40" C/Ku - Band Dish

[MrMylesG]

C-band LNB setup

I have not had a chance to do any tweaking with the cband lnb. The pictures shown are mainly to show the way I mounted my lnb. I know the angle is way off. I removed the cband and now have my Fortec universal lnb installed and watching G10R.

MrM

 

[raydio]

Had some luck on PAS9 yesterday - kind of. Was able to hit two active C-Band xponders 3800V and 4041H - both about 60% quality on my Coolsat. However, I cannot scan-in any programing. 4041H is NHK and FTA so I should be able to get something there...but cannot on both my Ultra and the Coolsat Pro.

Had a call from the freight Co. and my Patriot 1.2 Meter dish is in town awaiting delivery early next week. Also for grins and giggles ordered the C-Band offset LNB to see if that works better than the prime focus on the offset dish. Will try the new LNB on the P* dish and report finding here.

 

[Cascade]

Looking down the throat of my LNBF as the arm is level and at true south my probes are polarised this way:

 

[raydio]

Had good luck with G4R today - Good quality 68% on SBC Hollywood Satellite Operations Center transponder and a couple of others. Tried a new way of mounting the C-Band LNB. Seems to work ok.

 

[rjc3895]

H to H mount on a P* dish

Ain't that the truth! We had a storm overnight so I will have to reset my 40" C-band dish back up again, this time I will be putting it on a H to H mount, that should make hitting the C-band satellites a lot easier : )

PSB,
I was rereading this thread and noticed that you were putting your P* Dish on an H to H mount. Is there anything that needs to be done differently than using the H to H for a 80cm dish? Can I remove my current Fortec Star dish and replace it with the Primestar dish and then use the motor?

 

[PSB]

A bit too heavy for a motor, and wrong size of mount, but with some modification it could/has been done. I just off set the mast to the same angle as my motor and the dish follows the arc as I move it from east to west, been using this method for YEARS. Its not much fun in the winter!



http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=42450&highlight=Primestar+dish

 

[MrMylesG]

Sweet spot

Where do I point the cband lnbf on the dish? It looks like my KU lnbf is pointing directly into the center of the 4 bolts that are supporting the main dish itself. Does this same principle apply to the cband lnb?

Thanks

MrM

 

[PSB]

Yes, but its important that the LNBF is at the perfect focal distance and height, I am still working on the height, but if I modify it I will not be able to use the dish for KU LNB's

I put the "0" zero back to the top and getting great results again!

 

[iammike]

Okay guys, took down my 80CM Fortec dish and put up the Primestar dish this weekend. I mounted it on my sg-2100 and have it working reasonably well with KU-band. There's still a little more play in the dish than I'd like, but I'm hitting everything from SBS6 through G13 so I think I've got it installed reasonably well. I started playing with the Cband lnbf, and picked up some analog stuff on IA6. I've got one problem and one observation.

The observation is that I may have too long of coax run from my receiver to the dish. I took my receiver out on the deck and hooked it to the motor with a 12 or so foot piece of coax. On the deck, I was getting a real strong signal and quality. On AMC5, my true south satellite, I was getting a signal strength and quality in the low 80's. In the house, with the dish in the same position, these numbers drop to mid 70's on strength and around 60 on quality. The difference in the numbers is pretty consistent for all satellites. I've got some ideas on things to try on that one, but I'm not sure how successful I'll be.

The problem is that I can't seem to make the receiver move the motor with the Cband lnbf hooked up. It works fine with the KU lnbf though. I'm using a Fortec receiver, other than changing the lnbf type in antenna setup is there anything else I should change? Incidentally, what is the correct setting on a Fortec for the lnbf (I'm using an ASC421)?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[PSB]

Not tried it with the Fortec yet, but I would use Standard then enter 05150 as the L.O.Thats what I use with the Satworks.

getting some good results today.

NASA on AMC-6 Analog C-band. Slightly snowy screen.

 

[iammike]

Not tried it with the Fortec yet, but I would use Standard then enter 05150 as the L.O.Thats what I use with the Satworks.

getting some good results today.

NASA on AMC-6 Analog C-band. Slightly snowy screen.

The frequency setting didn't seem to help, but a "cold boot" by turning it off and on with the power switch on the back did. Kind of cool being able to move the dish back and forth with the Fortec remote and pick up c-band channels on the Toshiba receiver. I found the Nasa feed too. I'm getting the sparklies also, but it's watchable.

 

[snathanb]

The observation is that I may have too long of coax run from my receiver to the dish. I took my receiver out on the deck and hooked it to the motor with a 12 or so foot piece of coax. On the deck, I was getting a real strong signal and quality. On AMC5, my true south satellite, I was getting a signal strength and quality in the low 80's. In the house, with the dish in the same position, these numbers drop to mid 70's on strength and around 60 on quality. The difference in the numbers is pretty consistent for all satellites. I've got some ideas on things to try on that one, but I'm not sure how successful I'll be.
Mike

Mike,

You may have a bad connector or some marginal cable. I do the same as you, I pull my receiver and small tv outside for testing, hooked directly to the dish. My cable run from the dish to the inside is at least 150 ft, and I notice no difference at all in either signal strength or quality. That's using standard RG6 cable.

