Are c-band LNBs especially prone to drift?

[Shawn95GT]

I've been trying to research the California Amplifier LNB I have (140011) and it looks like the stability is flat out horrid on it. It's something like 3 Mhz. It isn't listed on the manufactures site but here's what i've dug up on it:

17° K "Mini-Mag" C-Band LNB w/3.0 MHz. L.O. Freq. Stability

It seems that that same part number was on 25k, 20k, and 17k LNBs. Who knows what the heck mine is,

The DMS ASC211 is rated as the following:

R.F. FREQUENCY RANGE 3.4 to 4.2 GHz
OUTPUT FREQUENCY 950 ~ 1750 MHz
DRO LO FREQUENCY 5.150 GHz
LO FREQUENCY STABILITY ± 1.0 MHz @ 25° C
± 2.5 MHz @ ( - 40° C~ + 60° C)
LO LEAKAGE - 40 dBm
CONVERSION GAIN 62 dB (min)
GAIN FLATNESS ± 0.5 dB / 36 MHz at receiving channel
IMAGE REJECTION 40 dB ( min )
P1dB GAIN COMPRESSION 0 dBm
OUTPUT V.S.W.R. 2.5:1 ( MAX )
OUTPUT IMPEDANCE 75 OHM
OUTPUT CONNECTOR TYPE F FEMALE
INPUT FLANGE CPR-229G WAVEGUIDE
DC SUPPLY +15~25 Volts at 150 mA
NOISE FIGURE 17° K ( MAX )
OPERATING TEMPERATURE -40° C ~ +60° C
DIMENSION 98.5 x 70.0 x 76.5 ( mm )
WEIGHT 200g

The ASC211 is dirt cheap (Under $10) - is it worth concidering it or should I save my $$ and pick up a Norsat or somehting? It looks like it's only marginally better at best.

I'd appreciate any input.

It's on a California Amplifier C/Ku feedhorn & polarotor that I plan on putting on top my 5' Winegard mesh dish.

 

[pro96]

I've been trying to research the California Amplifier LNB I have (140011) and it looks like the stability is flat out horrid on it. It's something like 3 Mhz. It isn't listed on the manufactures site but here's what i've dug up on it:

17° K "Mini-Mag" C-Band LNB w/3.0 MHz. L.O. Freq. Stability

It seems that that same part number was on 25k, 20k, and 17k LNBs. Who knows what the heck mine is,

The DMS ASC211 is rated as the following:

R.F. FREQUENCY RANGE 3.4 to 4.2 GHz
OUTPUT FREQUENCY 950 ~ 1750 MHz
DRO LO FREQUENCY 5.150 GHz
LO FREQUENCY STABILITY ± 1.0 MHz @ 25° C
± 2.5 MHz @ ( - 40° C~ + 60° C)
LO LEAKAGE - 40 dBm
CONVERSION GAIN 62 dB (min)
GAIN FLATNESS ± 0.5 dB / 36 MHz at receiving channel
IMAGE REJECTION 40 dB ( min )
P1dB GAIN COMPRESSION 0 dBm
OUTPUT V.S.W.R. 2.5:1 ( MAX )
OUTPUT IMPEDANCE 75 OHM
OUTPUT CONNECTOR TYPE F FEMALE
INPUT FLANGE CPR-229G WAVEGUIDE
DC SUPPLY +15~25 Volts at 150 mA
NOISE FIGURE 17° K ( MAX )
OPERATING TEMPERATURE -40° C ~ +60° C
DIMENSION 98.5 x 70.0 x 76.5 ( mm )
WEIGHT 200g

The ASC211 is dirt cheap (Under $10) - is it worth concidering it or should I save my $$ and pick up a Norsat or somehting? It looks like it's only marginally better at best.

I'd appreciate any input.

It's on a California Amplifier C/Ku feedhorn & polarotor that I plan on putting on top my 5' Winegard mesh dish.

Hey Shawn, I see that your going full force with your new 5ft Winegard dish.
Those LNBs are probably best for analog channels, but give it a try with the digital ones. I could be wrong though, been years since I used that C/ku feedhorn.

BTW: Nice picture of the assembled 5 footer, any updates on the mount and U-bolts?

 

[Shawn95GT]

Hey Shawn, I see that your going full force with your new 5ft Winegard dish.
Those LNBs are probably best for analog channels, but give it a try with the digital ones. I could be wrong though, been years since I used that C/ku feedhorn.

BTW: Nice picture of the assembled 5 footer, any updates on the mount and U-bolts?

yeah - I've got that all figured out.

