Those with mini Cband 4 Footers.

[highskies]

Since spring is here, that means the leaves on the trees will start returning. When that happens, I can no longer see anything from 105W eastwards. Everything west of 105W, a clear LOS. This would be where I have my 7.5' located.

On another part of my property I have a motorized 31" ku dish set up. I have a clear LOS for pretty much the entire arc. So what I was wondering then, if I were to invest in a 4 foot dish to replace the 31" , and then make it a mini C Band dish with one of those C/KU LNBFS, is there any feeds in particular that I likely couldn't get, from mainly 105W to 72W?

For example. With my 7.5 dish, I get the Nasa feeds, the NBC S2 feeds, and the
Telemundo feeds on that bird. Would any of these not be doable with a 4 footer?

@ 103 W, I currently get all the ION feeds, The ABC feeds, the METV feeds, the RFD feed, the California Ch feed. Would any of these not be doable?

So anyway, you should get the idea. I'm interested in seeing if it's worth my time and money to invest in a 4 footer and another C/KU LNBF, mainly for C Band from 105W to 72W. Also, my location is Texarkana, Tx. Plus this offset dish is tracking the arc pretty spot on, since I don't have any major problems with KU signals. And one more thing while I'm thinking about it. Moving my 7.5 foot dish to another part of my property, that's really not an option.

 

[Pixl]

A 4 ft dish for C-band will be a miserable tiny dish for that service. You might get a few of the strongest signals out there. Even the 6 ft dishes out there are limited performance.
The smallest "under size" dish you should work with for C-band is 8ft. And it will skip some of the stuff the big boys are getting,
Please go bigger or take what you can get without crying in here when you do get a few channels.

 

[highskies]

ou should work with for C-band is 8ft. And it will skip some of the stuff the big boys are getting,
Please go bigger or take what you can get without crying in here when you do get a few channels.

As far as crying about it in here..very unlikely, since if I see that it would be a waste of time and money to begin with, then this means I wouldn't even try it. Unless I'm mistaken, it seems I've read some very good success stories, unless these people were making things up or something. Also remember, once these leaves return, I still have a good LOS west of 105W, as far as the 7.5 footer is concerned. So i'm not worried about that direction, just mainly 105W to 72W.

 

[KE4EST]

I wouldn't fool with it, unless ya just want to experiment, plus you would have a strong dish for Ku. I personally think you would lose all the channels you mentioned. All you would get would most likely get would be the CW channels on 3720 on G17 and lesea on G16. Maybe the cbs mux on 3C at 4167. You could get a few more if you found a nice solid one piece with a matched LNBF.

 

[Bob2011]

Here is my experience back a few months ago with a four footer on about the range you are looking at.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/265783-another-1-2m-minibud-success-story.html

Since then I was able to find several more channels but I ended up parking it on 99w. The view is so wide I can see some channels from 101w and 97w occasionally. Of course this works in reverse when signals on the same frequency drift in and I loose some channels for a few hours. The Lesea networks and GDMX feeds seem to be immune to this but the Virgin Island networks and the NBC from Wyoming have issues occasionally. I was able to obtain my dish for free from a business so the minor investment for cement and cband LNB were worth it to me. A new 1.2 meter offset dish runs at least $150 so I wouldn't buy one just for cband as you can find a deal for a 6 foot prime focus for the same money.

 

[highskies]

A new 1.2 meter offset dish runs at least $150 so I wouldn't buy one just for cband as you can find a deal for a 6 foot prime focus for the same money.

I looked at your link. very interesting. It's too bad you have tree trouble with 103W tho. I was particularly interested in what's watchable on that bird. If I thought I could put a 6 foot dish where my offset dish now is, instead of doing that, I would just move my 7.5 footer there instead. But i don't see me getting away with that without someone complaining about it, since that would put the Bud in my front yard, almost out to the road where everyone would clearly see it. Where it is now, it can still be seen from the road, but only if you're looking for it, since it's parked east of a huge pine tree that is blocking it from the side, in relation to the road. I live in the city limits. If I lived outside the city limits, I probably wouldn't care less what anyone thought period.

