phlat's Ku caper......

[phlatwound]

Finally had some decent weather and some time yesterday to make my first attempt at setting up a Ku dish. I had poured a 5 gallon bucket full of concrete to use for a temp mount but I was given a non-pen roof mount later that day, so I used it to mount my new 3ABN 90cm dish w/3ABN linear LNBF, a Coolsat 6000 and a little 13" tv made up the rest of my system.

With compass, inclinometer and paper with elevations/angles/skews in hand I started aiming, looking for 123W G23 to reveal the exploits of McGarrett & Danno on one of the Equity channels. After about an hour with no success I decided to take the LNB skew variable out of the equation and take a shot at my true south sat, 93W G26. Changed my elevation and azimuth, rotated the LNB to about 1 degree cw from 0, set the manual scan to 11865 V 3516.....moved the dish about 1/2 degree east and bammo, saw that beeyoooteefull green on the Coolsat's signal meters.

A couple minutes later I saw my first homebrewed Ku transmission...CBS Newspath. Also saw the Macy's channels and Ms. Rev. Melissa Scott on the Univ. Network, and was still sitting in the yard watching with a goofy grin on my face at dusk, when my wife and daughter got home. Said daughter said to said wife....I'm sure glad we live out in the sticks so no one can see dad sitting out in the yard watching TV".

Just wanted to share my experience, thanks to all who have assisted directly and indirectly, great bunch of folks around here and I couldn't have done it without your help.

Jody

 

[Mr Tony]

CONGRATS!!

A couple minutes later I saw my first homebrewed Ku transmission...CBS Newspath.

yep its a beautiful thing when you get that first signal

Said daughter said to said wife....I'm sure glad we live out in the sticks so no one can see dad sitting out in the yard watching TV".

I'm sorry but that's pretty damn funny


Now that you got 93W check the elevation on that dish and match it up with what it should be (what the satellite finder shows). If 93W is your true south, you should be able to move across the arc from 89 even 87 over to 101 without having to move the elevation on the dish.

Once you get the hang of it, then try 123W. Move the elevation to what it should be and skew the LNB (roughball it)...The dish looks almost straight SW here in MN (my True south is also 93W) for G10.

 

[phlatwound]

CONGRATS!!
yep its a beautiful thing when you get that first signal

I'm sorry but that's pretty damn funny


Now that you got 93W check the elevation on that dish and match it up with what it should be (what the satellite finder shows). If 93W is your true south, you should be able to move across the arc from 89 even 87 over to 101 without having to move the elevation on the dish.

Once you get the hang of it, then try 123W. Move the elevation to what it should be and skew the LNB (roughball it)...The dish looks almost straight SW here in MN (my True south is also 93W) for G10.

Our golden retreiver thought I was nuts, I whooped it up when that first picture came up.

If the weather holds I'll try hitting some more sats tomorrow, today was lawn mowing and I reset my Visionsat to default and rescanned all my satellites after it's latest hiccup. The elevation scale on the dish seems very close to being correct and the offset of the dish seems to be about 26 degrees if my measurements are accurate.

Aiming for some sats pretty close to true south (and not having to worry about elevation) will help me to judge how to guage the LNB skew scale, it only goes +/- 20 degrees and I need about 33 degrees skew to hit G10. I'll let you know how my next assignment turns out.......

 

[Mr Tony]

If you are going to try G10, turn the LNB to 20 (if in front of the dish facing it, turn it counterclockwise). That will roughball it so when you get on G10 you can always tweak it to best signal

For skew if its off by 10 you will get a weak signal, but will be able to find it. If your skew is 33 and you leave it at zero, you won't get anything

 

[ghia]

Congrats on your first lock. At least you are in the sticks! Looks like you have lots of space to add additional dishes. I have to climb up a ladder and tweak a dish on the summit of my roof with a very steep incline here in ultra compact suburbia, which always makes the natives wonder what I am doing!

 

[rv1pop]

Congratulations on getting it going. I got the 1M primestar going now, too. I took pictures to post but can not find my cable to get it from the camera to the computer!

That looks like a wonderful yard! Grass that you CAN mow!

