FTA on a Dishnetwork dish project

[mikelib]

Happy Sat Hunting

Thats great pics Mike, but I couldn't get past the circular signals with that Traxis-it seems to suck them in if you're within 10degrees of a circular bird. I'll try again tomorrow since I got the grass cut today lol. Looks like your lnb is skewed for 123 to me in those pics, if you're in NJ.

edit: I swapped out a cable to that little dish this evening, and am watching Russia Today on it inside tonite. I think it scanned in 107 channels on 97 this time, so its getting better!

I picked up that LNB off of e-bay for 14 bucks with shipping it is an all METAL UNIVERSAL CHAPPARAL. The guy who sold it to me marked the LNB at 0º with a felt tip marking pen. It is one of those LNBs that have 0º at 3 o’clock. It is a very good light weight LNB, all of the specifications on the LNB are in Spanish, it was designed in the USA and made in China. It has no model number or marking that I can use to look up the specifications.

You should be able to get 74W the Ohio news station and good cooking shows in the morning.

When you locked the NY network and KTEL, and you change channels to get KTEL does it take a few seconds to pop up on the screen? That KTEL has a game show on around 7 PM with a lot of good looking young ladies too bad I don’t understand Spanish.

BTW one of my favorite places is Orange Beach, AL.

Happy Sat Hunting
Mike Lib

 

[phlatwound]

Does anyone make a linear LNBF with the same physical form as a DBS Legacy-style?

 

[Jim S.]

I've seen one advertised that has a rectangular (DirecTV-style) housing around the coax connectors, but not a D-shaped (Dish-style) one as in your picture. I'm not sure whether it could be made to fit with a little padding or not. I can't find it at the moment other than as an ebay listing, I hope it's OK to post: LINEAR DUAL LNB FSS SATELLITE LNBF FOR VIEWSAT PANSAT - eBay (item 120359114960 end time Oct-31-09 19:19:43 PDT)

Then there's this bracket: Dish LNB Brackets
I'm not sure whether it would fit the standard screw hole in a small-dish arm or whether you'd need to drill it out, but it would still look more elegant than a homemade bracket, if that's the sort of thing that bothers you.

 

[turbosat]

BTW one of my favorite places is Orange Beach, AL.
! One of mine too, but its 260miles south of me!
I never could get Ktel to pop in on the project dish, it scans in the ch but can't seem to gather enough spunk to show a picture, I prob didn't have the best tweaking on my aim/skew yet.
Watched part of hs football game on it tonite though, so it's getting better. And, I did hit 74 just fine, ONN at 70/70 on the traxis meter, NBC on AMC6 does similar signal levels, but couldn't get anything else off 72 at the time I was messing with it today, around 3pm.. It's an interesting toy, and the lizards love it. (the d-tube part at least,lol)

 

[turbosat]

phlat I have seen them before. Too bad they aren't more plentiful-we could certainly convert some former dish customers who've cut the cable, so to speak. After what I've seen with this little dish, there are a lot of possibilities, depending on what people like to watch.

 

[Anole]

rectangular base LNB:

Though it's probably no longer still available, there is a favorable review of such an LNB in our Hardware Review Department.
A casual scroll will find it without any searches. (Megasat)

So long as you have a dish that has skew, this is an acceptable alternative.
The Dish 500-family (or later) as well as the DirecTV Phase II and Phase III (or newer) will skew just fine.

Original 18" DirecTV and Dish 300 dishes have a single LNB and therefore have no need to skew.

 

[mikelib]

My 500 dish front end is lizard inspired and bracketed.

Orange Beach, AL, is One of mine favorite places too, but its 260miles south of me!

It’s 1800 miles southwest from South New Jersey. I have not been there since the last bunch of hurricanes. We took an interesting ferry ride one year from Dauphin Island across Mobile Bay to Fort Morgan then drove to rented condo in Orange Beach.

I never could get Ktel to pop in on the project dish, it scans in the ch but can't seem to gather enough spunk to show a picture, I prob didn't have the best tweaking on my aim/skew yet.

