Or..... Get in your car and go for a drive searching for people with dishes. You're likely to end up with a high quality dish for 100-200 bucks..
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Sorry I misunderstood noogie...I was thinking you were looking for 2 independent dish`s..1 for Ku and 1 for Cband...If I were you I would take a ride around the country side and knock on doors when ya find a bud in the back yard...Even with these dish`s that are still out there Unimesh,KTI,Weingard etc they will do very well with the modern day signals but when it comes to combining Cband and Ku on a dish smaller than 12 foot then it will just make you aggravated..
After yrs and many Cband and Ku dish`s my back yard will end up with a 8 1/2 foot Birdview for Ku and a 12 foot Cosmos for Cband..Both on a H-H mount..Good luck..
http://www.dhsatellite.com/ if you want commercial quality. Think shipping alone would be 'out of reach'.
Ok, so after some help from some "clarity juice" in the wee hours last night, I bought a system to piece together KU only for now as I'm bust in the quality BUD department around this area. I did my best to stick to quality items based on everyone's suggestions and builds that I see. I purchased a Geosatpro 1.2m that came with a free SL1PLL LNBF, a STAB HH120 (advertised original, it better be Italian!), Linkbox 9000i Local, a SAT link WS-6906, coax surge protector, grounding clamp, and an old RCA install kit but the old RG6 is probably not sweep tested to 300 MHz for HD so I'll buy my own once all the loot arrives.
I also did my best to purchase from folks I see on the forums to try and support them. I'll take pics of the setup once its complete and I'm sure I'll have several questions during the install process or ya know, now too!
Burning question: What the deal with LNB skew and polarity?
I also did my best to purchase from folks I see on the forums to try and support them. I'll take pics of the setup once its complete and I'm sure I'll have several questions during the install process or ya know, now too!
Burning question: What the deal with LNB skew and polarity?
- Every site I've looked at for a motorized setup basically says point to true south and adjust the dish to the arc accordingly but if I single out SATS the LNB skew changes for the SAT. Do I need an additional equipment to make that automatically happen?
- The SL1PLL lists vertical and horizontal polarity switching values but does that mean I can get both or should I buy another LNBF that's top of the line instead of using the free one?
To add to .Raine post above: On a fixed dish, you'll need the skew on the LNBF set to the correct degree setting for the satellite aimed. The LNBF you receive should be just fine to receive H/V polarities. The receiver should have automatic polarity switch settings, although you may have to set those up in the receiver.
My $0.02: You may want to try the fixed dish route aiming for 97W, then get comfortable moving the dish and setting skew for different satellites. After that, put the motor on and then begin work on covering your arc. Time spent on http://www.dishpointer.com/ can help find the best location in your yard to aim for satellites while looking over or under obstacles (houses, trees, etc.). The site will also show dish angles and LNBF skew.
My first attempt for Ku started with a 1.2m dish, but looking for 125W. Once I got that locked in, I was hooked. I got a second 1.2m to explore with and later added a Stab HH-120. It wasn't long after that I was asking neighbors, coworkers and church members and I had a free 7.5' C-band dish, which was replaced by an almost free 10' dish.
My $0.02: You may want to try the fixed dish route aiming for 97W, then get comfortable moving the dish and setting skew for different satellites. After that, put the motor on and then begin work on covering your arc. Time spent on http://www.dishpointer.com/ can help find the best location in your yard to aim for satellites while looking over or under obstacles (houses, trees, etc.). The site will also show dish angles and LNBF skew.
My first attempt for Ku started with a 1.2m dish, but looking for 125W. Once I got that locked in, I was hooked. I got a second 1.2m to explore with and later added a Stab HH-120. It wasn't long after that I was asking neighbors, coworkers and church members and I had a free 7.5' C-band dish, which was replaced by an almost free 10' dish.
Every item has arrived except the meter from China! I'm very excited and I even found a local that still installs FTA. Of course, the guy was on vacation for two weeks but I can wait. I hope he is kind enough to have his brain picked to death and willing to accept help so that I can learn from his experience. http://www.americansatellite.net/ if anyone near Albany NY wants to know. I'm having him install the pole and ground as well as give me a site survey to determine best location as for some reason it always varies depending on the source I use.
If I may ask another question, I asked about polarity earlier and I realized H/V was only Linear and that Circular R/H was also a concern if I wanted to pull in everything I could on KU and I had a fascinating lesson on dialectic plates. So, I bought a Invacom QPH-031 to get everything that was offered on KU. As you may guess, I ran into another problem... The Linkbox 9000i has an advertised LNA output of 500mA and I have no idea if the 9000i can work with the Invacom and still power the HH120. Worse than that, I bought a switch (http://preview.tinyurl.com/h7688p4) and I have ZERO idea how to wire it. I thought from the pictures I could just take the 4 outputs of the LNBF to the switch and then from the switch to the HH120 and the HH120 to the Linkbox 9000i. 500mA is a very small number and I don't feel comfortable that this arrangement in will work as I can't seem to find what port has a power pass-through on the switch mentioned so how the heck is the Invacom getting power to begin with let alone after the HH120?
