Yet another enthusiastic newbie with wild ideas ;-)

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That looks pretty spiffy... though as I understand it, isn't it mostly just DirecTV that does circular polarization? Not that they don't have some fine FTA programming...
Music... NASA...
Uhm... music...
;)
 
According to his sig, he should have. (and obviously did)

I don't suppose some has a list of common "favorite" satellites with good FTA content I should plan on aiming for? Galaxy 10R at 110 degrees West is a given. I think somewhere on here Iceburg (obviously the resident guru ;) ) gave a good rundown of the ones he frequents, but I can't find it now. And would they all be reachable on my WineGard 31"/SG2100 setup- without climbing up on the roof and playing with nuts, bolts, and the signal meter?

Looks like I can partially answer my own question, after some reading up. I used the Satellite list at http://www.global-cm.net/MPEGlistKuBandUS.html and cross-referrenced it with the (hopefully) up-to-date channel listings at LyngSat. All I can say is... WOW. Why do people pay for TV? If I can just get half of the DVB clear digital stuff I read through, I'll have more channels than I'll know what to do with. Not that I won't try and get the rest... ;) I figure there's about 10-12 satellites I'll want to use (skipping a few of the more "usless" or obscure foreign ones). Of those, there's probably some that are hard to catch, or will have too weak a signal, I assume. I'm curious how many I'll be able to set up and regularly view on my single WineGard and the SG2100 (without manual adjustment). Anyone with the experience care to share their results?

Wait, I forgot; I'm the only one up... you people actually sleep. :rolleyes:
Pshaw... lol
 
G10 is at 123W, not 110W, 110W sounds like Dish and I think DirectTV. Good luck finding the right dish.. I just got started myself, and have already nailed up 121W for the wife and Disn Net International Packages Ala Carte, as well as G10 and SatMex5, I still have a small 18 inch dish pointing at 119W picking up radio off the DishNet Sat.

My setup:
Fortec Star Lifetime Ultra Rrecv
Fortec Star 90CM Dish
SM3D12 H-H motor
Fortec Star Universal LNBF (Still in Box)
Pansat Standard LNBF on Dish
DirectPC Dish/LNBF (Pointing at 121W, picked up for free from a friend)
DishNet Recv(Can't remember the model)
 
Rick
I was thinking of something last night with the DirecPC dish

If it has the DBS LNB (the pencil one) to the left of the KU band you could turn the dish upside down and get BOTH 121 & 119.

Right now KU is at 121 and DBS is at 123
but if you invert it it would be at 121 and DBS at 119 :)

But it's a thought if you want to eliminate a dish
 
... which brings up another question....

I may have access to a DirecPC dish (or two if the FTA gods like me). Would it make sense to use one in cunjunction with the WineGard, say, to try and have a permenant G10 feed? Or will having the SG2100 be good enough to aim about?

... now, if that's not a can-of-worms / preference question, I don't know what is :)
 
if you have one receiver, probably not.

If you have more than one, then it would work. I have one for G10 only (running 2 receivers) and a motorized one
 
I agree the 5' is wimpy BUT I have a 5' mesh that was given to me. I only tried it on analog. Search for my postings to see the results. I did get some channels with it. I want to try digital sometime.


Wayn23 said:
CharredPC said:
It sounds like if I really really want C-Band, I should go for the full 8-10' dish, not a wimpy 5'. I'm curious now, has anyone tried one of those 5-6' deals on C-band? I'd be interested to hear the results.

Don't bother with a small C-band dish it will be much easier for you if you use a 10' dish. I am sure if you look hard enough you can get one for free, I had two given to me and they even brought them to me, C-band used to have 10
times as many subscribers as it does now and not everybody uses them for the wild feeds so if you look around you should be able to find lots of unused dishes and I am sure many people just want them gone.

As for the Twinhan card, I use an older one the 1020 and it works great and you can find lots of software both free and pay that is better then the software the card ships with. I use TVedia for Standard definition programming and DVBDream for HD programming(free) TVedia works best with an X-card from Sigma Designs to output the picture to your TV and gives a great picture, it is not free but you can try it for free. Mytheater is a very good program also and it is about $40 but the demo will run an hour at a time
so you can get a good idea if you like it.
 
Funny little story

Ok, I offically feel like part of the niche crowd here; and niche we are, make no mistake. At least publicly.

I decided to hunt around town and see if I can get any FTA equipment locally. My first stop was a comminucations place down the road, bristling with various antennas. When I entered, an eager associate ran to me and offerred his help. His smile turned confused as I explained what I was looking for. "Uhm... we don't sell anything like that... Ku band, I assume that's something to do with computers..?" I thanked the fellow and left, feeling a bit like a just tried ordering some chinese food at McDonald's.

My next stop was to the local thrift stores. They often get donations, and I've seen many old VideoCypherII systems, signal splitters, etc littering their shelves amidst VCR's and LaserDisc players. First one only had a Dish Network dish, with no LBN or mount.... for $5. About as useless as using dollar bills as toilet paper, wouldn't you say? I gave up poking about there and went to another one a few miles away. There were some signal splitters/combiners (LO/HI band) and all-in-one jobbies (+ UHF/VHF) on the shelves, so I was sure I'd find something good in back, where they keep the larger stuff. They did have a dish... a DTV Dish 500. $7 or so. Another wasted trip...