 

[turbosat]

Who cares what neighbors think! Mine have heard car races, hockey games, spanish preachers, french tv from Anik f1, and who knows what else. Just depends on what I'm trying to aim at, and how much I like to sit and watch awhile when I find it, haha.

edit to add :Congratulations! You are now hooked on fta.

 

[Tron]

Said daughter said to said wife....I'm sure glad we live out in the sticks so no one can see dad sitting out in the yard watching TV".

I live in suburbia, and always try to adjust my dishes at night when there's a full moon. Why? Less of the unbearable heat that we get during the day, no glare from the sun on the monitor screen, and the full moon gives you enough light to see what you're doing.

The neighbors probably just think I'm crazy

 

[thomas34461usa]

Watching TV Outside

.....was still sitting in the yard watching with a goofy grin on my face at dusk, when my wife and daughter got home. Said daughter said to said wife....I'm sure glad we live out in the sticks so no one can see dad sitting out in the yard watching TV".
Jody

Hey Jodi, That was funny! Gave me an idea too what to do also with those tall poles of mine..... Hang a hammock and watch TV!
Thanks,
Tom

 

[Wescopc]

Enjoyed your post, now that you are hooked - I will look forward to your new discoveries - there is no cure for this addiction!
Bob

 

[Lak7]

"..........there is no cure for this addiction!"

That's for sure, there's always a bigger dish!

 

[GreatFTA]

Said daughter said to said wife....I'm sure glad we live out in the sticks so no one can see dad sitting out in the yard watching TV".


Jody

I can relate to that! I have been doing this for over twenty years. When I used to live in a town, neighbors and folks passing by my house used to wonder what this idiot doing, with a TV and receiver in his front yard???
Remembering the stares still make me chuckle.

 

[glen4cindy]

I live in suburbia, and always try to adjust my dishes at night when there's a full moon. Why? Less of the unbearable heat that we get during the day, no glare from the sun on the monitor screen, and the full moon gives you enough light to see what you're doing.

The neighbors probably just think I'm crazy

Yes, I'm sure they do, and they attribute much of that "craziness" due to it being a full moon when you do this stuff!

 

[phlatwound]

Thanks to all for the comments and kudos, there's no doubt I'm hooked on this stuff, my next mission is to determine a location for my best LOS (lots of trees have grown up since the BUD went in 15 years ago), then permanently mount and motorize a Ku dish.

Our nearest neighbors in any direction are about 1/2 a mile away, and that makes for...........good neighbors!

 

[Tron]

Yes, I'm sure they do, and they attribute much of that "craziness" due to it being a full moon when you do this stuff!

That's the beauty of it all. They think I'm crazy, and I know I'm crazy. Crazy like a fox

Our nearest neighbors in any direction are about 1/2 a mile away, and that makes for...........good neighbors!

Amen to that!

 

[Corrado]

Nice work Phlat...all of this confirms that you're one of us.

I think my neighbors expect to see me outside with the little TV working on the dishes.

 

[rv1pop]

Nice work Phlat...all of this confirms that you're one of us.

I think my neighbors expect to see me outside with the little TV working on the dishes.

I agree -- your are now hooked

My neighbors watch with their binoculars to try to see what I am doing! When they can't figure it out they come over to see, and forget to leave the spyglasses behind!

edit:: That was said with tounge in cheek -- but one neighbor came, saw, and just left!!!

 

[schlever]

I had a bunch of family over this weekend, and all were a bit shocked at the 'amount of boxes I have under my tv' I had to actually show them what each of them were used for before they believed all this was free and legal

 

[glen4cindy]

I had a bunch of family over this weekend, and all were a bit shocked at the 'amount of boxes I have under my tv' I had to actually show them what each of them were used for before they believed all this was free and legal

That's always the reaction I get too. 'All that for FREE?' I just smile and say "yes".

 

[phlatwound]

Nice work Phlat...all of this confirms that you're one of us.

I think my neighbors expect to see me outside with the little TV working on the dishes.

Thanks Corrado! This is a really cool hobby, glad to know I'm getting to be one of the guys....but I've got to wonder about the judgement of any "organization" that would consider me for membership!!!