2 1/2" u-bolts fit PERFECT on the mount.

I picked up a 10' 2" schedule 40 galvinized pipe and I'll probably dig a hole for it this weekend.

I'm asking about this LNB because I'm planning on ordering the actuator / vbox soon and I could get the ASC211 for dirt cheap at the same time. Unless there is really a big difference I'll probably just hold off on the LNB and try it like it is. I could always slip the ASC421 in there for now and use it for just c-band for the time being . If I can get C/Ku going on this dish I'll probably take down the motorized P*.

 

[pro96]

yeah - I've got that all figured out.

2 1/2" u-bolts fit PERFECT on the mount.

I picked up a 10' 2" schedule 40 galvinized pipe and I'll probably dig a hole for it this weekend.

I'm asking about this LNB because I'm planning on ordering the actuator / vbox soon and I could get the ASC211 for dirt cheap at the same time. Unless there is really a big difference I'll probably just hold off on the LNB and try it like it is. I could always slip the ASC421 in there for now and use it for just c-band for the time being . If I can get C/Ku going on this dish I'll probably take down the motorized P*.

I'd go ahead and try the C/Ku first once that dish is mounted. And if you don't like the signal strenght, then pop in the 421 and go from there.

I feel bad for that P* dish going down and all, and perhaps you can use it as a " Bird Bath " :shocked

 

[Wayn23]

I've been trying to research the California Amplifier LNB I have (140011) and it looks like the stability is flat out horrid on it. It's something like 3 Mhz. It isn't listed on the manufactures site but here's what i've dug up on it:

17° K "Mini-Mag" C-Band LNB w/3.0 MHz. L.O. Freq. Stability

It seems that that same part number was on 25k, 20k, and 17k LNBs. Who knows what the heck mine is,

The DMS ASC211 is rated as the following:

R.F. FREQUENCY RANGE 3.4 to 4.2 GHz
OUTPUT FREQUENCY 950 ~ 1750 MHz
DRO LO FREQUENCY 5.150 GHz
LO FREQUENCY STABILITY ± 1.0 MHz @ 25° C
± 2.5 MHz @ ( - 40° C~ + 60° C)
LO LEAKAGE - 40 dBm
CONVERSION GAIN 62 dB (min)
GAIN FLATNESS ± 0.5 dB / 36 MHz at receiving channel
IMAGE REJECTION 40 dB ( min )
P1dB GAIN COMPRESSION 0 dBm
OUTPUT V.S.W.R. 2.5:1 ( MAX )
OUTPUT IMPEDANCE 75 OHM
OUTPUT CONNECTOR TYPE F FEMALE
INPUT FLANGE CPR-229G WAVEGUIDE
DC SUPPLY +15~25 Volts at 150 mA
NOISE FIGURE 17° K ( MAX )
OPERATING TEMPERATURE -40° C ~ +60° C
DIMENSION 98.5 x 70.0 x 76.5 ( mm )
WEIGHT 200g

The ASC211 is dirt cheap (Under $10) - is it worth concidering it or should I save my $$ and pick up a Norsat or somehting? It looks like it's only marginally better at best.

I'd appreciate any input.

It's on a California Amplifier C/Ku feedhorn & polarotor that I plan on putting on top my 5' Winegard mesh dish.

The Mini mags are fine for analog but I had problems with mine when I got a
4DTV receiver, I tried a cheap Precision gold label 15 degree lnb and it worked fine at first but when it got hot it went out of spec and I had more problems with it then my old mini mag. I decided to get a Norsat 8115 and it
works perfect no matter what the weather is like and even though it has 5db
less gain then the precision LNB it gets the same quality numbers and also it
seems to be dead on on the L.O. frequency, it has a L.O. stability of +/- 100khz and i believe it was $108 from SEG. I will only by Norsats from now on
although i hear that the high end Cal Amps are also good.

 

[Lorenzo]

From my former experience as a SMATV headend technician (25 headends- 60+ C band dishes), we never really worried about drift from LNBs. The receivers have an AFC circuit that would keep the tuning centered. We didn't even change out LNBs when the C Band providers started to changeover to digital although everybody said we should. Most of our dishes were 10 footers single meam or 12 footers with multi beam feeds feeding rack mounted receivers from Blonder Tongue, SA, Jerrold, Uniden, Standard, and Drake. This was a California climate that varied from 30 dgrees to 100 degrees F. Most of our LNBs were Norsat and CalAmp models.

 

[Shawn95GT]

Well - I guess like anything else this will be a case of try it and see what happens .

Worst case I drop some coin on a Norsat.

Thanks for all the input.

Shawn