Can I use my DirecWay dish?

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Joe M

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Feb 11, 2009
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southern AZ
I'm ready to hit the purchase button on a complete setup - receiver, dish, motor etc. But shipping is an extra $70! I figure if I can drop some weight I can save money. I've got an old (6 years maybe) dish from when I had satellite internet. It's DirecWay, I think. It's got one big LNB on the front and it's 31+ inches long, oval shaped. It's still sitting on the original 3-legged mount it came with, just needs to be put back on the roof. Can I use this to pickup the galaxy 25 where all the channels I want seem to be? I'm hoping the answer is yes - then all I need is a receiver and a motor. And since I only want to receive the one satellite - do I really need a motor? I'll be setting this up myself so if the motor makes it easier to aim I'll buy it.
Thanks
Joe
 
I can't speak to the reception with that size dish, but if you only want that satellite you don't need the motor. It would be easiest to just aim the dish and tighten it down in that spot.
 
Thanks. I'll probably drop the motor, just aim it and tighten it down. I just read the other threads on this dish and I guess I need to read more - some of the other had my dish with 2-3 LNB, I've only got one. And the one person that only had one - someone recommended getting a different type. Guess I need to go back and read up on this KU band vs DBS and I'll look at the channel listings for G19 while I'm at it.
Just when I thought it was safe to purchase...
 
MikeInBaja recently put up a DirecWay dish on 123°.
Skim over his lengthy thread, and see if that offers encouragement.

I also have one of the dishes, and am in the middle of outfitting it with a bandstacked LNB and a tall oval feedhorn.
The original LNB is missing, and the rectangular feed that came with it won't fit my LNB.

Dish is pretty heavy, so if you want to motorize (I'm not), ditch all that mount on the back side, and fabricate something.
Well documented on the forum, if you need ideas.
 

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Does anyone know anything about the lnb the DirectWay dish use? I got hold of this dish not too long ago. I think the dish is about 5 years old. My ex wife was on Hughsnet internet before switching to Wildblue internet.
I was wondering what degree lnb it has.
 
.6 if I remember but they work dang good. Use to have one aimed at G3 when a sports team had their home games on there and we had issues with adjacent interference so the oblong dish worked better :)
 
JoeM if you're just putting it back on the roof on the mount it came on, I wouldn't even worry about removing the transmitter part of it. It won't hurt anything on your fta reception. Do you remember which satellite you were on? If you're cables are still in place, maybe all you need to do replace the cable-ends and re-point. Those dishes are a little hard to aim at first, but with patience (and maybe a tv on the roof, or on the ground where you can see it) I'm sure you can do it.
edit: you will prob have to adjust the 'skew' of the dish also when you re-point, that's easy on those dishes though.
 
Well, the roof I the dish off of, isn't the roof it's going up on. (I moved from a rented shack in the desert to my own shack in the desert). I have no idea what part of the arm is the transmitter, what's the receiver. The LNB is all metal, not a plastic capped thing like on the tv dish. It's been two years since I moved. I only took the dish with me because I'd paid for it. Since then it's been sitting out in the shed. Whatever I buy I'm going to pick up one of those hand-held aimers/finders to make it easier. Now that I know I don't need a whole new dish, or a motor, I'm finding there's a bunch more receivers in my price-range. I think I've got it about nailed down now, just a few more threads to read.
thanks
Joe
 
Instead of the roof, consider ground mounting your dish.
Easier to aim, service, repair.
I bought a length of 2 3/8th inch fence post for about $16 at Home Depot.
That and a $4 sack of quickcrete should do it.

As for a cheap receiver, the Coolsat 5000's have gone up on eBay due to some hack support but may still be a bargain.
And my favorite is the Visionsat IV-200 for not much more.
As you can see in my signature, I have a 500gb hard drive on it for recording shows I might otherwise miss.

Shoot some pix of what you've got, and post them.
 
