Where to look next

[olliec420]

This is more of an opinion type question so i thought Id put it here in the shack.

I have been on 91 ku on my micro for about a year now. Hunting feeds and stuff, been real cool but im getting kinda bored.

I can see from like the high 70s to the mid 120s in my view. Maybe a few spots would be blocked by a tree but not many.

Where would you point your dish if you could only pick one bird for the next while and specify if the reason is feeds or like always ITC channels?

 

[danristheman]

Galaxy 19 for ku band ad for c band 99w you need to mention ku or c band.

Dan Rose

 

[FaT Air]

Been there, done that. No one satellite could curb my curiosity or appetite, as to 'what's up there' and only having fixed Ku dishes, to move about. I chose to motorize a Ku dish. In my case I chose to motorize by mounting the Ku on the BUD. [Ku performance on the BUD, alone, sucked] Been working Better than I thought it should. And it's only a 30 inch. Albeit, a Channel Master. For what it is, I couldn't be happier.
I still think I could 'get more' with a larger Ku, (.8 or a 1m) but that's something for the future. And, as is, I don't miss much. BTW: I still do use a few fixed dishes in concert with the motorized.

 

[Arion]

Why not spend less than $100 and motorize your dish?

 

[markbone100]

Why not spend less than $100 and motorize your dish?

?This. Once you have it lined out, you will be so much happier

 

[Larobpra]

Got to agree with the motor suggestion.

 

[Jim S.]

91 is by far the most interesting satellite for feeds if you consider variety as well as raw number. Of course, if there's something you're interested in that only uses another satellite, your opinion may differ. The Weather Channel uses 72 almost exclusively, for example, and historically there's been a lot of pro football on 72. Doesn't mean it'll always be there, or unencrypted, though.

As far as full-time channels, you're really limited on Ku. 97 has tons of ethnic channels, tons of religious channels, and a few international news channels in English (soon to be one fewer, unfortunately.) A few of the foreign channels carry American programs occasionally. Kuwait TV 2 comes to mind. But there are never any feeds on 97. (Maybe once a year.) 83 has RTV, Tuff TV, and PBJ, but the future of all that is in doubt. Lots of feeds, but mostly of the 6:00 reporter type. 101 has the Pentagon Channel, but not much else unless you speed Dutch. 99 has lots of reporter-type feeds, but they're usually weak signals, and nothing full-time unless you speak Russian. 103 has NBC primetime feeds, but only if you can stand single-channel audio since they broadcast each audio channel as a discrete stream and consumer receivers can only tune one at a time. If you can get down to 125, they have pretty much the whole suite of PBS programming, including feeds.

 

[chapelrun]

I also vote motor for KU - - but I close second would be - - find and setup a C-Band dish, I think this can be done relatively cheap if you can find a free or very inexpensive C-Band dish locally. Best of success!

 

[olliec420]

Well I guess that solves it. Jim S thanks for the detailed info.


I have a motor I bought years ago and never had time to get it setup. I have a lot of time on my hands right now but it's HOT. I guess I'll try to do it in the mornings when the sun is on the other side of the house because most of you are probably right, no one bird is going to as good as the motor. . Thanks for all the input.

 

[phlatwound]

Has anyone suggested putting up a motor yet?

Go for it OllieC!

 

[olliec420]

Has anyone suggested putting up a motor yet?

Go for it OllieC!

Be ready for many questions! Lol

 

[KE4EST]

Be ready for many questions! Lol

We love many questions...

 

[rv1pop]

However, motors can not be pinned to the mast to the dish and 80 MPH winds like we had last night...! I like fixed dishes. Now to mount 3 more! --- OH WOW!! See the storm coming in. Lightning and wind! Bye for now.

 

[Anole]

Be ready for many questions! Lol

Don't we have a FAQ for motors?
And I've seen a link posted to another off-site FAQ.
Track those down and do some serious (as opposed to "light") reading.
?You'll be fine.

 

[northgeorgia]

Yeah the extreme heat is almost as bad as freezing cold winters for installation! I used to subscribe to the "true south satellite" philosophy for Ku-band installation, but I no longer think that's necessary and in fact using USALS may, hopefully, speed your process just a tad ... go through all the steps in the FAQs (be sure both your pole and your motor are absolutely plumb and remember to set your skew on the lnbf back at 0), and enter your lat/long coordinates in the STB, but instead of trying to find your true south satellite, you can use channels already programmed in your receiver. I'm not sure which ones you have stored in there, but it's clear you have the ABCNewsOne feeds on 91W. I love the CCTV feed on 95W myself, since they are Horizontal channels and come in with lots of power. Anyway, after you think you have everything set up (yeah, that's a workout and easier said than done), turn on USALS and drive the dish to 91W. If those ABC feeds are coming in perfectly, you are quite the prodigy! But seriously, they probably won't be dead on and you most likely will not be pointing at the satellite anymore. So at this point, although you'll be feeling frustrated, the whole satellite dish is skewed properly and your latitude is also correctly set on a perfectly plumb motor and pole. Therefore your problem now is either the elevation of the dish on the motor mount (which shouldn't be all that off if you found the proper angle in the manuals), or more likely, the azimuth (east - west orientation). You might even take some photos from different angles of your setup to help you remember the approximate location of 91W. Just as with a fixed dish, you now get the joy of slowly turning and twisting the dish (but now the whole motor assembly if you're going east or west) to find and peak the signal. You shouldn't be too far off the arc after this, but if you are, then you'll still have to make some slight adjustments. Put that motor to work