Dish farm tweaking and some confusion....

[eurosport]

Did some work to the farm today- rule #1: if you have offset 1.0 and 1.2m dishes, do NOT attempt to try Ku on a bud! :rant:
Tried the Ku side of my Geosat Pro CK-1 on both my 10 and 7.5 footers..... total waste of time, maybe a "sniff" of Ku, no matter how I adjusted.
Thought I could "clean up" the dish farm, by doing Ku on one of the buds, but now I know why they call those a "C" band dish! I got C-band peaked nicely though.
So after all that fun (not) ...my 1.2m on 72w has ceased to pick up the NBC mux.
Checked all the settings and now re-blind scanning. we'll see how it goes. Thought the dish moved but it's really tight. Other 3 fixed Ku dishes on 91, 97, and 125 working good. Another mystery is that same dish at 72w, picks up the same signals on H and V during a blind scan, and no amount of skew adjusting helps, just makes it lose everything....

 

[rogerduncan100]

So there is a maximum size for Ku band dishes and no reason to go bigger?

 

[eurosport]

So there is a maximum size for Ku band dishes and no reason to go bigger?

I'm sure a bigger Ku offset, such as a 1.8 or more would be fine. I'm just speaking from experience that a prime-focus mesh bud absolutely sucks on Ku.

 

[Jim S.]

I scanned 72 several times this afternoon and didn't get the NBC mux either, so it might not be you.

 

[eurosport]

I scanned 72 several times this afternoon and didn't get the NBC mux either, so it might not be you.

Good to know. I thought my "spring tune-up" of the dish farm messed it up!

 

[Pixl]

I'm sure a bigger Ku offset, such as a 1.8 or more would be fine. I'm just speaking from experience that a prime-focus mesh bud absolutely sucks on Ku.

Agreed! My testing of my 8ft SOLID aluminum dish on Ku was easily out done by a 1m offset.
"Pendragon" posted in here a while back testing a 1.8m prime focus and a 1.8m offset, the offset had more than twice the signal in db measurements of the prime focus. (Pendragon where are you)

On the other side of the coin, I tested side by side a 9ft prime focus dish on C-band to a 7ft offset dish with a C-band feed horn and lnb designed for the offset dish. The prime focus well out did the offset on C-band. Yes the offset was smaller but huge improvement with the prime focus.
Conclusion: If you can do two dishes, offset for Ku and Prime focus for C-band is the best way to go.

 

[AcWxRadar]

I'm sure a bigger Ku offset, such as a 1.8 or more would be fine. I'm just speaking from experience that a prime-focus mesh bud absolutely sucks on Ku.

Euro,

Are you certain that you are laying blame to the appropriate reason? I identify at least four items which are unique here...

1] Size of dish (but bigger is always better, yes?)
2] Offset dish vs prime focus.
3] Combo LNBF (C/Ku in one package) vs independant LNBs.
4] Mesh dish vs solid dish (and additionally the mesh size).

I am just tossing items out for discussion purposes (not that I have any theory or evidence to the contrary). I was just wondering what aspect you perceived to be the main contributing factor in this particular instance.

RADAR

 

[markbone100]

My prime focus 7.5ft dish does excellent on KU band, outdoes a 30" and a primestar 75e

 

[RT-Cat]

Sorry, I am with markbone100. My 8 ft orbitron mesh gives me as good of quality on Ku, and some better, as any of the offset smaller dishes I have here. I really do not think I have that many Ku's that are not "tuned" as best as they will "tune."
Even though the Bud does well on Ku, I am in the "thinking" stage to convert it to "C" only and find a motor with enough power to move the 1.2 Prodelin for Ku. The SG9120B could not "lift" it back East from 125. So I need something with more "guts" to move that heavy monster. This change may or may not take place this summer.
.
RT.

 

[AcWxRadar]

Sorry, I am with markbone100. My 8 ft orbitron mesh gives me as good of quality on Ku, and some better, as any of the offset smaller dishes I have here. I really do not think I have that many Ku's that are not "tuned" as best as they will "tune."
Even though the Bud does well on Ku, I am in the "thinking" stage to convert it to "C" only and find a motor with enough power to move the 1.2 Prodelin for Ku. The SG9120B could not "lift" it back East from 125. So I need something with more "guts" to move that heavy monster. This change may or may not take place this summer.
.
RT.

RT,

May I suggest the DG-380 H-H motor? I really love mine and I have several.

RADAR

 

[RT-Cat]

RT,

May I suggest the DG-380 H-H motor? I really love mine and I have several.

RADAR

And purchased from where? And cost?
.
RT

 

[AcWxRadar]

And purchased from where? And cost?
.
RT

Sadouns. Here is Jamal Sadoun's link: HH Motors STAB, DigiPower, Moteck, SatControl, Sadoun DisEqC

Check your dish clamp size before ordering the motor. One motor model comes with a 55 mm tube (straight DG-380), the other (DG-380B) comes with a 42 mm tube.
The tubes are interchangeable and you can order the tubes separately for $13.

