Repoint a Dish 500 to 61.5/72.7?

[delta_charlie]

Out of curiosity what does your signal strength look like? I was getting a 50 on both 61.5 and 72.7 without much effort with my Acutrac III+ using the single dish. I don't think I get much more than that up here using 61.5 and having the other LNB pointing at air usually.

Just curious if having a 3rd dish for 72.7 is really going to be necessary up here.

Hi drdroo and the group, I was in the mood to experiment yesterday so I hooked up my dual LNB on my portable dish and set the skew using 65 W (Star One) on Dishpointer.com for the skew setting between 61.5 and 72.7. After peaking the dish on 61.5 and then moving to the left to split the signal the best I could get was about 10 points lower then peaking each dish. Here are some samples: Dish peaked on 61.5 TP 20 signal Q on VIP 222 57%, split on both 45% Dish peaked on 61.5 TP 32 signal Q on VIP 222 53%, split on both 41% Dish peaked on 72.7 TP 19 signal Q on VIP 222 53%, split on both 46% Dish peaked on 72.7 TP 32 signal Q on VIP 222 52%, split on both 49% Looks like I was a bit more on 72.7 then 61.5 but it did work well. Just wonder about the rain fade. Another poster mentioned the fact that the DVB signal on 110/119 gets less rain fade and I have noticed this myself. For me I think the best setup might be WA 110/119/129 but this will require me to move the wing dish to the other side of the house. For now I think I will just setup on 61.5 and 72.7 with two dishes and forget about 77. I did not find much at all on 77 - NASA but I can get NASA HD on my FTA BUD so no loss there. I get my locals OTA so your mileage may vary but it seems to me getting only 61.5 and 72.7 might be a good option for others. Take care, DC

 

[TheKrell]

Thanks for the experimentation, delta_charlie. I think a new D500 yoke for 61.5/72 is in order.

 

[CowboyDren]

I have a couple of 1000.2 dishes with LNB laying around, and I assume I could do better on 61/72 with one of those, but haven't gotten around to trying it yet.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I intend to have 110/119/72.7/61.5 because 110/119 pretty much never go out during storms and the MPEG4 sats generally do. .

That is not the case any longer on the 72.7 sat. It is brand new and I get signals in the 60 - 70 range on all transponders. As for the 77 sat , I get between 50 - 58 and for the 61.5 sat anywhere from 45 - 70 . I get rain fade if it is raining extremely hard- like cats & dogs. Just like I did when I had the western arc dish 1000.2 . Once the 61.5 sat gets replaced it should be just as strong as the 129 sat is now.

 

[drdroo]

That is not the case any longer on the 72.7 sat. It is brand new and I get signals in the 60 - 70 range on all transponders. As for the 77 sat , I get between 50 - 58 and for the 61.5 sat anywhere from 45 - 70 . I get rain fade if it is raining extremely hard- like cats & dogs. Just like I did when I had the western arc dish 1000.2 . Once the 61.5 sat gets replaced it should be just as strong as the 129 sat is now.

I can't even get the 77 sat here. 82 comes in extremely hot and for whatever reason I just haven't had much success finding 77.

When it's raining extremely hard my 110/119 still usually stays up, give or take 5 minutes. However, I can lose the 61.5 for a good hour usually.

 

[CowboyDren]

I didn't remember that Nimiq 5 went to 72.7, so I had to look up information on the whole Echostar fleet. Fascinating stuff on Wikipedia:

Dish Network - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I guess we Eastern Arc-ers are just biding time for 61.5w (and maybe 77w) to get replaced by a shiny new LS-1300 or A2100AX, huh?

 

[winman97]

delta-charlie...thanks for the readings on 61.5 / 72. Those are very similar to my readings using D500 and DDP, except on TP 32, where both are only 40-41. Just can't it any higher on a split. TP 15 spotbeam on sat 61.5 is red :devil:hot 85 on the split and TP spotbeam 07 is 80. The only rain fade I noticed was 214HD Weatherchannel on TP 32. I checked strength and it was only 32. I tweaked a little more a got it to 41. Have seen no rain fade since. Maybe a new DPP lnbf might bump it up.

 

[delta_charlie]

Thanks for the experimentation, delta_charlie. I think a new D500 yoke for 61.5/72 is in order.

