First of all, I absolutely loved my Avenger PLL 321S-2 Universal Ku-band LNBF! But after thinking I had resolved my issues with the long cable runs by replacing some inferior coax with high grade RG-6, the sudden change in temperature seemed -- for whatever reason -- to affect my MicroHD communicating long distance with the dish! This resulted in wrong polarity scans (reading Horizontals as Verticals, or indeed not reading Horizontals at all) and other similar problems. Now, I knew I could resolve this in a couple of ways: switch out with a receiver that can output a slightly higher voltage (such as the Nano HD, or back to my old Openbox s10 -- which isn't an option since my brother is using it), or I could put the old DRO LNBF back on the dish.
While asking Michael (ke4est) about the Nano HD, he suggested an interesting third option -- a new standard PLL LNBF (very similar to a popular model sold in the past year) redesigned to accept lower voltage for polarity switching! Now, part of me whined about it being a standard instead of a universal. Being in a part of the country where I can get a few Atlantic satellites, I like the idea of being able to scan that part of the spectrum. However, in the end, I thought about what was really on that part of the spectrum in my area. Basically, it came down to ENLACE on 50W (which is available on 97W anyway) and two African stations on 45W: RASD-TV and TV Al Nasr Chad (neither of which I ever found myself wanting to watch for long periods). True, from time to time, something on 50W will become unscrambled for a free preview weekend, but that seems to happen only once or twice a year. Once again, I don't really sit and watch those stations when they are ITC. I usually find something more interesting on Netflix as far as enjoying a movie, and a "Telenovela" only has limited appeal. None of the feeds I've found on these Sats have ever been in that part of the spectrum, either. Then, I thought about the extra time that I would save in doing a blindscan of the arc. A few minutes here, a few seconds there -- it will all add up significantly! This, as a tradeoff for a more reliable "link" between my STB and the dish, would be well worth it. So I ordered one.
My first surprise was when the package arrived. There was no brand listed when I ordered it, but here it was: a Titanium PLL-1KS! Even better news: after a week of testing in similar weather conditions, I have yet to experience any of the issues I had with the Avenger. Again, I'm keeping the Avenger (I might want to play with a universal PLL again) -- it works great, but just as was the case with the Geosat PLL standard LNBF, it seems that lots of folks with longer cable runs were having issues with STBs that had carefully regulated voltage (and I can't think that regulated voltage is necessarily a bad thing when using switches or motors). The signals on PBS might even be a bit stronger than what I had on the Avenger (several are coming in at 82% Q), although perhaps less on other stations such as UWTV. However, to be quite honest you probably won't notice a big difference in that area, especially when comparing a PLL to another PLL. Heck, with either PLL, I get the Florida Channel perfectly with only a 0 - 15% Signal Quality.
In the end, if you have a long coax run and are having occasional problems with voltage switching with your current PLL LNBF, you might want to give this new Titanium PLL-1KS a try. It is a little more expensive than the Avenger and some of the other models out there, but it works great and looks built to last. And as always, you can keep your current LNBF as a backup or use those universals for fun experiments on the Atlantic Sats.
While asking Michael (ke4est) about the Nano HD, he suggested an interesting third option -- a new standard PLL LNBF (very similar to a popular model sold in the past year) redesigned to accept lower voltage for polarity switching! Now, part of me whined about it being a standard instead of a universal. Being in a part of the country where I can get a few Atlantic satellites, I like the idea of being able to scan that part of the spectrum. However, in the end, I thought about what was really on that part of the spectrum in my area. Basically, it came down to ENLACE on 50W (which is available on 97W anyway) and two African stations on 45W: RASD-TV and TV Al Nasr Chad (neither of which I ever found myself wanting to watch for long periods). True, from time to time, something on 50W will become unscrambled for a free preview weekend, but that seems to happen only once or twice a year. Once again, I don't really sit and watch those stations when they are ITC. I usually find something more interesting on Netflix as far as enjoying a movie, and a "Telenovela" only has limited appeal. None of the feeds I've found on these Sats have ever been in that part of the spectrum, either. Then, I thought about the extra time that I would save in doing a blindscan of the arc. A few minutes here, a few seconds there -- it will all add up significantly! This, as a tradeoff for a more reliable "link" between my STB and the dish, would be well worth it. So I ordered one.
My first surprise was when the package arrived. There was no brand listed when I ordered it, but here it was: a Titanium PLL-1KS! Even better news: after a week of testing in similar weather conditions, I have yet to experience any of the issues I had with the Avenger. Again, I'm keeping the Avenger (I might want to play with a universal PLL again) -- it works great, but just as was the case with the Geosat PLL standard LNBF, it seems that lots of folks with longer cable runs were having issues with STBs that had carefully regulated voltage (and I can't think that regulated voltage is necessarily a bad thing when using switches or motors). The signals on PBS might even be a bit stronger than what I had on the Avenger (several are coming in at 82% Q), although perhaps less on other stations such as UWTV. However, to be quite honest you probably won't notice a big difference in that area, especially when comparing a PLL to another PLL. Heck, with either PLL, I get the Florida Channel perfectly with only a 0 - 15% Signal Quality.
In the end, if you have a long coax run and are having occasional problems with voltage switching with your current PLL LNBF, you might want to give this new Titanium PLL-1KS a try. It is a little more expensive than the Avenger and some of the other models out there, but it works great and looks built to last. And as always, you can keep your current LNBF as a backup or use those universals for fun experiments on the Atlantic Sats.
I would say mine is about the same run of cable. I don't know if this little gem was supposed to be announced to the public yet as a Titanium product, and I apologize if there are other resellers on here that also have this product (because this was the first I heard of it). Anyway, with permission, here's the link to the product I bought: 
