Need some idea's mounting 2nd lnbf

[tvropro]

I received my 2nd Geosat pro bullet lnbf today from Satellite AV, now the fun start's. I have a 81 cm eliptical ADTH dish pointed at G10r. I want to use the second lnbf to get White Springs tv on 129. I don't want to touch first lnb's setup since I need every bit of gain for Equity's 11720. What would be the best way of fabricating an adjustable bracket for the second lnb? I figure it will have to be positioned to the right and higher then the current lnb when looking at the dish.

When adjusting for the second satellite does the lnb feed face need to tilt in or be flush with the first lnb's throat? It it best to go out there and wave it around first to get a rough in before making up a bracket? I know some of you guys are pro's at doing this so any input will be helpful. I understand the concept but never did this before. I want to do this right and get as much as I can in quality out of WSTV on 129 and keep G-10 where Im at now.

 

[linuxman]

Check out my thread "123w and 129w with 1 Meter Primestar".

There is a lot of "out loud thinking" as Anole calls it, but it is pretty thorough with a lot of ideas chipped in from everyone.

That should give you a good start.

Fred

 

[Mr Tony]

Dont touch G10...thats the first thing
I've used hoseclamps and a piece of wood before...the LNB's don't touch (they were smaller) so I had to use a 1/4" pipece of wood in between to optimize signal

 

[tvropro]

Check out my thread "123w and 129w with 1 Meter Primestar".

There is a lot of "out loud thinking" as Anole calls it, but it is pretty thorough with a lot of ideas chipped in from everyone.

That should give you a good start.

Fred

I've looked at your thread. It sound's like a winner. I have a plastic 40mm cradle on my dish now. I was looking at it vs the P*. I have a 90 cm P* on X4 and it would be easier to mount a bracket to that thing than this since the ADTH has the screws on the top and bottom vs left and right on the P*.

Since Im in Chicago I think my positioning would be close to yours. About how far are the lnb's apart? How well is your signal Q holding up?

 

[linuxman]

SQ is still just like it was when I set it up.

The LNB's are about 3" apart measuring center to center of the LNBF mouth, which makes them just about far enough apart to stick a small piece of plywood between them like Iceberg does.

The pictures should give you a good idea of how I did mine, and the height etc.

I have a second thread on AMC3 (87) and G25 (97) somewhere here too with lots of good pictures.

Fred

 

[tvropro]

Dont touch G10...thats the first thing
I've used hoseclamps and a piece of wood before...the LNB's don't touch (they were smaller) so I had to use a 1/4" pipece of wood in between to optimize signal

Thank's Ice, the Geosat lnb's are tiny so I was hoping on using some sort of bracket idea vs a block of wood. I don't want to mess with G-10. I squeezed every bit of signal out of it I can. Im peaking at 76 on 11720 with my Pansat 2700. I was hoping on getting at least 60 out of WSTV. I think I was getting around 90 when I had the dish locked on T7.

I was looking at the dish feed tonight and have a few idea's, now I just have to come up with a final game plan for fastening a bracket system to the cradle or strut. The first thing I need to do is get a tv and Pansat by the dish and get a rough in to get the measurements needed for the bracket system

 

[tvropro]

SQ is still just like it was when I set it up.

The LNB's are about 3" apart measuring center to center of the LNBF mouth, which makes them just about far enough apart to stick a small piece of plywood between them like Iceberg does.

The pictures should give you a good idea of how I did mine, and the height etc.

I have a second thread on AMC3 (87) and G25 (97) somewhere here too with lots of good pictures.

Fred

Thank's Fred, I posted a bit more info to Ice's reply. Hopefully I get a bracket system together that will stay put in bad weather. I aligned my 90 cm P* on X4 last Sept and it hasn't been touched since. I get a 99 Q on my 4dtv with that puppy. I sunk that one in the ground with concrete and filled the pipe too. It's not going anywhere soon. I like designing for the long haul

 

[Mr Tony]

Thank's Ice, the Geosat lnb's are tiny so I was hoping on using some sort of bracket idea vs a block of wood. I don't want to mess with G-10. I squeezed every bit of signal out of it I can. Im peaking at 76 on 11720 with my Pansat 2700. I was hoping on getting at least 60 out of WSTV. I think I was getting around 90 when I had the dish locked on T7.

I was looking at the dish feed tonight and have a few idea's, now I just have to come up with a final game plan for fastening a bracket system to the cradle or strut. The first thing I need to do is get a tv and Pansat by the dish and get a rough in to get the measurements needed for the bracket system

oh the bullet ones? Yeah those are tiny

I think I could get around a 50-55 on the Pansat on WSTV...but that was a while ago. Havent tried recently

 

[tvropro]

oh the bullet ones? Yeah those are tiny

The nice thing about the bullet's are the weight. When Im done all my hardware and both lnbs will probably be close to what the original ADTH with the shot polarity weighed. What size dish did you have on G-10 and T7?