Hi, funny you should mention that as I was kicking around the idea of instead of splitting the signal between 61.5 and 72.7 why not split the yoke? A simple cut with a hacksaw blade and the use of some spacers and hose clamps and a pair of DDP and a switch you could peak both on one Dish 500. As it turned out I had LOS to 129 so I moved my wing dish yesterday and I'm now on WA 110/119 and 129. 129 is one hot satellite! I'm getting way better SQ even-though I'm way over on the east coast. Got to run, DC

 

[handymantoo]

I am on the eastern arc and originally was on 110, 119 and 61.5. I checked pointing this morning and now on 72.7, 77, and 61.5. I have not touched the dish settings.

 

[winman97]

delta-charlie....No LOS for 129. That would have been better than going to eastern arc, but D500 pointed at 61.5 /72 is working OK. Funny thing happened this morning on TP 32 strength from 61.5. The best reading I could get the other day was 41. This morning it is at 45, and we have heavy clouds, awaiting a rain. That's a 10% gain. Signal strength from certain TPs on 61.5 must vary from time to time.

 

[dcbag]

Anyone used a dish 1000 with the 110/119 lnb off a dish 500 to get 61.5/72.7? Just wondering if the larger dish would help the signal level much.

 

[CowboyDren]

Anyone used a dish 1000 with the 110/119 lnb off a dish 500 to get 61.5/72.7? Just wondering if the larger dish would help the signal level much.

That's not supposed to work. There's an extra kink in the 1000.2 LNB bracket, which I've been unable to duplicate using a DPP Twin on the arm. If you get some signal with a DPP Twin on a 1000.2 dish, the signal you'd gain from the extra reflector would be lost due to the angular misalignment.

There's no reason, however, that you can't use a 1000.2, dialed in on 61.5 with the center LNB, to get those two birds (61 & 72), but it'd look funny on the Check Switch screen because the third LNB wouldn't be hitting a Dish bird if it hit anything at all.

 

[ramimac]

That's not supposed to work. There's an extra kink in the 1000.2 LNB bracket, which I've been unable to duplicate using a DPP Twin on the arm. If you get some signal with a DPP Twin on a 1000.2 dish, the signal you'd gain from the extra reflector would be lost due to the angular misalignment.

There's no reason, however, that you can't use a 1000.2, dialed in on 61.5 with the center LNB, to get those two birds (61 & 72), but it'd look funny on the Check Switch screen because the third LNB wouldn't be hitting a Dish bird if it hit anything at all.

think he was refering to the original 1000 dish not the 1000.2.

The 1000 dish used a DPP twin and a single for 110/119/129

 

[dcbag]

think he was refering to the original 1000 dish not the 1000.2.

The 1000 dish used a DPP twin and a single for 110/119/129

Thats correct, I am talking about the above, not the 1000.2!

 

[CowboyDren]

Grand idea, then. Still not perfect, but better than the D500/DPP Twin I'm using.

 

[winman97]

Once the weather warms up I may try to expierment getting 61.5 and 72.7 using a dish 1000.2. (not interested is getting 77) The spacing between the center lnb and outer lnb is 10 degrees, which is closer than the 9 degree dish 500 DPP. I will also adjust skew for eastern arc. Will the 1000.2 lnb pick up and find the eastern arc birds / is that 3 unit lnbf compatible with the DPP? :tux:

 

[drdroo]

1000.2 should be able to pick up 61.5 and 72.7. If you want the 10 degree spacing, you'd want the 119/129 to be 61.5 and 72.7. You would ignore the '110' LNB and the 1000.4 skew number should be 'close enough' to get a piece of the action and fine tune.

If you are using a switch, make sure you're plugged into the proper coax feed for the LNBs you're using (which means avoid the edge one for the 110 feed). Basically each coax port is one satellite orbital location when using a switch. If you're plugging direct into boxes, you should get 61.5 / 72.7 no matter what port you use.

Hope this helps. I probably made it more confusing than necessary.

 

[winman97]

Thanks drdroo, There will be no external switch in the set up.
I'll try this in a few days and report back.

 

[drdroo]

Thanks drdroo, There will be no external switch in the set up.
I'll try this in a few days and report back.

Good deal. Good luck with it. Should work out fine.

If you need a good tip, use tin foil over the 110 LNB to avoid aligning with it. You can pull it off after the fact.

 

[pajer]

i am using the original dish 1000 with two dpp singles and picking up 61.5/72.7 just fine strenght of 60 on the 61.5 and strength of 40 on the 72.7. aldo have the dish 1000+ pulling in the 110/199 with all going to a dpp 44 switch.los is too low foe129 with an elevation of 20. i did try a dish 500 tohit 61.5/72.7 but could not pick up so that is why i went with the original dish 1000 with the wider reflector.