Federal Satellite Systems dish Question

[huertaaj]

Does anyone have any information about what the actual reflective material is on this 10' satellite dish? It is in two halves and each half says "Federal Satellite Systems Model #300 and it has a serial number. I bought it at a garage sale10 years ago. It has beige fiberglass covering and it looks to me like the core is solid sheet metal. However, it's hard to tell what's behind the fiberglass without breaking it apart with a hammer. Is this dish made from a metal mesh or solid sheet metal? If not, then what is the reflective material in the dish? It does have a chip in the fiberglass but I still can't tell what's inside. I believe that if the core is made of large-holed metal mesh it may not work on Ku band. A search on the internet turned up nothing about this dish.

 

[truckracer]

If it is fiberglass, it probably has mesh inside. If not mesh it will be coated with some reflective coating. Older fiberglass dishes were almost always mesh. Sometime the mesh was spaced too far apart for ku band.

 

[SatPhreak]

You can try it for ku and see if it works. I had a fiberglass dish and for fun I tried a ku lnbf in place of the c band lnb. It worked however the signal was not the best since the mismatch of the f/D ratios(about .32 for the dish, about .6 for the ku lnb). Some fiberglass dishes will not work though.

 

[huertaaj]

SatPhreak:
So assuming this 10' dish doesn't work for Ku, then that means I'll be wasting my money buying a dual C/Ku LNBF. In that case I should just buy a single LNB for C-band only for that specific dish. How do I find out if this dish works for Ku band (in addition to C band) before I spend the money? That's kind of like the chicken and the egg question.
Tnx,
huertaaj

 

[SatPhreak]

The combo c/ku lnbfs are around the same price as the c only lnbfs($45-50) and usually less than a c only lnb. Without knowing what the reflective material is all you can do is try it. Check the sponsers at the top of the page for prices.

What kind of a reciever are you using?

 

[huertaaj]

Currently I have an old analog Uniden UST-4500 C/Ku receiver. I plan on buying a new receiver capable of both C and Ku but I'm not sure which one to buy yet. I was thinking about a Pansat 9200 HD. Someone in another thread stated that the 9200 had "issues" but they didn't say what issues it had. If my 10' dish works for C-band only, is it advisable to get a second dish only for Ku? If I do have two dishes, will I need two receivers? Is it evern worth it to worry about Ku-band? Maybe there is enough stuff on C-band to keep me entertained.

 

[rv1pop]

I would definitely get a second dish for KU, if you have the room. There is an excellent thread on switches in the sticky section, that will show you how to use one receiver for two dishes. You probably will want to add a second receiver later, too.


Then -- if you are like me, you keep adding dishes and receivers and switches -- until your property looks like a cable head end - and that would not be a bad idea either!