low effort FTA exposure for the noobie

[Anole]

A year ago, I got the bug from this FTA forum and ordered equipment from Sadoun:

• Fortec Star 36" dish
• Stab HH-90 motor
• Invacom SNH-031 LNB 0.3db
• Twinhan Starbox USB receiver

These are a nice upgrade from the basic 30 inch, 2100 motor (or no motor), and modest LNB.
I'd read all the threads and all the reviews.
The first three items above had outstanding reputations.

After a lot of trouble with software, and overheating of the Starbox, I put everything away and never mounted the dish/motor/LNB.
The last thing I did was solve the heating problem, but by then I'd run out of steam and dropped the whole project.

Recently, I got interested again.
It was in part due to reading a thread about receiving on a 20" dish.
IceBerg posted some pictures using DirecTV Phase II and Phase III dishes, with an LNB that mounts directly onto the antenna. (specs)
Apparetly, you can get several satellites quite well this way.
If I'd known, I might have slapped together a little just-adequate system from spare parts, just to try.

Getting a taste of success would lead anyone to want more, so this suggestion will actually increase sales of hardware by our advertizers.
I know it would have sucked me into FTA more quickly, and easily.
Might have even bought a stand-alone receiver, too.

Request:
Can we have more discussion of which birds/transponders/programming we might get on these little dishes?

Maybe compile a short list for several locations:

• south east USA - Florida ?
• south west USA - California ?
• eastern Canada
• western Canada

That's assuming some birds would work from some locations and some would not.

The DirecTV Phase II (larger) and Phase III (smaller) dishes are the smallest I know of which you can skew.
I'd like to steer clear of special mounts on 18" non-skewable dishes, just for ease of construction.
Of course, anyone with any great stories, odd mounts, et al would be welcome.

Maybe with a little taste, I'll get the bug sufficiently go to the trouble of mounting all that nice equipment I bought last year.

 

[Tron]

The last thing I did was solve the heating problem, but by then I'd run out of steam and dropped the whole project.

Not to hijack the subject of your post, but may I inquire as to how you solved the Starbox overheating problem? Mine has had that problem ever since I purchased it back in October of last year. If its on for more than about 10-15 minutes, the stream becomes corrupted.

I had an inquiry with Sadoun about it at the end of last year, but with Katrina work and moving back in, etc., I forgot about it. I'm sure its out of warranty by now, but I haven't used it since last year. I wonder if there's anything that can be done about it now...

As to the topic of your post, I have a Phase II dish in storage (they're actually very hard to find, I picked one up from the trash a long time ago). What I don't have is a solid LNBF holder for it, as the one that came with it was broken in several pieces (the LNBFs were still good). If I could find a replacement holder, I would set the dish up for some experiments

 

[Anole]

StarBox Overheating

Overheating:

I ordered two Starboxes. A buddy got the other one.
This was about November of 2005.
We found that they overheated when scanning.
I pried the top of mine open, and inserted a motherboard chipset fan (they are very tiny).
This stopped the problem, so I confirmed it was an air circulation problem.
We sent back our StarBoxes and got replacement units.
They failed identically.

We disassembled our units and my buddy mounted his board in a wire-mesh pencil holder.
He left the 9v power supply external.

I mounted mine into a dead PC power supply case.
Put the Twinhan 9v power supply inside and used the original AC power switch and power cord socket.
The case had a 12v fan which I intended to run on 9v, and blow quietly over the board.
So far it hasn't proven necessary.
Also, I planned to put a heatsink on the big/hot chip, but haven't even done that, either.

Both units now run for 12 hours with no apparent problem.

I'll try to add some pictures for those interested.

Phase II & III:

As to the DirecTV Phase II and III dishes, I have one of each.
Got the II when Radio Shack discontinued DirecTV and took down the display.
It was a real dish, but the LNBs were dummy.
On the III, a buddy found it -new- at a Thrift store for $8, and thought I might use it.

By drilling of just one extra hole right in the center of the arm (between two existing LNB-mounting-holes), a Phase III dish can take that LNB IceBerg described.
The dish can be skewed, so you've got everything in one small, clean, package.

On the Phase II dish, there are -5- mounting locations, so you put the LNB in the center position.
Again, it's a skewable dish, so you're home free.

Software:

I'm not real happy with MyTheatre. Too unstable.
Haven't found any other software that supports the Twinhan StarBox, though.
RitzDVB doesn't. Nor does DVBdream.
Not sure about ProgDVB, but couldn't get it to run.
Any input would be welcome.

LNB:

I've searched for that LNB and found it a few places.
Surprisingly, the round ones can be had for about half the price.
I could probably lash up something to mount my Invacom , but that sort of defeats the whole purpose of this thread.
...which is: easy dish; easy lnb; easy to get your feet wet.
If anyone finds it for $20 shipped (or better), do let me know.

 

[Mr Tony]

Phase II & II:

As to the DirecTV Phase II and III dishes, I have one of each.
Got the II when Radio Shack discontinued DirecTV and took down the display.
It was a real dish, but the LNBs were dummy.
On the III, a buddy found it -new- at a Thrift store for $8, and thought I might use it.

With the drilling of just one extra hole right in the center of the arm, a Phase III dish can take the LNB IceBerg described.
The dish can be skewed, so that's the ball game.

On the Phase II dish, there are three mounting locations, so you put the LNB in the center position.
Again, it's a skewable dish, so you're home free.

Yiou can get the really strong transponders. I had mine aimed at AMC4 for KUIL Fox and the only stations that came in with enough signal to be stable were
-KUIL (70)
-3ABN (67)
-Hope Network (45)

the rest were either 0 or not enough to be stable

I know when I did the 18" rig I could get CCTV on G3 and Doc Scott on IA6

 

[Anole]

IceBerg -

I hoped you would chime in.
Sounds a bit discouraging.
Maybe that's why there's never really been a thread promoting the little dishes.

If there are any other super hot signals, maybe we can add them to the list.

I'll try to log the ones listed, and go from there.

Thanks.

 

[Mr Tony]

That is the main reason why a 30" dish is needed. the smaller dishes just arent sufficient to deal with the lower powered KU Band satellites

The examples I gave above all dang near blow the meter off my Pansat with a 30" dish so they have enough signal to be able to be used with a smaller dish. Of course, acloud cover knocks out the signal on one of the smaller dishes