Old relic: Sierra III and small dish???

[oldtart]

Hello everyone.

I'm a first-timer here and very impressed by the depth of this group!

Recently I heard the term Free To Air mentioned and I got to wondering what was going on in the satellite world and did some Internet research and happened on this great forum.

So a few days ago I was going through a bunch of old music equipment I have stored in my studio and came upon my old Chaparral Sierra III sat receiver. Man did it bring back some memories!

I purchased and installed it about 14 years ago at my previous residence and when I moved here it was stored away, since it isn't feasible to install a BUD ( a term I learned here!) in my neighborhood.

Which gets me to my question:

Is it feasible to use my Sierra III (which can do C and Ku) with one of the currently available small dishes?

I'm not even particularly concerned with what I can or can't receive. Being an old timer and kind of a slave to nostalga, I just thought it would be a hoot to hook it up and get it running again!

Any info you folks can give me would be much appreciated. And I apologize if I've posted this in an inappropriate area!

Regards to all

Oldtart

 

[PSB]

WELCOME to the SatelliteGuys.US FTA forum!



Sounds like an analog receiver, so you would really need at LEAST a 6' dish!

 

[Mr Tony]

if it can do KU band, a 30" or larger would work

 

[PSB]

Whoops missed the Ku analog part, my first 10 years in satellite was mainly analog Ku with a 1m dish

 

[Mr Tony]

Pete do you know if they make a KU LNB that has the 3 wire polarity?

I know if I hook an analog box up directly to a LNBF I get H polaritites only.

 

[oldtart]

Thanks!
Any recommendations on a 30" or so dish setup? And how will I know if the current lnb's ( or whatever) will work with my Sierra III?

Regards,

Oldtart

 

[PSB]

The BEST 30" dish HAS to be the ALL American made Winegard DS2076, it performs better than many slightly larger dish!

SPECS. http://www.dmsiusa.com/ds2076.htm

 

[oldtart]

Thanks Pete.

That dish would certainly work for me in terms of footprint. However, I'm totally in the dark in terms of how I would figure out what LNB (?) to purchase that would work with my receiver.

Can you possibly provide some guidance?

Regards,

Oldtart.

 

[BKP]

Welcome...

 

[oldtart]

Thanks!

 

[SatelliteAV]

I owned a Sierra III for many years as well. Great machine!

As I recall, it does not support LNBFs. This will not be a problem if you mount a feedhorn/scaler/polorotor to whatever dish you choose, but unless you use a 1.2 meter dish or larger this might be quite the challenge.

If you slave the Sierra to a DVB MPEG 2 receiver and let the DVB unit control LNBF polarity on a 75 - 90cm dish might prove to be the least expensive route. Make sure that you purchase a Standard LNBF (LO 10750) not a Universal type as the Sierra III will only recognize C-Band (LO 5150) and standard KU (LO10750).

Another method for using a standard LNBF would be to use inline power inserters on a Dual output LNBF to lock them to 1 leg horizontal and the other leg vertical. Use a DC block on your Sierra III or turn off the LNB voltage then use a 12V switch to select between the H/V LNBF outputs.

Also, Invacom offers a specialty LNBF, QDH-031, with fixed 2 horizontal and 2 vertical outputs. We have one left that has never sold that could be available at a VERY LOW price!