Will these work nowadays? Norsat gold 710-0285, Pico LNB-75. . .

[. Raine]

Hello to everyone and thanks in advance to anyone who replies to my questions. This is the 1st time I've posted here so I hope I'm posting in the correct spot, if not, sorry. I've just recently picked up a 9' Radio Shack C-band dish setup that is still in the boxes, never setup or used but the LNB isn't there. The feedhorn is, but no LNB. I have a used dual Chaparral feedhorn with two Norsat Gold 710-0285 LNB's on it and also a single Chaparral feedhorn with a Pico LNB-75 LNB on it. Are either of these types of LNB'S still usable nowadays, will they receive FTA on C-band and are they decent LNB's if still usable at all? Also, the motor to move the dish has wires coming out of it instead of an F connector, can this motor somehow be used with newer receivers or do I/Should I buy a different motor? Is there a modification to make this motor work? If so, I'd probably be comfortable doing it, I've worked most of my life repairing consumer electronics. If not, any suggestions on what motor I could use? I don't know a lot about C-band dishes and this is my 1st time setting up a C-band dish but I do have a Ku dish setup, {Winegard DS2076 dish, SG2100 Moteck motor, X2 Premuim HD receiver and cheapo Universal LNB, this dish works great and I love it except for the buggy receiver, which I am replacing soon. Also have a OTA antenna, Winegard HD8200U that receives about forty or so stations and Roku 3's for Netflix and Amazon Prime, figured C-band dish would be a great addition to all this and give me another toy to play with! I could post some pictures if need be.

Thanks

 

[phlatwound]

Welcome, A Raine.

I would guess that your LNBs will work fine, you might post the specs that are on their labels (or a picture) here just to make sure. I am using some LNBs that are over 20 years old and they work great. If your dual Chap feed is an ortho-type you will need a multiswith to control polarity...if your feeds are polarotor-type you will need something to operate the servo to control polarity.

Modern digital FTA receivers do not have provisions for motor control, most of us use a G-Box, V-Box or an old analog receiver to move the dish. Your motor should work just fine with one of these. Seems like some of the old Radio Shack systems may have had horizon-to-horizon mounts (motors)?

Yes, please post pics of all your stuff and you should get all kinds of ideas on how to get your system up and going.

 

[FaT Air]

to satelliteguys
For operating the servo on the polarotor take a look see here. Post by SatAV #3 Chaparral Polorotor Feedhorn

 

[. Raine]

Phlatwound and FaT Air, thanks very much for the welcomes and the answers. I have the original receiver still in the box, so I'll use that first and once everything's working good I'll buy a G-Box or V-Box. It is a horizon to horizon motor, phlatwound, and the Chap feed's not an ortho-type. I'll post some pictures of the dish and the used feeds I have soon. Most of the boxes for the dish are a mess, the biggest box with the dish panels disintegrated when I moved it but all the parts look brand new. The system was stored in a basement since the people bought it some time around 1990, the only thing they did was cement the base into the ground, which this weekend I am going to go pickup. Thanks again for your help, much appreciated!

 

[. Raine]

Pictures

Here's the pictures of the feed-horns and dish parts. Sorry, but the labels just wouldn't come out good with my camera, an ancient Olympus D-490. There's twelve of the dish panels but I only took a picture of one and I have to still pick up the mount. I also posted pictures of my Ku dish, which will eventually move off of the stump it's mounted on to a pole. The wire from the Radio Shack C-band setup is also not in the pictures, I have that hooked up to my Ku dish right now.

 

[mmewrench]

If you are able to get the proper focal distance with the chaparral ortho I would use that. It will make your life so much easier in the long run.

 

[. Raine]

Ok, so the dual one IS an ortho, I told phlatwound in an earlier post that it wasn't, sorry phlatwound, I don't really know much about c-band at all. mmewrench, on the ortho, one lnb is for vertical polarity and one for horizontal and use a switch, no polorotor, right? Are there other benefits to using the ortho other than that? Thanks.

