120cm dish with C-Band performance - Now with HD!

[sattec]

Sounds great, but I'm having a problem picturing it...
You wouldn't HAVE any pics, would you?

Also, what occurs to me (unless you just described it) is using a 3-lnb setup on the 120cm; the center being the C-band lnb, a Universal Ku and DSS lnb on either side. I picked up a circular polarized lnb today (read: UNMODIFIED, lol) and slapped it temporarily next to my Universal so I can try getting my 4*1 switch working.... but that's another story

no pics...just dont use the plastic saddle at all. use some two inch corner brackets and bolt from the end of the support leg and the scaler ring. the focal is perfect...yes ...use a c/ku feedhorn, the skew is a factor for the c/ku band, this has nothing to do with dish or dtv, this is a great c/ku dish that will power your fta receiver. you can bolt other bracket to the scaler to provide off set feeds like with a regular c band setup. there can be some adjacent satellite interference

 

[CharredPC]

Sadoun confusion!

Ok, I'm unclear about how much it is to ship a Sadoun Fortec 120cm from OH to UT... and why

Their website says:
"Total s/h is estimated between $145 for business addresses to $200 for residential address!"
Initial item cost: $175
52" x 52" x 7" (60 lbs GW)

Their ebay auction states:
"S/H range between $120 - 165 in the USA"
Initial cost: $135 starting bid, $165 Buy It Now
Shipping Box Dim: 54" x 48" x 6"
Gross Shipping Weight: 45 lbs

To make matters more confusing, the ebay auction has a shipping calculator, which gives a $172.81 estimated shipping total... via USPS Parcel Post. Both my wife, who works for USPS, and the USPS website say "We're sorry, but your package is too large to be mailed." Meaning they must use UPS or FedEx.

UPS says the website's size measurements are too big to be shipped.
The ebay size measurements gives a UPS shipping total of $123.38 (declaring the value to be $175, weight 60 lbs).

Fedex also rejected Sadoun's website size measurements as too large.
The ebay stats produced a FedEx shipping total of $81.71 ($175 declared value, weight 60 lbs). An OS3 (Oversize 3) rating was applied to the package.

Am I the only one confused? Perhaps it has something to do with this line from the website: "A handling fee of $50 will be charged to you even if you arrange your own shipping." I suppose that plus the UPS fee would be about what the website says to expect (up to $200). It sounds like the best bet is to skip the website, grab the auction at the lowest bid (should be easy as the last five Sadoun 120cm auctions didn't sell), bribe somone over there to use FedEx, and end up paying $216.71 TOTAL. Or $266.71 with "handling fee." Unless the box size is actually correct on the website, in which case I'm suprised they are able to ship them at all. I suppose I could ask Cascade to take a measurement or two of the box his 120cm came in.

I'm not out to step on anyone's toes or ruffle any feathers One way or another I'll be getting my Fortec 120cm dish, but as a moderately savvy shopper there seems to be various ways around shelling out $320-375 to get ahold of one. I welcome clarification or corrections on the information above if I am in any way incorrect.

.... looking forward to a reply.

 

[Tron]

OOOOOOHHHHH I want to take a trip with Popcorn to Melbourne!!!

Tron

 

[rkrenicki]

It says in the auction...

Shipping & handling for this item depends on final destination. It will be quoted separately after you place your order. We will not ship or charge your account until you approve the shipping charges. Shipping will be billed separately!

Sounds like Common Carrier to me.. Its probably just a mistake that any other method was listed on there.

 

[Cascade]

Their website says:
52" x 52" x 7" (60 lbs GW)

I doubt it weighs 70lbs however they're probably going by billable weight for the box size which is correctly listed on the website.
It'll be very interesting to see the results for the combined Ku/C-Band LNB Sadoun mentioned earlier, as soon as I know, you'll know.

I'm expecting an analogue receiver courtesy of MrBurg next week, if I can see enough analogue stations I'll be posting those results too.

With the setup I have at the moment I'm running over 100ft of RG-6 with a 25ft run of regular indoor cable to the distribution point on the side of the house and about 75ft of quad-shield underground from there to the dish.

More pics later today if I can get rid of this aching back.

Edit: Don't forget about the 5% discount Sadoun are running for our members right now.

 

[MrMylesG]

C-Band experiments

All this talk about C-Band on a small dish is intriguing. I thought it might be okay to experiment with it for a minimum investment, say less than $35 for a C-band LNB.

Heck, who said that FTA is boring!


MrM

 

[lilyarbie]

time to update the faq section on dish size???

Since this experiment is showing to be very successful (100% signal quality on all satellites), wouldn't it make a great addition to the faq page on "what can I get with a 120cm dish?" Just thought I might check to see if this would be added or not.

