Conical Scalar ring arrives!

[oldford]

Conical Scalar ring arrives!(Updated to 1.2m minibud story)

My conical scalar ring arrived yesterday in the mail. Day off Tuesday to see if my 1.2m Channelmaster can see 99w on C-band. I'll post photos and brag if I get it going.

Eric

 

[Cadsulfide]

Looking forward to the results, I recently placed one on my shop @101 Ku, I think it should work quite well.

 

[Corrado]

I use one on my 1.8 offset for C band and it works great.

 

[oldford]

Okay, here's the 1.2m minibud story.

With a WSI DMX741 and a conical scalar ring, I'm watching the caribbean nets on 99w at 29-35% quality on my Pansat 9200. That mux holds pretty good, no freezing, pixelization or dropouts, entirely watcchable over the past 3 or 4 hours.

Can lock some other transponders on 99w and 97w as well, but I was specifically after the caribbean nets.

I did spend over an hour at the dish, peaking with a TV, receiver and spectrum analyzer. I like the analyzer because if you lose lock on the digital "Q", you can usually still see a peak on the analyzer and get back on track quicker.

Had to remove the Channelmaster feed mount from the support pipes, drill one hole in the bottom pipe, and add 2 tywraps to the 2 side pipes to support the WSI LNB and mount. The WSI LNB is insanely lightweight, luckily.

( I'm from the Red Green school of engineering, Motto: This is only temporary. Unless, of course, it works.)

The tuning is a pain as the c-band beamwidth on a 1.2m is WIDE. I almost had to tune to reduce 97w as much as peak on 99w. 1.2m apparently not 2 degree compatibile on C-band.

I'm sort of encouraged by the results, but will probably invest in a 1.8m dish rather than continue with the 1.2m for c-band. I do like having the caribbean nets, but I'd like to put the 1.2m back on Ku.

No photos since I didn't do anything not seen here before.

Thanks to all on this site for the work that went before! had a good day.

Regards,Eric

 

[cowpres]

Congrats!

Thanks for posting your results. I am about to try a similar experiment. Your results have given me a sense of excitement. From what I have read, it seems as if it can be done without too much trouble. Did you (or will you) put a motor on the dish or just tune 99 only?
Thanks again for posting, and I'll do the same when I do it (probably in a month or so).
-cowpres-

 

[oldford]

it's a big old heavy fiberglas Channelmaster, no motor for that one!

 

[ACRadio]

The tuning is a pain as the c-band beamwidth on a 1.2m is WIDE. I almost had to tune to reduce 97w as much as peak on 99w. 1.2m apparently not 2 degree compatibile on C-band.

I would say that the beamwidth of a 4 foot dish is probably more than 3 degrees on C band....

 

[oldford]

I would say that the beamwidth of a 4 foot dish is probably more than 3 degrees on C band....

Definately! It's kind of neat to watch it on the spectrum analyzer as you move from Sat to Sat. With the 1.2 on Ku, as you move across, one peak will decrease before the next begins to rise, while on C, the two birds will appear approximately equal when you are between them. As you continue to move the dish, the level of the sat you are tuning too remains about the same while the one you are leaving decreases.

Regards, Eric

 

[knowmiddlename]

The conical scalar gives me about a 15% increase in efficiency on my 1.2m elliptical dish.