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This thread has been a long time in in the making, but thanks to a kick from zamar23 and today being completely unproductive with school starting for all the kids, I threw in the towel and took some pictures on the roof.
Long ago I started with a 3m Winegard perf and decided to put on a dual orthomode feed with Norsat 8115s and 2707s as LNBs. As it was my only FTA dish everything worked fine, or so I thought. I could lock just about everything on C and Ku with good SQ. But the family traffic got a little heavy on the 3m, so I started adding more dishes. I wasn't very happy, at least initially, to find that a Geosatpro 1.2m with an Invacom QPH-031 LNBF (quad Ku with linear and circular polarizations) pretty well equaled or bettered Ku on the 3m. Then I put up a 1.8m solid for C-band only, and while the 3m stomped it, the difference wasn't as much as I calculated that it should be.
This started me down the road of feed modifications. I wrote a thread some time ago about hacking up the scalar rings on a dual ortho to better match a deep dish like the Winegard. That got my C-band performance up on the 3m to where it made sense given the 1.8m performance. This demonstrated the dual ortho was initially under-illuminating the Winegard's f/D of 0.278. While I could fix C-band, there was not much I could do to get the Ku part of the feed to see more of the 3m.
A 2.3m mesh arrived next with a f/D of 0.35. I figured maybe this would be a better match for the dual ortho because of the higher f/D. But Ku performance was horrible. My conclusion was the surface was simply too inaccurate for Ku, although worked fine for C.
The final stop for the dual ortho was my homely 1.8m. I had since put single ortho (C-band only) feeds on the larger dishes and measured a slight improvement in performance. I was nearly ready to dump the dual ortho, but I had picked up an Invacom QTF-031 quatro universal Ku LNB with a prime focus ADF-120 feed and was trying to decide between matching the ADF-120 to an extra Geosatpro 1.2m that was collecting dust or a second 1.8m prime focus that would have to be acquired. The Geosatpro would have been an interesting experiment, as it has a fairly low f/D of 0.5. I wondered whether a carefully modified ADF-120 would be a better match than an offset feed designed for say f/Ds of 0.6 and above. Under-illumination again.
I modified the ADF-120 but never tried it on the 1.2m because the first test was the ADF-120 + QTF-031 combo on the 1.8m. I had a Ku clamp for this dish, but it was lousy and I wasted far too much time trying to get the assembly mounted and centered. Performance was good but mechanically awful.
Then the light clicked while looking at the soon-to-be-sledge-hammered dual ortho feed sitting next to the 1.8m. That was mechanically rock solid on the 1.8m, and perhaps I could pull off the Norsat Ku LNBs and substitute the Invacom QTF-031. This would save buying another 1.8m and I had a friend who was interested in my extra 1.2m. Because there isn't a lot of low band Ku universal available in Colorado, the Invacom would be a good operational match to the primarily C-band only use of the 1.8m.
So off with the Ku waveguide and Ku LNB mounts (see first picture). Note on the right side the tubing has three successive diameters; this slides into the back of my ADL RP3-2-2B feed and is held with set screws. The Chaparral Bullseye looks very similar and can likely be similarly modified.
Next came an otherwise useless flange leftover from a Superdish 121 feed assembly (next picture). I had liberated many 119 and 121 feeds from each other with a hacksaw to use the 121 LNBs and feeds on my toroid. That left me with a box of 119 feeds, flanges and LNBs to stare at. The flange is a C120, which is the same used by the Invacom, and the waveguide diameter was only a bit larger than the dual ortho port in the back. Off with its head! (see next picture).
The rest was easy. One can either mill or file the Superdish tube to fit the dual ortho feed. It works best with two steps as in the original Ku waveguide. I was on the roof so a file seemed the more appropriate weapon, and in a couple of minutes everything fit perfectly. Down came the lousy Ku feed holder on the 1.8m (and straight to the sledge-hammer) and up went the Frankenstein dual ortho C/Ku-universal assembly. It performed so well that I pardoned the dual ortho and it became my permanent choice for the 1.8m. The only headache was dragging a total of six coax lines back to the switch matrix from my farthest dish.
Another alternative would be to mount an Invacom QPF-031 LNB (not the far more common QPH-031) in a similar manner. Then you would have a triple ortho with linear C, linear Ku and circular Ku. I have resisted the urge to build a quad ortho so far, but am working on options for linear and circular C on the same dish.
