I ordered a conical scalar and when I get that I can start playing with my 1 meter primestar dish.
It's the oval retailer dish that radio shack stores used to have on their roofs.
I think jvvh has one.
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I ordered a conical scalar and when I get that I can start playing with my 1 meter primestar dish.
It's the oval retailer dish that radio shack stores used to have on their roofs.
I think jvvh has one.
Yep, not that great at C band and only use it for Ku now. 1.2 Meter is a little better. Really wish I had something up around 2 meter though--don't really have a spot in the back yard for one but would be nice.
There are probably only a handful of channels you could scan in with a 1.2m dish. I've had a 1.8m in the past on c band and it was more then adequate but 3m needed for those really tough tp.
I think channel master made a 2 meter for point of sale use in the old days.
There is a restaurant down the road that has one on the roof and I was hoping they would get rid of it when the place went belly up,but no luck.
Burger King had one on the roof aimed north and at the ground,so I know that wasn't being used.They re-did the roof and got rid of it.I missed out on that one.
Years ago somebody made a 65mm holder for the 3 arm primestar dish,but I lost that bookmark.
Staples has the dwd120t 1.2 meter but I was too late for walmart.
They dropped the price to $195 to get rid of them,sold out.
The 6 footer dwd180t is too pricey for me.
if u have the room look for an 8-10 fter that some1 wants to get rid of its a lot of fun.
Even the small dish was fun to play with on C band. Pretty hit and miss for which signals I could get. I seemed to have a magic touch for a while and got lots of stuff that now I can't seem to--can be a frustration. Part of it is wide beamwidth, part of it is the lower gain.
There is a big dish up on a tall pole down the street from me that seems to be unused and I keep thinking I should ask if they want it hauled away, but then I think "where will I put it?" Even thought about figuring out some way to remote control a dish that I setup in an open area I have access to and then beam the signal down to me in some way--but likely more work that it is worth given the other ways that I test.
There are DIY ways to build a BUD.
Searching the earth over the years I've seen some weird approaches to making dishes,usually from the old communist countries.
One method if you had a big south facing wall;it was chunks of reflector mounted on the wall that would add up to a big size dish.
To aim you would have to move the lnb around to different spots and up and down.
Radio electronics in the 80's had a series of issues for making a spherical dish.Or the oddball flat plywood fresnel dish.
If I were good at woodworking I would attempt that.
In today's world of North American c band, putting up a bud brings it all in. Things may change and probably will in the future but having the right size dish for c band is outstanding at the moment.Quote:
Originally Posted by jvvh5897
Yes, I know. But I'm an FTA only kind of guy, by-and-large. Just use TV as background noise while I do other things, so audio is often all I need (hence the DSS hack for FTA boxes is of interest--if audio is not encrypted I consider it true FTA).
I actually built a 4 foot by 8 foot dish with bent wood and window screening and tried it out--did OK even though the design I came up with had more than a few flaws. I can fit something that shape in the back yard where a full dish (with all its weight, size and wind load) is not really practical. 8 foot wide horizontal rectangle should still have the beamwidth of full 8 foot dish and about 3 dB (pretty sure 3 or was it 6 dB) more gain than 1.2 meter dish if built well.
Beamwidth in degrees for diameter D in meters = 4.25 / D so 8 foot (2.4 meter) is below 2 degrees and just what you need for satellite spacing. Gain goes by the log of the Diameter ratios squared as I recall.
Found this Thread over at Ricks site called- fresnel lens for satellite reception???
Old Radio Electronics magazines and came across this article, on page 52 of this issue from October 1985.
It talks of making a fresnel lens for satellite reception from plywood...
I enjoyed reading about it
Change hxxp to http
hxxps://ia601702.us.archive.org/1/items/radio_electronics_1985-10/Radio_Electronics_October_1985.pdf
I have the originals and was once having a conversation with a guy in spain that was playing with them.
The original article had errata and the spain guy had old pc programs to figure the cutting.
