two satellites with one dish possible?

[Dee_Ann]

I don't claim this list is 100% accurate nor fully comprehensive, but it may cover the more common dishes you'll find out back:

DishNetwork Superdish and DirecTV dishes:
----------------------------------------
DishNet SuperDish: 36" x 20" h
DishNet D-500:... 20.5 x 22" h
DirecTV Slimline: 32.5 x 22.5 h
DirecTV Phase III 20.5 x 18.5 h

edit:
These are the most common and older dishes.
If you have anything else, list it's width and height, and post a picture for better feedback.


The smaller dishes are for bragging rights (been there, done that) and whether or not you -can- get a signal, should you bother?
What happens in marginal reception situations (bad weather)?
And of course, what I alluded to above, can you get the difficult transponders?
I personally hate to see anyone purchase a 30" dish of any sort, when one of these would be just as poor. -

People have posted success with the DishNet SuperDish and the DirecTV Slimline.
The Slimline would be outfitted with an aftermarket LNBF.
The Superdish could use the existing FSS LNB and feed that comes with it. (bandstacked LNB)
If you have either, it's probably best you give it a test-drive and see if it impresses you.
My weather is so dry, they all work for me.

I don't see any dishes like you listed above but there are a few that say Dish 500 then there a bunch that are really small that say Dish and Direct on them, they look identical except for the logo and the lnb.
They are very small, single lnb types. I think they are about 18" and almost perfectly round, very much the so called Pizza Dish type. I don't see any sort of model numbers on them or any markings other than the logos.
I'm assuming they are useless, maybe except as bird baths? Actually, I used one of them to cover a hole where my dad dug up my sewer line and didn't bury it back because it is always messed up and he has to work on it so often. I didn't like it being open so I took one of those pizza dishes, crammed it down the hole and jumped on it a few times then kicked some dirt on top of it. Actually I think it was the one that used to be up for getting NASA and ION that I took down last year.

The dishes called Slimline and superdish, I have never seen one of those. I googled them and I am certain that there are none of those in the pile.

Is it safe to throw away the little ones? Or are they good for anything?

Thanks!

Edit: I just read the "What can I get with an 18" dish" thread and I see that these things are scrap metal. Going to the curb....

 

[Anole]

Well, some very creative members here have found ways to use even the Dish 500 mounts to make useful things.
Like adapting it to a bigger heavier dish, thereby saving weight, so you could motorize it.
However, the single LNB Dish and DirecTV 18" dishes do not have 'skew' adjustments on their mounts, so they're pretty far down the food chain.

Other members came up with creative uses for some of the feedhorns off old Phase III DirecTV dishes.
And I used one of the dishes to get WhiteSprings, some years back.
So, while they're next to useless, they're not totally useless.

Magic Static makes feedhorns from old DirecTV Phase III LNBF:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/253299-dish-dtv-=-fta-dish-fss.html

Anole pix of Whitesprings on Phase III dish:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-ai...ofitting-phase-iii-ku-maybe-3.html#post883196

 

[Dee_Ann]

Well, some very creative members here have found ways to use even the Dish 500 mounts to make useful things.
Like adapting it to a bigger heavier dish, thereby saving weight, so you could motorize it.
However, the single LNB Dish and DirecTV 18" dishes do not have 'skew' adjustments on their mounts, so they're pretty far down the food chain.

Other members came up with creative uses for some of the feedhorns off old Phase III DirecTV dishes.
And I used one of the dishes to get WhiteSprings, some years back.
So, while they're next to useless, they're not totally useless.

Magic Static makes feedhorns from old DirecTV Phase III LNBF:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/253299-dish-dtv-=-fta-dish-fss.html

Anole pix of Whitesprings on Phase III dish:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-ai...ofitting-phase-iii-ku-maybe-3.html#post883196

Ah ok, cool.. Well I guess I will throw the parts off of them in a box in the shed and toss the dish pans away. I can't really imagine a legit reason to keep them or anything I could use them for except sewer line covers and bird baths. And with the severe mosquito problem we are having, it's not cool to leave water out.

Thanks!

 

[rv1pop]

You can make stepping stones across your backyard lake! {groan}

 

[Conky]

might be worth keeping one or two of the ones in better shape. just last week one of the providers forgot to encrypt 4 channels for about a week. sell the rest on craigslist

 

[Dee_Ann]

Actually, I was wondering if there is a single lnb that gets both pizza tv and the ku FTA in one single gadget.
I have read that on rare occasion that pizza tv can be legally seen for short, random periods.
If one were to put such an lnb on a motorized dish, I would think that could be a pretty useful setup.

 

[Dee_Ann]

You can make stepping stones across your backyard lake! {groan}

Actually ALL of my outdoor activities are at a 100% full stop. The flooding in my yard has given rise to a severe infestation of some very, very mean mosquitoes.
I'm very angry with all the people who over they years, built their yards up so that my yard was lower and becomes a lake as a direct result of the actions of others.
I called the city about the standing water and mosquitoes, they came out and looked at it and told me "Tough luck lady, bring in some dirt and fill it in."
I CAN'T AFFORD TO DO THAT! I asked them if they could put a drain out back to drain it off and they said "Nope!, you can't put rain water in the sewer." HUH??
Stupid! I asked them if they could spray something to kill the mosquitoes that are obviously breeding and they told me "Nope. Not our problem. Call the county."
Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!! The county isn't spraying but once a month because they claim funding was cut for mosquito control. Airplane spraying is no more, they quit doing that and they only drive the spraying trucks around once a month and they do not at all spray individual properties.