Long ago I started with a 3m Winegard perf and decided to put on a dual orthomode feed with Norsat 8115s and 2707s as LNBs. As it was my only FTA dish everything worked fine, or so I thought. I could lock just about everything on C and Ku with good SQ. But the family traffic got a little heavy on the 3m, so I started adding more dishes. I wasn't very happy, at least initially, to find that a Geosatpro 1.2m with an Invacom QPH-031 LNBF (quad Ku with linear and circular polarizations) pretty well equaled or bettered Ku on the 3m. Then I put up a 1.8m solid for C-band only, and while the 3m stomped it, the difference wasn't as much as I calculated that it should be.
This started me down the road of feed modifications. I wrote a thread some time ago about hacking up the scalar rings on a dual ortho to better match a deep dish like the Winegard. That got my C-band performance up on the 3m to where it made sense given the 1.8m performance. This demonstrated the dual ortho was initially under-illuminating the Winegard's f/D of 0.278. While I could fix C-band, there was not much I could do to get the Ku part of the feed to see more of the 3m.
A 2.3m mesh arrived next with a f/D of 0.35. I figured maybe this would be a better match for the dual ortho because of the higher f/D. But Ku performance was horrible. My conclusion was the surface was simply too inaccurate for Ku, although worked fine for C.
The final stop for the dual ortho was my homely 1.8m. I had since put single ortho (C-band only) feeds on the larger dishes and measured a slight improvement in performance. I was nearly ready to dump the dual ortho, but I had picked up an Invacom QTF-031 quatro universal Ku LNB with a prime focus ADF-120 feed and was trying to decide between matching the ADF-120 to an extra Geosatpro 1.2m that was collecting dust or a second 1.8m prime focus that would have to be acquired. The Geosatpro would have been an interesting experiment, as it has a fairly low f/D of 0.5. I wondered whether a carefully modified ADF-120 would be a better match than an offset feed designed for say f/Ds of 0.6 and above. Under-illumination again.
I modified the ADF-120 but never tried it on the 1.2m because the first test was the ADF-120 + QTF-031 combo on the 1.8m. I had a Ku clamp for this dish, but it was lousy and I wasted far too much time trying to get the assembly mounted and centered. Performance was good but mechanically awful.
Then the light clicked while looking at the soon-to-be-sledge-hammered dual ortho feed sitting next to the 1.8m. That was mechanically rock solid on the 1.8m, and perhaps I could pull off the Norsat Ku LNBs and substitute the Invacom QTF-031. This would save buying another 1.8m and I had a friend who was interested in my extra 1.2m. Because there isn't a lot of low band Ku universal available in Colorado, the Invacom would be a good operational match to the primarily C-band only use of the 1.8m.
So off with the Ku waveguide and Ku LNB mounts (see first picture). Note on the right side the tubing has three successive diameters; this slides into the back of my ADL RP3-2-2B feed and is held with set screws. The Chaparral Bullseye looks very similar and can likely be similarly modified.
Next came an otherwise useless flange leftover from a Superdish 121 feed assembly (next picture). I had liberated many 119 and 121 feeds from each other with a hacksaw to use the 121 LNBs and feeds on my toroid. That left me with a box of 119 feeds, flanges and LNBs to stare at. The flange is a C120, which is the same used by the Invacom, and the waveguide diameter was only a bit larger than the dual ortho port in the back. Off with its head! (see next picture).
The rest was easy. One can either mill or file the Superdish tube to fit the dual ortho feed. It works best with two steps as in the original Ku waveguide. I was on the roof so a file seemed the more appropriate weapon, and in a couple of minutes everything fit perfectly. Down came the lousy Ku feed holder on the 1.8m (and straight to the sledge-hammer) and up went the Frankenstein dual ortho C/Ku-universal assembly. It performed so well that I pardoned the dual ortho and it became my permanent choice for the 1.8m. The only headache was dragging a total of six coax lines back to the switch matrix from my farthest dish.
Another alternative would be to mount an Invacom QPF-031 LNB (not the far more common QPH-031) in a similar manner. Then you would have a triple ortho with linear C, linear Ku and circular Ku. I have resisted the urge to build a quad ortho so far, but am working on options for linear and circular C on the same dish.
15 Replies
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4659 views
Yah, just trying to gather thoughts on this very topic. 
