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A few folks have requested the details of my conversion of a dual-axis mounted 1.8m Prodelin offset reflector into a horizon-to-horizon mount. This was a bit of a rush job as I was concerned the city was about about to pass an ordinance to restrict satellite dishes. They eventually did, but not before I completed my 15 dish farm 
The reflector I rescued was originally a Ku-band transmit/receive dish with a massive electronics box that contained all the feed plumbing, the upconverter and downconverter and a skew adjustment motor. This part alone weighed around 30 pounds and was mounted on a tray attached to a very heavy duty feed arm. There was no need for side supports on this monster, because it is such overkill I could likely stand on the feed without affecting the alignment. The feed itself is a work of art and I was determined to salvage this part. Sadly this meant cutting the electronics package into pieces, because I needed some of the plumbing and shims to adapt my LNBs (see later). The resulting dish is shown in the first picture.
The next picture shows the rear side of the reflector. I found an old Ajax motor at a satellite junk yard and the guy was happy to completely empty my wallet for it - all $18 that was there. This was completely rusted and in terrible shape. Still I figured if I was able to get everything up, working or not, I would be grandfathered from the new ordinance. I could always change or fix the motor later. However before I installed the dish, I decided to assess the motor innards. I had to tear everything down to the smallest piece and the actual motor too. That part was encased in rust and had to be soaked in penetrating oil for about a day to get it apart. The gears and axles were almost as bad. Still I was able to recover all the original pieces except for the terminal block for the wires. No big deal.
Miraculously after spending another couple of days off and on, it all went back together and worked perfectly. Ajax motors usually came mounted to a ring adapter for the particular target dish. This was of no use and I simply cut it off, leaving only a steel plate at the top of the motor. The third image is a diagram that resembles the original dual-axis mount. Two actuators are used for azimuth and elevation, with the electronics block having its own motor for skew adjustment. I had thought about keeping these features, but I was dubious that the azimuth actuator would really provide a sufficient range of adjustment (I can see 30W to 180W). The dual-axis' fate was sealed by a pragmatic matter - I already had a 3.5" OD pole mounted to a wall exactly where I wanted the dish, and the dual-axis pole mount needed something much bigger. The city was busy and so was I.
Looking at the diagram again, there is a horizontal bar bolted to the top of the pole mount. I set aside the pole mount for the museum (picture 4) and cut off the rear portion of the horizontal bar (picture 5). I had to enlarge the mounting hole at the bottom of the Ajax polar axis to take a 1" grade 8 bolt that was used as the azimuth axis in the original mount (picture 6). I then cut some angle irons and welded them together to fashion the top polar axis mount, and serve as a declination adjustment (picture 7). We get tons of wind as the house is essentially at the top of a hill, with an unobstructed panorama of the Colorado front range. That inclined me to spend some decent dosh on a lot of grade 8 hardware, including 7/8" threaded rods for the declination adjustment. To date everything is absolutely solid and when the winds blow and shake all my other Ku dishes, the Prodelin stays locked on target without visible motion.
Pictures 8, 9 and 10 show the feeds and LNBs. I wanted to mount an Invacom universal LNB to the original feed. This required some simple adapter machining to couple the feed to the C120 flange on the Invacom. By doing this I was able to salvage a nifty skew scale marked to units of one degree to handle 103W if I ever needed it. But I got tired of climbing on the roof for that bird, so I sidecared a cheapo Ku LNB so I could skew it permanently by 26 degrees. This actually performs quite well, but comparing the front view of the scalars makes this normal FTA-sized LNB look like a toy. The CNRs I get are outrageous.
This has become one of my most treasured dishes, and I am so grateful to my neighbors who complained to the city about the mad scientist next door who was disgracing their cherished world. Without their impetus I probably would have never bothered to contemplate this project.
The reflector I rescued was originally a Ku-band transmit/receive dish with a massive electronics box that contained all the feed plumbing, the upconverter and downconverter and a skew adjustment motor. This part alone weighed around 30 pounds and was mounted on a tray attached to a very heavy duty feed arm. There was no need for side supports on this monster, because it is such overkill I could likely stand on the feed without affecting the alignment. The feed itself is a work of art and I was determined to salvage this part. Sadly this meant cutting the electronics package into pieces, because I needed some of the plumbing and shims to adapt my LNBs (see later). The resulting dish is shown in the first picture.