The dish has to be bigger than usual,for the 8ft C band as an example you would have to make a 10ft fresnel and so forth.
Code:https://www.satellites.co.uk/forums/threads/plywood-fresnel.111473/
the original scans and the old windows commandline program for figuring the cutting.
exe compliments of telefrancesco
I took the arms off the old primestar and found some aluminum pipe I had from an old screenhouse that is the right diameter for the bottom arm.
Once the side arms were off,I noticed the original ku lnb holder could be spun upside down,leaving room for some jury rigged end to mate with the 65mm holder.I will go with the new pipe and probably just flatten out the end once I get it the correct bend and length.
the original ku holder was mounted right at the end of the arm angled up.
To achieve the same thing the new bracket would have to be mounted like 1 inch under the arm to avoid hair ripping aiming episodes.
Or an arm with a different bend.
Try setting up the dish on a satellite with Ku LNB and arms as they were, then put in temporary new arms and work on them till you get the signal right on the satellite you were on--that way you know the LNB is at the same spot as the old. I did something like that to get the Ku band at max with C/Ku band LNB (but it might also be why I lost some of the signals I was getting on C band--the max signal on C band is not always the best for Ku from what I can tell though that might be due to where I have dish rather than intrinsic issue).
I have the pole marked for 103w ku.
I will make sure it is aimed with the old arm/lnb then proceed with the ku/C lnb on ku to see what is needed.
Would be nice to have a receiver with the signal beep function.I have to use my old openbox s10 with euro firmware on it to get the beep.Years ago I jury rigged the lnb on but the elevation was off by 4 degrees.
Yep, beep function or spectrum analyser is easiest if you don't bring TV signal out to the dish in some way. I might have gone with 101 degree and used old prov box, or 110 and the active locals TP--those prov sats are so strong that it makes things easy to peak.
The C band use of these little dishes can be strange--issues that might make getting Ku band hard (like off-axis use by a number of degrees elevation) might not be an issue on C band and might even be a good thing. For a while I was only trying for C band and the way I got peak was very odd at times--the dish was off to one side of the peak signal of the strongest TP because that reduced other satellites signal getting in on the TP I wanted, LNB was pointed very high on the dish and swung to one side of the dish (don't know why the TP I wanted was clearer there). The setup for strongest Ku band really screwed up C band signals as far as I can tell though spectrum analyser shows the C band signal are there and peaked.
they say the dual c/ku lnb's aren't really the best for ku.
I found extra aluminum screen-house pipes to play with and dug out my fathers old tubing bender.
I noticed if I can get a brass 1/2 inch fitting I might be able to use brass/copper pipe for the arm.
The copper fitting outside diameter is too small for a snug fit in the hole.
I have 4 aluminum pipes that size and some fatter,and some rectangular stock to play with.
Tons of fun.My sonicview 4000 has the beep function,I was playing with it last night on ku.
My experience in playing around with a 1 meter BUD is to use a "C" band LNB only, the combo "C""kU" LNB's fall short on the gain, and I also found out that they only work good on the strongest "C" band satellites, satbeams.com has a estimated signal strength for your location(if your logged in) on most "C" and "kU" band satellites.
I know lyngsat isn't the best in the world,but how accurate are the eirp's listed?
If you look at this photo, you can see the estimated "C" band signal for SES 1, the larger this number (dBW) the stronger the signal.
Attachment 26720
All this varies by location and satellite.
The ERP's are done first by calculation and estimation on paper, then checked at certain locations by actual field measurements using a spectrum analyzer and a standard 10 foot dish.(for "C" band)
So I would say that they are within 5% of what is posted, and all this can vary as it's all determined by what equipment your using, what size dish you have, what LNB is being used, how long the coax is from LNB to receiver and how accurate the dish is aligned.
I was eventually going to try for 43w from southern new england.
I have both dual C/Ku and just C band LNB, both get about the same results on C band. Once Ku band is peaked, the combo LNB did just fine on Ku too.
