Wavefrontier 90cm w/dish network and more

[kruftindustries]

Hi all,

First post here, although it feels like it should have been years ago, considering how many of the ice man's posts I've read over the years...

Here's what I've got:
•Wavefrontier T90
•Dish vip112k
•Twinhan vp1020a
•5x rp circular lnb's
•4x no name pll linears
•Dpp44 w/inserter (just now finding out about the legacy compatibility)
•8x1 diseqc
•Sat buddy meter
...500' roll quad shield rg6 and a few hours

Here's what I want:
•Dish 500 and hd's per my subscription
•and whatever else is fta in that piece of the sky

Here's a story:
I acquired a dish dvr a while back, decided I wanted to try it out. Convinced dish to send me a non-dvr ird when I noticed the fee for that feature. There was a direct slimline on the roof so I figured I'd hack and slash and figure something out. Made an aluminum bracket and stuck a few lnb's on it, looks ugly but I found an impressive level of signal in a few places, a lot wider swath than I expected though the reflector is pretty wide.. I quickly felt the desire to chase my childhood dreams of "all the satellites are belong to us" but a bit older now and conscious of several meter wide dishes on my roof. I'd like a good tradeoff between a satellite farm and a single 18" and I intend to get a modern pci card to go with the new dish.

Closing notes:
•what switch do I need to appease the vip211k with 3-4 legacy lnb's and what should they be pointed at?
•what pci card should I get for the "everything else"?
•disclaimer: I don't know what the terms are nowadays so forgive me if I upset anyone for asking, is there any, maybe an e* or otherwise pci card I can plug my smart card into, call customer service and get paired and activated instead of this laggy eyesore under my entertainment center? I'd like to maintain a minimalist approach here if possible.

Sorry for any proofreading issues, I'm on my phone and thanks in advance for reading!

Edit: my location is SW missouri and I've seen both eastern and western arc in the area. I could be wrong on that but I've seen dishes skew both ways so to speak

 

[kruftindustries]

Here's the hacked up direct dish. There's not much on it in that picture but I'm sure you get the idea..

Another pic with 110/119 and ? 105 maybe

 

[KE4EST]

to SatelliteGuys!
You need to keep your DISH subscription service on its on signal path.
In other words from the DISH LNBF's to it's own switch and then to the DISH receiver(I think you meant 211K).

No, you will not be able to put your DISH smart card into anything but a DISH receiver. So you are stuck with that.
You can use your 8x1 diseqc and PLL's for other birds.
If you have read for years, I am sure you have saw Lyngsat.com, sathint, etc. to get an idea of what is on what bird.
I'll let some of the other guys recommend a good PCI card.

 

[kruftindustries]

I'm aware of keeping dish to itself, I'm more concerned with the type of switch to use for legacy lnb's since there aren't reverse polarity dish pro lnb's, the sw64 had some scary looking crap on it indicating polarisation, or something weird to that effect. Maybe an sw44 and a sw21 for 3 lnb's? I think that's all I'll need but I don't want to miss anything if there's a way for 4 or even 5 legacy lnb's, maybe mix and match fss for 121 also? I doubt I could get both 118 and 119 without making a custom waveguide or something.

Edit: your name looks like a call sign, KD0OHR over here, 73's and thanks for the introduction!

And attached is a picture of the IRD in case it's not normal or something

 

[danristheman]

Got a question here wouldn't this be better in the Dish Network part of this forum instead of FTA?

 

[kruftindustries]

I can split it into two threads or maybe it could be moved after the fta discussion has concluded? Any suggestions for what fta I should aim for while meeting the dish hd requirement on the wavefrontier? What the center lnb azimuth should be?

 

[KE4EST]

Got a question here wouldn't this be better in the Dish Network part of this forum instead of FTA?

95% of the guys in the DISH forum would have no clue what he is talking about other than the 211K.