Just an added note, the +/- 80° rotation comment is a bit of a stretch. The motor might rotate that much on its axis, but there is a limitation for the usable range when considering the arc and having a dish attached (real world applications are always different and limiting).

USALS has a calculation limit much less than this 80° and even with DiSEqC 1.2 you cannot make the whole assembly travel this far.
Let's say +/- 59.5° for USALS and +/- 69.5° with DiSEqC 1.2. (These are rough numbers from my memory, but more accurate than +/- 80°).

It's great that the motor has this range, but it's kinda immaterial if there are other factors that limit it to less.

RADAR

 

[RT-Cat]

Sadouns........Check your dish clamp size before ordering the motor.........
RADAR

I will keep that info in mind.
Clamp size will be what ever I come up with for a custom mount for the Prodelin. The one on it has so much metal that to move it one would almost need an actuator. Down sizing the mount to cut that load would be a must. Actually, I was thinking of a polar mount with the needed adjustments to get it back to an offset setup. That way the actuator idea would have more than enough power to move it all over. Just thoughts. Kind of like thoughts of warm weather in Michigan, Sunshine 300 days of the year, and winning the lottery.....Just thoughts.

Meow.

 

[truckracer]

my sami 10' does great on ku. i have high 80's and 90% signal quality using a chaparral bullseye II dual c dual ku feed. it is very touchy and one click to the east or west will go from high signal to no signal. a big dish makes the ku beamwidth extremely tight making your polar axis, declination, elevation and dish shape critical. any warpage that is forgiving on c band will not be on ku.

what i have found is that any dual band c ku feed regardless of type is a compromise. You will give up one side or the other if you peak c band ku will suffer and vice versa.

i just took my c ku corotor off my channel master 10' and put a dual out c band lnbf and i am getting better signal.

i am going to order a 1 meter ku with an H to H motor.

 

[Dishman Dan]

I am in the "thinking" stage to convert it to "C" only and find a motor with enough power to move the 1.2 Prodelin for Ku. The SG9120B could not "lift" it back East from 125. So I need something with more "guts" to move that heavy monster. This change may or may not take place this summer.
.
RT.

Do you think that the lack of "guts" is due to the motor design or lack of power from the receiver?

 

[eurosport]

Euro,

Are you certain that you are laying blame to the appropriate reason? I identify at least four items which are unique here...

1] Size of dish (but bigger is always better, yes?) Tried on 10ft and 7.5ft
2] Offset dish vs prime focus. Prime focus BUDs
3] Combo LNBF (C/Ku in one package) vs independant LNBs. Geosat Pro CK-1 LNBF
4] Mesh dish vs solid dish (and additionally the mesh size). Mesh (passed the "pencil test")

I am just tossing items out for discussion purposes (not that I have any theory or evidence to the contrary). I was just wondering what aspect you perceived to be the main contributing factor in this particular instance.

RADAR

Thanks, Radar. I answered the questions in the quote.

 

[eurosport]

my sami 10' does great on ku. i have high 80's and 90% signal quality using a chaparral bullseye II dual c dual ku feed. it is very touchy and one click to the east or west will go from high signal to no signal. a big dish makes the ku beamwidth extremely tight making your polar axis, declination, elevation and dish shape critical. any warpage that is forgiving on c band will not be on ku.

what i have found is that any dual band c ku feed regardless of type is a compromise. You will give up one side or the other if you peak c band ku will suffer and vice versa.

i just took my c ku corotor off my channel master 10' and put a dual out c band lnbf and i am getting better signal.

i am going to order a 1 meter ku with an H to H motor.

This is going to be more work than I thought to get Ku on one of my BUDs.

 

[eurosport]

I'm thinking of adapting an old C-band polar mount to one of my Channel Master Ku offsets and tracking the arc that way.
I have 4 Ku offsets up & running on 72, 91, 97 and 125w, but it always seems a cool feed shows up on a Ku bird I'm NOT pointed at! :rant:

 

[Bongu]

I'm thinking of adapting an old C-band polar mount to one of my Channel Master Ku offsets and tracking the arc that way.
I have 4 Ku offsets up & running on 72, 91, 97 and 125w, but it always seems a cool feed shows up on a Ku bird I'm NOT pointed at! :rant:

This seems the best way to go. I will probably do this with my 1.8 prodelin when I get it off the roof. I have the equipment and the manpower to move it down once the weather stabilizes a bit more.

Sent from my Timex Sinclair using SatelliteGuys

 

[RT-Cat]

Do you think that the lack of "guts" is due to the motor design or lack of power from the receiver?

Well, good question. The receiver shows 450Ma max and I would not think the motor draws that much. Never have checked to what it does draw.

RT.