Played with the P* - I've got some more work to do.

[Shawn95GT]

Now that I've got the pole set, I figured I'd go out and play with the dish some. I put the original mount back on and it mated up to my 2 3/8" fence pole like it was made for it .

Now for the bad news. I think the feed is either bent or badly placed for the non p* LNBs. When I got this dish it came without the LNBs. All it had was what looks like half of a 20mm or so LNB clamp.

I put my D* LNB on and dragged an old RCA D* reciever out to the pole to see if I could dial in 110. That didn't happen. I have to set the reciever to oval 3 lnb config to even see 110 in the sat signal meter and it's labeled 110/119. I never got anything to show there.

I figured that was due to needing a funky LNB / switch or something and decided to hit 101 instead. I hit 101 without much trouble and noticed that this dish seemed to have a big sweet spot (I could swing the dish 2°-3° left to right and maybe a degree either way in elevation without changing the signal much. It seemed to hover around 88.

Now I know I can get at least 96 if not 98 with an 18" dish so something is out of whack.

I played with the LNB some and it seemed that raising it killed off the signal with a quickness. I then tried moving it towards the dish and the I got the best signal with the LNB as far forward as I could get it on the mount. Since the d* lnb is circular polarity I should be able to skew the LNB any which way I please for testing, right? I think if I turn it 90° I can get it a little closer to the dish. If this improves matters I'm going to cut off the half-assed LNB mount and fabricate a new LNB mount that is more flexable / adjustable. the best I was able to get out of the P* was about 92 which I think kind of sucks.

The Coolsat / motor isn't going to get here till Thursday at the earliest so I'm trying to be productive with what I do have to play with.

My guess at this point is that the LNB is too far back from the focal point of the dish and this is why I'm seeing the large area of slightly weaker signal.

Does this sound even remotely correct or should I not even try to optimize with the D* LNB and just wait till the coolsat gets here and do all this with the Ku LNB / TS satellite?

My only concern optimizing for the D* LNB is that the neck on the Ku LNB is MUCH larger (like 40mm) so the LNB will sit higher which I already know this dish doesn't like.

Thanks Guys,

 

[Shawn95GT]

This is what the LNB mount looks like (less the copper feed the person who took this pic fabricated):

 

[PSB]

I noticed from you avatar picture that the LNBF is set too high (by around 7mm) To get it right you would have to crack open the LNBF casing then reseat the LNBF in the holder. Your right usually the LNBF wants to be as far away from the dish, but this can be changed if moving it slightly gets you more signal quality.......looking good! (I painted my 40" Primestar yesterday Matt Black)

 

[Shawn95GT]

I was thinking of buying or fabricating something like this:

This mount would let me use either neck size LNB and if I did a multiple one I could hang my d* one on there too.

 

[PSB]

If you can................ Fabricate : )

 

[Shawn95GT]

The more I play with this the better the Hotdish 95 / Winegard 75cm dishes look .

I guess option 'b' would be to grind down the saddle to get the Ku LNB sitting centered up correctly in the saddle section.

I might have to do that anyways as even with that mount in hand I'd have to figure out how to attach it to the feed arm.

 

[PSB]

I don't blame you, cracking an LNBF open is not for the faint of heart, I have 2-3 universals here so I cracked open one of them and the neck is the exact same size as the P* LNBF I removed..............now I have it on Pas 9...... 24/7

 

[ken2400]

http://ekb.dbstalk.com/70
is working checking out for converting a P* dish to DTV/dish network.

Also the pic below is for using a P* dish for 802.11 wireless. LOTS of gain!

This is what the LNB mount looks like (less the copper feed the person who took this pic fabricated):

 

[Shawn95GT]

How funny - that link at DBS talk confirms what I found today - I need to build a spacer. I found a nice flat rock in the yard and it worked out pretty good.

I dorked around with it a little bit today and it maxed out at 90 consistantly and would waver up to 91 now and then. The best signal was achieved with my spacer. I even took the feed arm off of the dish to give me a little more freedom to move the LNB around.

What I found was that maybe just a hair lower than where it sits with the LNB resting on the saddle was the best signal strength as reported by my D* reciever. This tells me that it's pretty well optimized as it sits. I think re-sizing the saddle to accept my large lecked LNB is going to give me the best results.

'Only' getting 91 on the signal meter is kind of dissapointing. I have the 18" D* dish that I took the LNB off of here - I think I'm going to take a shot at 101 with it to see what it does. if it betters 91 I'm seriously doubting the effectiveness of this P* dish for FTA purposes.

 

[Shawn95GT]

Ok - the P* dish doesn't suck as bad as I thoguht..

After getting seemingly dissapointing results from the P* dish I decided to hit 101 with the D* dish and see what it'd do.

The 18" D* dish peaked out at 86 on the signal meter.

That isnt' singing really great praise for the P* dish but at least the 18" dish couldn't match it .

Attached are a couple pics of the dishes and their view towards 101:

My house is pretty much due south of my dish, but I'm sure the beam is well above the crest of my roof.

 

[PopcornNMore]

My Coolsat arrives today, so I will be experimenting using the same dish you have. Hopefully we can help each other out as we progress. My feed assembly is made of wood right now, so I am at a disadvantage until I find a feed assembly that fits this dish. So far using a Viacast receiver with no luck. I am counting on the Coolsat to help in my FTA efforts.

 

[Shawn95GT]

If it'll help I can take the feed arm off and get some better measurments for you. Center of the bolt to the lnb clamp should be usefull. Then the height etc. Heck building a new feed arm is looking kind of attractive as of late - lol. My Coolsat / SG2100 should be here tomorrow.

I think what was happening before (when closer was better) is that without the spacer the LNB would sit cocked upwards when it was as far back as possible. up close the LNB sat square.

With the spacer it likes as far back as possible.

 

[sikma]

I newer to the dish game, but last year I just set the throat of the lnb on the half-moon base of the P* arm then took the two bolts out of the feed arm and used zip-ties to secure the lnb. I didn't snug down the ties until I had the scew and distance from the dish surface set. Worked perfectly, doesn't look like a pro did it, but it sures works like one.