There is a new breed from Asia that just appeared in the area a few weeks ago and these things are extremely aggressive (think of killer bees) and they swarm and bite in the daytime which is something we've never had here before. For all my life, you could go outside in the daytime without concern, night time of course was different. Now, there is no safe time to go outside, around the clock.
I have wiped myself down with Skin So Soft and they ignore that, I sprayed DEET all over me (I have a bad reaction to DEET) and they ignore that too. They are so bad you have to wear a face mask when you go outside in the daytime because they will get in your nose and mouth! When I let my dog out they eat her alive, she's black but within seconds she'll be grey she'll have so many mosquitoes on her.
And these new breeds are also carrying West Nile mutations, Yellow and Dengue Fever. Yellow Fever is fatal and the new West Nile mutations are fatal too to some people.

Until these things go away, I'm not doing ANYTHING outside. It may be weeks. In all my life I have never seen anything so bad as this...
There's things I need to get out there and do, I need to work on my big dish (for one) and I have gardening I need to do..


Living on the Gulf Coast, S*CKS....

 

[Anole]

Yea, the Invacom QPH-031. (feedHorn)
Not to be confused with the QPF-031, which has a Flange, and can bolt onto other feedhorns, like you have on your Primestar dishes.
But it is still pretty expensive.
It was a lot more popular when DishNet left NASA and Ion and [whatever] in the clear.
Once they locked 'em down, I'm sure the sales of that LNBF have fallen off considerably!

Also, DishNet HD uses a Turbo encoding system that our receivers won't decode.
Only the standard def signals are likely pickings, if encryption is off.
There are exceptions, but they are rare.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Yea, the Invacom QPH-031. (feedHorn)
Not to be confused with the QPF-031, which has a Flange, and can bolt onto other feedhorns, like you have on your Primestar dishes.
But it is still pretty expensive.
It was a lot more popular when DishNet left NASA and Ion and [whatever] in the clear.
Once they locked 'em down, I'm sure the sales of that LNBF have fallen off considerably!

Also, DishNet HD uses a Turbo encoding system that our receivers won't decode.
Only the standard def signals are likely pickings, if encryption is off.
There are exceptions, but they are rare.

Oh.. OK, well I guess then it's not worth the expense considering you can't even tune it in anyway.. Oh well, it was a just a crazy thought.
My mind was wandering and it got lost somewhere in Sillyville...

 

[Anole]

The QPH/QPF-031 was a good idea.
And it has two outputs for circular and two outputs for linear, so it's great to hook to a multiswitch and then off to a bunch of receivers. - :up
And if the price hadn't been so high, I'd have had one years ago.

 

[SatelliteAV]

The QPH/QPF-031 was a good idea.

To Quote Elvis..... Thank ya! Thank ya very much......

 

[Conky]

Only the standard def signals are likely pickings, if encryption is off.
There are exceptions, but they are rare.

The 4 on 119 went down after 4 or 5 days last week but the three on 110 have been there for months

If you want a cheap option use one of the pizza dishes by itself or zip tie a circular pizza dish lnb to the side of your linear lnb on your motorized dish, drive the dish to the dish location, move it east or west(depending on which side of the linear lnb you strap it to) with the on screen controls, then store the location when you get good signal. the pay provider sats are relatively easy to find since the signals are so strong

 

[Anole]

two satellites with one dish

Here's an imaginative idea RedSavina came up with, some time ago.
I've searched and can't find his original post, so I down-sized a couple of his pictures.

Those are DishNet FSS (Standard, but bandstacked) LNBs, with some SuperDish or Eagle Aspen LNBs
Mike Kohl used to sell 'em.

I don't believe for a second those feedhorns match a DirecTV Phase III (nor a Dish 500).
But they might do okay on a DirecWay, which you seem to have plenty of.
Plus, the larger dish, would perform much better, as well. - :up

As always, your mileage will vary, no deposit / no return, objects may be larger than they appear in the mirror.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Woa Anole! That's a trippy looking setup! The second picture looks like a cartoon character.

Well, I floated the idea past my guy friend last night about satellite at his place and he is interested, he did say History would be cool and definitely PBS.
Now I need to figure out how to go about it I guess. I think he would do best to get an Openbox. Maybe I should just talk him into a motor rather than two dishes.
I think he could do a motor and one dish cheaper than doing two separate dishes and would end up getting soooooo much more stuff.
I was trying to figure out a way to do it super cheap but he seemed more enthusiastic about it than I expected so maybe he would want to do a proper setup rather than the red neck route of duct taping stuff together.

I'll talk to him again soon and fill him in more on what can be done and what kind of money it would take. I kind of would like to see him get a full system so I can go spend a few days setting it up up on the lake...

 

[Mikey11]

There are some really good and reasonably priced dish/motor/receiver combos out there, you might be better off going that route, like you said he will then get those two sats and much, much more