 

[Mr Tony]

both a 76cm and a 90cm

 

[tvropro]

both a 76cm and a 90cm

Love to put a 1.6 offset on G-10 and see how it acts when the weather get's bad here and in ark

I don't have Ku on my 12 foot but wonder how that thing would work on G10? The gain is around 58db on ku if I remember right off the top of my head on that thing. Talk about blowing smoke The smaller dishes are easier to play with now. My 12 foot is on a 18 foot pole and not alot of fun to work on. I must be getting old

 

[Keith Brannen]

I figure it will have to be positioned to the right and higher then the current lnb when looking at the dish.

Correct.

When adjusting for the second satellite does the lnb feed face need to tilt in or be flush with the first lnb's throat?

On my dish, G27 does slightly tilt in towards the centre of the dish, but other LNBs I have on other dishes are more flush, or sometimes a bit forward or a bit back! Basically, its what gets you the best signal.

It it best to go out there and wave it around first to get a rough in before making up a bracket? I know some of you guys are pro's at doing this so any input will be helpful. I understand the concept but never did this before. I want to do this right and get as much as I can in quality out of WSTV on 129 and keep G-10 where Im at now.

Usually do the hand-held test first to get a rough idea (depending on how stable you can hold it, way easier if standing on the ground rather than on a ladder). I'd recommend doing it that way for your first attempt at 2 LNBs on a dish. After doing a few, you usually have a very good idea as far as distance and height from the centre LNB. If the LNB is farther away than G27 and G10, or after doing a quick hand-held attempt, you might want to use a strip of flat metal attached to the arm to steady your positioning and height when doing further tests for the sweet spot.

In the thread:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/97742-123w-129w-1-meter-primestar.html
the following post shows my setup at the time (naturally, some of it has changed since then):
http://www.satelliteguys.us/919650-post38.html

 

[tvropro]

Correct.



On my dish, G27 does slightly tilt in towards the centre of the dish, but other LNBs I have on other dishes are more flush, or sometimes a bit forward or a bit back! Basically, its what gets you the best signal.



Usually do the hand-held test first to get a rough idea (depending on how stable you can hold it, way easier if standing on the ground rather than on a ladder). I'd recommend doing it that way for your first attempt at 2 LNBs on a dish. After doing a few, you usually have a very good idea as far as distance and height from the centre LNB. If the LNB is farther away than G27 and G10, or after doing a quick hand-held attempt, you might want to use a strip of flat metal attached to the arm to steady your positioning and height when doing further tests for the sweet spot.

In the thread:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/97742-123w-129w-1-meter-primestar.html
the following post shows my setup at the time (naturally, some of it has changed since then):
http://www.satelliteguys.us/919650-post38.html

Thank's for the input. My brain is processing all the good info

 

[tvropro]

White Springs is up and running , peaking out about 63 quality. I first started out waving the lnbf in front of the dish to get an idea, got 60 q then lost it, kept on messing around and got about a 30 q. I then had a general idea where to mount the lnbf. Ran down to my local hardware store and got some parts, I also prefabricated some stuff before hand from stuff I had. I used L brackets a hose clamp and a long bolt. It gave me every adjustment angle possible.

Then I put all my mounting parts together and fired up the Pansat again. Let me tell you it was a bear to get it dialed in, but I didn't give up, hung around 10-20 q for quite a while then I started getting a feel for the adjustments and kept fine-- fine-- fine-- adjusting every angle. It's a totally different animal then just sighting one bird, I finally hit the peak. Ran a new coax all the way back to my receiver. approx 135 feet. Hooked the Pansat back up inside and checked G-10r. Looked fine then hit G-27 working fine.

Anyone wanting to attempt this that never did it be forwarned it isn't a 5 minute job, took 11 hours, but can be done and done well. The suggestions Sat Guys members and there posts help me figure out my game plan. It was quite an adventure, Would I do it again?? Heck YES

Special thanks to Ice, Fred and Keith:

Hopefully sometime soon I can get some pictures and post them.

 

[iafirebuff]

Shoot, in no time you will be doing that in 5 min! The first time I did that, with the Sadoun lnbs, it took longer as I had to use 2 clamps and some wood, and small piece of plastic. Now when I did it for 97w and 101w, I was using 2 fortec lnbs, and all I had to do there was place it snugged up next to the original lnb. Bam. it was perfect! So, I kinda like using the Fortev lnbs as they are square like.

