The B1SAT Stacked C-band LNBF

[oncewaslost]

Well I couldn't find an inexpensive dual c-band lnbf to replace my Geosat pro that got hit by lightning. Since I only watch one analog channel, and it is on a vertical transponder, I decided to try the B1SAT Stacked C-band LNBF from Sadoun.

I used a high frequency splitter with one port passing voltage to connect my Legacy C-band receiver, Mercury II, Sonicview 1000 and a Skystar II DVB card. My twinhan DVB card died with the Geosat pro LNBF.

Everything worked out well. A few observations:

I first adjusted the LNBF orientation to tune the one vertical analog channel.
Then I tried scanning with the Sonicview. At first it appeared that the vertical channels were being stacked instead of the horizontal. The horizontal channels came out at their normal frequency's, and the vertical channels came out +600. Of course I was expecting the opposite. The Mercury II will let me put in a low Lo and a high Lo so the channels all came out to their normal frequencies. So for kicks I tried the Mercury II set to single and a LO of 5750. The channles came out just as they did with the Sonicview. The horizontal were normal and the vertical were +600. Then I wondered if c-band being "high side injected" would make them come out this way? I don't suppose it matters, it WORKS!

I accepted having only vertical channels on the Legacy C-band receiver. I found that It will work likewise with only horizontal if you turn the LNBF 90 out of phase. The DVB devices didn't care, although I didnt notice how the frequencies came out. The channels still scanned in fine.:up

 

[Pepper]

That's the one he has on sale for $19 bucks plus shipping. I just ordered one of those last week, glad to hear it works.

 

[Anole]

I first adjusted the LNBF orientation to tune the one vertical analog channel.

I would think that was the "correct" orientation of the LNB.
As I don't have mine running yet, could you describe or post a picture of how that is rotated?
Your comments about rotating the LNB 90º to get horizontal transponders, puts it in the technically "wrong" position.
(which makes perfect sense, and is very valuable info!)

As for your problem with the Sonicview, could I suggest several additional possibilities?
- Sonicview just got it wrong?
- OCS or One Cable System (bandstacked) settings on one or the other receiver are wrong
- can you input the two LO freqs on the Sonicview as you did on the Mercury II?
edit: what happens on either receiver which will take two LO's, if you interchange the frequencies?

Sounds like the LNB is doing what it's supposed to do.
Any estimation on signal stability, or Quality?

 

[oncewaslost]

I would think that was the "correct" orientation of the LNB.
As I don't have mine running yet, could you describe or post a picture of how that is rotated?

If there is any light left when I get home tonight I will take a picture.

As for your problem with the Sonicview, could I suggest several additional possibilities?
- Sonicview just got it wrong?
- OCS or One Cable System (bandstacked) settings on one or the other receiver are wrong
- can you input the two LO freqs on the Sonicview as you did on the Mercury II?

The SonicView has an OCS 5150/5750 option, but scanning with it only results in partial H and partial V channels. The only way I could get all channels was using “single” with a LO of 5750.

edit: what happens on either receiver which will take two LO's, if you interchange the frequencies?

I didn’t try that on the Mercury II. The SonicView will not allow me to change the 5150/5750 settings for OCS.

Sounds like the LNB is doing what it's supposed to do.
Any estimation on signal stability, or Quality?

Signal levels are basically the same as on the GeoSat pro. Some of the frequencies are off by a couple digits, some of the symbol rates are off by as much as 30.

If I understand “high side injection” for c-band. The frequencies are sent down the cable from the lnb opposite from that of ku. 3700-4200 becomes 1450-950 instead of 950-1450. In other words the higher frequencies are converted to the lower. If that is correct, then it make sense that 3700-4800 would be converted to 2050-950. So if H is stacked, it would actually be converted to the range of 1450-950 and V would be converted to 2050-1550. ….. Maybe I am wrong, it is a brain teaser!

 

[oncewaslost]

Here is what it looked like installed.

 

[Anole]

nice pix

Okay then, Cable-up or Cable-down, would be good.
But not cable connector to the left nor to the right
Thanks

 

[Sadoun]

I would really appreciate it if someone who used The B1SAT Stacked C-band LNBF to connect to multiple receivers could write up a simple setup procedure for the Mercury II receiver.

That way, others who are interested in using this LNBF could benefit from the experience.

 

[Sadoun]

On the Mercury II receiver, set LNB Type to 5750 and do a BLIND SCAN. That's it.

 

[Mr Tony]

Okay then, Cable-up or Cable-down, would be good.
But not cable connector to the left nor to the right
Thanks

depends on what satellite
up or down means true south...so for you to get AMC6 say you would have that LNB turned close to left/right

but I just hooked mine up and TS being 93 for 91 I had it almost leval with the coax on the bottom

 

[Mr Tony]

Well I hooked it up and it worked.....sort of

Got dish locked on IA8 with the 621...90+ quality on Pansat 1500
Swapped out LNB...coax on bottom and the "box" (flat edge of LNB) almost level

moved to 91 and got V stuff fine....but not H. Set to "stacked" which is 5150/5750 and it works just fine...signals pretty much the same as the 621

When I do a blind scan what it does is it starts on the last 1/2 on H. What I mean is Pansats blind scan the IF frequency. So on a standard it scans 950-1600 IF. If its a universal or DBS it scans 950-2150. What this does is on H it scans 1550-2100 then on V it scans 950-1550. All the frequencies match up properly as if it was a regular LNB

So I hooked it up with a splitter (hi freq of course) to the Coolsat 8000 and the Quali-TV. Here is where I said it works...sort of

The Coolsat wont let me pick 5150/5750. I can select 5150 or add an entry as 5750. So it will work...but I need 2 satellite entries

The Q wont allow me to select 5750 at all. Gives me 5150 but no option for adding my own satellite LO....so all I can get is Vertical on there

But I can attest that it does get both V & H at the same time. Had the Q on a V channel and the 8000 on a H channel. Both playing just fine

so it does work. I'll probably hook it up to my main C-Band dish and run to a few boxes so they can get C-Band

so as long as your receiver can do 5150/5750 it will work fine

 

[Mr Tony]

well its hooked up to the main C-Band setup (the fixed one)

On the CS8000 I set up 2 sats
C-Band H setup with LNB LO 5750
C-Band V setup with LNB LO 5150

works like a charm

 

[oncewaslost]

On the Mercury II receiver, set LNB Type to 5750 and do a BLIND SCAN. That's it.

This will work. But If you let it blind scan both H & V set at 5750 you will get duplicate channels. One copy at the normal freq, normal polarity, and the other @ +600 freq. and opposite polarity.

If you choose user defined lnb and set lo at 5150 and hi at 5750 all will scan in at the normal polarity and frequency with no duplicates.

This is with the updated firmware.

 

[Sadoun]

That makes sense. Thanks

 

[oncewaslost]

I picked up a Sonora D575 dStacker for $45 to see what I could do with it.
I had some success, but was ultimately disappointed with it. My old analog C-band receiver has separate H/V inputs so I used two ports out of a four port high freq. splitter. I ran directly in for V and through the dStacker for the H. It did work, but the dStacking is not very precise. On G16 transponder 16 (V) was normal as expected, but transponder 17 (H) was tuning in on 15 instead of 17.

Scanning with the sonicview 1000 through the dStacker confirmed that it was not unstacking H very precisely.