Hughes Personal Earth Station 1.2m dish for FTA?

[Bob2011]

I am new to FTA and was given a Hughes Personal Earth Station dish recently. The dish was installed in 1999 at a business and my guess is its Ku band. It has a large LNB on the front probably since it was a two way data device. The dish is 48" wide by 52" tall if that helps.

My first question is can the LNB installed be used at all. Second if I do buy a new small LNB how do you properly mount it to be in the right focus. Also is there is a cheap way to move this dish a few degrees like from 97 to 101 occasionally.

 

[Anole]

It may be useful immediately as-is, for reception.
Post us a few pictures of the dish from various angles so we all know what we're talking about.
There are a lot of similar dishes out there, but any time you have one that's 4', it's gonna be outstanding for Ku!

As for moving the dish, do you mean realigning it, or motorizing it?
We have good answers to both.

 

[Pixl]

Bob,

Here is a picture of a 1.2m tx/rx dish that I am using as is, stock for FTA reception. In my case the lnb is single polarity but since I have it pointed at 125w for the PBS stuff don't really need the other polarity. Your dish may have dual polarity, they come both ways.

As for a cheap way to move it, I have one dish set up with a trailer jack.

Jim

 

[Bob2011]

Here are a few pictures of the dish. Jim I am interested in what looks like a hand crank you have in one pic for moving it. Thanks for the help!

 

[Pixl]

Bob,

Your lnb is piggy backed on top like mine. Connect your line directly to it and remove the jumper and other wires as you won't need them.

As for the hand crank, it came off my travel trailer and mounted directly in the 2" clamp originally for thee actuator arm.

 

[Cadsulfide]

Those are great dishes, I have two and they work great! A FSS lnb from a 121 superdish will bolt up in place of the stock lnb for both polarities.

 

[Pixl]

Those are great dishes, I have two and they work great! A FSS lnb from a 121 superdish will bolt up in place of the stock lnb for both polarities.

Cad,

Any chance of a picture of your FSS retro-fit. I want to see how you mounted it after the tx amp is gone. My feed horn would be hanging in mid air.

 

[Bob2011]

Bob,

Your lnb is piggy backed on top like mine. Connect your line directly to it and remove the jumper and other wires as you won't need them.

As for the hand crank, it came off my travel trailer and mounted directly in the 2" clamp originally for thee actuator arm.

Are there any special settings for that LNB in the receiver? I am looking at a few boxes on ebay right now for under $50 to experiment with this dish. I was thinking of trying a Sonicview with the USB PVR function. Hopefully it has everything to work with this lnb.

 

[Pixl]

Are there any special settings for that LNB in the receiver? I am looking at a few boxes on ebay right now for under $50 to experiment with this dish. I was thinking of trying a Sonicview with the USB PVR function. Hopefully it has everything to work with this lnb.

My lnb oscillator setting is 10750, the most common one out there. Yours probably is too, might even be listed on the side of it. Sonicview probably ok for a starter setup. List the model, maybe someone knows of it and can post a comment.

 

[turbosat]

Bob see if you can copy any information off the lnbf you have there, maybe we can figure out if its one that will do horiz and vertical polarity, or just a single polarity. I have one of those FSS band-stacked lnbfs if you decide you want to try it out, send me a private message. Great dish for fta, a nice find!

 

[Bob2011]

Here are two pictures of the numbers on the side of the LNB. The patent numbers are probably not valuable but there is a faded sticker that appears to have the model number BSCE83H03.

 

[Bob2011]

Update: I ended up with a Conaxsat CNX Nano receiver. Seems like a great box for $40 brand new but the manual is weak and I am having some issues. Tried the 10750 setting for the LNB and I get signal strength numbers from 50 up to 80 but no Q. I guess this means it works but not sure if not knowing the polarity of the LNB is an issue.

Also the skew is still set to 20 degrees from the last owner which from looking up on dishpointer.com I guess was for Hughes on 93w. I am trying to lock in 97w and dishpointer says it should be 23 degrees. How much of an issue is skew?

I just may end up getting a satellite meter/finder off of ebay since its too cold out to bring the receiver or TV outside.

 

[phlatwound]

Update: I ended up with a Conaxsat CNX Nano receiver. Seems like a great box for $40 brand new but the manual is weak and I am having some issues. Tried the 10750 setting for the LNB and I get signal strength numbers from 50 up to 80 but no Q. I guess this means it works but not sure if not knowing the polarity of the LNB is an issue.

Also the skew is still set to 20 degrees from the last owner which from looking up on dishpointer.com I guess was for Hughes on 93w. I am trying to lock in 97w and dishpointer says it should be 23 degrees. How much of an issue is skew?

I just may end up getting a satellite meter/finder off of ebay since its too cold out to bring the receiver or TV outside.

You definitely need to have the proper LNB polarity for whatever transponder you have selected. If you are trying for a horizontal tp and having no luck why don't you try a vertical tp and see if that gets you some Q. Just make sure that whatever tp you are trying for is active, you can find some examples of live tps in "The List" (tab is on top of each forum page).

Skew is important, but not as critical as your elevation or azimuth. That is, you could be off a degree or 3 on your skew setting and still get an acceptable signal, whereas if you were off that much on your az/el you would get nothing. That being said you still want to get ALL your settings as close as possible......is your skew turned in the correct direction (CW or CCW)?

Also, I have never tried those cheapo sat meters but I haven't heard much good things about them, taking a tv and receiver out to the dish is well worth the effort, immediate real-time feedback that way.