 

[mmewrench]

That's basically it. You lose a bit of skew adjustment, but that rarely creates a problem. Im using a corotor and and once my skew is set, the only time I have to change it is when I have a dish full of snow (the skew and azimuth are both affected when the dish is weighed down). There is one Ku transponder that I know of that has an odd skew adjustment, but you wont be using the dish for Ku anyway. Most of the guys here who use lnbs will swear by the ortho feeds.

 

[. Raine]

Ok, thanks for the info, mmewrench. I'll try using that feed.

 

[. Raine]

Mounting pole

I finally got out to the place where the mounting pole was and picked it up. It was funny, they'd put up this mount back around 1990 and now there's tall trees grown up all around where it was. The people said the land was all clear back when they installed the pole for the dish but we had to go a ways into woods and brush to get it. Wish now that I'd thought of taking a couple of picture of it there, oh well. Here's a couple of pictures of the mount.

 

[. Raine]

Dish assembled

Dish is together, here's some pictures.

 

[primestar31]

Is that one of the stretched-chain "used as a gear" H to H drives? Looks cool, you should post some more pics of that drive, and all around it.... If you have drawings of that in the asembly manual, I would be grateful if you posted those also. Many photocopiers can print directly to a file now, and you could post it on SG's file area.

I wonder who made that set-up for Radio Shack, because they probably bought it from somebody and I've never seen one just like that one. Though I have seen quite a few RS dishes over the years...

 

[. Raine]

Primestar31, It is a H to H drive, it looks like a big half moon plastic gear in there, riding on a worm gear. I should have some time to take some more pictures this weekend and post them and I should be able to scan the drawings from the manual and post them too. I've no idea who made it for RS, didn't notice any stampings or anything on it when I was putting it together that would indicate the actual manufacturer. The people that I got it from I think said that they'd bought it in 1989 or 1990, the manuals have printing dates of 4/89 and the feedhorn sheet has a date of 11/88. It seems pretty well built, other than the one gear being plastic, it moves nice and smooth and on one side of the drive you can put a crank on it and move it manually, which was very helpful when I was putting it together. Hoping to be able to work with it some more this weekend, I set the declination angle wrong, set it to 6.4 and it should be 5.9, while I'm fixing that I'll take some more pictures.

 

[. Raine]

Is that one of the stretched-chain "used as a gear" H to H drives? Looks cool, you should post some more pics of that drive, and all around it.... If you have drawings of that in the asembly manual, I would be grateful if you posted those also. Many photocopiers can print directly to a file now, and you could post it on SG's file area.

I wonder who made that set-up for Radio Shack, because they probably bought it from somebody and I've never seen one just like that one. Though I have seen quite a few RS dishes over the years...

Primestar31,

Here's some more pictures of the drive and some pictures out of the manual. Will try to scan the pictures from the manual soon!

 

[primestar31]

That's really something, thanks! I think there's a potential weak-spot with that single turnbuckle to set elevation. But, I suppose after it's tweaked in completely, you can just tighten down the inclination bolts and they would help hold everything together. However if that was my dish, I'd put a second turnbuckle on the other side just to balance it out and give you some margin in case a big wind comes along and stresses the single turnbuckle somehow.

 

[KE4EST]

Thanks for sharing those pictures.

 

[. Raine]

That's really something, thanks! I think there's a potential weak-spot with that single turnbuckle to set elevation. But, I suppose after it's tweaked in completely, you can just tighten down the inclination bolts and they would help hold everything together. However if that was my dish, I'd put a second turnbuckle on the other side just to balance it out and give you some margin in case a big wind comes along and stresses the single turnbuckle somehow.

Good idea, I think I may do that. The top hole is already there, so all I'd have to do is weld a nut on the bottom and attach hardware. For something so simple to do I think it'd be worth doing, thanks!

 

[. Raine]

Thanks for sharing those pictures.

You're welcome!