Thread: C-Band VSAT System

I recently found what appears to be a C-Band VSAT dish with the BUC, OMT, LNB and reject filter available for me to pluck off a roof for free. Owner says it has been unused for 17 years, and was previously used by a Farmers Insurance agent/agency. It is a large not-quite-fully parabolic fibreglass dish with the original Feedhorn assembly et al. Would this be worth my time to obtain - meaning, could I replace the current LNA/B (not sure what it is) and use it for FTA? It has the standard WR229 waveguide orthomode ports on the feedhorn assembly.

The dish itself is rather small, I originally thought it was a simple Ku VSAT dish, but when I got onto the roof I saw it was MASSIVE, and has an insanely large scalar ring/conical ring (much like the ones used to fit a C-Band LNB on a 1m offset dish meant for Ku) that was incredible (read: beautiful). The LNA/B (?) on it was this massive 8"x8"x2" stepping stone sized thing. The BUC was easily 3x the size - all connectors were covered in goop and appear to be undamaged. I have a hunch this stuff still works, not that I'll be using it.

Thoughts? I can get pictures tomorrow if anybody would like to identify it.

With pictures, size, and other identifying marks, I'm sure some of our professionals will recognize it.
Is it useful for regular C-band? Yea, likely.
You can always remove the useless parts.
But . . . there may be some down side to it, so get those pictures posted. -

Many older VSAT systems have no value except for parts. The satellite operators won't even recommission them on their birds. You might discover a receiving application with the dish.

I look forward to the photos. It sounds like my Prodelin setups I removed. Does it look like this? The connectors on mine had black tar like sealer on them too. Apparently before the invention of compression fittings.

Images attached. A removal crew has been assembled and may actually be down tomorrow, if not the next few days. Ideas as to what this is?

Let's see now . . .
- it's an offset fed dish...
- it's not round
- reusing the feedhorn that matches the dish is about the only option
- it's not on a proper mount, so fixed-aimed is the only option unless you go to great lengths

edit: oh, and we have no reference as to size but the feedhorn, and that could easily be Ku-band . . .

I'm not feelin' the love.
'Course, we still don't know how big it is, but I'm guessing 150 lbs or more...
I'd certainly recycle the pole it's on, though! -

Originally Posted by Anole

Let's see now . . .
- it's an offset fed dish...
- it's not round
- reusing the feedhorn that matches the dish is about the only option
- it's not on a proper mount, so fixed-aimed is the only option unless you go to great lengths

edit: oh, and we have no reference as to size but the feedhorn, and that could easily be Ku-band . . .

I'm not feelin' the love.
'Course, we still don't know how big it is, but I'm guessing 150 lbs or more...
I'd certainly recycle the pole it's on, though! -

Is offset an issue/concern? What about being round? I'm guessing this causes signal loss of some sort? The custom feedhorn is concerning though, but I'm not worried about being fixed - I knew that from the beginning and that is what I'd be using it for.

To me it appears to be mounted upside down. Perhaps at a lower satellite orbital position than it's mount would allow? The setups on gas stations around here are similar but, with the feed mounted the other way.

Originally Posted by Corrado

To me it appears to be mounted upside down. Perhaps at a lower satellite orbital position than it's mount would allow? The setups on gas stations around here are similar but, with the feed mounted the other way.

I believe it's pointed that way because of roof work done in years past. Also, I know of about 4 Prodelin set-ups that I could get for free today, but they all lack the feedhorn/mounting tray making them rather useless to me. *cough* Wait until Edward Jones offices get converted to fibre and there will be a mass dumping of Prodelin and Hughes PES systems onto the market. *hint*