Tired of my BUD... SuperDish???

[Dishman Dan]

I am getting tired of my BUD loosing the Ku band signals with all the snow we have been getting! When I brush the snow off there is still a frozen layer of icey stuff left that interferes mostly with the Ku band. I am thinking of putting up a small motorized dish for Ku band (Mostly FTA!) and using the BUD for C band (4DTV). The snow does not knock out the C band too often but it does reduce the quality. Would a SuperDish (Which I happen to have in the barn!) be a good candidate to motorize??? I am getting one of those Invacom LNBFs and a motor. Should I just spend a few more $$$'s and get one of those packages with the dish included on fleabay??? Is a 31" Winegard a good choice or go bigger like a 39" dish??? I thought that I had a free 39" dish coming but the business owners cannot find the right person to give the final okay for removal!

Any thoughts???

 

[vfrjim]

Having both a 1m winegard and 90 cm Geosatpro, I would just get a 90cm, it is enough for most Ku signals, especially if you keep your BUD for C-band. Also, the 90 cm is light enough for all motors to move.

 

[Tron]

Concerning the Superdish, it will work (the 121 or 105 LNB is FSS Ku-Band), but there are some things to consider. First of all, the Superdish is a bit small for many of the weaker Ku-Band transponders, and you'll soon be wanting a larger dish for the feeds. Secondly, the FSS Ku-Band LNB on a Superdish is stacked. This means that the horizontal transponders are sent down at the same time as the verticals, and are stacked at a higher frequency. Since the transponder frequencies will be different for the horizontals, you'll want a receiver with blind scan capability.

 

[Cadsulfide]

Superdish works fine on my fixed sats 74,129,etc. I was getting adjacent interference on 123 and switched to a DTN (4'). If you're going to a motor setup the 39" round may be a better option.

 

[lownote2]

You will probably want a bigger dish because of your location. If you were here in the Midwest you would probably be ok, but you're a bit north. Check out some of the sponsors on here too. Nothing against ebay.. just that sometimes you really don't save anything and always have to wonder about trusting the seller. Always check the feedback. Bad thing on those dishes is the shipping.

 

[Anole]

Nothing against ebay.. just that sometimes you really don't save anything and always have to wonder about trusting the seller. Always check the feedback. Bad thing on those dishes is the shipping.

One of our Gold Sponsors, SatelliteAV, has an eBay offer that's pretty good on a 36" dish, right now.
(see link in his signature)

Another Gold Sponsor, Sadoun, often has good bargains on eBay, so you might do a search.

And if you don't like dealing with eBay, you may (or may not) have good luck calling either company, quoting their own eBay offer, and getting the same deal on the phone.
They may not want to do that (for whatever reason), but I'd give it a try.

 

[Dishman Dan]

I never had a problem with any of the electronic items that I bought on Ebay. A few little problems with other stuff here and there but worked them out okay. A lot of sellers have the Winegard 31" dish in a motor/lnbf package which seemed like pretty good deals. I thought that I could possibly use the SuperDish with a different feedhorn but I am giving up that option. A lot of guys on this site do neat things with some of those ole Pizza dishes and such but I do not have the time right now to play too much building something. I am going to check some of these suggestions out further - THANKS!

 

[mat_thomas]

Even with KU Band FTA, the bigger the better.
Get at least a 39 inch dish. I have this and Stab HH motor and get about
30 satellites with various programming. Once you have due south lined
up properly, the dish should get quite a few satellites. I'm using the Quad
Invacom and it's nice to have both linear and circular on the same system.
Watch out with switches and motorized dishes. Make sure you send the
cable from the receiver to the Motor first then send the out to the switch.
Mat - Hamilton Ontario

 

[Sadoun]

A lot of sellers have the Winegard 31" dish in a motor/lnbf package which seemed like pretty good deals.

BTW, we have that package. We call it the MKit1W

 

[Anole]

bigger IS better, but at what $$$ ?

A good 36" dish (90cm) is a wiser choice than smaller ones.
Of course, 39" (100cm/1m) dishes, and 4' (120cm/1.2m) dishes are fantastic.

The problem comes with shipping anything much larger than the 36" dishes.
Here's a picture of shipping boxes for various sizes.
The UPS's and FedEx's of the world go crazy when the box gets beyond a certain size.

So, here are two ways to save, if you -must- go bigger than 36":
- local pickup (if a dealer is within driving distance)
- ordering two dishes in a shipment (most sellers charge only a little more to ship two vs one)

edit: also, motor choice becomes more critical if you exceed the 36" size.