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[Stargazer]

Usually the rule of thumb is if you are receiving certain programming right now and they have a future upgrade that would be required to maintain the same programming that you have now then it does not usually cost anything. To receive something in addition that you have now then it usually costs something.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

For those of you who have been emailing and pming me, I can not publically say that YES the new 118/119 LNB is being made by Invacom (who I should mention is one of our proud Gold Sponsors)

This LNB was designed & manufactured by Invacom in the UK & the Invacom Quad Polar is the forefather of MOST of the technology used in this LNB.

For those of you who are into FTA you probably know of Invacom and chances are are probably already using one of Invacoms Award Winning LNB's. (I myself have a quad polar LNB and I love it)

I would be interested in seeing how close the two signals are from 118.7 and 119 I wonder if I can pick both satellites up with my Invacom Quad. Has anyone tried this yet?

 

[JohnH]

One might try if the Satellite was actually there and making signals.

 

[Smith P.]

Just checked - nope, quiet spot.

 

[saguaro]

I've got Invacom's QPH-031 on an 18" Dish-300 pointed at 119 on circular polarity with a signal strength from between 80 and 100. Here in the Tucson area I also can also see 121 locked at about 30 s.s. at the same 119 pointing, by connecting to linear polarity. When the QPH-031 on a Dish-300 is pointed at 121 it locks in at strength of about 40.
When I use a spare 30" dish, s.s. is about 50 when pointed at 121. If the 30" is pointed at 119, s.s. on 121 is about 40. My primary antenna is a Wavefrontier Toroidal 55 with Legacy LNBs and switches looking at 110, 119, 129 and 148. I haven't yet tried my new Invacom with a switch. When 118.7 gets turned on I'll experiment with both linear and circular polarities on a Legacy SW21. I doubt if Invacom will work on the Toroidal.
Edited for clarity.

 

[nazz]

Usually the rule of thumb is if you are receiving certain programming right now and they have a future upgrade that would be required to maintain the same programming that you have now then it does not usually cost anything. To receive something in addition that you have now then it usually costs something.

So if you have SD locals and an HD package would they consider 118.7 HD locals maintaining your current programming?

 

[Smith P.]

Lets hold all speculations before _official_ anoncement from Dish.

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

I've got Invacom's QPH-031 on an 18" Dish-300 pointed at 119 on circular polarity with a signal strength from between 80 and 100. Here in the Tucson area I also can also see 121 locked at about 30 s.s. at the same 119 pointing, by connecting to linear polarity. When the QPH-031 on a Dish-300 is pointed at 121 it locks in at strength of about 40.
When I use a spare 30" dish, s.s. is about 50 when pointed at 121. If the 30" is pointed at 119, s.s. on 121 is about 40. My primary antenna is a Wavefrontier Toroidal 55 with Legacy LNBs and switches looking at 110, 119, 129 and 148. I haven't yet tried my new Invacom with a switch. When 118.7 gets turned on I'll experiment with both linear and circular polarities on a Legacy SW21. I doubt if Invacom will work on the Toroidal.
Edited for clarity.

This is very much over my head, so I am just repeating stuff here that may or may not be correct.

I have a QPH-031 coming that should be here this week for another purpose.

I spent a very long time on the telephone with someone who I believe to be VERY KNOWLEDGABLE about satellites about the Toroidal and the Invacom. They are putting in a new store in Jersey and are being forced to install a Toroidal to keep the Dishes to a a minimum. He sales the the Toroidal and the Invacom, as well as the Xtreme 0.3, the DVD-USB and all kinds of other stuff.

As amazingly simple as this seems - and he swears to me its true - to get the reverse signal from the Torodial he claims you just invert the lnb upside down - thus it is reversed. He claims many of his customers have done this and it works. He says just think about 2 bounces and you will understand why this works.

However, he said things like some of the Starchoice boxes (and I would assume Dish boxes that want to see 118.7) would not work as those would be on the wrong side (evens where odds are supposed to be etc) so the sub-boxes would not work as you could not reverse the mapping.

He did say they would work with FTA boxes like the DVD-USB for things like PBS-HD etc.

As I stated, this might be totally wrong - and I am out of my element here - but that's the way I understood what he said correctly.

Thus, I dont think it will work for the 118.7, unless I misunderstood something he said - but I certainly intend to test it out.

 

[Derwin0]

As amazingly simple as this seems - and he swears to me its true - to get the reverse signal from the Torodial he claims you just invert the lnb upside down - thus it is reversed. He claims many of his customers have done this and it works. He says just think about 2 bounces and you will understand why this works.

That will not work for circular signals.
I mount an entire dish upside down to get a low angle (148), and it still works. So being upside down changes nothing for a circular signal.

 

[saguaro]

Originally Posted by HDTVFanAtic
As amazingly simple as this seems - and he swears to me its true - to get the reverse signal from the Torodial he claims you just invert the lnb upside down - thus it is reversed. He claims many of his customers have done this and it works. He says just think about 2 bounces and you will understand why this works.

I just now tried this on my toroidal , and it does not work.

