FTA dilemma

[chapelrun]

My favorite dish is the 6 foot Prodelin shown in my Avatar. It was exclusively for ISPN but now I get that channel via the Dish Welcome Pack.

Thus now I want to repoint this dish for some STRONG C-Band signal between about 119W and 139W.

Im unsure if I have line of sight because of the barn and a sugar maple tree - thus I may not be able to "see" everything between 119 and 139.

What satellite would you recommend I repoint my dish to? Remember this is only a 6 footer so it has to be a fairly strong C-Band signal.

 

[Mr Tony]

137W for lets see
National feeds of RTV, Tuff, FGOE, PBJ and My Family...these are in DVB
National feeds of above + some affiliates in DVB-S2
360North....its a combo government channel and shows older pbs shows...plus has a Alaska weather each night....interesting to see "high of -38 in Fairbanks today"

otherwise maybe 118.7 for the former Equity stuff (mainly UNivision but a MeTV is there)
121 I guess could be the 3rd

123 doesnt have much
125 has TBN and the 5 channel mux (same on KU 97W)
127 not much there
129 vacant

 

[brentb636]

If you're a baseball fan, then 121W takes the lead with it's Indian games on STO all season long.

 

[turbosat]

105 (NASA is there now I think) or 118 for other stuff already noted. Or go for 107 for the stuff there.

 

[chapelrun]

The dish is just outside of the barnyard and because of the location of the barn it will not go much east of 119W.

This picture tell the story pretty well.

 

[Larobpra]

Being an offset dish, line of sight over the barn may not be an issue.

A chain saw will take care of the tree.

 

[SatelliteAV]

Being an offset dish, line of sight over the barn may not be an issue.

How is the line of sight different for an offset -vs- prime focus? Both would require the entire surface of the reflector to "see" the satellite.

My vote would be 137w

 

[chapelrun]

Well, it took a while to repoint this dish but I finally got it pointed to 137W - - - it is not quite zero'ed in yet but I got about 9 channels right now.

The dish elevation now reads 15.2 degrees above the horizon - - looks even more like its looking into the ground.

I think this was a really good choice, thanks for the suggestions! I like this MyFamilyTV,

 

[chapelrun]

Conical Scalar really helps

I never had purchased a Conical Scalar for this 6 foot dish - - - but Corrado had suggested I try one for better signal.

I found one online for about $13 so I got it and tried it - - - WOW - - - these make a big difference (at least with a 6 foot Prodelin)

Took a while to find the sweet spot but my signal for 137W went from about 55 to 70 on my S-9 Openbox. It now scans in 12 channels, including the Alaska channels Ice was talking about.

The rubber-bands were just to hold everything in place until I got it strapped down.

A few PIX.

 

[rrob311]

so is the conical scalar somehow better than the generic flat ones?

 

[chapelrun]

I don't know why it works but I had a flat scalar on this offset dish before and could never get this high a signal than with the conical scalar.

From what I've read it helps more with an offset dish but I'm not positive of this.

Somehow the conical is able to reflect more signal into the feedhorn.

 

[chapelrun]

I found this old thread about why scalar rings work - - - it does not go into Conical Scalar rings but it is a pretty interesting read.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/227093-how-do-scalar-rings-work.html

 

[Tron]

Conical scalars are designed to match offset dishes, while the flat scalars are designed for prime focus dishes.