 

[iammike]

Mike,

You may have a bad connector or some marginal cable. I do the same as you, I pull my receiver and small tv outside for testing, hooked directly to the dish. My cable run from the dish to the inside is at least 150 ft, and I notice no difference at all in either signal strength or quality. That's using standard RG6 cable.

It shouldn't be the cable, it's all RG6, but there could be a connector issue. When I get time, I'll back track the cable to each connection point and see if I can find any problems. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[PSB]

Here is the way the skew is set on mine.......

 

[johnstanko]

skew

Here is the way the skew is set on mine.......

hi,
i was reading your previous messages and you stated and showed the scaler collar removed. latest pics show it on. which way have you found is better?
my acs-421 feed will arrive today from you. it will be installed on my 40 inch primestar dish. it doesn't have a motor yet, so will just go testing one sat at a time.
i cannot recall, but believe you had analog signals using this c-band feed. what was your best or strongest signal so i can use it as a starting point?
john

 

[PSB]

Hello John!

I found its best with the scalar ring on, best digital has to be ASN on the Anik F1 satellite, and best analog would be NASA on AMC-6

Have fun! Most fun I have had in satellite for a while!

 

[johnstanko]

acs-421

hi,
received my c-band lnbf acs-421 from psb monday, very fast service, and installed it with in one hour. took about 15 minutes to receive anik f1 (107 degrees). i used all the info given by psb and others trying to get c-band with a small dish. i used my pansat 2500 and a 40 inch primestar dish mounted on a 4 ft high pole. it is better to have the scaler installed and the lnbf placed as far back as possible from the center of the dish.
since i live in a hoa, i cannot have a dish antenna larger than 40 inches. thus, this is fun to try to receive c-band signals. i already have three other primestars, a one meter dish using sg-2100 motor, subscribe to dish network ( one 18 dish for 61.5 degrees and dish 500 system) and a dish network 500 system with another 18 inch dish for 61.5 degrees just for fta. cover canadian nimiq sats with two 18 inch dishes. one dedicated one meter dish for old t5 (ia5)! as you can see it would be hard to sneak in a 120 cm dish. hoa would go thru the roof! but looking forward to maybe two more legal one meter primestars.
like psb said, it is best to get into one meter c-band viewing using an acs-421 lnbf by trying to watch anik f1. it is definitely a strong signal sat.
i got the following results:
3781v sr. 28347 asn
3902v sr. 14000 4:2:2 video
3928v sr. 6150 tvnc whitehorse
3937v sr. 6150 aptn
4061v sr. 28347 4:2:2 video
4102v sr. 28347 cbc world news
outstanding video for asn, cbc and tvnc

as you can see, i could not get lock on any horizontal polarity signals. has anyone received a signal on a horizontal frequency?
might try pas 9 this weekend if weather is ok. john

 

[PSB]

Thanks John, some very useful info there! What kind signal quality are you getting? I have only used the Satworks and the signal quality is at 40% for most of the above channels, thats GREAT for this box! ASN and the news channel are ROCK solid on Anik F1 just like VERY strong KU signals.

I found the same thing I could only get H signals on this bird, I mentioned to Cascade, did a rescan and found a few V feeds.

If I had known this could be done I would have done it a LONG time ago. Thanks Cascade!

 

[iammike]

Mike,

You may have a bad connector or some marginal cable. I do the same as you, I pull my receiver and small tv outside for testing, hooked directly to the dish. My cable run from the dish to the inside is at least 150 ft, and I notice no difference at all in either signal strength or quality. That's using standard RG6 cable.

I found the bad connector today. Now I'm getting the same signal strength indoors and out.

I also did some experimentation with the c-band setup. I could get Anik digitally and several analog channels, but nothing much better than my previous attempts. I think PSB is right about the height of the lnbf being pretty important. I was doing some experimentation with mounting the lnbf to a piece of angle bracket bolted on with the bolt that normally holds the P* lnbf holder to the arm. If I bolted directly to the arm, I'd get a few analog channels kind of so-so and nothing digital. I shimmed it with a few washers to raise the height of the lnbf and was able to get Anik, but with quality ranging from the forties to the seventies depending on the transponder. I couldn't get anything digital on other satellites. I think if I raise it some more, I should be able to improve on the quality some but I'll need a longer bolt first.

Incidentally, this setup really rocks for KU. After the c-band experimentation I slapped my old KU lnbf on, and the signal and quality are way higher than they were with my old 30" dish. For the first time ever, I'm watching WVGN tonight. Signal is around 76 and quality is 49. Signal and quality is about the same for the Tube, which are the strongest I've ever had. Can't wait to see what an Invacom can do with those two. Hopefully we won't have to wait too much longer for the new quad to become available. Hey Pete, June's almost over any word?

 

[CharredPC]

Yeah, seriously. We have a HUGE following gathering here with this C/Ku MicroBUD setup, in all of its various forms (old Primestar dishes or 120cm ones). We're all eager for a dual lnbf to come out... I've looked into old BUD C/Ku feedhorn/lnb assemblies, but the Ku side is rated so miserably low, I'd much rather have something new and quality. If I knew it would be available within a month or so, I'd hold off on doing some wacky multi-lnb system. It'll be totally sweet to perfect a 1m/1.2m dish, H-H motor and single lnb system that gets C-band and Ku in the proper focal point.
Cascade definately gets the patent, though