Recent content by mikekohl

Chances are that a piece of conduit might be at least as long as the entire feed support. Your replacement will be much stronger and less likely to crumble from corrosion if you can remove existing feed arm and try to duplicate the entire length, with similar bends. And you will need to use a...

Disconnect the Satellite input coax cable from the receiver, and then try turning the power on again. Sometimes over time things will happen to cables that causes them to short out (ground to center conductor). If this is the case, your receiver was trying to protect itself from that shorting...

Just out of curiousity, was that one of Bob Luly's umbrella antennas? Lots of site surveys done with those back in the early days of C-band (1980s). I also recall some people in places such as Palm Springs, CA trying to deal with crazy ridiculous restrictions on C-band dishes during that time...

Click on the PR 1200 link above, and you should see a picture showing two F-connectors on the back.

Do you have a closeup picture? One would be very helpful in attempting to match the part number you gave with further identification.

Technically both of these LNBFs were used on Shaw Direct Ku band systems. The Shaw Direct device was a customized product that was designed to get the unique frequencies used on Anik G1 at 107.3 West, while also picking up normal Ku-band frequencies from Anik F2 at 111.1 West. They are called...

We are back to square one. If someone wants to try things outside of a predicted coverage area, anything besides an site verification with a working system or spectrum analyzer is subject to disaster.

I was speaking of north to south distance in California. If you were looking at true north to south distance, I figure approximately 70 miles per degree of latitude. Sacramento = 38.6 north Denver = 39.7 north St George (next to AZ border) = 37.1 north Las Vegas = 36.2 north Flagstaff = 35.2...

Sacramento is about 500 miles from Las Vegas, and it's another 250+ miles further to Phoenix. I agree with everything else, but distances across California are huge.

Sorry, you are way too late for the party. It's all over for snowbird reception in the southern states. The Anik F2 satellite will be retired in just a few days, and Anik G1 satellite does not have a prayer of working that far south. At least we got a quarter century of signals, but the show...

Years of experience have told me that EIRP maps are a good tool to use within the predicted coverage area. No matter where you are, it is always a good idea to build in some margin (1 or 2 dB or more) to reduce the number of hours per year that precipitation knocks out reception. All of this...

George Antunes of Houston, TX passed away on November 21, 2023. His name may be less than familiar to most Satellite Guys members, but he was instrumental in working behind the scenes to "spread the gospel" of satellite reception during the 90s and the first half of the 2000 decade. George was...

Actually I have to give most of the credit to George Antunes in Houston, who provided constant updates of all kinds of interesting news. Gary and I may have read much of this, but George was our primary source.

A simple way to confirm that you are clearing 13 degrees elevation would require 3 things. 1. A piece of rigid pipe (3 or 4 feet long would be sufficient) 2. An angle finder / inclinometer to place horizontally on the pipe (digital angle finder would be most accurate) 3. A second...

I would use a flat black paint rather than gloss type if you must have the scalar ring black. Remember that the f/d ratio on a Pinnacle Perf is very close to 0.28, so confirm that you have the feed and scalar in that depth before fine tuning the focal point. Chaparral Gold Rings were used as an...