Any who used LNBF gone back to LNBs?

[Cnut]

The last dish I rescued had a Chaparral Corotor II on it, which I kept. Just wondering if anyone has gone from LNBFs to LNBs. If so what size wire did you use to power the servo motor? Did you see a better picture? More stable picture on the weak signals?

I noticed on Ebay they sell C and KU band LNBs that are PLL and not DROs, and just wondered if I should invest a little money and try out the Corotor II? Do you think it would be worth it? Have you tried it decided to stay with the LNBs and not go back to the LNBFs? Just wondering what everyone thinks if it would be worth trying.

My equipment, I have a 10.5 foot BUD with a Titanium Cband PLL LNBF. I have a Geosat Pro PLL KU band LNBF on a sidecar mount.

Any advice would be welcome.

 

[Lone Gunman]

When the combo C/Ku LNBFs came out a few years back I was using a Corotor II with C and Ku LNBs. At that time I was also using my GI920 with an AZ Box Elite slaved to that for FTA TV. I got tired of always having to mess with two boxes so I bought a C/Ku DMX741 LNBF and a Vbox X dish mover doing away with the 920 in the process. I did A/B tests when I changed over and after it was all done I didn't see a nickles worth of difference in Q readings on the TPs that I had recorded prior to the change over.

Having said all that, I have no desire to go back to the Corotor/LNB setup especially since the only standalone dish controller available with servo function for those is $175. Titanium Satellite sells those and I'm sure they are nice pieces, but out of my price range. Retirement is good, but the pay is somewhat lacking.

 

[Radioguy41]

I can't say I went back because I never left. I still have the same co-rotor/LNB (C/Ku) setup on the 7.5 KTI that I had when I installed it 23 years ago with one exception, I changed the C-band LNB about 15 years ago due to a hornet's nest causing it to overheat. I'm controlling it with a 4DTV with my X2 Premium Mini piggybacked as the receiver. A little extra work to move the dish but not all that annoying. As for pic quality, it isn't any better or worse that my other dish with an LNBF. I can tune both to the same Ku channel and get identical pics so I don't see any advantage, quality wise, to either set up.

As for wire sizes, here's some info:

http://www.bigdish.info/csawire/

 

[ancient]

When the combo C/Ku LNBFs came out a few years back I was using a Corotor II with C and Ku LNBs. At that time I was also using my GI920 with an AZ Box Elite slaved to that for FTA TV. I got tired of always having to mess with two boxes so I bought a C/Ku DMX741 LNBF and a Vbox X dish mover doing away with the 920 in the process. I did A/B tests when I changed over and after it was all done I didn't see a nickles worth of difference in Q readings on the TPs that I had recorded prior to the change over.

Having said all that, I have no desire to go back to the Corotor/LNB setup especially since the only standalone dish controller available with servo function for those is $175. Titanium Satellite sells those and I'm sure they are nice pieces, but out of my price range. Retirement is good, but the pay is somewhat lacking.

I'm with you on all that. I have a cardboard box full of the older LNB's with the polorotor on them, and I would never to back to using them. For one thing, you can buy the newer LNBF's with dual outputs, so you can receive or record two channels from the same satellite at once. For another, I run TVHeadEnd on a computer with PCIe tuner card and I can't imagine how you would connect those to the older LNB's.

I will say that I have noticed some difference in the performance on different brands of LNBF's. I don't have enough data to offer conclusive evidence of anything but I will just say that if someone is thinking about going back to the older LNB-type setup because they are dissatisfied with the performance of a newer unit, do yourself a favor and try a different brand first, it might solve whatever issues you are experiencing. This is especially true if you have excellent signal strength and quality, yet still have intermittent problems with reception that are not caused by anything obvious (you don't have tree branches blowing in front of your dish in the wind, you're not in the flight path of an airport, etc.).

 

[Magic Static]

I run TVHeadEnd on a computer with PCIe tuner card and I can't imagine how you would connect those to the older LNB's.

I run 4 PLL LNBs on a dual orthomode, 10' dish, using a powered multi-switch. My main receiver is a PCI card in my PC. The multi-switch can share to 8 receivers. I use the same setting as a combo LNBF, L.O. 5150/10750

 

[fred555]

I am using a Corotor II on a stationary prime focus 6 footer for Ku only, vertical only, for the sole purpose of receiving the PBS channels on 125W. The 6 foot solid dish was not good enough for C band use, and a 90cm was not good for me in this role, so I cobbled together what spare parts I had and It works very well for me. I removed the servo and tuned the polarity for peak signal by hand and it's been good to go.

 

[Cham]

An orthomode feed horn with LNBs would be the best way to go but certainly no the cheapest. Switched out my Corotor a couple of years ago and replaced it with a C2 LNBF. Had some water issues with the C2 and went back to the corotor for a bit; forgot what a pain in the axx it was so I replaced it again with a C2PLL. Now I'm back using the C2 again after cleaning and reviving it. Great LNBF!
I have some good LNBs kicking around so if an orthomode feedhorn presented itself I might be tempted though...

 

[waylew]

I've got a BSC621 combo on my Winegard and C band ortho on the Paraclipse.Got sick and tired of the polarotors freezing up in the winter and just general goofy behavior at other times.Doubt I'd ever go back to a polarotor.

 

[FaT Air]

Used to run nothing but Pansats so using the ADL feed wasn't a problem. Well, I retired the Pansat 3500 so the ADL feed was also retired. At the same time the Toshiba's (analog) were retired as dish mover. Will I go back? NO. Never. Geosatpro C2 C band LNBF presently.
I would, although, put up an orthomode transducer, if one were to magically land in my lap.