Primestar Dish/Equipment question

[cyoung1982]

I have recently come across about 10 of the old primestar 79e and 84e dishes from my local cable company who was about to throw them in the trash as they are cleaning up the system site. I've also read that you can paint the dishes any color as long as its a flat paint so I have painted one of the many dishes black to test with. (pics will be coming soon of the dishes)

I have been doing some research for the last year or so on this forum plus others and have read constantly that these dishes are great for FTA. So I'm going to give it a whirl. Among some of the dishes that include the LNBF's I have come across several different types of lnbf's that were used on these dishes. all but 2 of them are the ones that have the V and H output marked. However the one in the picture below does not. I did a little research on the name and it "appears" that this is a more modern version of the primestar lnb's that combined the V and H outputs into one coax connector (except this one is a dual instead of a mono output) but would like some second opinions.

Also I have received several Multiswitches from the cable guy as well but am not sure if they will work. A couple of the dishes I picked up still had the channel master 2x2 switches still attached to the lbnf's so I know the system they used (he says it used to the the HITS service) was setup that way.

My question is will these switches work or will I need to buy some DiSEqC switches?

 

[Mr Tony]

welcome

nice find

now for the pics

it looks like LNB might be a dual...no not the separate H & V but an actual dual LNB

the switches are all multiswitches. They allow you to run up to 4 (or in the case of the last one 8) receivers off one dual LNB. If you use more than one dish you would need diseqc switches. Here are some diagrams about multiswitches
http://www.satelliteguys.us/1344314-post7.html

and the thread that shows more options
http://www.satelliteguys.us/fta-mpeg2-faqs/134124-switch-setups-simplified.html

 

[cyoung1982]

Alright I'll be sure to save those 2 lnb's for a motorized setup experiment instead of using them on a stationary setup.

I also forgot to ask if these eleptical dishes are big enough to receive signals from G25/IA5/T5 at 97w? the National Weather Service has a publicly accessable Almost real time weather data stream uplinked to that bird and would like to see if I can get that.
Since I cant post links if you want to read up on EMWIN go to the NWS website and do a search for EMWIN and it would be the first link.

I have to email someone at either the NWS or one of the manufacturers of the radios for the VHF radio side of the transmition to see if it would work with a pci sat card of if I would have to buy a decoder radio but if my thinking on how sats work, in theory, I "Should" beable to receive it via a pci sat card that is data capable.

Thanks.

 

[Cadsulfide]

Nice find, A Superdish 121 fss lnb will bolt right up to the feedhorn, they are good dishes. I wish I had a couple more....

 

[cyoung1982]

As promised here are pictures of the dishes. most of them are still in a pile but I took a picture of them anyway.

 

[Anole]

Nice collection, C

Gotta wonder why a cable company would have 'em?
Too small for their use...
If they took them on trade-in, they've sat on 'em for way too many years!

So, where ya located?

Buddy, can you spare a cup of Primestar? -

 

[tvropro]

Wow Nice find. The P* dishes are great! I'm lucky enough to have one 90cm and love it wish I could find a haul like you did. One mans garbage is another mans treasure

 

[cyoung1982]

The cable company here used them for "Digital Cable" because they didnt want to upgrade the whole city wide system to digital so instead they used these type of dishes for the HITS movie channels and others channels through the HITs system. he claims the dishes were pointed at G11 but they are all pointed almost due south so they had to be pointed to either G26 or G25. I live in a little town called Nashville Arkansas. At one time COX owned the cable system here but around 15 years ago sold it to Suddenlink/Cebridge Communications.

 

[Mr Tony]

The HITS to home was on G4/G16 at 99W so that sounds about right. Nice find of the P* dishes. Those smaller cable comapnies are the best spot to find them dishes

(HITS moved to G18 C-Band...105W)

 

[stogie5150]

Nice haul. You got yours the same way I got mine, my local cable company was throwing them away, but in my case they had a 40 yard garbage tub FULL of them, there were HUNDREDS of them. But I only got a few before they threw them all in the landfill. had I known what I know now I would have hauled them all off for them. But I couldn't see me needing more than a few so that's what I took...only difference was mine had skewable mounts, the only ones I have ever seen.

I wish a thousand times I would have spoken up and got more of them.

