I picked up a 6' dish that someone was giving away - it is a mesh type dish and fairly lightweight, and had been disassembled into the four quarter panels. The feedhorn and LNB are C-band only (which surprised me a bit because I almost would have expected Ku-only) but anyway, a free dish is a free dish, and I might even be able to find a useful spot for a smaller one in my tree-filled yard (this would be an addition to an existing 10' dish that is placed at the ONE really good spot in the yard for satellite reception).
I have three lines of thought on what I might do with it. One is to just set it up as an additional C-band dish and attempt to track the arc with it, which would probably not work out real well. The second is to get a Ku feedhorn and LNB and use it solely for Ku, which my big dish doesn't do all that well on. Since that would require spending real money, that would not be my first choice. The third idea I had, and the one that most appeals to me at the moment, is to set it up as a dedicated C-band dish pointed at a single satellite, specifically AMC-7. My biggest reason for thinking along that path is that my large dish only gets a marginal signal on AMC-7, although I'm not exactly sure why. It MAY not be tracking the arc properly at that end (it's an old Winegard with the square pole, and it's very hard to get it to track properly) but also AMC-7 is ALMOST below a neighbor's tree - not quite but if that tree grows another foot or two I'm sure its shadow will be falling on the dish. Right now I get between 45 and 50 quality on digital signals (Pansat). On most other birds I get much higher.
What I am wondering is, is AMC-7 a weaker bird than most or am I correct in thinking that there may be a problem with a location or aiming of my big dish? Assuming I can find a good location in my yard, if I used the 6' dish and aimed it directly at AMC-7 and locked it down on that bird, what are the chances of getting a useable signal? Anyone else (particularly anyone east of Lake Michigan) able to get a good signal quality on AMC-7 with a 6' dish?
For that matter, is a 6' dish good for ANY C-band FTA signal, or just too small to be useful for anything other than Ku?
I have three lines of thought on what I might do with it. One is to just set it up as an additional C-band dish and attempt to track the arc with it, which would probably not work out real well. The second is to get a Ku feedhorn and LNB and use it solely for Ku, which my big dish doesn't do all that well on. Since that would require spending real money, that would not be my first choice. The third idea I had, and the one that most appeals to me at the moment, is to set it up as a dedicated C-band dish pointed at a single satellite, specifically AMC-7. My biggest reason for thinking along that path is that my large dish only gets a marginal signal on AMC-7, although I'm not exactly sure why. It MAY not be tracking the arc properly at that end (it's an old Winegard with the square pole, and it's very hard to get it to track properly) but also AMC-7 is ALMOST below a neighbor's tree - not quite but if that tree grows another foot or two I'm sure its shadow will be falling on the dish. Right now I get between 45 and 50 quality on digital signals (Pansat). On most other birds I get much higher.
What I am wondering is, is AMC-7 a weaker bird than most or am I correct in thinking that there may be a problem with a location or aiming of my big dish? Assuming I can find a good location in my yard, if I used the 6' dish and aimed it directly at AMC-7 and locked it down on that bird, what are the chances of getting a useable signal? Anyone else (particularly anyone east of Lake Michigan) able to get a good signal quality on AMC-7 with a 6' dish?
For that matter, is a 6' dish good for ANY C-band FTA signal, or just too small to be useful for anything other than Ku?