I have an interesting quality of attempting to understand a subject better than average, and then offering a totally different approach to a relevant (but not necessarily the same) task at hand.
The main reason to ask these questions instead of "nice dish" exclaims is, I feel you might be able to answer them (!), and setting up a good working C/Ku-band set does require understanding of these concepts to avoid pointlessly moving randomly picked up parts around to no avail, as often reported.
Going back to your "higher-end mod", can you offer a thought, why suggested as an alternative QPF-031 LNB appear to be "L" type packaged compare to "I" type QTF-031 LNB? Also, your LNBF assembly looks a bit heavy for that dish LNBF support struts set - is it? How big part of the dish surface it shadows?
I have an interesting quality of attempting to understand a subject better than average, and then offering a totally different approach to a relevant (but not necessarily the same) task at hand.The main reason to ask these questions instead of "nice dish" exclaims is, I feel you might be able to answer them (!), and setting up a good working C/Ku-band set does require understanding of these concepts to avoid pointlessly moving randomly picked up parts around to no avail, as often reported.
Going back to your "higher-end mod", can you offer a thought, why suggested as an alternative QPF-031 LNB appear to be "L" type packaged compare to "I" type QTF-031 LNB? Also, your LNBF assembly looks a bit heavy for that dish LNBF support struts set - is it? How big part of the dish surface it shadows?
P
Nothing fancy. I simply drilled some holes in a block of wood that fits over a C-band feedhorn mouth and can rotate. On the other side I drilled a hole for a cheapo laser pointer. Laser pointers don't shine precisely on-axis, so the hole was drilled to accommodate shimming. While rotating the block on a feed I shimmed the pointer so the spot stayed in the same place. That's called calibration
From 22,000 miles away, the rays from the bird are going to be pretty close to parallel. To calculate a gain or loss for two surface areas A & B and express it in dB, just calculate 10 * log10 (A/B). In this case B would be the area of the dish and A would be the area of the dish minus the area of the shadow.
Nothing fancy. I simply drilled some holes in a block of wood that fits over a C-band feedhorn mouth and can rotate. On the other side I drilled a hole for a cheapo laser pointer. Laser pointers don't shine precisely on-axis, so the hole was drilled to accommodate shimming. While rotating the block on a feed I shimmed the pointer so the spot stayed in the same place. That's called calibration
From 22,000 miles away, the rays from the bird are going to be pretty close to parallel. To calculate a gain or loss for two surface areas A & B and express it in dB, just calculate 10 * log10 (A/B). In this case B would be the area of the dish and A would be the area of the dish minus the area of the shadow.
TWiT Tech Podcast Network
Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/z72cjoZP83E
Direct YouTube Link - AI Can Self-Replicate: Unplugging the Threat! #shorts
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TWIT Live Feed
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/z72cjoZP83E
Direct YouTube Link - AI Can Self-Replicate: Unplugging the Threat! #shorts
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
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6 views
TWiT Tech Podcast Network
Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/w5TOILSc_U8
Direct YouTube Link - AI Model Poisoning: The Hidden Threat on Hugging Face #shorts
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TWIT Live Feed
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/w5TOILSc_U8
Direct YouTube Link - AI Model Poisoning: The Hidden Threat on Hugging Face #shorts
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
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5 views
Staff member
HERE TO HELP YOU!
Cutting Edge
Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!
So let the game continue!
The last song was added by Bobby who posted...
One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters
CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!
Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game
Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.
Example:
Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow
Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio
Another example:
Ride the Lightning -- Metallica
Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne
Get it?
An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
So let the game continue!
The last song was added by Bobby who posted...
One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters
CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!
Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game
Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.
Example:
Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow
Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio
Another example:
Ride the Lightning -- Metallica
Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne
Get it?
An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
68495 Replies
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2670627 views
Supporting Founder
Several Dish offers showed up today in my account. Once you choose one the rest are removed. Offers were Showtime, Starz, AMC and others.
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1564 views
Not for me, mines has no mention of how long aka the offer period and the Terms and conditions the $0.00 is good for. All I see is one can lose $5.00 if you decide to remove it before day 31 after you add it to the account.
Pub Member / Supporter
Cutting Edge
I created this thread on the original Edgecutter Cutting Edge Forums site. It's simply a place for those to review the latest software available for those using Windows 10 and Windows 11. To date it has received 112,559 views. I have been asked by staff to continue this thread here.