 

[Mikey11]

that dish i believe will only cover 40 degrees of the arc,

if you have HD DN receiver that would mean you would need 110w, 119w, 129w

so that would limit you to getting down to about 91w

to accomplish that you would need to put all the DN LNBs at one end of the rail, then play around with the remaining space for fta birds like 103, 99, 95 etc

all of your wiring and switches would need to be kept totally independent of one another (DN and FTA)

when i first got into FTA i was thinking about buying one of those dishes, but i didnt like the 40 degree limitation, so i went the motor route instead

 

[. Raine]

I'd do like Ke4est said, use the PLL's and the 8x1 DISEqC switch for the FTA, leave the Dish stuff on it's own switches and all. Would make sense like that, seeing as how both need different receivers anyway.

But, with your Slimline dish that will have to stay aimed at the Dish sats, don't think there'd be much good that you could pull in FTA, the Slimline is a bit small for FTA multiple LNBs. Not saying it can't be done, I've put multiple LNBs on my Slimlines here, but it's just a bit too small to catch everything. FTA transponders aren't as strong as DIsh and Direct's.

If you have room, I'd pick up another dish to use for FTA, like a 90cm.

 

[kruftindustries]

I was hoping to replace the direct slimline with the wavefrontier.

So far it looks like I'll have 129 hanging off the left side (looking at the back) with a piece of something, and see what I can get from there.

I could push it with the dss birds maybe another 10° from what I've read, 50° for dss and 40° for strong fss though I know it'll act like a smaller reflector at more extreme angles. Maybe 83w if I'm lucky, 91w if not, with a center at either 105 or 110 depending on the 129 signal quality. I have an sw64 on the way for the dish network side of things. My RP circular lnb's have pretty poor specs so I'm not anticipating miracles but we shall see. I'll post a pic or two when I get everything put up.

In the mean time, anyone want to suggest a good pci card or IRD that is up to date? I think I read coolsat went under but maybe a 2nd hand? Is dreambox still around? I'd prefer a pci card but something that blind scans should suffice

 

[danristheman]

On the pay tv satellites there is not really anything on their for free to watch. On the Ku FTA satellites their is plenty to watch PBS 125w, 97w ku, 87w ku, 103w ku. FTA is not a replacement for Pay Tv but it carries better shows and programs than what you find on Pay tv. Ke4est I thought he was asking about dish network satellite locations that is why I thought it would be in Dish Network section. Linkbox 9000 would be a good receiver for FTA satellites kind of running dry on receivers on this side of the world.

 

[kruftindustries]

An update, If anyone was curious I get 119w 110w and 97w on that slimline dish. I welded the aluminum bracket parallel with the arm on the dish so the outer LNB's seem like they're way higher than the 119 110 but it's working. It was a bit different than I expected finding the position where the 97w should go, the whole spread between the 119 lnb and the 97 lnb is only about 10 inches apart. Signal quality on the 119 is 56% and the 97 is 44%. I took a guess at the skew, locked 119w then 110 before finally tuning my fta receiver to a radio station and carefully holding the LNB in front of the reflector above the arm until I found where it should be and how it should be oriented. To figure out a rough guess of where the linear lnb would go after adjusting azimuth, I centered the dish on 97 and slowly adjusted the dish and held the lnb, moving to find a lock after each dish adjustment. The lnb skew is INSANELY SENSITIVE the further out you move it from center. In the middle you might skew the lnb 5-8 degrees and still get a lock but where it is now you have about 1.5 degrees of play so suffice it to say my arm was about to fall off when I finally got the 97w in position at the final azimuth.

 

[danristheman]

I have some pics to help you out in setting up an multi lnb setup kruft. Your doing good keep up the good work.

 

[kruftindustries]

Is that c band on a 1.2m? I'm really interested in 125w. If I could swing that and 97w at the same time on the t90 I might need to change my pants. I don't mind cutting a hole in the toroid reflector to make it happen either

 

[danristheman]

On a minibud you are only going to get the strong stuff on c band your milage may vary depending on your situation. Yes you can get c band on a 1.2 meter dish for 99w is the best one to get. I have picked up 13 different c band sats with my minibud. Going east to west 91, 95, 97, 99, 101, 103, 107, 111, 113, 116, 121, 123, 125. If you look into actuator to move your dish talk to Brian, Fat Air, Ke4est, anyone that has a BUD can help you out more than I can. I live in apartment so I am stuck where I am at for now. 2 separate dishes or a actuator on one dish would be your best bet.