Can any C-Band be rec'd on 90cm dish?

[dfecarter]

Probably a crazy and ignorant question but I'll ask it anyways...Have a 36" dish with a Invacom QPH 031 LNBF for KU Band can I add a C-Band LNB and possibly pull in a few c-band channels - by way of my Mercury II Fortec receiver. Or would I need a larger dish?
Thanks.

 

[Anole]

reading material:

Here are a couple of threads on using small dishes for C-band:
Save yourself a lot of reading, and just skip to near the end of Linuxmans thread where he lists what he got on his 1m dish.

Satcom1 on C-band with 84e dish
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-ai...9-primestar-84e-bsc621-2-lnbf-experiment.html

Linuxman on C-band with 1m round Primestar
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-ai...-one-meter-primestar-mini-bud-experiment.html

See the buzz around the new DMX741 LNBF and available conical scalar (search).
There is discussion about trying to get some C- on 90cm.
Personally, I gave up and got some real dishes.

Offset Scalar performance comparison:
http://satcrazy.com/test_result_on_high_efficiency_f.php

ACradio and flat scalar tune-up on mini-bud:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/c-band-...g-c-band-my-1-2-meter-dish-2.html#post1735458

 

[brentb636]

C-band on a 1.2m dish is an iffy enough affair, that I'd hesitate to recommend you spend any money trying with a 90cm dish. On good days I can get the channels that I want, on bad days, I get nothing.

 

[FTABman0]

Funny someome posted this on a 90 CM, I tried today to see if it would work on a 90 CM dish and I would venture to say NO!
It tried various birds and did not get a blip hint of a signal.

Well, not entirely true, I did get the Pentagon Channel on AMC-1, 103 degrees West longitude TP 12100 V to scan in, that is DVB and one FedEx channel on TP 12182 V but afterwards the receiver went to screen saying “No Signal”! But I did see some Transponders on a 90CM dish! Nothing that you could watch!


Not to say it is not completely possible but my location is a impossibility here for that size! I can see someone locking in something at the proper elevation on a 90CM though. Take some fiddling around with the focus and patience.

I did a quick setup in the back yard today and I guess I could have picked a better spot to try, leaves are growing here and I was into a couple of them when I tried but was fighting off rain showers.

I will wait to order a new 6 Foot before I get the C-Band LNB out again.

Working with a bigger dish say the 120cm dish is pushing it a bit but workable but not on all C-Band satellites up there! Theoretically the best size dish would be 8-12 foot and entry level size of 6 foot.


See Icebergs post where he got some C-Band signals on his 120cm dish. You will find his results very interesting!

By all means give it a try, we would be tickled if you could get anything on that size. If you try and get something on there, tell us about it on a follow up post here in this thread!


K E V I N

 

[Mr Tony]

I just tried last week...not much can be received

http://www.satelliteguys.us/1807470-post37.html

a 120cm gets MUCH better results

 

[eurosport]

With 2 full-size C-band dishes, I've never had the need to try it.
I do think, however, that adjacent satellite interference, would kill C-band signals on an undersized dish, more so than the reduced signal strength.

 

[FTABman0]

I just tried last week...not much can be received

http://www.satelliteguys.us/1807470-post37.html

a 120cm gets MUCH better results

Tony,

What Birds did you try & could you get anything to lock to be watchable?

What in your opinion would you guess be the best ones to hit or most powerful signal wise?

I tried with and without the scalar, in that size dish I don't think it mattered much.

I did the tinker like we would with KU and got some to scan, that was without the proper 65mm LNB bracket mount as well, just jerry rigged.

I would venture to think just forget about 90CM and go 120 if a fellow was to get better results!

K E V I N

 

[Mr Tony]

everything is in the link I posted

 

[FTABman0]

everything is in the link I posted

Sorry, was jumping around, did not look!

K E V I N

 

[dfecarter]

Once again - thanks guys for the responses!
I'll definitely take your advice and not mess around with my 3 footer, suffice to say one should start with at least a 6' dish for c-band, interesting though that a couple of you have experimented and had slight success.

 

[Access America]

First let me say that I have not tried this. I live in the French Quarter in New Orleans and the historic landmark commission has a beef with satellite dishes. I am lucky to get away with my little Winegard. Or should I say they haven't found the dish yet!