The small dish will do best with satellites directly to the south of you--the azmuth diff between sats to the south are actually greater than 2 degrees, so the big beamwidth of a small dish is not as big a factor. Course they tend to put the peak signal for Conus in the center of USA, so you will not have great signal in NE--that might be a bigger factor! You need all the signal you can get!
couldn't get the lnb to work at all.
I used my 80cm motorized dish as an experiment
I aimed at 83w ku with the ku only lnb to make sure the dish was aimed.
Bolted on the bsc621-2 and nothing.
I don't think it's a good choice for this approach.
I have 621 LNB works OK for me the best C Band LNB is the Titanium, not all the C Band LNB don't work well on OFFSET dish, try moving the LNB closer to the Dish, I have Channel Master 6' fiberglass OFFSET and the best quality signal is with LNB closer to Dish and the Conical Scalar ring also needs to move back and forth to get the best signal, skew is also another factor.
I will try again tomorrow with 91w
I will enter the tp info manually and try to aim that way instead of relying on ku
You mentioned using SonicView 4000 for the beep sound but remember if you are aiming dish to HD transponder the SonicView will not pickup that TP.Quote:
Originally Posted by zelig
kU on 83 West??? What channels did you find on 83 West as most are intermittent feeds, you sure you didn't hit 82 West by mistake, if so then there are no "C" band transponders on 82W.
I would try 97West as it has some very strong "kU' band TP's and some "C" band TP's, it would be a better choice to try it out.
I use 12156v 3978 for ku aiming,like you say the rest are wildfeeds.
I switched to openbox s10 with euro firmware to get the beep and hd capability.Quote:
Originally Posted by IPTVKid
can't get anything on 101w
The position of the scaler and LNB skew are very important but I find little effect of how close or far in-an-out the LNB is on C band. Try the scaler as far out on the front edge of the LNB as you can get it--just shy of not being able to tighten the screws to hold it on. It would not surprise me if the dish did not do well if you are in NE. I get Lesea on 99 degree very easily, but haven't even tried many other satellites--101,103, 107, 95 degrees at times have given me OK TP (I'm sort of in the middle of US), but as I said earlier, very hit and miss as to what I can get.
years ago I was able to hit a c band channel on 123w with this dish/lnb just jury rigging a mount over the old ku holder.
I don't even think that tp is there anymore.
That was with a regular scalar.
The dish elevation was off by 4 degrees vs ku.I think I had to go 4 degrees higher.
lyngsat eirp is like 46 for 123w for my neck of the woods.
Very interesting read. Would love to put that old prime star dish to work. Any pics of your prime star dishes be awesome to see
I think I have too many bushes in the way,no leaves but lots of branches that may not effect ku but C.
It was another day of finding nothing.
That is too bad! Leaves and branches are why I can't really go outside the range of satellites I posted I've tried. Even thought of selling where I live to re-locate to someplace more open (can you say obsessive?). My initial tries were pretty poor too. The beamwidth on the dish is so broad that you get something through a wide swing of the dish AZ or El if you get the LNB positioned half-way right. Really helps to see the signal on a spectrum analyser display to really let you know that there is something there even if receiver has trouble getting it.
even if it worked I would be limited to dvb-s tp's anyway.
Someday I may try a big homemade oddball dish like a fresnel.
They do sell microwave reflective paint,so theoretically somebody can make a fresnel with some rigid material that passes microwaves without any cutting.Just a good paint job of the rings.
You don't need any special paint, just use some aluminum colored Rust-Oleum professional paint, get the flat stuff, then paint over it with some flat white or flat gray paint.(do not use semigloss or gloss)
There is enough aluminum in the first one to reflect any microwave signal, the flat white or gray will keep the dish from frying the LNB when the Sun gets directly in front of the dish. (this happens twice a year)
I have refinished reflective coated fiberglass dishes this way, they work just like new.