I got my Invacom QPH-031

[John W]

That I won from this Satelliteguys and SatelliteAV. It arrived Friday and I tried installing it right away but the winds were just too high from the Hurricane and they didn't subside until midday Sunday. I had to get up on the roof and repoint my sub'd 61.5 and tweaked my Dish 500.

I then started the install of my QPH-031. First I removed my el cheapo .6 db universal LNB that followed the Clarke belt. I hooked up the Invacom and could get a few sats in a row but anything more than 10 degrees and I was off the arc. I checked and rechecked the plumb and it is perfect. Basically took down the dish (fortec 80 cm) and motor (sg2100) and reinstalled but got the same result.

I am thinking that the weight of the LNB on the scrawny arm is causing me problems. I was thinking of moving up to 1 or 1.2 meters. Anyone with some good recommendations?

I will get the review done asap

Thanks

 

[Cascade]

John, can you tell if the arm is bending at all?
If you have an angle locator you can measure the angle of the arm with the LNB on the arm and without.
Don't forget that when the dish is skewed the arm may sway to one side if the arm is weak which will cause all sorts of problems, a set of stabilizers should do the trick.

 

[Bountykiller]

Hey, two things.. if you want a good fiberglass dish (they do withstand hurricanes...) go with a channel master 1.2 (You should be able to get mostly anything down there with that.. even nimiq3 with the invacom LNB) also I dont see why it wouldnt work now. your hooked up to the circular ports right? Use a good signal meter too and you should be laughing. Digital ones are best, but analog works okay too. IT saves having to use the signal menu on the tv etc etc. You can fine tune MUCh more effectively using the proper signal meter. (especially on fringe areas) I have one of those invacoms and man they do certainly perform like they should... no questions there... I get transponders from satellites that i couldnt get using the cheapo-o dish pro lnb's or other traditional ones.

 

[John W]

My City only allows me to have up to a 1 meter dish but I may try the 1.2 meter anyway. I am going to run out to a local dealer that greyskies recommended to me during lunch today. I will take a look and see if the 1.2 meter just looks way too big. I do have an analog signal meter that I was using but I still have to come down off my ladder to switch sats. I had walkie talkies yesterday telling my kids to change them but they grew tired of it - I think I was making small adjustments for about 4 hours then finally gave up. I have set up two motors in the past with no problems - probably took me 20 minutes to find the arc and test it. It has to be the weight of the LNB so the Channel Master looks good since it has supports. I will let you all know what I come up with and hopefully get my review done asap.

 

[PopcornNMore]

John, go to this link. They sell the Channel Master 1.2m cheap and you will have it the next day since they are located in South Florida. This will also save you a lot in shipping charges. This company is excellent!!! I buy all my stuff from them.

http://www.futurevisionsat.com/index.html

 

[Rick in MD]

John, something to keep in mind, people whom have started using the Invacom's have said that they are much more exacting than other LNBs..

 

[mk279]

John ......... If you don't do your reviews with your existing setup , how can you evaluate the Invacom ???? You won't know if its the bigger dish or the lnb. I put my Invacom on one of the small (80 cm) Fortec dishes and saw instant results. I was getting transponders and stations that I couldn't receive before and better signal strenghth and quality on the ones I was getting. Then when I went to a 1 metre dish the results were even more impressive. I am aiming right thru a forest in my back yard and got "The Tube" at 60% quality and even picked up NBC's Virgin Island affiliate WVGN which I thought was just a misprint on the Lyngsat website. Anyway , just some food for thought !!!!!

 

[Cascade]

He can try a regular LNB Vs the Invacom on the bigger dish, the improvement ratio should be comparable.

 

[CharredPC]

I had a very similar problem after installing my new .3 Invacom on my Winegard 76cm/SG2100 setup. It turns out that while the old .6 lnb made it appear like I had the whole arc lined up fine, the more exacting Invacom lnb required me to fine tune the motor/dish assembly. It made a big difference, though, and was totally worth it.

 

[John W]

I got a 76cm dish to replace my 80cm dish and found the arc right away this evening. I had an Ice Hockey game to play this evening so I had to give up on it for the evening and I tightened down all the bolts. The 80cm arm just sagged with the lnb and the dish would even bend when I was doing fine adjustments. This 76 cm is much tougher and I shouldn't have wind problems. When I went to the store to pick out a new dish it was very difficult because I wanted a larger dish but with city ordinances I have to stay under one meter (I also can't mount on a pole in the yard so the bigger dishes were too heavy to set up). Tomorrow I should be able to pick up where I left off and fine tune the arc then I will start testing and give you all a review. I can already tell you that I could barely pick up the Tube on G10 with my old .6 lnb and it comes in much stronger on my smaller dish with the Invacom. I will give you a fair review even if I have to swap out my old linear lnb to give comparable numbers. I will probably also head over to Home Depot and pick up some metal bars that and try to attach them to the old 80cm to stabalize it. That will probably take some time and I want to get the review out to you ASAP so I will do the review on the 76 cm, then if I get the 80 cm going I will add it to the review as long as the admins don't mind.

Don't worry, I am not some idiot that doesn't know anything about FTA. I may not post a lot but I do read a lot and test projects on my own that I see others are doing. I am definately qualified to do this.

 

[Cascade]

We have complete faith in you