New to hobby; FTA questions

[hanlonmi]

Hello,

Just signed up tonight! I have technical and non technical questions about FTA possibilities. A couple of summers ago i was given 4 receivers of various brands and an old prime star dish. Non technically speaking i love to tinker and would love to see if i can breath some life into this equipment.

Can someone provide some good info to get started on perhaps the basics of satellite, and perhaps point me in the right direction for where to discuss more technical details about the equipment i have?

I'm not looking to expect free satellite HD and all kinds of crazy channels, if i could get one unit working and receive 1 channel, id be pretty excited. I've searched around in Google a few times but perhaps i'm not searching the right catch words as what Ive seen so far was either pretty irrelevant, or topics of new equipment.

 

[Anole]

There are plenty of general FAQs and info threads here on the FTA section of the forum.
A Primestar dish will be for the Ku band (higher frequency/ smaller dish), so for now you can ignore the C-band section and the 4DTV department.
Also, since you have physical receivers, steer clear of the section using USB and PCI satellite receiver cards.

Tell us what sort of programming you think you'd like and maybe we can recommend a good first satellite for you to look at.
Tell us which Primestar dish you have. Give the width and height of the dish surface. That'll help.
What are the receivers you have? Perhaps one will be the best choice.
All the satellites appear in the sky to the south of you, varying from south east to south west, so you'll need a tree-free view of the sky for your one bird.
Once you've focused on those matters, you'll be off to a good start.

 

[hanlonmi]

Is this an appropriate forum for going into the model numbers and spec's of equipment?
I will do some searching for those FAQ's- thanks!
I noticed some dishes in the neighborhood being pointed that direction which could be a challenge, but we'll see- part of the fun.

As far as programming, right now its moot to me. I'm pretty simple in my TV watching and I'm open to whatever I might be able to capture with what I can cobble together. I'll put it this way, I have a netflix capable blue ray and TV antennas in the attic and that's all the entertainment I can handle. However...(in my limited knowledge so far) if a small dollar investment for say a new LNB or something is needed, I suppose that would be a good time to consider this question?

 

[rv1pop]

YES, Model number and pics. if you can upload them are tools and information to answer your questions. I have gotten some old analog receivers and they are not good starting boxes. So let us know names and model numbers and we can all get in on the fun of getting you TV!
WELCOME to Satellite Guys.
POP

 

[AcWxRadar]

Hello,

Just signed up tonight! I have technical and non technical questions about FTA possibilities. A couple of summers ago i was given 4 receivers of various brands and an old prime star dish. Non technically speaking i love to tinker and would love to see if i can breath some life into this equipment.

Can someone provide some good info to get started on perhaps the basics of satellite, and perhaps point me in the right direction for where to discuss more technical details about the equipment i have?

I'm not looking to expect free satellite HD and all kinds of crazy channels, if i could get one unit working and receive 1 channel, id be pretty excited. I've searched around in Google a few times but perhaps i'm not searching the right catch words as what Ive seen so far was either pretty irrelevant, or topics of new equipment.

Hanlonmi,

Well, you can obtain FREE (and legit and legal) HD sat signals from certain providers. Namely PBS as a staple, but there are others.

You have arrived at the right place to research this. We welcome you here! When we learn what equipment you have acquired, we can inform you better of what you can manage. It is all fairly easy and it will be a lot of FUN. You will enjoy it.

RADAR

 

[hanlonmi]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I didn't get a chance to measure the dish before work this morn, but here goes:
Dish:
Channel master 3040975 (found on back side, molded in)
RCVR's:
MACOM: T1, IDU-T1
Uniden: VST-9000
General Instrument: Video Siphor II 2100E
General Instrument: Primestar 301D

The LNB and cover for the dish do seem a bit beat up, so i suspect that between it being purpose made for primestar and its age that it might be of no use? Holiday weekend 'n all, i didn't really get to any FAQ's pages...

My HD comment was born from reading a thread where someone was posting something similar to what I'm proposing but was expecting a free ticket to an entire HD line up of premium channels. I dont want to come across as that guy. I'm all about free, but legal.

 

[Tron]

Is there a mold number on the Channel Master, such as 75E, 84E, or 1.0? That would help us to identify your dish. It is most certainly useful for FTA.

As for the receivers, all but the Primestar are analog. There's very, very little analog left up there, so you'll need to buy a digital DVB or DVB/DVB-S2 receiver. The Primestar receiver is useless, since it uses an outdated digital format known as Digicipher I.

If you can, upload some pictures of the Channel Master dish and LNB assembly. We'll be able to identify everything and help you get set up.

Welcome to SatelliteGuys!

