PBS, Finally, I Hope.

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fred555

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Sep 18, 2014
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I had I six footer I assembled inside the house this winter and set it up during a blizzard.
Been missing PBS World since it was re-encrypted on 101W C. Also have a Corotor II that came with an 8 foot KTI I got recently. And now that I'm up to three C2PLLs on my 10 footer, I decided to try for PBS on the 6 footer at 125W Ku.

You will also see in a minute the reason for this mount:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/npgm.351452/

So do I buy a 1.2m dish? Expensive, so I need to try for PBS with what I already have.

dish.jpg


So I removed the servo from the Corotor II. I have nothing to operate the servo with. I like just turning the knob to adjust skew instead of the whole unit, Nice smooth and easy. I will only need vertical from this point on to get the PBS Channels on 12180 V 30000 anyway. I know, a waste of a Corotor II for Ku only, vertical only, but its what I have.

I started by checking out 116.8 on a C2PLL. Now that I had my bearings I slapped on the Corotor and searched 116.8 for C and Ku band channels. In an earlier post about the Corotor II lucky find, Titanium basically said the LNBs on the unit may be too old to work properly.
The old C band LNB was no where near as good as the Titanium unit.

Now the reason for the portable mount. After I locked 116.8 I noticed I could go no further west as i would have been pointing into trees. No problem, cut some more brush and move the whole unit east.
You can see cut branches in the picture above.

So finally I worked my way over to 125W, sorry that tube TVs don't photograph well.
Yes I have an aiming Tube TV, its pretty small and not a big deal if it gets muddy etc...

signal.jpg

After I tweaked azimuth and elevation, I adjusted the skew dial and POW, steady, rock solid 72%!
I'm not sure how bad this old Ku LNB will drift, I have an SL1P on order from Wallyhts now that I know I have a workable location.

(KE4EST, how does the signal look? Comparable to your 1.2m?) This is the highest my MicroHD reads.
Some people get in the 80% range. Even on my 10 footer with a strong transponder, Low 70s.

Now you will see another reason that I need to be sure of location before I dig and make a dish permanent, and take the portable route first.

hole.jpg


See the little bit of clearing I had to work with? The feedhorn cover is a little crooked but can you see the threading of the needle? You can also see why actuators do me no good.
An actuator for a 3 maybe 4 degree sweep of the arc? NOT. Multiple dishes/lnbfs do the trick for me.

So I have this dish as single output vertical, and in a previous thread I have a converted DISH, single output pointing to the horizontal CCTV mux on 95W Ku.

My plan is to put PBS on a vertical port on one of my 4x8 powered Zinwells, and the CCTV DISH on a horizontal.

Now both single output LNBFs can be shared to all receivers throughout the house.

Sometimes I envy you guys that can just plant a dish anywhere. For me its not that easy.
But I do enjoy the woods.
 
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single output pointing to the horizontal CCTV mux on 95W Ku.

My plan is to put PBS on a vertical port on one of my 4x8 powered Zinwells, and the CCTV DISH on a horizontal.
Puuuurrrrfect. Don't ya love it when a plan comes together?
Yup, sure is threading a needle there - Have ya seen Mike's solution, a platform mounted BUD? global-cm.net right side of page
 
Nice setup there fred 555 nice work. I rather have pbs on 103w c band.

I did it mostly for PBS World. They show NOVA, Frontline, etc during the day and afternoon
when regular PBS has Ernie, Burt and Big Bird. My 8 footer may be for 99W and 103W soon however.
 
Puuuurrrrfect. Don't ya love it when a plan comes together?

I was beating my brains out over the past few months on how to do a dual output prime focus Ku lnb for this setup to work with my multiswitches.
I now have dual output Ku for my switches, horizontal and vertical, but on two separate dishes.

Sometimes you have to think way outside the box to make a plan come together.
 
I agree with you fred they repeat the programming on Saturday night so I just tune in there.

Hopefully I will be on 103W soon too.
I guess I am out of the the club since my mini bud is Ku now?
 
Your still in the club as long you don't go to iptv. 6 footer is still mini bud any better on feeds compared to a 4 footer?
 
Your still in the club as long you don't go to iptv. 6 footer is still mini bud any better on feeds compared to a 4 footer?

Don't worry I'm not going over to the IPTV dark side, so I will be in the club for a long time.
I don't have a four footer. There is plenty the 6 footer can't get. Cant get that HD
movie channel on 116.8W C.
 
Nice set-up Fred! You do like me, Do What Works. I am in the woods and have cut several trees, but I don't want to cut them all down....love my trees too.

It is hard to tell from that picture of that TV, but if you are at 72 that is pretty good. I think I am right around 80% on the 1.2, but that should do you real good! :)

I love it another dish to the farm! :)
 
Nice setup there fred 555 nice work. I rather have pbs on 103w c band.
Why?
The only time I go there is if it is a very heavy rainy day to keep the kids happy.
Would much rather have 125W for PBS stuff, way more channels and options, and it has to be a hard down pour to lose it on my 1.2.
I like the the fact also I have PBS E and W there. So if the kids say (I don't want to watch that one)...flip down one and ta da, a different PBS cartoon, even if it is one they watched 3 hours ago. :)
Plus we watch a lot of Create TV and World.
 
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I did it mostly for PBS World. They show NOVA, Frontline, etc during the day and afternoon
when regular PBS has Ernie, Burt and Big Bird. My 8 footer may be for 99W and 103W soon however.
How is reception on the other vertical transponders with your new setup?
 
How is reception on the other vertical transponders with your new setup?
I only scanned 12180 V 30000. I plan on wiring this dish and the CCTV H dish permanently this weekend. I will have more data then.
 
I only scanned 12180 V 30000. I plan on wiring this dish and the CCTV H dish permanently this weekend. I will have more data then.
It's a very neat setup. I'm looking forward to seeing your results.

In this household, the majority of the TV watched is from PBS on 125W. It is also the reason I got into FTA...
 
In this household, the majority of the TV watched is from PBS on 125W. It is also the reason I got into FTA...
Same here 90% of TV watched in this house is from 125.
 
I am also interested to see how a Ku 6 footer works in the rain.
Probably not so good, being Ku, the wavelength an all.

Also wondering how the old LNB on the Corotor will hold up.
I will also be testing this at some point:
sl1p_large.jpg.png
 
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