2 C-Band LNB's on one 6' dish :)

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Mr Tony

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Nov 17, 2003
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Now there are a few of us who have done more than one KU LNB on a dish...but I thought.......Can I get 2 C-Band satellites on the 6 footer at once?

So the other day I had some fun with it. Was aimed at 99 (G4/G16) and wanted to see what else I could get. I found I could get AMC1 somewhat easy but needed to cut the scaler rings to make it work right. So I cut part of the scaler rings off where the LNB might be able to go.

So today I tried to see what I could get. Could I do 95/99, 99/103 or other? Setting the dish at 95 first with the "normal" LNB spot and got that peaked. Then I did the old "wave your arm around until the signal meter moves" with the 2nd LNB :)

Sadly I couldnt get the nets on G4...I did get World Harvest pretty good....bummer

So then I moved it to 99 and tried 99/95. Got 99 locked in and locked on 95 Equity stuff...at a 45..but since the FEC is 7/8 I need a minimum of 61 or so...so that wont work. Now I tried 99/103. Got TLN locked in pretty good. Now the fun began. Either I would get TLN locked good but Pax (ION) was low or vise versa. Kinda wanted both stable.

enter some shims (little pieces of wood) and hose clamps and a LOT of patience. This involves skrewing the LNB and getting off the wood spool I stand on to make adjustments (because I was partially blocking the dish) :)

Well after alot of trial and error I put the wood in the right spot and hose clamped it down :) Needed a thinner piece of wood between the LNB facing the dish because the hoseclamps would move it a smidge to give bad results.

So now I have 99 the way I like it and 103 respectable

signals (based on a threshold of around 25 or so for C-Band)
NY Legislature-45
TLN-30 (jumps between 30-34 but its stable)
Religious channel-59
Pax (ION)-jumps between 32-47
DW TV (German)-45 but its a 7/8 FEC so it breaks up constantly

Now by no means I should expect great signals on the 2nd LNB but it seems to work. I know of people that can get it on 8 or 10 foot dishes but was amazed I could get 2 C-Band satellites on a 6 foot dish.
 

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interesting info there

I was happy I got 2 satellites....have no clue how to get 4 :)
 
Film At 11 !

I can just see it all now:

Headline news: "Demanding more C-band reception, Iceberg installs world's first T-240 dish!"

... film at 11 . . .
 
T-240 huh ;) sounds like an idea
the new Toroidal line of dishes T240, T360 & T480 for your reception needs
i think the t240 is going to be boarderline
 
I have actually seen this before, albeit on larger dishes. I recall seeing a mounting bracket (kind of like the one Mike Kohl sells for KU) on a large dish as a cable company. I wonder what effect it would have it you where to cut the scaler ring on the second lnb so that it would fit on the opposite side (away from the other scaler ring). If I recall there was 4 or 5 feeds on each dish, they may have been using top of line lnbs but that was so many years ago that even consumer products of today would probably be higher quality.
 
Multiple LNB's on C-Band Dish

Awhile back I posted about my friend and I getting a 16' dish. This dish was used by Time Warner and had a special multiple LNB feed support as shown.
 

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well now the fun begins :)

I was able to get AnikF1 on a third LNB. This was my old LNB that needs a polotor. But that broke...so put the LNB where I think it should be and got a smidge of signal. Clamped it down with hose clamp to keep from moving

Pulled out the long screwdriver and manually skewed the LNB.....and got on the 3 Vertical TP's 45 (ASN), 60 (French stuff), and 71 (Weather)...woo hoo!

all happy....until.....in doing this the stuff on AMC1 went kaput (10 max). So I remove the hose clamp and LNB and 103 is back to normal. Now to figure out why its doing that. I have a feeling it has to do with the weight of the LNB (that thing is heavy) but it would be cool to get 99/103/107.3 on one 6 foot dish :)
 
well now the fun begins :)

I was able to get AnikF1 on a third LNB. This was my old LNB that needs a polotor. But that broke...so put the LNB where I think it should be and got a smidge of signal. Clamped it down with hose clamp to keep from moving

Pulled out the long screwdriver and manually skewed the LNB.....and got on the 3 Vertical TP's 45 (ASN), 60 (French stuff), and 71 (Weather)...woo hoo!

all happy....until.....in doing this the stuff on AMC1 went kaput (10 max). So I remove the hose clamp and LNB and 103 is back to normal. Now to figure out why its doing that. I have a feeling it has to do with the weight of the LNB (that thing is heavy) but it would be cool to get 99/103/107.3 on one 6 foot dish :)

did you take any pictures of 3 lnbs this time. we'd like to see how you did it
 
The benefit of the torroidal subreflector is that it allows LNBs to be spaced further apart than they would be if they were placed at the direct, focal points. With prime focus C-band dishes, it is almost impossible to place LNBs close enough together to receive signals from adjject slots unles the dish is at least 12 feet in diameter. You might get away with it with at 10", but there will be a little co-channel spliiver and in some instances, digital splilover will degrade the quality of an adjacent transponder's analog signals.

Ku dishes are shallower, so that results in the focal points being a little further apart. Nevertheless, I'm surprised that this worked with a 6 foot reflector.
 
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