If I may ask another question, I asked about polarity earlier and I realized H/V was only Linear and that Circular R/H was also a concern if I wanted to pull in everything I could on KU and I had a fascinating lesson on dialectic plates. So, I bought a Invacom QPH-031 to get everything that was offered on KU. As you may guess, I ran into another problem... The Linkbox 9000i has an advertised LNA output of 500mA and I have no idea if the 9000i can work with the Invacom and still power the HH120. Worse than that, I bought a switch (http://preview.tinyurl.com/h7688p4) and I have ZERO idea how to wire it. I thought from the pictures I could just take the 4 outputs of the LNBF to the switch and then from the switch to the HH120 and the HH120 to the Linkbox 9000i. 500mA is a very small number and I don't feel comfortable that this arrangement in will work as I can't seem to find what port has a power pass-through on the switch mentioned so how the heck is the Invacom getting power to begin with let alone after the HH120?
With that switch all you would need to use for the motorized dish and the lnb is the linear side in port #1 and the circular side in port#2...With port #1 from switch going to motor and from motor going to 1 of the linear ports on the lnb.Recvr will handle the voltage for horizontal,vertical polarity.
Nice choice of a receiver.Should have no prob moving around the new 1.2...Never had experience with one of those 1.2`s ya bought but with all Ku installs with a stamped steel dish or any dish for that matter to track properly it takes time and patience!!...This is not a wam bam thank ya mam deal and I hope ur installer is well aware of that...Just because he is a FTA installer does not mean he is familiar with installing a motorized system...Seen that before..Question him about this for sure..
As to the 500mA: that shouldn't be a problem at all.
The STAB HH120 is a slow motor, which is good because that means it doesn't draw a high current while turning.
On top of that I believe it has a spring mechanism, that helps the motor to come back from extreme E/W positions to South position.
Current draw is max 350 mA or 370 mA or 320 mA, I believe to have read somewhere.
A diseqc motor output has completely loop-through to the input. That is done because diseqc has the posibility of both serial use (e.g. cascaded switches) and parallel use (e.g. combining motor commands and committed and uncommitted switching commands). The complete loop-through in the motor is de facto parallel use.
A diseqc switch always passes power from output to the active input; so also no problem there
.greetz,
A33
Edit: Add: For choosing the best location of the dish, you can use the sun outage period for your location. Usually somewhen in spring, and somewhen in autumn/fall.
In the sun outage period, The sun is exactly behind the Clarke Belt; so a (dish)position that is in the sun all day can receive all satellite positions on the Clarke Belt.
There are several sun outage calculators on the internet; choose one...!
I'm a little confused by that. I bought that switch thinking that I would take all 4 outputs of the LNBF to LNB 1-4 on the switch. Then from the switch output labeled "to receiver" to the motor then from the motor to the receiver. Will that not work? I just wanted to have one receiver that could take every kind of signal polarity. If there is a better option or a different switch I should get please let me know.
You will not miss any linear or circular signals Horizontal or Vertical setting up the way I described with the 4x1 Diseqc switch you have purchased.Essentialy you could have got away with a 2x1 Diseqc switch since you are only using 1 receiver but with the Invacom it leaves you with the extra linear and circular outputs.
With the extra outputs from the invacom you could connect another 4x1 Diseqc switch to another receiver..Granted wherever the first receiver has moved the dish too will be what the 2nd receiver can see..Now with this setup you have 2 receivers with each connected to a 4x1 Diseqc switch and both leaving port 3 and port 4 empty for future upgrades..Fixed dish`s etc!!..There is the Multiswitch route to team up with a Diseqc switch but no need for what you are doing noogie2.Ur on the right track.I would not change course as once you get it then you will start seeing where to expand if needed.
Does the FTA installer have experience in motorized systems?..You could actually do it yourself as there is so many members here to give you a hand..IMO there is no better learning than doing something on ur own..
Thank you for the information! I have no idea if the installer has experience with motorized systems and I was thinking I may be able to do the install myself but I just REALLY don't want to screw up putting the post in and making it plumb. If I did put the pole in I was thinking of using 8 ft of two inch galvanized steel but I would have to find someone who can drill the holes and put in the rebar.
If you don't have a drill, use a sledgehammer and flatten a few inches near the end of the pole before setting in the cement.
To allow for adjustments - a rebar cage with attached J-bolts could be set in the hole, then place concrete around the rebar cage and fill hole. For the pole, weld a plate to the pole with holes drilled to match the J-bolts. You'd wind up with a strong base and an ability to adjust for ground shifts.
I did it this way (perhaps I was already posted some pictures): Took piece of pipe, drilled 6 holes on it, welded nuts to the holes, welded flange. Used anchor-bolts to attach construction to the concrete block (~50cm wide and 125cm deep). Any pipe can be adjusted inside and made plumb. For 1,8m CM dish I used 120mm pipe.
That's probably the smartest way to plant a pole. It gives flexibility to mount different poles/dishes in the future!
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