Atlantic Bird 2

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mikelib

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Apr 26, 2009
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Has any one on the east coast been able to receive the American Beam transponder on the Atlantic Bird 2 (11500/h/3460)????
 
as long as you have a good line of site, you should be able to

I can't see it form MN (below the horizon)
 
The List shows my easternmost bird is Atlantic Bird 1 at 12.5 west-
8.1 degrees elevation! :eek:
With the trees around here I can't do that so Atlantic bird 2 is probably below the horizon for me too.
 

Thanks guys for your response, I should have put in my first message that Atlantic Bird 2 was at 8º west. Enclosed is a picture of my 18 inch Dish that I play around with. I can get most of the FTA satellites from 15º W to 125º W. When I could not receive 129º W, (low elevation, blocked by tress and house next door) I drove down to the municipal dock on Barnegat Bay, NJ and was able to lock the transponder and station in. Some time this week I am going back to the dock (it has a good clear shot east) and see if I can get Atlantic Bird 2. What was interesting is the Dish I am using was designed to tilt 40º towards the west and only 10º to east. I had to take out the two locking bolts to tilt the dish another 30º for the bird at 15º W. I might have to turn the LNB and tilt on the dish to get the bird at 8º. I’ll let you know if I am successful
mikelib



So many signals so little time!
Fortec Star Dynamic Receiver - WS9036 - 90cm Dish - Invacom QPH031 LNB - Fortec Star HH42 Motor.
 

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I figured that the original LNBs’ were designed for the correct focal point. So I taped a string from the top of the dish to front of the LNB and tape the string to the bottom dish and made a black mark on the string where it touched the face of the original LNB. Now I have the focal point of dish and I don’t have to do any fancy measurements. I marked where the new holder will go, drilled hole, mounted the new LNB and adjusted to the black mark with string pulled taut.

I read an article once were a ham radio operator used this method to find a focal point for a dish he was using for a 10 GH transmitter. Great idea, it worked.

The screws and bulb levels are used to level out the board and to use for a finer elevation adjustment, the dish is mounted to board and I have a lazy Susan mounted between the two boards for a finer azimuth adjustment. I have an arrow marked on the front of the board marked south, as long as I point that arrow towards magnetic south from my compass all of the other marking I make for different satellites work. I also have the back elevation and tilt marked for different satellites. I have learned a lot on reading these threads there are a lot of smart guys on this forum.


I usually leave the dish on Galaxy 18 at 123º W and watch the stations that play old movies.

I know you only asked about the string and I made the whole reply long and wordy but I figured you would like to know about my testing dish.

mikelib
 
Used the same dish and my Invacom to get Whitesprings a while back.
See adjacent posts for LNB holder made from conduit hanger brackets.

I used the same string technique, to find the focal point for a C-band LNB test on a little Ku dish.
Results weren't good, but at least I knew the LNB was in the right place.

This is the template trick, found on another site.

Here's another way I came up with to locate your LNB at the focal point.
 
Thanks guys,

Anole, the brackets look good it beats the $15 dollar plus shipping that I paid for my bracket.

FTA thanks for the points, but I was not successful trying to lock in Atlantic Bird 2. Even though the bird has an American beam transponder I take the bird to be just below the horizon for my location. I can get Telestar 12 at 15º W with readable SQ. I have used dishpointer with Google Earth and pulled the map all of the way back until I had the whole planet in the frame and it looks like it might just be out of reach. I wish I knew how to add the equator mark to Google Earth then I would know for sure. Oh well I will try again later tonight.
mikelib
I got to learn how to add the quotes in my messages
 
String, good answer. cool test setup. I'm thinking of something like that, rather than a portable-stand for a dish, that I could mount in the bed of my pickeup-kind of like a 5th wheel for a trailer lol. If somebody wanted an on-site demo of FTA -tv, throw the dish on when I get there, aim it, level it etc.
 
It's out there

Well guys Atlantic Bird 2 is out there with one transponder, (11500/H/3460) which has two TV stations and one radio station. The elevation is around 9º to 10º and that is pretty low but I managed to locked in the stations around 7:00 EDST, the SQ was not strong and it was going into pixilation at times. This is a really fringe bird and I most likely could not receive a signal from it during daylight hours. Having access to clear shot over the bay certainly helped.

Check out the pics,
 

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Using a larger dish would not be as much fun, as using the old 18 incher!
 
Using a larger dish would not be as much fun, as using the old 18 incher!

You sure solved all LOS problems , I've actually thought about doing this at the lakefront now tell me how you're powering the little TV and receiver.

Just something I might be able to pull off on the lake Michigan shoreline , BTW I really do like using my magnetic angle finder on the lnb holder arm , later if I wish to duplicate results I just make sure to calibrate everything using the same angle and bam I'm right on target.
 
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