room - lol.

This site is great .

Shawn

I'm glad it all worked out good. Can't believe that I had that dish sitting since 1994.

When it's finally installed and up and runnig, take some more pics to see how it looks pal.

 

[mark_calgary]

Just bought a 1.2 meter Fortec Dish. I want to embark on this exciting project. Bofore I do so, can someone please confirm that they are getting Intelesat 805 (55.5 West) with this dish or should I get a 6ft dish.

A friend of mine is getting AMC 12 with a 1.2 meter dish in Toronto. Based on that, do you believe that a 1.2 meter dish will work for Intelesat 805.

I am located in Toronto. Your imput will be greatly appreciated.

I was going through the same contortions as you with respect to Panamsat 9 and I-805.

Your first step should be to compare the EIRP values for your location between the two satellites. For Montreal (the closest location to Toronto listed for both) AMC-12 has a power of 43.4dBW and I-805 39dBW. This means that to get similar performance to what your friend gets on AMC-12 on I-805 you will need a dish with at least 4.4 dB more gain than a 1.2m dish. A dish gain calculator (SMWLink - free, search for it...it's useful to have) tells me you would want a 2m dish minimum.

There are many other factors that come into play with dish size requirements, EIRP is just a starting point. Basically they all lead to the same conclusion. Get the biggest dish you can within your space and budget contraints, and be happy with what signals you can get rather than sad about what you can't.

 

[yuji22]

Mark

Thanks for your reply. I am awaiting for my LNBF to arrive this week. I will be installing it next week and post my results.

This site is excellent !

Regards

yuji22