My New Dish Farm

Holy Toledo, I'm so proud of myself. Today i successfully fished a line from the basement up to the second floor guest room. You would never know it was installed after the fact. I had bought a drill bit that is like 5 feet long (for that purpose) and a fishing pole that can be extended up to 15 feet.

By doing measurements from the wall to light switch plate in the first floor and wall to same measurement on the basement, i drilled up from the basement into the wall space. My gosh it was a perfect measurement. I pushed up the fishing pole up right into the light switch plate.

I then used the drill bit to drill up from the light switch plate up in the wall space up to the ceiling. Then from the second floor i pulled off the floor trim, and then drilled a 1 inch hole up against the wall into the floor. Now between the first floor ceiling and second floor floor, there is about a 10 inch space for the floor joyce. I then fed up the fishing pole up the light plate on the first floor up into the joyce space. I then went back upstairs and with a flash light, shined it into the floor hole and sure enough i saw the fishing line about 4 inches over. I have one of the tools that is like a telescope that has a grasp at the end. Its for picking up small objects that fall into small space. I stuck that into the floor, and snagged the fishing pole, and after a dozen or so attempts was able to pull the fishing pole the four inches to me and up out of the floor.

Two parts of the fishing pole met up in the light switch plate hole on the first floor... I screwed those two pieces together so it made one piece that is now from the basement up to the second floor. I then taped the RG6 quad shield onto the fishing pole on the 2nd floor and then went down to the basement, and pulled the fishing pole slowly down until the RG6 cable came out. (I yelped out with some joy) I then put the floor trim back on, and vacuumed up and you would never know that it wasn't always there.

I am done for the day. But, the next step will be to hook the wiring up to an STB and get Satellite TV into the 2nd floor guest room. My mother will be very happy with this. Yesterday, she inquired as to whether i have gotten tv up there yet, and I told her not yet. That is what kicked my but to tackle it today.

I'll send pictures once i have the entertainment system setup.:clapping
 
Well, I tricked out my system a bit more. One of my 5x4's had an empty lnbf 22khz tone on available because 30w 120cm dish only has one lnbf.

A year back, I purchased a 118 LNBF (11.7-12.2 circular) that i had on my 120cm USALS dish. On my 90cm for 121w / 125w , i added a 3rd LNBF to it today. So I am happy to report i am successfully grabbing 125w,121w, and 118.7w . I then plugged the dual lnbf ports to the unused slot on my 5x4 switch.

I also successfully got all four STB systems up and running.

KU Fixed System : 30w,87w,91w,97w,103w,118.7w,121w and 125w
  • Living Room (C and KU)
  • Kitchen/Dining Room (KU only)
  • Guest Bedroom (KU only)
  • Exersize Room (KU only)
I am about to work on rebuilding my secondary cband.

What kind of signal & quality levels do you get with the 90cm on 125 & 121 W ? Got any example TPs swith S&Q? I feel like im struggling to get enough signal into my feedhorn on my 90cm.
Thanks!
 
What kind of signal & quality levels do you get with the 90cm on 125 & 121 W ? Got any example TPs swith S&Q? I feel like im struggling to get enough signal into my feedhorn on my 90cm.
Thanks!

121w 10db
125w 12180v30000 11.9db - PBS East HD
125w 11918v2398 9.9db - Montana PBS

I have no issues with either birds unless there is weather, in which case its Montana PBS that gives me problems.
 
Just got the new receiver for the guest room. It's all setup now and complete. Looks fantastic i think!

DSC_0012.JPG
 
Wow, had 40-60 mph gusts. That was a true test. Everything but 30w remained rock solid through the storm. Kinda makes sense as the 30w dish is a 1.2meter and hangs way out there. I decided to brave the 20 degree weather and check it out. Turns out all it did was rotate on the poll a little but, i twisted it back and rock solid again. We had strong north winds and it made sense that it turned it the way it did. I used my sathero 200HD to peak it. Love this little jewel.

Next summer ill tighten that and/or weld it.

Here is a picture of the dish that rotated to the right and my meter. A normal 12.7 signal was at 4db.
 

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Instead of bolting or welding, place a few strips of non slip tread tape on the bracket then retighten. The grip tape will prevent slipping, but allow adjusting if you wish to aim at a new satellite.

Also, that is a pretty large dish hanging on a 1 5/8" J-post that is designed to be used with support legs. Would be better to weld a 2 1/2" thick wall vertical pipe on a flat plate.
 
Instead of bolting or welding, place a few strips of non slip tread tape on the bracket then retighten. The grip tape will prevent slipping, but allow adjusting if you wish to aim at a new satellite.

Also, that is a pretty large dish hanging on a 1 5/8" J-post that is designed to be used with support legs. Would be better to weld a 2 1/2" thick wall vertical pipe on a flat plate.

Yes, i agree. It is the only dish i have on that container that doesn't have a secondary support of some kind. What is non slip tread tape? Like a teflon tape?
 
and this thread tape will not have an issue with the EXTREME cold we get here. Being one side is adhesive, I've come to find very few adhesives work outside when we get into the single and negative degrees.
 
UPDATE:

Well, i am going to be making changes to my dish farm this summer. After 6 months, i have learned some things.

1) I am going to downgrade my 30w from 1.2m to 90cm.
2) I am going to upgrade 103w from 90cm to 1.2m (Have issues with NBC1-4 mux)
3) 118w lnb broke loose. (have to re-design holder for it)
4) I am going to land a free 6 foot solid plexiglass dish. I am thinking i can swap that for my 1.2m motorized KU so it can be my main KU dish, and then swap out my 90cm on 87w with the 1.2m , and then use the extra 90cm for 95w.

What went right. 3 lnbf's on 90cm for 118w,121w,125w is working awesome other than the (118lnb came loose from major wind storm) All signals came in strong and reliable all winter.


Does anyone have any experience with how well KU reception works on the Solid 6 foot plexiglass dishes? I would think it would perform better than the 1.2 meters?
 
There are a few things to consider. Fiberglass (Plexiglas) is not the reflective material, it's the mesh inside. So without knowing or seeing the quality of that it's a guess. Large prime-focus dishes provide a very narrow beam-width for KU. The larger the dish the more precise it needs to be aimed. So the flatter F/D ratio dishes work better for Ku. The better the quality of dish the better the results.
 
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  • I upgraded 103w to a 1.2m and also have a side lobe lnbf pointed at 97w.
  • I moved 87w dish to a better spot on the storage container and moved the sidelobe of 91w to 95w.
  • I re-attached 118w side lobe.
  • I am currently trying to catch 30w on my 90 cm, but thus far not getting it.
I'll take new pictures once i get 30w figured out.