Official Dishmod Thread - How to modify dishes to receive other/additional satellites

[Stargazer]

I thought it might be nice to have a thread that discussed how some people modify their dish to pickup other satellites than it was intended for or additional satellites. This might save people money by using what they have or finding a dish that is cheaper to make it work or to "tinker" with the satellite dishes to see what they can get them to do.

I've found that you can use a Dish500 (poor man's Dish1000) to pickup 110, 119, 129 the easiest way by placing a twin lnbf's 119 side on the 110 slot of the yoke leaving the 110 sticking out not on the yoke and having 129 on the 119 yoke slot. I've gotten over 100 on 119 and around 80 on 110 and 129 without adjusting the skew but I imagine that the skew needs changed for optimal performance. I have seen posts in the past where someone strapped an lnbf to the twin on a Dish500 to pick up additional satellites. I imagine someone could strap an lnbf to both sides of the twin to pickup Directv 101 on one side and 129 on the other side. How would one figure out what the skew is for adding one lnbf to one side or adding an lnbf to both sides?

I think one could modify the Directv Phase 3 dishes to become a reflector for Dish500 or Dish1000 by cutting off the arm and drilling the hole(s) out to place the Y or W yoke. Has anybody tried this? I think some of the Directv Phase 3 reflectors work on the Dish500 dishes as well which might make improve signal strength for the poor man's Dish1000 but never tried it yet.

Anybody have anything to add such as other mod's that they have done or things they have tried with what I stated above?

 

[dfergie]

A post from last May when I was playing with dish pans...

 

[Mr Tony]

Here are a few subscription satellite options that I have done

1st is adding a LNB for 119 to a Starchoice dish aimed at 107.3/111.1 This allowed me to use a separate 24" dish for 110. Buried the needle on most TP's on 119

2nd & 3rd is adding a LNB to a Dish 500 for 129. Got 75-80 on Tp's (this is when 129 first was moved there before they threw stuff on it)

5th is adding a DBS LNB to a motorized FTA setup

6th & 7th I took a Phase II and put a LNB on 110 for subscription (119 was on the SC dish) and added a KU in the middle for 101 (AMC4) and a DBS for 91 (when the audio was free on ExpressVu)

last one is when I chopped off some of the scaler ring off the C-Band dish and added a 2nd LNB to get both 99 & 103 C-Band. 103 is low signal but it works and C-Band has very little rain fade

now I know alot of these are free to air related but hey it works

 

[Todd Humphrey]

I have a 5' one piece spun aluminum dish that I plan to mount to the polar mount from an old 8' mesh dish and then mount several DBS/KU LNbs. My plan is to remove the MANY dishes I have on my shop for testing systems and use one dish to gain access to ANY DBS/FSS satellite. My OLD TRIII should work well as a positioner.

My question is, has anybody ever overdriven a DBS LNB by using a large solid dish? These LNBS were designed for the gain of 18 to 36 inch dishes, not 48" prime focus reflectors.

 

[oljim]

I made a dish 500+ with SD105, took 118/119 assy and put on SD 105 only mod was a drill a hole for mount on arm. Re point dish and it works very good

 

[Mr Tony]

My question is, has anybody ever overdriven a DBS LNB by using a large solid dish? These LNBS were designed for the gain of 18 to 36 inch dishes, not 48" prime focus reflectors.

There are people in the Carribean that are using a 6 foot dish for Dish because that's all that works.

Alaska uses a 48" for 119 and a 6 footer for 110.

 

[Papote]

There are people in the Carribean that are using a 6 foot dish for Dish because that's all that works.

Alaska uses a 48" for 119 and a 6 footer for 110.

Tell me about it....
Got 2 - 5 foot dishes (110 and 119). Tried to play around once with a QPH-031 to get another sat on the same dish but never could found anything... Except the 110 spotbeam...

In PR.