Here are some pointers that might help:

1) Satellite
It depends a lot on the satellite. Newer sats have more downlink power than older once, meaning more wattage per transponder. Some transponders can be spot beams (not very common with C-band) and can be seen only in certain parts of the CONUS, or Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Also, C-band transponders have usually less wattage then Ku-band transponders.

2) Your Location
Your location does matter. As a general rule, central and southern US have better C-band reception than the northern states. Again, it depends on the satellite and how they "tilt" the sat in orbit.

3) Weather
C-band is also affected by rainfade. Not as much as Ku-band, but some. If you have heavy cloud cover and heavy thunderstorms, it will take more power for the satellite to penetrate. Meaning, you will loose your signal on a small dish.

4) Dish Size
With all the above said, dish size does matter when it comes to C-band. As larger the dish the more narrow your beam is. That means more accuracy and less interference from neighboring satellites.

It is not unheard of that you can pick up a transponder on C-band with a 90 cm dish, but it is not reliable and depends on the reasons I stated above.

I'll try to discuss this with Mike on the Sat Talk show tonight.

BTW., we are starting one hour late tonight, at 10 PM Et, since I have a TV job before.

Ralf

 

[AcWxRadar]

C-Band on 1M dish

Yes, this can be done.

It isn't great, and you don't want to use it on a motorized setup, but I gaurantee that it can be accomplished. I observed it on my own dish! I loaned my 1M Winegard dish to my brother and he attached a homemade scalar to a C-Band LNBF. I observed several channels on several different sats that came in respectfully well. Some channels were absolutely perfect, some were pixelating slightly and the rest were totally absent.

When you switched sats in the reciever menu, it didn't work very well. You had to readjust the entire dish to tune the sat in. If you are doing this with a fixed point dish, you can make it work quite well for a few channels on a 1 meter dish.

Ask Richard Buckner on the FTA SHOW! He will tell you as he just advertised something regarding this very subject.

RADAR

 

[pro96]

Once you go 6 footer, there's no coming back to 1.2m

 

[Mr Tony]

Once you go 6 footer, there's no coming back to 1.2m

agreed

Although the 4 footer will be used for a couple other stations

 

[Mr Tony]

It isn't great, and you don't want to use it on a motorized setup, but I gaurantee that it can be accomplished. I observed it on my own dish! I loaned my 1M Winegard dish to my brother and he attached a homemade scalar to a C-Band LNBF. I observed several channels on several different sats that came in respectfully well. Some channels were absolutely perferct, some were pixelating slightly and the rest were totally absent.

the OP mentions a 36" dish, not a 1m dish

 

[AcWxRadar]

It is not unheard of that you can pick up a transponder on C-band with a 90 cm dish, but it is not reliable and depends on the reasons I stated above.

I'll try to discuss this with Mike on the Sat Talk show tonight.

BTW., we are starting one hour late tonight, at 10 PM Et, since I have a TV job before.

Ralf

Ralf,

I will be listening in on the show. Thanks for letting us know that you will air an hour later for tonights show. I would like to hear about your TV appearance and what that is all about. If you can weasel that into your show tonight it would be interesting.

I would like to ask if there are any old time radio shows like the Lone Ranger or Fibber McGee and Mollie available up there. I really love Fibber McGee! If that was available on sat radio I would buy any equipment necessary to get it! Jim and Marian Jordan were great! I also like the Great Gildersleeve and my favorite.... The Bickersons with Francis Langford and Don Ameche! That has to be the all time best radio show! So funny!

 

[pro96]

agreed

Although the 4 footer will be used for a couple other stations

true, I'm still looking for a floor mount to use either 1m and or 1.2m for backup CBAND purposes. :

 

[Mr Tony]

I'm trying to figure out how I'm gonna bolt my 4 footer to a table

maybe some plywood

 

[bubba108]

Is there any way to boost signal level on a 3ft C-band dish? Tried an in-line amp and it made it worse. No budget here for a 4 footer. Sure would like to get those network channels on G16 but best I can get has about 40% tiling, unwatchable.

 

[pro96]

Is there any way to boost signal level on a 3ft C-band dish? Tried an in-line amp and it made it worse. No budget here for a 4 footer. Sure would like to get those network channels on G16 but best I can get has about 40% tiling, unwatchable.

alot of times those in-line amps mess up your signal even more.