Any long Memorial Day weekend FTA projects?

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Just caught up on this thread-Iceberg is ready to start his own cable company now , haha. His neighbors will throw him out!
 
Because it took the entire 3 day Memorial Day weekend to find the parts needed to adjust my dishes I now am ready to begin my projects this weekend. They want beautiful weather here in Western PA, so I'm going to take advantage of it.

My 15 year old daughter will also be going on her first date this weekend, so I probably should clean the shotgun. :)
If you needed to take action it's definitely justifiable homicide! :eek:
My daughters are 12 and 13. Couple more years to go before I gotta take action myself! :argue: :ballchain: :censored:
 
My 15 year old daughter will also be going on her first date this weekend, so I probably should clean the shotgun. :)

:rolleyes: On the bright side...


Maybe they will find some satellite dishes

on some back roads that you have never been on!!!... :kiss:


On second thought you better have your shotgun ready! :D
 
So far today I was able to get some work accomplished on my satellite dishes while my daughter is out on her first date.

1) Adjusted Starband dish onto 110 Echostar 10/11. This dish will be used to catch any open channels and can be easily adjusted to other Echostar satellites if needed.

2) Installed a weatherproof diseqc switch onto the deck. I purchased two of these on EBay. The other will be installed out by the 8' dish in the backyard and both outputs will go to an eCoda 22 KHz switch which will be installed in the basement. This will enable me to hookup a total of 8 LNBF's to my system.

3) Removed a C/KU LNBF from the 6' dish currently being used for HITS programming and installed and adjusted a dual output C band LNBF in its place. One output will be connected to the DSR-410 receiver and the other will go to the diseqc switch which will be attached to the OpenBox S9 receiver for the NBC feeds and new HD programming. Because the Coolsat 4000 can't receive DVB-S2 channels I started by going in and out of the house looking at the signal strength on the DSR-410 receiver. The highest signal I could get this way was only 53, so I decided to unhook the receiver and take it outside. Once connected outside I was able to adjust the dish and LNBF to receive a signal strength around 76.

The only thing I don't understand is why the LNBF needed to be pushed in towards the dish so far in order for the signal to reach 76. I had to do the same thing when the dish was adjusted onto Galaxy 16 last year in order to improve the signal.

I'm now going to adjust the 4' motorized dish and run coax to the diseqc switch.

Attached are some pictures.
 

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Question:
This weekend I'm wiring my system per Anole's drawing using two eCoda 4 port diseqc switches and one eCoda 22KHz switch. If LNBF "E" has a motor what is the best way to wire it into the system?
 

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jus thinkin' out loud...

The only thing I don't understand is why the LNBF needed to be pushed in towards the dish so far in order for the signal to reach 76.
I had to do the same thing when the dish was adjusted onto Galaxy 16 last year in order to improve the signal.
One would have to wonder if what you are optimizing is the focal point?
I think the scalar is too far from the dish.
A test you might perform, if you have a spare (preferably light weight) scalar, is to put it on the business end of the LNBF, and slowly slide it toward the dish to see if you can improve the signal further.
(couldn't hurt) :up

If LNBF "E" has a motor what is the best way to wire it into the system?
I'd wire the motor between the receiver and the 22khz ecoda switch.
I realize that may be awkward.
If you absolutely cannot do that, there might be a solution with a special dual-power-passing diplexer, but it'd require another coax.
(will have to think about that, to be sure)
 
1) This is what I was thinking Anole and want to perform the test you suggested and take some measurements.

2) I was afraid you would suggest placing the motor between the receiver and the 22KHz switch. :) The problem is that the coax from the other diseqc switch is far away and attaches to the 22KHz switch within the communications room in the basement. I will probably simply attach the LNBF to the motor and then from the motor to a port on the diseqc switch. This is how the system is currently setup and I never had a problem until I tried using a Spitfire Elite LNBF.
 
My Memorial day projects sufferred a week of rain. But I got a lot more done this weekend. I stripped the remaining dish of the house and touched up the paint.MAYdish 022.JPG

I hung the WS9036 dish on a SG9120 and onto the new dish array on top of my shipping containerMAYdish 021.JPG.MAYdish 025.JPG

The container is wired for lights and power now. I dropped a tube into the trench with the electrical to run coax thru, instead of hanging it overhead

.MAYdish 027.JPG


The hole for the big pole goes slowly. The rain doesn't help. The rocks suk!
MAYdish 018.JPGMAYdish 017.JPG
 

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Hey Popcorn,

Your last post on your wire project was on Sunday morning.

Where is the followup on your weekend project and how did your first date go???
 
Well he logged on last night....and last I checked most jails dont have internet....so the gun may not have been used ;)
 
I just got home from a two day business trip in Erie. My daughter's first date went well. My wife took them to the mall along with a few other friends while I stayed at home and worked on my satellite dishes. Our rule is that she must always go out with him in a group of friends or with one or both of us until she is 16. I would prefer 18, but my wife is fighting me on this. When she arrived home with a big smile on her face she wrote on her Facebook wall "best day ever". My wife handled it ok, but I cried Saturday night and early Sunday morning as I remembered this song from Mike Douglas (YouTube - ?Mike Douglas "The Man in My Little Girl's Life"?‏).
 
You are in Erie more than me!! ;)

My daughter is 13 so I am watching for any advice that will help me in that area too! :D

You forgot to mention your satellite project! :doh:
 
After months of research and scouring Kijiji, my main setup is complete. I may put up a few more dishes for wildfeeds but that will be later in the summer.
I've been meaning to post these pics since last week but I've been busy cleaning up the place so here we go:

11.jpg
44.jpg


Two shots of the main setup. Top dish is set to 125 the middle is set to 97 and 101 and the last one is set to 83. 100% of this setup is from Kijiji. From the lnbs all the way down to the cabling. The lnbs on the qsat and eaglestar are old E* D* lnbs from when they used linear ones. They were salvage from some dishes that were given to me.

33.jpg

A tester I left on the fence to play around with wild feeds.

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The left overs. One of these will go to my parents place for a 101 and 97 setup and the rest will go to my wildfeeds. The second last one is a starchoice but its not elliptical. I haven't done any research about using it for FTA but it was a package deal with one of the other dishes in that pile.
 
The 2nd to last one (with the mast hanging off) looks like a 24" Starchoice dish...maybe a 30"
It will work fine for FTA. The LNB is different though. Those flashlight ones are usually stacked (so the Horizontal frequencies are at a higher frequency than vertical)
 
well went through all the analog receivers and they all work :)
This is what I like about analog receivers. So easy to use. No fumbling through menus to make sure the sat is right. No loading correct software to clean out the hacker stuff. No trying to figure out the menus in general

Hooked up receiver to 6 foot dish
Hooked up BNC output on the front to the rf converter and hook up TV
Tuned the dials to 17 on the front and moved dish until pic came in. green light comes on when there is a pic
Turned LNB 90 degrees and dialed to 16 for Shepherds Chapel

Its that easy :)
On some I hooked up the audio (2 tinned ends) to the mono output to verify sound. They also have a coax output but it isnt a RF out. I had a coax to rca adapter and that worked in the rf converter

All you have to do for C-band is to turn the dials to which channel you want (01-24) or the frequency (4020 for TP16). KU you use all 5 dials to put in the frequency (I dont know of any KU analog so cant test).

I know digital is more economical for providers but analog is so easy to use ;)
 

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Sounds like a fun weekend, Iceberg. :up

Any plans for 'em?
I suggested to RV1pop in another thread that you might some good tax credits by donating a few to his 'project'.
 
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