It would probably work really well for FTA. Just replace the LNB and you are good to go. Iceberg, you should buy one and experiment. You can never have too many dishes. 
The P* is tracking the arc tonight!
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for $89...nah...
I've got 3 oblong ones I could try
39x23 DirecPC-too heavy to motorize
StarChoice-its a thought
36x20 DirecPC-works the same as a 30" which I already have up
I've got 3 oblong ones I could try
39x23 DirecPC-too heavy to motorize
StarChoice-its a thought
36x20 DirecPC-works the same as a 30" which I already have up
No, mine is 36x26 or so. I'm curious how my 'baby P*' compares to a 30" round or even a 1M dish. That fortec star 1M dish is tempting. Concidering shipping is the same for 1 or 2 I'll probably buy 2!PopcornNMore said:
the 39x23 direcPC is like a 36" dish
the 36x20 direcPC is like a 30" dish
so the 36x26 will work better than a 30" but not as good as a 36"
the 36x20 direcPC is like a 30" dish
so the 36x26 will work better than a 30" but not as good as a 36"
PopcornNMore said:
I actually bought one of those and it does seem like a pretty fair deal for the price. It's a pretty fair deal for a few reasons. It's a brand new dish and not an old cracked and faded one, not that there's anything wrong with old cracked and faded ones, but of course if you have a choice new is better. It also is a 40 x 30 dish. As I've mentioned here previously there have been folks who sell Primestar dishes on ebay and promise you a 40 x 30 84E only to deliver a smaller 74e instead. I had this happen to me with a guy in Texas. So, at least with this one you get the real 84e or at least I did. Also, as you said it includes alot. It comes with a special mount that unlike the other mounts allows you to adjust skew on the back of the dish thus skewing the whole dish. For a motorised installation this would not be necessary or desireable, but for a fixed installation with a multifeed system like this it would be. Of course for a motorised installation you could still use it. You'd just have to set the skew to 0. It also comes with 2 LNBs and feedhorns and most importantly it comes with a multiswitch. This multiswitch allows you to switch between LNBs using a 22Khz tone and also allows you to switch between H or V polarity using 13/18v switching. That's significant because alot of times when people use primestar dishes they don't use the original Primestar LNBs because they have have separate H&V outputs and most prefer to use the more common LNBs that have 13/18v polarity switching built in. The switch's that included solves that problem. So, that way with this dish youd have a complete package and wouldn't need to buy a separate LNB. Also the switch has 2 outputs for 2 recievers. So, in theory you could watch 2 signals of 2 different polarities and/or on 2 different satellites on those 2 different recievers. With a single output voltage switch polarity LNB you couldn't do that or at least not on the same LNB as the LNB would either be in horizontal or vertical mode and would only output signals on that polarity. So, in this regard the dual output LNBs combined with this switch and 2 recievers could have an advantage. In fact this may be the reason why primestar predominatedly used LNBs with separate horizontal and vertical outputs. So that using multiple recievers and being able to watch signals on oppposite polarities on those recievers would be possible. Anyway, this dish might not be the best deal for everyone but I can see how it could definitely be a pretty decent deal for someone looking for a fixed dish that can get 2 sats 6 degrees apart.
One word of warning though, while my dish arrived in good condition itself and none of the components were damaged, the box did sustain quite a bit of damage and had a fairly good sized hole ripped in it. I live in a neighboring state from the seller and therefore the dish didn't really have to travel very far. I've heard from another person (on another FTA forum) who said he bought one of these and not only was his box damaged but so was the dish. I believe he said he had filed a claim with UPS and was awaiting their response. Anyway, I don't know whether this is a pattern with these dishes or not nor do I know who might be to blame for the damage (the carrier or inadequate packaging), but this might be something to watch out for if you buy one of these.
Also, I might add that I believe the 2 feeds are spaced to recieve satellites 6 degrees apart. In the manual that came with it, 93 and 99 degrees are the 2 locations specified. Of course it should work with any 2 satellites about 6 degrees apart and since the beamwidth of these dishes is about 1.8 degrees that could vary a bit ( maybe anywhere from about 3 to 9 degrees).
Iceberg said:
In terms of gain alone that's true. However, in terms of rejecting interference from adjacent satellites elliptical dishes that are wider horizontally than they are tall vertically tend to perform a bit better. Being wider in the horizontal plane makes the beamwidth horizontally narrower and thus is benefical in this regard. So, on satellites that have nearby neighboring satellites with transponders on the same frequency and polarity, a dish like this should provide slightly higher signal quality.
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