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To each there own but I've found that Windows can't do much more than Linux can. Can't have everything.
For niche use cases, yes I agree. Kali for ethical hacking and security testing, and running a Cacti server for network monitoring are the two things I have experience in. Plus thousands and thousands of other things, but for every day use I just can't see it. The owner of the GMRS repeater that I pay to access is changing the Tx DPL tones tomorrow, while Chirp is available on Linux, the software to program my MXT500 is not.To each there own but I've found that Windows can't do much more than Linux can. Can't have everything.
I run Fedora and Ubuntu in VMWare, honestly I don't care much for the UI of either of them and I don't feel like spending days/weeks to customize the UI to make it look Windows-like when I could just use Windows. The cartoonish dock at the bottom of the screen reminds me of Apple products.
As I said above, and, FWIW, I run Win11 Pro and Arch on separate 250 GB NVME drives, using F8 to select which I boot to, with a 1TB SSD for storage, accessible to both OSs and a third formatted Nvme I want to use to learn Kali. It was much faster to setup Arch than it was to strip down Windows. Windows still takes much longer to boot.
For some reason, the satelliteguys.us site is loading a lot slower than usual on both Chrome on my Asus laptop and Safari on my iPhone.
I'm also seeing longer appearances of the blue bar at the top and the "3 blue bars" loading symbol.
Is anyone else also having the same problem? Thanks in advance.
I'm also seeing longer appearances of the blue bar at the top and the "3 blue bars" loading symbol.
Is anyone else also having the same problem? Thanks in advance.
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17931 views
Remember folks... just like DNS... its always Foxbat.
WTF… …What the Foxbat!Remember folks... just like DNS... its always Foxbat.
S
wow what a kick in the balls!!! the wife blames you when things don't work now scott's blaming youWTF… …What the Foxbat!
I know. Here's what Scott has in store for me if I get out of line:wow what a kick in the balls!!! the wife blames you when things don't work now scott's blaming you
Help, I'm a little confjused on the activation process.
I purchased the Joey 4 from Solid Signal and shipping box has Call 866 726-4282 to Avtivate new Receiver. That number is Solid Signals number.
I googled and that search said call Dish to activate. I assume that is correct unless this requires a 2 step process.
Please let me know.
Thanks
I purchased the Joey 4 from Solid Signal and shipping box has Call 866 726-4282 to Avtivate new Receiver. That number is Solid Signals number.
I googled and that search said call Dish to activate. I assume that is correct unless this requires a 2 step process.
Please let me know.
Thanks
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201 views
All good called Dish and new Joey 4 is activated and working.
Old Joey 2 deactivated and no need to return.
Old Joey 2 deactivated and no need to return.
S
i bought mine straight from dish as it was only $ 100.00 bucks!!! had the protection plan they came out removed and deactivated the 4k joey and activated and installed the joey 4.All good called Dish and new Joey 4 is activated and working.
Old Joey 2 deactivated and no need to return.
Supporting Founder
Pub Member / Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
Apple has finally released their Apple TV 4K with built-in Siri and a microphone so it can respond to your queries even if you don't have the remote. It also increases in price, to $299. I had been planning on updating my current Apple TV 4K streamers, but that's $600 for the two of them, and that's a pass at this point.
At $299, it had better come with 256 GB of Storage, Gigabit (or better) Ethernet, the latest HDMI tech and standards, and one year of free Apple One. But it probably won't…
At $299, it had better come with 256 GB of Storage, Gigabit (or better) Ethernet, the latest HDMI tech and standards, and one year of free Apple One. But it probably won't…
Apple TV 4K
Apple TV 4K. New Siri AI and hands-free control. Stunning picture and immersive HomePod surround sound. Works with your Apple and smart home devices.
www.apple.com
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182 views
S
. apple's been making money off of software and not hardware for a while
they all do that anyways.. ever notice your cell phone slows down when you come up for an upgrade..
. apple's been making money off of software and not hardware for a while
The new curated multiview is now live.
While on many of the sports channels and non sports channels there is a multi view option button. It will pull up a side bar with many different multi view options.
While on many of the sports channels and non sports channels there is a multi view option button. It will pull up a side bar with many different multi view options.
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164 views
Supporting Founder
Really excited for this season with Kentucky having a new coach and some really exciting recruits. Probably won't last long, but here's hoping this season is great.
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1359 views