On the way home, I saw an unused, neglected BUD in somone's yard. The wires were all rolled up; it certainly didn't look like they wanted it. I almost stopped, but remembered my wife's naggi- I mean, words... and just made a mental note so I could come back after we've moved. All bets are off then, you'd better believe ;)

Just before I got to the house, only a few blocks away, I saw 2 BUD's and various 14-3x" dishes all over a little shop on the corner! Swerving across traffic (ok, just waiting in the way like a fool, but 'swerving' sounds cooler) I parked in back and went in. Dish parts galore! Shelves of LNB's, connectors, filters, and- DTV advertisements. Right in front was a DirecPC dish; hrm, I could play with it until my WineGard arrives... after waiting a few minutes, a very elderly gentleman comes out of the back and asks if he can help me.

I'm now ordering Chinese at McDonald's while speaking Russian. This little old man had been doing TV/Satellite/Antenna sales and service for nigh on 20 years, and he had no idea what "Ku" referred to, or that there were free broadcasts avialable somewhere. I almost started speaking his language when we spoke of big C-Band dishes, but that wasn't what I was there for. I tried describing the dish I was ordering; blank looks. I explained what it was used for; the poor guy has no idea. I skipped all the explainations and directly asked for an old used DirecPC dish, like the one (pointing to it) right there. Ah! he perked up. And launched into an obviously prepared shpeel about how the satellite is made just preciscely so, just that high, and just that wide, and it has to be set up by a professional technician to point just right at the little bitty satellite waaaay up there! Dishes are made for specific purposes and he wouldn't have some strange special-use dish... and no, we don't sell used dishes, just new, as part of a package.

He ended with the confused look again, probably terrified that I would try re-explaining what I wanted, so I just thanked him for his time and left. I officially no longer felt like a newbie; I was an FTA geek, and this town didn't understand me anymore.
 
Thanks for the story : )

I know how that is. Here is a post I did back in Feb..
Back in February I was at the lake house and driving to the grocery store (which is about 20 miles away) I noticed a “moving sale…all must go” sign. A yard sale in February in Minnesota?? (It was 45 Saturday). I figured “what the hell” and swung by.

Much to my surprise (and happiness), the moving sale was a former Ham operators house (sadly, the Ham operator is gone), so there was some good stuff. The guy also had some FTA stuff.

Got me a Microyal 900 receiver, a 18” dish (no LNB), a KU LNB (Microyal single LNB), and a whole bunch of cables. He also had a C-band setup, but someone was there in the morning and took it and the “smaller satellite dishes” as the lady put (which must have been the 30” dishes

I saw a complete DirecTV system at a goodwill store last time I visited one, but there was no mast or LNB. Just the receiver and dish
 
Project dish? Hey, somone made an 18" DTV dish useful, c'mon... ;)

Ok, got something on a whim. Went back to that thrift store and found a funky-looking dish for $3. How could I go wrong? ;) The writing on it says: "Andrew T-2400F 2400-2500 Mhz." It's about 24" x 42". It's "slatted" (not solid). I thought of using a somewhat "tight" wire mesh to ensure the dish itself doesn't have too large of "gaps"... anyhow, I'm having trouble finding info on this dish. I plan on trying it out a bit, seeing if it's usefull for anything, and at worst trying to modify it somewhat so it can maybe be a permenant one-sat dish.

Any input, anyone? Yes, I know I'm nuts. You don't have to tell me that.

... and like all us FTA guys aren't? :D
 
Sure:
dish_project.jpg


Hope that works...
if not the picture's here:
http://www.dwarchive.net/dish_project.jpg
 
I want that dish, I have a valid use for it :)
BTW, it won't work for satellite, it's for microwave links :)

Edit, clarification on why it won't work for regular sat.
The reflector has huge gaps vertically which are wider than one wavelength at 2.4GHz and will let the signal pass clean through, it *may* work for a horizontally polarised signal but you'd lose so much signal it wouldn't be worth it.
 
As I said, I was planning on "wrapping" it in tight-weaved screening, or something similar to cut down on the gaps, while still keeping the precise curve. If this solved the 'gap' issue, you think the dish itself might work for satellite?

BTW, what would you use it for if you found it for $3? ;)
 
It's good for WiFi long hauls :). 2.4 Ghz is usefull for 802.11b/g. It probably has an N-connector on it too, right? My WAG is that it's an 18-24 dbi gain mesh antenna.

Inspired by your previous post, I went the the three big thrift stores near me and all I found was a bunch of Hughes / RCA D* recievers and the reflector portion of a Dish 500 dish. Needless to say, I came come empty handed.

I did find a send and recieve satellite modem set with DirecWay markings. They wanted $5 for it but I figured it was pretty much useless - especially w/o the power supply for dish for it. I would have been happy to pick up it's dish :).
 
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Interesting read on the history of DBS Satelites

Help! My signal quality never changes!

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