Motorized a DBS dish :)

[Mr Tony]

Well....after 3 or 4 tries, I give up on motorizing a 36"

I had the mount already set up and installed to motor and 36" dish over the weekend. One of the hottest days of the year and I decide to do this (what was I thinking??)

Installed the motor and got 70 on T6. One problem, though. Due to the weight of the unit, it was pulling the mast (and the deck rail) forward. So the farther I got away from 93, the worse it got. ONN, which is usually a 70, was a 35. So I decided to leave the 30" on the roof and use that.

Now I have a motor that needs a use. Decided to motorize a DBS dish. Well, the first issue I rsan into is the dish itself. Since these are not normally use to have the mount run from the top, there is a piece across it. Also, with the 24" I used, the motor wouldn’t fit correctly due to too much metal. Well, pull out the trusty hacksaw and cut it across to shorten it. Bent it back (see pictures) and put some ol duct tape to keep it from cutting myself, and was able to get the motor on it.

I mounted this where my G10 dish was (I upgraded to a 36 and put that on the deck rail). I used my DMSI KU band to get it close to 93, so it would arc right. Got a picture on 93 (a weak signal, but who cares ). Swapped it for the DirecTv dual and hooked it up. Hooked it to the KUSat and started motoring it.

Now the Kusat isn’t the easiest to motor, but I got it working. Thing is, you need to set your limits first. Once my limits were set, I started on 148 (since I was close)

I lucked out because the limit is 148 : ) Worked my way over to 119 and got it set. Then went to 110, and so on. Got all satellites programmed in and scanned each one and got my channels.

Why did I motorize a DBS dish? Well, couple reasons. One was I had a motor that needed to be used. But the other reason was because I had 4 LNB’s hooked to other dishes. I had one for 110 & 119 strapped to the 123 dish and had one for 82 & 91 on the 95 dish. This allows me to scan for the free stuff and only need one DBS LNB. Also, I really needed to clean up the dish farm. It was starting to get real cluttered.

Before this weekend I had
DirecPC dish with 95/91/82 on it
G10 dish with 123/119/110 on it
18" at 148
Dish500 for Dish Network
SC dish
30" motorized
36" for G10

Now we are down to
30" motorized
SC dish
Dish500 for Dish Network
24" motorized for DBS
DirecPC with 95 only
G36" dish for G10

So we dropped a dish and 4 LNB’s ...and now its much cleaner

first pic is at 91
second is at 61.5
third is at 148
fourth is closeup of hacksaw job and duct tape

 

[W_Tracy_Parnell]

Iceberg,

Considering I am a newbie, do you think I would be better off using a 30 inch Winegard for a motorized setup as opposed to the fortec 36? Yours is not the first post I have read (still busy reading back posts) saying the Fortec is harder to motorize. I am planning to go with an Ivacom for sure and maybe this would make up somewhat for the smaller size of the Winegard?

Also, I have a Dish 500 still setup on a mast with lnbs. I wouldn't mind watching Charlie Chat once in a while even though it sucks lately. Is there a way to patch the Dish 500 in with a motorized setup or would I be better off to mount a second lnb on the motorized?

Thanks

 

[Mr Tony]

Part of the reason my FOrtec motorized didnt work was my setup. Due to the roofline, I couldnt mount the 36" on the roof unless the mast was about 6 inches longer.

I tried to mount it on the deck railing, but it isnt the sturdiest made deck railing, and the elevation got way off due to the weight (that and there is a DirecPC dish already there on the deck), so IA6 which is the true south for me worked fine, but SBS6 didnt come in at all. Also, the dishes on the roof blocked everything west of 97.

So right now I have a 30" Winegard and a Invacom for my motorized. I probably am going to motorize the other one with another 30". The KUsat motor options arent the easiest, so I wanted to see how well it reacted before movign up to a 30"

 

[Mr Tony]

as for the other (DBS), if the dish is in use, you could strap a dbs lnb to the ku band. I did that for a while. Or you might be able to tap into the DIsh500 (if the LNB's are right)

but doing it for the charlie chat isn't worth it