 

[Keith Brannen]

White Springs is up and running , peaking out about 63 quality.

Excellent! I get about the same quality on my Pansat.

Anyone wanting to attempt this that never did it be forwarned it isn't a 5 minute job, took 11 hours, but can be done and done well.

I had a bit easier time when I mounted my LNB for G27, since I didn't have to fabricate a bracket or LNB holder. I had a store bought bracket (flat curved piece of metal) and LNB holder (which was at the correct angle to the dish) so I just had to do vertical and horizontal adjustments. Still took a while to run coax, locate, mount, and fine tune (and I was on a ladder, got a lot of exercise). As I said earlier, once you mount a few, unless you have to do much fabrication, it comes a lot easier and faster.

It was quite an adventure, Would I do it again?? Heck YES

Yep, that's the trap I fell into after I mounted my G27 LNB, as you can easily see from my signature!

 

[tvropro]

I had a bit easier time when I mounted my LNB for G27, since I didn't have to fabricate a bracket or LNB holder. I had a store bought bracket (flat curved piece of metal) and LNB holder (which was at the correct angle to the dish) so I just had to do vertical and horizontal adjustments. Still took a while to run coax, locate, mount, and fine tune (and I was on a ladder, got a lot of exercise). As I said earlier, once you mount a few, unless you have to do much fabrication, it comes a lot easier and faster.

Yes fabricating a bracket to get the proper adjustment range did take a bit of time. I had to use a slotted L bracket off the side of my original cradle mounting bolt. That connected to a U shaped slide bracket I fabricated which connected to the 6" bolt to the hose clamp.

It did give me a good range of adjustment, it covered every tilt, skew, up, dn, in, out, L, R etc. I had to take the bracket assembly down a few times to modify it for more range.

Then when I put it all together I was close but not on the main beam. I think I was hitting a sidelobe since the q was really poor about 10 to 13. Since I saw a 60 q in my handheld test I was shooting for that. I finally got up to about 45 I then super fine tuned very slowly and she started climbing into the 50's. At that point I was jazzed, so I slowly and carefully started tightening it all down, then I adjusted my height adj and got the 63 peak. Ive seen it hit 69-73 for a second or to so it's dialed in pretty good considering it's not at boresight.

I guess the whole project would have taken less time but a neighbor stopped by to see what I was up to and talking took up some of that time. I did get him to help me fish my coax in my house though so that cut down on my work load some. My yard seems to be getting smaller with all my dishes.

My Dish list:

12 foot Unimesh on C band full view from 143+ west to 43 deg east.
90 cm Primestar on G-16 ku.
81 cm ADTH eliptical on G-10R and G-27 ku.
18" DSS dish on Echo 7.

Receivers currently in use:

Motorola DSR 922 (4DTV)
Pansat 2700 A

 

[linuxman]

Congratulations!!!

I knew you could do it. The first time is a bear, but it does get a lot easier.

My first one took at least as long as yours, and I almost gave up. I am glad I didn't, and like Keith, I am now looking forward to doing more of these experiments.

Fred

 

[tvropro]

Congratulations!!!

I knew you could do it. The first time is a bear, but it does get a lot easier.

My first one took at least as long as yours, and I almost gave up. I am glad I didn't, and like Keith, I am now looking forward to doing more of these experiments.

Fred

I was getting disgusted when my quality wouldn't come up at first, but to look at things logically now I just wasn't on the main beam. What psyched me was that I got 60 on the handheld test but couldn't get it with the mounting bracket. It all boiled down to I wasn't at the sweet spot yet, when I finally got closer and saw the Q come up I knew I was getting close.

Funny how you develop a feel for which adjustments do what after playing with it for a while. All in all Im satisfied . I got a tad better Q than I was shooting for. I was just checking the data channels for Q on G-27 there up in the mid to high 70's .

Well now I can kick back and enjoy it

Thank's for all your input!

 

[Mr Tony]

I was getting disgusted when my quality wouldn't come up at first, but to look at things logically now I just wasn't on the main beam. What psyched me was that I got 60 on the handheld test but couldn't get it with the mounting bracket. It all boiled down to I wasn't at the sweet spot yet, when I finally got closer and saw the Q come up I knew I was getting close.

Funny how you develop a feel for which adjustments do what after playing with it for a while. All in all Im satisfied . I got a tad better Q than I was shooting for. I was just checking the data channels for Q on G-27 there up in the mid to high 70's .

so ture. I know when I've done the "waiving it around" to get it locked and then taking a while ot get it back to that level with a bracket

Well now I can kick back and enjoy it

Thank's for all your input!

now the fun begins