Recent content by mikekohl

My experiences with dealing with thermal instabilities on LNBs and LNBFs go back several decades. I referred a friend to an oil company that was installing a 24 foot Orbitron antenna on an offshore drilling platform off Indonesia, and he provided valuable information. Without a weather cover...

There was a one time opportunity to apply for an FCC License that would have protected your dish from interference on C-band frequencies. This was seven years ago (2018), and does not look to ever be repeated. Any efforts at this late date that involve spending money on surveys, or application...

I can't believe that the guy cutting metal is not wearing gloves. Also agree on the painting setup--primitive does not even begin to describe it. We are lucky in our part of the world to have some safety regulations (when enforced) to protect workers.

If you are going to only occasionally have a reason to move the antenna, how about a 30 dollar solution? A common trailer jack with a hand crank. If you could track the satellite arc with this manually, you would be missing nothing but the convenience of getting to control it from indoors...

A Perforated antenna will hold its shape much better over time, and when compared to a mesh antenna of the same diameter, the perforated type normally outperforms mesh at the time of initial installation, and most certainly after a number of years. A perf is made of sheets of solid metal that...

Some suppliers to the cable and satellite industry do not always mention a Underwriter's Laboratory listing. I was just reporting my personal experience between Alaska and hot climates such as those in California and Nevada. Black plastic stands up much better than a lighter color such as...

It is a lot easier to change cable ties every time you need to get inside those buckets. Would suggest buying a bag with a few dozen or more black ties, 8 inch length. The 8 inch length because they have more gripping power than smaller ties, and the black color because light colors are much...

New information: The Internet Archive has made major progress on digitizing much of Bob's materials, that were stored in Denver since 2018; picking them up in July 2024. I completed an inventory on the collection in early 2019, and it took another six years to get to the next steps, which...

If you are having precipitation, Montana drops out quickly. Only solutions are to wait for better weather or use a larger antenna.

It was super strong before the storm and today's adjusting, so will probably have to fix this scientifically. It IS Spring, so weather isn't really an obstacle as long as it is not raining. Thanks for confirming. Mike

I've been recovering from the alignment issues caused by frequent high winds buffeting my 10-foot Winegard Pinnacle Perf. Got the whole arc working again from 55.5 to 139 West, but seeing strange reception situation where 103 West used to be. 93 97 99 101 and 105 West are all working right...

Ironic that the original licensees of broadcast stations got their frequency for free, in the interests of promoting no-charge TV for the public. In the spirit of that system, two digital transitions later, it would only be fair that the primary dash-1 channel on any frequency plus any other...

Not questioning your expertise...I just know from decades of experience that Ku band and DBS reception falls apart when you have a mix of precipitation, especially when temps hover within a few degrees of freezing. It is a lot easier to sweep snow and slush off the dish before it gets deeper or...

If your Satellite antenna is easily accessible, take a snowbrush out to it and gently remove the snow from the reflector. Wet snow or ice that forms after changing from freezing rain is probably the worst case reception situation (other than thunderstorms), and if your backup plans are not...

I have used a 10750 MHz local oscillator setting with a conventional Ku-band LNBF, and it can quite often receive the lower end of the DBS frequencies (12224 upwards) in a blind scan. Unless in the first part of your above pictured scan, you used 10750 on a regular Ku-band LNBF to scan the...