Promise not to laugh...50 pound dish, 50 gram TV to align! (give or take)

[radio]

I finally got a few minutes to set up a dish I got from member PIXL last year. Concrete was set last week. The goal was to make it a dedicated 125 PBS, to free up the Channel Master so I can add a hefty (metal geared which I already own) motor. I'm not as good at aligning offset dishes as the center feed ones and needed something easy to monitor the signal and quality. Realized I had nothing left that was portable with a "video in"...then.....

It hit me! I had an early LCD color TV with video input. The kind that had OPTIONAL backlight and would be visible in daylight! As you know, it gets BETTER in bright light! Plus all you have to see is the signal graph! Small, but...one long video cable and 4 "AA" batteries later, the battery operated mirror-type TV was helping us align!

My staff and friends thought I was nuts, but...it worked so nicely!!!!! (Even Scott, our part time engineer shown in the pic thought it was pretty cool....though he removed his glasses to read it up close.)

Okay, go ahead and laugh.............but, all the dishes are now functional! Now on to motorizing the former DTN!!!! (channel master)...and the dish from PIXL works great with a WS Ku LNB. The signal actually exceeds the Ku portion of the Birdview, which has not been tweaked in a long time.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yeah I have a little portable too that I drag out when I have to.

That's using your head!

 

[radio]

That's about as PORTABLE as they get!! Is yours mirrored?

 

[turbosat]

"That would've had me so blind I would've walked into trees after a bit, lol. Is a neat trick to use though, if you can see it.

 

[radio]

Did the job! But, remember, all I had to see was the infamous two bars for signal and quality. Even got to explain that to my buddy who helps with FTA but doesn't quite understand yet why I do it. I didn't realize how much I had relied on having a monitor available of a reasonable size! Guess its time to find a small AC/DC set for the back of the jeep when I'm working on my growing "farm."

 

[Pixl]

Good job Jim.
Nice to see that dish back up and working.

Maybe you could mod the "tuning eye" from your avatar to be a sat meter.




.

 

[radio]

I like it! You're the first to notice the avatar and know what it is! Thanks again for the dish, it is FANTASTIC for locking signal! I didn't know exactly the position for a different kind of feed (cheap, small standard Ku) but it did GREAT!

 

[rv1pop]

I recognized to tuning eye, but did not think too much about it - except to think that mine doesn't move that smooth. And that the receiver works great on the generator, but not on inverters. I do like the dishes and that little TV is AWESOME!

 

[Mr Tony]

I use to sell that TV years ago when I worked for Radio Shack

 

[digiblur]

Have a little rechargeable 7 inch TV with a ATSC tuner in it for hurricane times in the closet. It worked perfect for setting up my dish again. Soooo much easier than dragging out a CRT.

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge

 

[KE4EST]

I like it! You're the first to notice the avatar and know what it is! Thanks again for the dish, it is FANTASTIC for locking signal! I didn't know exactly the position for a different kind of feed (cheap, small standard Ku) but it did GREAT!

I always called them magic eyes, I have a couple around here somewhere.

 

[Pixl]

I like it! You're the first to notice the avatar and know what it is!

Years ago I built a project that let you send audio to a magic eye and it danced around with the voice peaks. Pretty cool in the vacuum tube era, the next best thing would be a led light bar 40 some years later.

 

[migold]

Years ago, I had a radio with one of those. To me, they are not so unique... It sure was easy to tune to the peak signal...