c band help

[nascar man]

gonna try and get my old c band system up and going again, have an older star trak 8 receiver, but i think my problem is either with this receiver or the ribbon cable, because all i get is a snowy picture now, have changed out several lnb;s but no better, does any one know where i can get some ribbon cable around 125 ft real cheap or just for the cost of shipping, that is what i'am gonna try first. if i get it going i never did have the ku band back when it took out, gonna try and get that going also, what do i need to do in order to do that, thinking about adding a fta receiver in the future, will i need a c band receiver that gets a picture in order to do this in case the star trak is trash, or can it be just used to move the dish in order to pick up the satellites on the fta side.
wel this is a start for now, may have some other questions or needing help after i get going again.

tks

 

[Mr Tony]

welcome to SatelliteGuys

adding a FTA receiver to an existing C-Band setup is pretty easy and will gain you a lot more channels

I'm sorry I can't help on the cable. I have a fixed dish that I hand move

 

[dfergie]

Welcome to SatelliteGuys... If you have a small portable tv with a short run of RG6, a short piece of 12 gauge lamp wire( for the dish mover), a extension cord and telephone wire(for the polorator) you can try your receiver at the dish, It's a whole lot easier to get a dead BUD going if you are right there at it so you can see results and tweak...

 

[nascar man]

also how do i know if its the vc II module that is bad., are they repairable or better just to pick up another one.
tks for the help

 

[dfergie]

Pretty much better to pick up another one if you are sure it is dead... when you get system going find a scrambled channel and see if it will work. In the FAQ's is a description on changing the battery in a VCII (if it is still alive, if the battery is alread dead you have a doorstop...

 

[Shawn95GT]

If you can tune analog in the clear stuff (G1-5 etc) but nothing comes up on the VC channels than the module could be the culprit.

I think what you are really noticing is that there isn't much left in the way of Analog any more. There are a handfull of channels left + feeds. It seems that it is just a matter of time before all the available pay channels are 4DTV only.

The 4DTV boxes are relatively expensive but if you are going to commit to c-band, it's the way to go. If you are looking for FTA / feeds then your current setup and a DVB receiver would work out pretty nice.

I bought my C-band ribbon cable on ebay. Skyvision sometimes works out cheaper.

This is the guy I bought mine from:

http://cgi.ebay.com/100-feet-C-BAND...oryZ4693QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

He sells the rolls in 100/150/200/300 foot lengths.

 

[nascar man]

on trying to get my system going i can not get the dish to move because of a display that keeps coming up stating "jack error", tryed what it said in manual, but no good, still may look at changing ribbon cable in the near future to see if that works, any other ideals to try before that.
tks

 

[Shawn95GT]

I'd try what dfergie suggested with short lengths of cable out at the dish.

If you have a multi-meter you can check for continuity pulses on the sensor wires when power is applied to the two heavy wires going to the actuator. I used a battery charger to move my dish around while I was setting it up.