 

[cyoung1982]

The dishes I got are not skewable themselves but I figured out how to skew the lnb after tinkering. you rotate the feedhorn and not the lnb so the screwholes and the bracket never moves. pretty clever way to hide the fact they are skewable.

 

[Mr Tony]

yep..just loosen the 4 screws on the LNB and skew it..kinda nice way to skew them

 

[cyoung1982]

I never saw a answer to my switch question and if it was answer I apologize as i must be over looking it. Will those switches work or will I have to buy some DiSEqC switches?


Also what would be the best receiver to buy for a newbie? Right now i am looking at the Fortech Star Dynamic as it appares to be identical in features AND price at Sadoun to the Mercury II.

Thanks

 

[Anole]

I took a closer look at the MultiSwitches you posted, above.
Sure, keep them.
All depends on what configuration you decide to set up, but they could well play a vital role.
For a simple starter hookup, you might use one dish/LNB and one of those switches.
But, if you decide to use up to four dishes/LNBs, then those multiswitches might be aided by some 4-input, 1-output diseqc switches.
All depends on your goal.

edit: as for receivers and other suggestions, you might take a look at this post I made for someone else, yesterday.
- The Fortec Star Dynamic is the same as their Mercury II.
- And, I like the Visionsat IV-200, because with the addition of a low-cost external USB hard drive, you have a PVR.

 

[Cadsulfide]

I never saw a answer to my switch question and if it was answer I apologize as i must be over looking it. Will those switches work or will I have to buy some DiSEqC switches?


Also what would be the best receiver to buy for a newbie? Right now i am looking at the Fortech Star Dynamic as it appares to be identical in features AND price at Sadoun to the Mercury II.

Thanks

I have a MercII and I love it! Nice menu system, fairly fast blind scanning, and an easy channel edit setup. It also has a 500 ma IF port, enough power to drive lots of outside goodies, like a motor or multiple lnb's.

 

[cyoung1982]

It looks like I wont beable toa fford the fortec stare this time around. Has any one had any dealings with the Match box Pro USB receiver or the Skystar 2 PCI card receiver? they are both within my price range at the moment. would hate to have to wait another month before I could get a receiver now that I have a dish mounted up ready to find sats on.

 

[Anole]

sage advice

I made a serious mistake several years ago.
I tried to get into FTA with first a USB receiver, and then a PCI card.
There were too many buzz words, complications, interactions, bad documentation, and variables.

For a newbie, please start out with a stand-alone FTA receiver, which has blind scan capability.
After you've spent six months or a year with that box, if you want some of the capabilities a PCI or USB receiver offers, then consider one.
But, even at that point, do your homework first.

 

[Cadsulfide]

Anole is right, pci cards and usb can be a pain. If you're looking for a FTA reciever cheap, check ebay. A lot of new in box models the pirates can't use anymore are available in the $20-30 range. They work fine for FTA, check the posts for reviews on various models before you bid.

BTW, I'm more than willing to trade a couple of FSS lnb's for a feed horn.

 

[Mr Tony]

I never saw a answer to my switch question and if it was answer I apologize as i must be over looking it. Will those switches work or will I have to buy some DiSEqC switches?

I guess you overlooked post 2

the switches are all multiswitches. They allow you to run up to 4 (or in the case of the last one 8) receivers off one dual LNB. If you use more than one dish you would need diseqc switches.

 

[primestar31]

It's EASY to make an elliptical Primestar dish into a multi-satellite multi-lnb Skewable dish. Just mount a BOAT SEAT swivel base between the dish and the mount! You only have to slightly enlarge the boat seat swivel holes, as it almost bolts right up as it is. You'll have to rig someway to lock the dish at the setting you want. I just drill a hole through both plates after adjusting where I want it, and use a self-tapping screw to lock them together.

Cabela's -- Swivel Seat Mounting Base

Then, you just add lnb's as needed, (use a piece of 1/2" or 3/4" electrical EMT tubing on the lnb arm, and mount the lnb's along it's length as needed) aim it at the sat you want with the strongest signal as the center sat, and then skew it to match the sat arc to bring in the sats to the left and right of it. Don't forget, the sat signals will cross over to the opposite lnb. Just like a Dish500, but better!

Of course, with multiple dishes, you can just use separate dishes, for each sat. Much better signal that way.