 

[icu1954]

listen to these guys,they can get you up and running in no time,i have been involved in fta for about a year and still learning.I love this hobby,but the only down slide..........it's addicting

 

[hanlonmi]

Hello,

Sorry for the delay with the pics. I went out of town for a while there and now catching back up. I have the pics, just need to get them posted. Is there a limit to attaching pics, like size or number of pics?

 

[FaT Air]

Upload Attachments! Yes, go ahead. If you run into a number limit, make another post in the thread.

 

[AcWxRadar]

Hanlonmi,

Personally I find that the "manage attachments" procedure to be a bit cumbersome. It is not as straight forward as it used to be and I don't like it much. But, it does work. You do have to remember that the files (pix) must be in accordance to the format allowed. Look at your extensions to the files such as *.jpeg etc and make sure that your file type is allowed. There is a list of allowable / acceptable file formats that can be utilized. You will see that list somewhere along the way during the "manage attachments" process.

RADAR

 

[hanlonmi]

OK, so, im sure many of you can appreciate how busy things can get and how it cuts into your hobby time, well that sure has happened. Add to the fact that the one day i purposely sat down to get a back log of computer work done my internet was down. After a call in to an automated system i got a range 3 days it would take to get things fixed, how annoying.

As you can see, this is some pretty old looking stuff. and i totally forgot to get pics of the receivers...

 

[rv1pop]

OH Yes.... That is a dish you can not use. You must immediately package it up and send it to me, freight prepaid..!!!! In other words,

That is one of the best KU setups you can find!!!

Now what was the question ..If you check out my signature, you will see that I do use that dish set up. As far as the receivers go, I know very little about any of them. but others may be able to tell you more.

 

[Anole]

From the sticker, that's what we call a 75e (for elliptical) dish.
You might check the back end of the LNB, where the cables attach to it, to see if it has an H and a V stamped into the soup-can bottom, one by each connector.
If so, it's a pretty old one, but should still work fine.
Just that it may put out H on one connector and V on the other.
If so, we can help you with that, too.

 

[AcWxRadar]

View attachment 65708View attachment 65707View attachment 65709View attachment 65710
OK, so, im sure many of you can appreciate how busy things can get and how it cuts into your hobby time, well that sure has happened. Add to the fact that the one day i purposely sat down to get a back log of computer work done my internet was down. After a call in to an automated system i got a range 3 days it would take to get things fixed, how annoying.

As you can see, this is some pretty old looking stuff. and i totally forgot to get pics of the receivers...

Hanlonmi,

Busy, busy! Certainly understandable, especially this time of the year and getting everything going for summer: i.e. mowing, gardening, farming, etc.

That 75e dish is quite acceptable, but you MAY not get everything with it. That is simply just due to the overall size of the reflector panel.

I have one (actually two) myself and I judge it with a positive rating. The one I acquired (for $5) had a different LNBF attached than the "silver bullet" LNBF that you have. The LNBF on mine was what I call "The EGG". I modified the bracket on the end of the arm to accept an LNBF with a larger diameter "neck" and used an Invacom QPH-031 LNBF. Worked very well for a single fixed point dish. I keep it set up, but I don't use it currently as I purchased a 1.2 M GeoSatPro dish from SatelliteAV and motorized it.

I hope that the 75e that you got there still has the elevation adjuster on the backside of the dish (with the elevation jacking bolt). That is one of the BEST assemblies ever in my opinion, albeit quite heavy (which is a plus in itself, but difficult to modify to a motorized system for the same reason - weight). With that, aligning this dish is a breeze and a pleasure! Maintaining it and tweaking is no question as a fixed point single dish. I was actually able to modify it to accept two LNBFs to get 97W + 99W or 99w +101W. I think I can get 123W + 125W with it but I never actually tested it for those two.

It doesn't have a means to "skew" the dish for multiple satellites, but I manufactured a homemade "ring" to insert in between the dish and the mount that allowed me to do so. It looks very professional and works very well, but I did not provide for any skew angle markings so setting it up was just by trial and error. It worked, but it was a project in itself just to align with that modification.

Yep, that is a keeper for all sorts of projects.

RADAR

 

[hanlonmi]

Thank you to all that replied to this thread. i apologize for dropping the ball but the summer just got away in a serious way- but the wife was out of town a week and i got the dish put up!! i did get the... "what is that thing!?" question but its sometimes easier to ask for forgiveness.

So my next step is to politely ask for direction towards some threads or resources or heck, straight up model numbers that can get me some digital FTA stuff going. It seems that the receivers i had listed are all analog models.

sorry for it being a cell phone shot, but there it is up in the air. i have to run coax and as mentioned, see about a receiver, so hopefully we can get the ball rolling again on this!

oh, and yes, it still had the jack screw hardware on the bracket, so it shouldn't be to hard to tilt but the tube i mounted it too was a tad large so might be a bit to rotate it, but we'll see.

 

[icu1954]

once you get started ,it's hard to stop...keep on fta--ing