You have to tune to the KTEL Station and count to ten, it should pop in if you scanned it in, it’s a slow starter.

Watched part of hs football game on it tonite though, so it's getting better. And, I did hit 74 just fine, ONN at 70/70 on the traxis meter, NBC on AMC6 does similar signal levels, but couldn't get anything else off 72 at the time I was messing with it today, around 3pm...

There is a religious station on 72, that is always on, it has a very low symbol rate, it is also a slow starter, the picture looks like c..p.

It's an interesting toy, and the lizards love it. (the d-tube part at least,lol)

My 500 dish front end is lizard inspired and bracketed.

 

[Tron]

My 500 dish front end is lizard inspired and bracketed.

Sounds like a good line for a bumper sticker or T-shirt ...

 

[Blindowl1234]

Turbo, I'm curious have you tried to get History/Bio 101W on your project dish? I just put a 36" fixed dish in for my brother and set it at 97W. I noticed he has an old unused 18" Directv dish on the roof and thought I might try slapping a cheap KU lnb on it and try for 101W. He's not comfortable yet moving the big dish from 97 to 101. Blind

 

[RedSavina]

Even on the DirecTV and DishNetwork Superdishes, where they have one linear and several circular LNBs, the linear is always bore-sight.
The circulars are off center. And they run more power, so that's fine.

If you have a real Dish 500, measuring the distance between the centers of the two LNBs, will give you a reference for 9° of separation.
(82°/91° or 110°/119° is their typical usage)

We also have math you can use, which is quite accurate, if shooting from the hip is not your style.
I've checked it out extensively and posted results in a number of threads over the years.

Yes, does sound like fun.
I don't mean to sound discouraging, but if you are armed with the best info, then you can concentrate on the possible instead of the impossible. -
Keep up the good work, and show us the beef! -

A quick update:

I mounted two conduit hanger brackets and LNBs (P870s) on a PhaseIII today... At the moment I am getting 93w and 101w with good quality on both (no tweaking). I am still trying to get a tighter spacing and will update results later.

 

[Anole]

amazing:

Well, that was quite a surprise!
Keep up the good work, and post pictures as you fine tune that Phase III beast.

Also, if you get a chance, give us some feedback on rain fade or other outages.

 

[RedSavina]

Another update:

I tried "slewing" the LNBs. With one in the straight alignment I got 101w. By slewing the other to max angle I got 93w. I have tried various combinations of slewing both LNBs and can get one or the other but not both on any other combination (yet ). Unfortunately the conduit brackets bind up when slewing, so I will have to go with a bolt and pipe-clamp approach to pursue this much further.

So far I have locked the Azteca channels on 93, the CCTV channels on 95, lots on 101, a couple scrambled MS channels 103, and a scrambled channel on 107.3. Still haven't hit 97 yet and couldn't get 125 the other night. I'm still plugging away...

I'm pretty excited, especially since I am doing this with all the wrong equipment as a newbie!

 

[RedSavina]

Getting closer!

Still using two conduit hanger brackets, this time with the P870s pulled closer together with a zip tie. I am now getting the CCTV channels with 80+ on quality and also getting 101 around 40-50 (60+ on the 3ABN channels). For those keeping score, that is 6 degrees on a PhaseIII. It's dark, so no tweaking in store tonight. Besides, I'm pretty sure that I can remove one conduit hanger bracket and zip tie the two LNBs and get a little tighter. BTW, I rotated the feed on one LNB by 180 degrees so the feet don't get in the way as much. If this works, the feet are coming off with a grinder!

Not sure how much time I can play this weekend, but will try to get a little more "work" in.

 

[RedSavina]

No time to fiddle with the dish today, but here are some pix. I speculate that rain fade will be pretty sensitive...

 

[Anole]

I mounted two conduit hanger brackets and LNBs (P870s) on a PhaseIII today...