 

[Mikey11]

here are my results from a 39 inch dish....keep in mind this was a one day experiment and not alot of time spent....like most people say minibuds are experimental only and i agree....if you want reliable c-band you need at least a 6-8 footer....

http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/264940-mini-bud-test-results-day-1-a.html

 

[Vondertrenk]

Guys, highsky has a genuine hobby curiosity. Who say he will not find something that others haven't? I encourage you to go if you already have the dish.
I got one for freee, Iinstalled a 621 LNB ( Ku+C band together). I can only scan from 70 to 139, my home wail doesn't let me do more. Last time I got about 525 Chs (adn I am missing all the fan from Hispasat @30W, and all the others up to 70 W, plus I am not scanning 97W since I know there are more than 250 Ku chs there). AFter cleaining all the repeated channels, still had about 400. Cleaning again teh scrambled, still got a decent 300 channels. You may ned with every few interesting ones but still very good channels: MeTv, Legacy Tv, some ABC, NBC, PBS, CBS and some canadian Weather Ch, eetc. In my opinion there is still about 50 intersting channels in C Band with 1.2 mt dish. And again, I am missing NHK ( that I got before with a 1.0 mt) and soem others in 58-55.5)

Go ahead Skyhigh, that is the purpose of FTA; research and have fun!

 

[PopcornNMore]

I agree with Vondertrenk, go for it. I used a Channel Master 4' dish and received every channel (over 100) from SES2 C band including all the RTV S2 channels. I have a post on here showing pictures. Signal strength was the same compared to using my 6' and 8' cheaper panel dishes.

 

[Vondertrenk]

I agree with Vondertrenk, go for it. I used a Channel Master 4' dish and received every channel (over 100) from SES2 C band including all the RTV S2 channels. I have a post on here showing pictures. Signal strength was the same compared to using my 6' and 8' cheaper panel dishes.

PopcornNMore; Are you saying you got all the channels at 87W with a 4footer? U R my heroe!
THat's insane! ( Einstein said about Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results!)

How did you do it? I have seen people with six footers with partial RTC channels, only those at 3800 but not those at 4080.

I ihave a 1.2mt Ariza and a BSC-621, the god one with internal 22 Khz.
THis is what I got from 87W:

• ZNS TV
• Me TV
• Comcast SportsNet (scrambled)
• Fox Sports North (scrambled)

WHat is your configuration?
What is the trick?
DO you get also My Combat, El Salvador and Estrella Channels?

 

[Vondertrenk]

Can you please send me the link to your previous post with pictures?

 

[joeroscoe1957]

87w ME TV on a 4 ft. is good , is it a good dependable signal or like the 99w virgin island mux on my primestar dish , watchable about 80% of the time .

 

[PopcornNMore]

Here you go Vondertrenk: http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/263150-amc-3-c-band-4080h-dvb.html

I used a 4' Channel Master motorized dish along with an OpenBox S9 receiver. These are actual screenshots.

 

[walrus1957]

I hope the channel lists from my S9 Openbox attach properly. Maybe this will help answer any questions as to what a 4 ft offset dish can receive for C-band channels, and what a 6 ft solid panel prime focus dish can receive. I had the 4 ft offset dish set up for several years in the back yard, just last week I set up the 6 foot prime focus on the same tripod. I haven't the time to tweak the new dish so I maybe able to get in more channels, waiting for a calm day before attempting any dish adjustments. However I very much doubt I can get in the NBC channels on 105W.

I would also like to thank "Magic Static" for the Uniden actuator, it works great with this dish setup.

The attached channel lists require a channel editor to open and view, believe I use the PVR800HD editor. The TP_PROG4ft zip file is from the 4ft offset dish scans, the other is dumped from my receiver this morning using the prime focus 6ft dish. Disregard any channels listed east of 55.5W as I can not view them at my local due to trees, I believe I manually added a view channels during winter testing when there was no foilage on the trees but wasn't able to detect any signals at the time. Some of the channels on the lists may no longer be in broadcast as the list was a work in process over several months. Actually I am loosing most signal now from 55.5W as the trees are almost completely leafed out and obstruct that sat.

I have attached photos of both dish setups, the dish location is on an acerage just outside the small town of North Bend NE.

View attachment TP_PROG4ft.zipView attachment TP_PROG6ft.zip

 

[AcWxRadar]

It's looking good!

RADAR