Ready to Uplink a Wild Feed

[Pittsville]

I have my FTA receive station running fairly well now and I will soon be getting an old Starband dish with a transmitter on it. I am going to connect a video source to it and try do a wild feed.......JUST KIDDING

But I was wondering, in my research on Starband dishes I noticed that they have the potential to cause interference to other satellite users. I was wondering if this is much of a problem today or if it might become a problem in the future as more of the old Starband dishes become available to experimenters?

Again, I WILL NOT be using the transmit segment of this dish. But it makes the dish look pretty cool in my opinion, with the heat sink and that little waveguide tube that it has.

I realize that the LNB on Starband dishes is single polarity and it will be of limited usefuleness but I still plan to play with the receive part of it, possibly changing the LNB someday.

Does anybody reading have any experience with Starband dishes? I'm thinking of trying to fix it on G10 someday, hoping the approximate 2x3 ft size might be big enough?

 

[jayelem]

My uncles neighbor has an uplink vehicle in his driveway, it's real BIG for his driveway, almost looks like a misplaced Yacht.

I was told he was looking for a buyer long ago, he's a jack of all trades, he's a pilot who was in the telecommunications business.

I can't say I've ever seen him, I probably would've struck up a conversation, more like let's see it in action, who knows it may be inoperable.

 

[Tron]

You may want to use the single polarity LNB that comes with the Starband dish for G-10R. Since most of the programming we are interested in is vertical polarity (all of Equity), a single polarity LNB will only miss a couple of channels (Research and U of W come to mind)...

I'm using a fixed polarity LNB (my Norsat 11009LA) on a 1 meter Channel Master dish for G-10R.

 

[Pittsville]

Tron thanks for that suggestion. That's probably what I will do. I never checked the polarity of the G10 stations so that's good to know that they are mostly all vertical.

I guess I should have said it was fixed polarity instead of saying it was single polarity. From what I read it can be set to V or H but it has to be physically done at the dish and can't be switched by the receiver!

 

[techno935]

Again, I WILL NOT be using the transmit segment of this dish.

I still think they should allocate a bird up there for amatuer satellite/radio operations. Who the hell wants to wait for a stupid little amatuer satellite to come back into orbit at points of the day and waiting to transmit. The ARRL needs to get their act together IMHO.

 

[Tron]

From what I read it can be set to V or H but it has to be physically done at the dish and can't be switched by the receiver!

Correct, it has to be physically unbolted from the feedhorn and turned 90 degrees to change polarity. I don't miss anything on the horizontal polarity with G-10R, since I have a motorized dish as well if I need to view the couple of channels that aren't vertical

 

[Shawn95GT]

If you want to get creative you can re-arrange the waveguide and add a 2nd LNB to do H & V while retaining the feedhorn. Throw in a multi-switch and your reciever will think it's a LNBF.

I posed some pics when I put mine together here.

For a little bit more money you can buy a C-120 flanged LNBF and be done with it too. I compared those two LNBs against the C-120 flanged Invacom QPF-031 and the results were very similar.

 

[PhilipPeake]

I still think they should allocate a bird up there for amatuer satellite/radio operations. Who the hell wants to wait for a stupid little amatuer satellite to come back into orbit at points of the day and waiting to transmit. The ARRL needs to get their act together IMHO.

I think you are crediting the ARRL with too much. They have very litte to do with most of the amateur satelittes ever launched.

If you want a geo-sync amateur satelitte feel free to find your own tech people to build it and people to raise the money to launch it, to do the continuous station keeping, and to negociate with the FCC and international organizations about allocating a slot for it.

Then prepare for the hate mail from those who can't see it, in whatever position you place it.

There is more to this than you think.

Anyway - Merry Christmas and 73!

 

[JoelA]

I think you are crediting the ARRL with too much. They have very litte to do with most of the amateur satelittes ever launched.

If you want a geo-sync amateur satelitte feel free to find your own tech people to build it and people to raise the money to launch it, to do the continuous station keeping, and to negociate with the FCC and international organizations about allocating a slot for it.

Then prepare for the hate mail from those who can't see it, in whatever position you place it.

There is more to this than you think.

Anyway - Merry Christmas and 73!

My sentiments too. As a Ham operator, the pressure is always on to use the bands...but whomever 'they' are never seem to be around to do those things you so accurately point out need to been done on your own nickel. Perhaps we could start a non-profit soliciting hams and others to the "Cause"!!

 

[jollyrgr]

My complaint with ham satellites is it always appears to be the same few people on them. Maybe only a small segment has the skill or equipment. But even at a ham fest where this was being demo'd the guy never let anyone but his son play with the station.

The times I've attempted to contact MIR (R.I.P.), the ISS, or the shuttle I've been stomped on by stations (the same few) running high power. Would it be worth putting up the birds if only a small segment uses them? I don't think so.

 

[Pittsville]

I got the dish, but part of of the mount is missing (the piece that goes around the pole). I will have to create a way of mounting it before I can mess around with it, so I'm off to search the forums for ideas.

 

[Anole]

A search on Primestar and motorized will get you plenty of info to chew on.

They included one with a piece of marine plywood, one based on some brackets from the local hardware store, and my favorite - using the pole mounting foot from a Superdish
I've found reading those thread so addictive, I've already come up with my own easy-to-build design.
The creativity on this forum knows no bounds.