 

[CharredPC]

All this talk about C-Band on a small dish is intriguing. I thought it might be okay to experiment with it for a minimum investment, say less than $35 for a C-band LNB.
Heck, who said that FTA is boring!
MrM

Very intruiging!
See www.psbsatellite.com for your C-Band LNB needs
I've never heard that FTA is boring! Not here, anyway, lol...

Since this experiment is showing to be very successful (100% signal quality on all satellites), wouldn't it make a great addition to the faq page on "what can I get with a 120cm dish?" Just thought I might check to see if this would be added or not.

That's a good idea, but I'm sure Cascade would agree that it would help having a few different people test this out first, compile the results, and I know he's eager to experiment with analogue! I'm hoping we have a good collection of results soon

 

[Cascade]

If your receiver doesn't show a 100% signal quality off a 30" dish on Ku transponders you won't get it on a 4ft dish on C-Band.

 

[lilyarbie]

How is that so with the 30" Cascade???

I figured it wouldn't pick up on a 30" due to the fact that the dish didn't have enough surface area on the reflector to bounce back a decent signal into the feedhorn(kinda like trying to get a regular ku signal on an 18" dish which is extremely difficult unless you have at least 30 inches of dish to reflect the signal back into the feedhorn).

 

[Cascade]

I don't think I've ever seen a receiver that gives 100% sig quality on practically all Ku transponders except for the Skystar/nexus, I just think it's a hardware quirk or something.
Basically, the numbers aren't calibrated and are meaningless.

 

[lilyarbie]

Oh well........

I guess I can dream on. From looking at estimates, trying something like this could cost me hundreds of dollars (not reasonable on a Wal-mart salary 7 dollar/hour pay lol). I'd like to have a system to do C-band and be able to receive all the FTA possible as well as be able to subscribe to channels with little or no compression through 4DTV. I'll just settle for what I can get in the clear through a QAM tuner with my cable. The LG 4200A dual digital ATSC and QAM tuner seems pretty reasonable for costs compared to all of the equipment for C-band and FTA. It's also easier to set up as well.

 

[PopcornNMore]

I should have my Channel Master 1.2m FTA dish up and running shortly. I will be posting my results as well (Digital & Analog).

 

[Sadoun]

Hi CharredPC

Here is the latest S/H note on a 120cm dish:

Shipping & handling cost depends on final destination.*Total s/h is estimated between $145 for business addresses to $200 for residential address! S/H $145 will be added to the shopping cart now. If actual cost (which include special packaging) is more, we will let you know. If you want to arrange your own shipping, shipping box dimensions:53" x 53" x 5" (38 lbs Actual GW- not billable weight). A handling fee of $40 (to cover cost of carton, packaging, and strapping) will be charged to you if you arrange your own shipping. Shipping more than 1 dish will add just a few dollars to the shipping cost. Call us for an estimate. No shipping or handling fee on local pickup.

This is not shipable by USPS, UPS, or regular FEDEX. We ship it by FEDEX Freight or common carrier.

The eBay shipping note is outdated and wrong. We will correct that promptly.

 

[Cascade]

Wow, look at the size of that 180cm.

Tempting.....

 

[PSB]

WOW! I like the look of the 240cm! Bigger is BETTER!

 

[PopcornNMore]

Judging by that picture, it is more economical to pay shipping on the 180cm or 240cm rather than the 120cm. The 180cm is even cheaper than the 120cm dish. Just image the C-Band channels you could get with a 180cm dish!

 

[CharredPC]

I agree... though there's no way a 180cm will fit on my SG2100
If there were, I'd definately go with that!

 

[Cascade]

After messing for a few minutes tonight I've come to the conclusion that the focal distance needs to be increased by 10cm or so.

Here are my level readings off Anik F1 which is really the only sat I've thoroughly tested:

Freq/Pol/SR/Qual/Sig
3780/V/28346 - 100/58
3926/V/6150 - 100/70
3936/V/6150 - 0/22
3962/H/6500 - 0/11
4060/V/28346 - 100/75
4100/V/28346 - 100/70

Galaxy4R:
3860/V/28340 - 100/42

AMC1:
4005/H/18800 - 100/41

IA13:
3980/V/27690 - 74/20

Galaxy13:
3800/V/27690 - 36/100

Still a few transponders with quality without signal but I've noticed a lot more English speaking channels on C over Ku band.

 

[PSB]

No Scottish speaking channels I guess : (

Thanks for keeping us up to date with the project. What size is the small diameter of the ASC421 C-LNBF, starting to think about a mount for my C-LNBF it will be here June 1st : )