 

[jjmaster]

I've got Invacom's QPH-031 on an 18" Dish-300 pointed at 119 on circular polarity with a signal strength from between 80 and 100. Here in the Tucson area I also can also see 121 locked at about 30 s.s. at the same 119 pointing, by connecting to linear polarity. When the QPH-031 on a Dish-300 is pointed at 121 it locks in at strength of about 40.

Wow, I didn't think you could pull in 121 on an 18" dish. Is 30-40 s.s. enough to tune in 121? Would this work in the North east U.S.A.?

When you are pointed to 121 and get s.s. of 40, what does the signal strength of 119 drop to? Is it sufficient to tune in 119?

When I use a spare 30" dish, s.s. is about 50 when pointed at 121. If the 30" is pointed at 119, s.s. on 121 is about 40.

How does 119 s.s. change with this setup?
So it seems that there is not that much of an improvement between a 18" dish and 30" dish when you use the invacom pointed at 121?

My primary antenna is a Wavefrontier Toroidal 55 with Legacy LNBs and switches looking at 110, 119, 129 and 148. I haven't yet tried my new Invacom with a switch. When 118.7 gets turned on I'll experiment with both linear and circular polarities on a Legacy SW21. I doubt if Invacom will work on the Toroidal.
Edited for clarity.

When 118.7 gets turned on, will you still be able to use the quad invacom to get 119 and 121 or will 118.7 interfere somehow?

 

[saguaro]

jjmaster:
I was really surprised to find out I could get 121 on an 18" dish. Apparently the FSS birds will "lock in" at a much lower number than the DBS birds. As I was tuning it in, my s.s. meter even locked green at 10 (using the meter on my 622 receiver). I don't know how usable the signal is. At a signal strength of 40 I did hook it up to my 508 receiver and could receive only channel 900 on TP25-- the "congratulations, you have a superdish" channel. I'm sure that with the 18" dish I could get 119 when pointed at 121. The locked signal strength reading on an FSS bird appears to have no comparison to the locked s.s. reading on a DBS bird. If it's locked green at a reading of 10 on FSS, that seems to compare to a locked green reading of 45 on DBS. With reference to your question about being able to get 118.7 on the quad Invacom along with 119 and 121... I don't know. I will have no use for 121 and am only using it as a test before 118.7 gets turned on. I don't know if the Invacom will work with any Legacy switches. I do know that its circular polarity feeds will not work with my reversed Toroidal. I'm not sure if the linear polarity feeds would work there. The Invacom would fit on the Toroidal bar, but positioning it near the 119 LNB would be tricky. The QPH-031 is a Legacy LNB and it's larger and a little bit different shaped LNB. I don't think it will fit alongside a "normal" LNB on the Y-bracket of a DISH-500 because it needs a "D" bracket adapter. I'm just experimenting as I find time, and I'll post any results as they happen.

 

[saguaro]

jjmaster:
A Legacy SW21 will connect both the circular and linear polarity of Invacom's QPH-031. With my 18" dish pointed at 119 I installed both 119 and 121 on my 508 receiver. 119 locks at 80 and above. 121 varies locking from 23 to 50. Some tp's don't lock at all and I assume they are not licensed to Echostar. I really don't want to receive 121 and will keep the dish pointed at 119, where it should receive 118.7 OK. Now to get something on 118.7 to look at...

 

[Stargazer]

I thought 119 locked at around 35-40/125.

 

[saguaro]

My 119 locks about 42. My reception of 119 here in the cloudless desert southwest is anywhere from 80 to the 125 I get on TP 5 and 7 (Tucson and Phoenix spotbeams).

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

Originally Posted by HDTVFanAtic
As amazingly simple as this seems - and he swears to me its true - to get the reverse signal from the Torodial he claims you just invert the lnb upside down - thus it is reversed. He claims many of his customers have done this and it works. He says just think about 2 bounces and you will understand why this works.

I just now tried this on my toroidal , and it does not work.

Good...saves me the trouble

Did it not work on the DBS/Dish/Circular side or with anything?

 

[saguaro]

HDTVFanatic:
On my Toroidal-55 I replaced the reversed 119 LNB with the new Invacom QPH-031 and even adjusted it to about 121. It did not work on either the linear side or the circular side. I was disappointed because I thought it would work on the FSS/Linear side. The focal point is adjustable by about 1.25", and sliding the LNB did not work. It "might" work if you have a Toroidal-90. I'm done experimenting until after this holiday weekend. Maybe I'll think of some alternative.

 

[ital1000]

Question, reverse polarity and linear lnb are the same, correct??

 

[saguaro]

Question, reverse polarity and linear lnb are the same, correct??

My understanding is that linear LNB for FSS satellite should work with either reverse polarity dish (such as Toroidal) or a normal dish (such as Superdish).

Reverse polarity dish (such as Toroidal) requires reverse polarity LNB only for circular polarity DBS satellite.

If I am wrong, someone please correct me.

 

[Smith P.]

Reversing polarity for linear sat signal means 90 degree, not 180.
For circular LNBF, rotation to any angle DOESN'T matter - need changing internal circuit, ie reversing 13/18 VDC or DiSEqC control signals.