I missed the P870 comment.
Those are most amusing on your dish, which for some reason I read as: Phase II
I wonder if the Phase II is wider and more suitable for those elliptical feedhorns.
I have both around here, and should go measure 'em! -

If you're going to play with those LNBs and feedhorns, you might want to snag a SuperDish, or 60e/75e StarChoice, or a small elliptical DirecTV (or even a DirecWay internet) dish.
I'm pretty sure that sort of marriage would result in quite the nice result.
There are at least two incredible examples in this thread.

Yes, the feet or brackets on the feedhorns do get in the way of each other, and turning one upside down was my solution, too. - :up
I was trying to come up with a good way to put 'em 2° apart on a DirecWay dish. -
Never did quite find that 'ah-ha' moment, though.

Keep on experimenting and photographing! Great ideas. - :up

 

[RedSavina]

Hmmm, so is that a PhaseII or PhaseIII that I have? I am pretty ignorant about DirecTV dishes and could easily have mis-identified it. The dish I have is roughly 20" wide and 18" tall.

Two degree spacing is impressive! I'm doing this more out of cheapness and necessity (what I have on hand or can get cheaply). I've been checking Craig's List here in Tallahassee, but have not seen much of interest. I found a freecycle in Tallahassee and sent my membership request.

I tell you finding 125 has been a real trial! I can find 129 and 121, but 125 still eludes me. Likewise, 97 has been tough with several easy sats on either side. This brings me to a question about my satellite hunting technique. With both of my receivers I notice that strength is really high (whatever ), but quality does not register when I am moving the dish around. I use my meter (piercing tone) to find a reference sat - say 101 - and then manually move over and up/down while the meter squeals away. I do some minor tuning while turning down the gain dial on the meter. Still nothing on the receiver SQ meter. Next I scan the satellite (blind if I'm not 100% certain which bird I have). Once the scan is complete I can then use the SQ meter to peak the dish.

 

[RedSavina]

I forgot to add: I'm pretty sure that I will be grinding those little feet. I seem to recall a warning to remove the feedhorn from the the LNB to prevent damage, so I will take that precaution.

 

[Anole]

thoughts:

phase:
As best I recall, here is a poor-man's list of early DirecTV dishes
- Phase I - 18" round, metal dish, single LNB for 101°
- Phase II - elliptical molded dish with three rectangular-based LNBs mounted on a plastic bracket
- Phase III - steel dish, with a 3-horn LNB all-in-one cluster (yours and mine) 101°/110°/119°


feet:
I was thinking maybe put feet for both LNBs up or down, and just grind off the interfering feet (closest to each other)
That would leave the outboard foot as a mounting attachment.
Haven't worked out the details.
And, I had in mind some sort of threaded apparatus to vary the distance between the LNBs for fine tuning. (probably not necessary)

 

[RedSavina]

feet:
I was thinking maybe put feet for both LNBs up or down, and just grind off the interfering feet (closest to each other)
That would leave the outboard foot as a mounting attachment.
Haven't worked out the details.
And, I had in mind some sort of threaded apparatus to vary the distance between the LNBs for fine tuning. (probably not necessary)

Interesting idea on the feet. I bet with the inboard feet removed the feed tubes could be "married" using one or two pipe clamps. That would leave the outboard feet available for mounting. I'll have to think on that more when I am rested.

Thanks for keeping the dialogue running, I enjoy kicking ideas around!

 

[RedSavina]

I had a few minutes of "me" time this afternoon and removed the left hand LNB bracket then zip-tied the LNB to the right hand one (101) - getting it as close as I could. Unfortunately, removing feet won't get me any closer.

I also tweaked 101 a little and am getting about 80 for SQ. I re-scanned with the left hand LNB and got 95 again - this time with SQ increasing from 20 with the bracket to 50 without.

My conclusion: the geometry of the dish and LNB combination I am using cannot get tighter than 6 degrees. Next I will make it more permanent and start planning around this configuration. Until I get a better elliptical dish to play with...