c-band orthofeed question

[rrob311]

I have an orthofeed on my 12 foot c band dish from what I am told. My lnb should be here today but I was wondering which one is horizontal and which one is vertical. It has one on the opposite end of the ring and one on the side of it. I would like to get this thing pointed at a dish tonight.

 

[Pixl]

If you can look down the throat and see the probe of the lnb on the opposite side , that will tell you the polarity of that lnb. If the probe is up/down, that lnb is vertical. The other lnb that mounts on the side port will be the opposite polarity.

 

[rrob311]

you mean the brass looking pin that sticks out inside the LNB?

 

[rrob311]

Also I was not sure if I only have one LNB in the Ortho will the signal automatically go to both lnb spots because I only have one right now and the cover is on the other slot. The feed assembly is not pointing at the direct center of the dish. The cables are extended all the way and it is not pointing at the direct center. It seems like it fits this way but I thought these are supposed to point at the center. I have it set so the pin in the lnb is facing vertical.

 

[rrob311]

another question I have is should I set the inclinometer on the back of the scalar ring to set elevation since the feed is somewhat offset towards the bottom of the dish? I was trying to set it on the flat part of the back of the dish but no signal yet.

 

[Pixl]

Yes the little brass pin is the probe that picks up the signal guided in there.

You can run the feed with just one lnb if you want to get started, add the 2nd later.

The throat of the feed must point exactly at the center of the dish. I don't know why it would point anywhere else. Maybe you had better post some pictures.

There are several place you can place your inclinometer, not just the scalar rings. Some use a surface on the lnb, I like to use a cross member on the back of the dish that is square with the reflector as you did.

 

[rrob311]

OK, the way that the feed assembly is supported is with two lower aluminum arms that swing down and two wire ropes that support it from above. One of the cables needs to be replaced but I can use regular rope for the time being. I think that the lower alum. arms are bent slightly from it being transported and stored so I am going to try to bend them so that the feed assembly is focused at the center. I swung the dish across the sky with a vertical lnb in it and wasn't able to catch anything yesterday. I will look for my camera and hopefully posts some pics later today. I am hoping to lock onto a bird by tonight.

 

[rrob311]

I finally just locked onto a bird with this giant dish. It only found some encrypted channels but I think it's 91w. The scalar ring has some corrosion on it. Should I try to polish this thing for a better signal? I straightened the feed arms as best I could and replaced the RG6 connectors with new ones. I am running probably 75 feet of coax to this.

 

[Pixl]

Nah don't bother, there are old dishes all over that look tired and rusted, but still work well.
75' of line is fine, I've got my dishes at the end of a 200 ft run, some guys are out to 300' still working ok.
The thing you have to work on is the positioning of that feed assembly. If you can't duplicate the original position you should try to calculate the focal distance and FD ratio. The compare with what you have.
If you don't get all this stuff right it will still work, just not as good. At least you've seen something so far.

 

[rrob311]

C band Skew Polarization control setup

I noticed the orthofeed on my 12 foot c band dish has a motor to spin the scalar ring. Is this polarization control or just skew? It came with a box that says polarization control but I am not sure how to set it up. There is 3 wires. I would like to be able to adjust this to try and peak my signal.

 

[Anole]

Arghhhhh! I just wrote a lengthy reply to the skew/polarization question, and the server lost it.!

Is this the same foldable 12' dish-on-a-trailer you wrote about before?
With the big honkin' ortho feed?

Ya really need to keep all the questions about it in one thread.
That way, anyone reading can see the existing pictures, etc.

I thought it just had a knob to twist the feed for fine tuning.
Didn't know it was motorized.
That's done that way so you don't need a big ladder to set up the dish.

Since the ortho feed has both vertical and horizontal output (with two LNBs), it's not the same "polarization control" ya have on a typical Chaparral feed where a little servo tunes the probe.
Call it what ya will.
It's a portable/mobile dish, so you would deploy and set it up (elevation/azimuth/skew) then use both polarities from the ortho without any further adjusting.

 

[rrob311]

Arghhhhh! I just wrote a lengthy reply to the skew/polarization question, and the server lost it.!

Is this the same foldable 12' dish-on-a-trailer you wrote about before?
With the big honkin' ortho feed?

Ya really need to keep all the questions about it in one thread.
That way, anyone reading can see the existing pictures, etc.

I thought it just had a knob to twist the feed for fine tuning.
Didn't know it was motorized.
That's done that way so you don't need a big ladder to set up the dish.

Since the ortho feed has both vertical and horizontal output (with two LNBs), it's not the same "polarization control" ya have on a typical Chaparral feed where a little servo tunes the probe.
Call it what ya will.
It's a portable/mobile dish, so you would deploy and set it up (elevation/azimuth/skew) then use both polarities from the ortho without any further adjusting.

Yes it is the same dish. I just caught some channels. Whichever one the Lesea Christian network is on and WHT . I have no problem if the adminitrators want to condense all my c band questions into one thread. I still need to know what controls I need to setup the Skew motor on this so I can fine tune the satellites. I am getting a pixelated signal and a bunch of old tv shows and a few radio channels. Not sure what I hit.

I figured it out I caught 99w but the signal is weak. I think the skew is set to 0 right now so I would like to get it at 26 where it should be then I can park this darn thing and watch some Bonanza.

 

[rrob311]

So I got my second LNB tonight and my multiswitch at the same time. I hooked up the lnb on vertical on 99w and instantly got 4 channels with 76% quality! I then hooked up multiswitch and did a blind scan for both but it won't catch anything on vertical now and I lost the signal on the vertical channels I got with the initial blind scan. The channels that I couldnt get good quality on last night come in a lot better now with the multiswitch. I think my coupler was corroded. Why can't I get the vertical lnb to scan anything with this multiswitch? Does the receiver automatically know the difference?