JoeM if thats the case and you don't have the tripod mount, I'd go with Anole and suggest you put it on a pipe in the ground, helluva lot easier to work on. If you have the white direcway dish like we talked about in other threads, you can still mount it on the 2 3/8 or 2 and ahalf chain link fence corner post, fits right on there. They put mine on the roof in 2003 to see over the trees , and to save the installer 100' of twin-rg6 I guess and a second trip. I didn't like the lag screws thru the roofing but it never leaked, and that tripod base has nice braces. As far as the transmitter, its part of the lnb-support arm, big thing with fins like a heat sink, some of us remove them to lighten the load on a motorized setup, but for a fixed dish I'd not worry about it..
 
I'd give almost anything to have a dish like this to play with, but, I have not seen any of this around in years.

There is a remote neighbor that has an old Primestar dish, but, it's rented and I don't know the owner. The renters are kind of different people. I have friends that are neighbors, and they have wild parties at all hours of the day and night.

I don't dare knock on the door and ask them about the dish, but, that is the only Primestar dish I have seen in years too. :(
 
Plum is key with a ground mount (post). Mine's moved more this year than I thought, so I need to redo it this spring (as it's made finding satellites this winter difficult). I use a SF-95 satellite finder after having the TP I want up on my receiver, then just peak into the window when tweaking it. The first couple satellites you search for are tough, but once you get the hang of it (and use a permanent marker to make notes), it's easy to go outside and move that dish around the arc. Just pull off that RF adapter (about a foot in length and 3 inches wide), you don't need that on there and it pulls off a few pounds. For reference, if you pull of some of the extras, you can get the dish down to 27 to 29 pounds, if you decide to pursue a motor for it in the future.
 
You've all made some good points. I've got plenty of space (5 acres of desert, only 3 big trees, the rest is bush mesquite). I'll mount it on the ground. I'm sure I can find a spot with clear LOS in all directions, and that will make adjusting a lot easier. I've even got 3 bags of quickrete left over from installing the fence. I'm not buying off of eBay - it's not worth the hassle anymore - I'm ordering from the Coolsat 7100 from GoSatellite. Because I don't have a HD TV I don't need the 8100. Thanks for all the tips.
Joe M.
 
Because I don't have a HD TV I don't need the 8100. Thanks for all the tips.
Click to expand...
Just so you know, the 8100 will "down grade" an HD Signal to a non-HD TV.
So you will still be able to watch stuff like the HD PBS feed.
 
My old DW dish makes/made a fine FTA dish, but I'd still recommend pulling the transmitter off due to weight issues. Removing it takes a lot of weight off of the LNB arm and really makes the dish much easier to maneuver during aiming.

Stay with the tripod mount though - winds will play havoc with it otherwise. You will find that 123 is hard to initially find with this rig, but once you are dialed in and locked down (with a solid mount) even the Santa Ana's don't break your sat lock.
 
MikeinBaja said:
My old DW dish makes/made a fine FTA dish, but I'd still recommend pulling the transmitter off due to weight issues. Removing it takes a lot of weight off of the LNB arm and really makes the dish much easier to maneuver during aiming.
Click to expand...

Even though I know it's not possible with the equipment most of us have, I think leaving the transmitter ON, and becomming the next Captain Midnight would be more fun!

<just kidding>:)
 
Joe M said:
I'm ready to hit the purchase button on a complete setup - receiver, dish, motor etc. But shipping is an extra $70! I figure if I can drop some weight I can save money. I've got an old (6 years maybe) dish from when I had satellite internet. It's DirecWay, I think. It's got one big LNB on the front and it's 31+ inches long, oval shaped. It's still sitting on the original 3-legged mount it came with, just needs to be put back on the roof. Can I use this to pickup the galaxy 25 where all the channels I want seem to be? I'm hoping the answer is yes - then all I need is a receiver and a motor. And since I only want to receive the one satellite - do I really need a motor? I'll be setting this up myself so if the motor makes it easier to aim I'll buy it.
Thanks
Joe
Click to expand...
If you want only 1 satellite no need a motor. I also use this dish and it LNB to catch G25 at 97 W. (Set LNB is Standar or Single and Fre: 10750)
 
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