The next picture shows the rear side of the reflector. I found an old Ajax motor at a satellite junk yard and the guy was happy to completely empty my wallet for it - all $18 that was there. This was completely rusted and in terrible shape. Still I figured if I was able to get everything up, working or not, I would be grandfathered from the new ordinance. I could always change or fix the motor later. However before I installed the dish, I decided to assess the motor innards. I had to tear everything down to the smallest piece and the actual motor too. That part was encased in rust and had to be soaked in penetrating oil for about a day to get it apart. The gears and axles were almost as bad. Still I was able to recover all the original pieces except for the terminal block for the wires. No big deal.
Miraculously after spending another couple of days off and on, it all went back together and worked perfectly. Ajax motors usually came mounted to a ring adapter for the particular target dish. This was of no use and I simply cut it off, leaving only a steel plate at the top of the motor. The third image is a diagram that resembles the original dual-axis mount. Two actuators are used for azimuth and elevation, with the electronics block having its own motor for skew adjustment. I had thought about keeping these features, but I was dubious that the azimuth actuator would really provide a sufficient range of adjustment (I can see 30W to 180W). The dual-axis' fate was sealed by a pragmatic matter - I already had a 3.5" OD pole mounted to a wall exactly where I wanted the dish, and the dual-axis pole mount needed something much bigger. The city was busy and so was I.
Looking at the diagram again, there is a horizontal bar bolted to the top of the pole mount. I set aside the pole mount for the museum (picture 4) and cut off the rear portion of the horizontal bar (picture 5). I had to enlarge the mounting hole at the bottom of the Ajax polar axis to take a 1" grade 8 bolt that was used as the azimuth axis in the original mount (picture 6). I then cut some angle irons and welded them together to fashion the top polar axis mount, and serve as a declination adjustment (picture 7). We get tons of wind as the house is essentially at the top of a hill, with an unobstructed panorama of the Colorado front range. That inclined me to spend some decent dosh on a lot of grade 8 hardware, including 7/8" threaded rods for the declination adjustment. To date everything is absolutely solid and when the winds blow and shake all my other Ku dishes, the Prodelin stays locked on target without visible motion.
Pictures 8, 9 and 10 show the feeds and LNBs. I wanted to mount an Invacom universal LNB to the original feed. This required some simple adapter machining to couple the feed to the C120 flange on the Invacom. By doing this I was able to salvage a nifty skew scale marked to units of one degree to handle 103W if I ever needed it. But I got tired of climbing on the roof for that bird, so I sidecared a cheapo Ku LNB so I could skew it permanently by 26 degrees. This actually performs quite well, but comparing the front view of the scalars makes this normal FTA-sized LNB look like a toy. The CNRs I get are outrageous.
This has become one of my most treasured dishes, and I am so grateful to my neighbors who complained to the city about the mad scientist next door who was disgracing their cherished world. Without their impetus I probably would have never bothered to contemplate this project.
7 Replies
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3900 views
nice job
My guess is that yours is the older model (and if anything, more desirable).
Any more, you keep in another pocket, or the car! -
Any more words of wisdom or pix of the pieces?
Can't be much.
Or would it be obvious if we had one in our hands?
Well, regardless, it's a dish to be proud of! - :up
Congratulations.
I've seen both the tank-like version, and the light-weight version.
My guess is that yours is the older model (and if anything, more desirable).
Recycling the original feed is probably overkill for Ku reception, but no one can deny it's the way to go, if possible! - :up
note: good bargaining tactic - just a few small bills in the wallet which you show the seller.
Any more, you keep in another pocket, or the car! -
Amazing!
Any more words of wisdom or pix of the pieces?Yea, you might want to explain how your adapter compensates for the offset up-look of the dish, by tilting it downward.
Good thing! I wonder what the beam-width is on Ku with that beauty!? -
Can't be much.
Maybe more info on how you went about that?
Or would it be obvious if we had one in our hands?
Well, regardless, it's a dish to be proud of! - :up
Congratulations.
P
Prodelin still delivers feeds much like this one for Ku reception on their current 1.8m models. Unlike most C and Ku FTA feeds, this one appears to take advantage of optimizing a feed to a particular dish design. In a quick comparison to a smaller but well performing feed, this one provided better CNRs. I didn't write anything down because I was simply choosing which options worked the best.
Sorry, I have to borrow my wife's camera to take pictures and she's always out when I need it. I was pretty disappointed when I first started working with this Ajax motor because it was in much worse shape than I thought. There were several to choose from at the junkyard, and this one appeared to be in the best condition. But everything was rusted together and nothing would move.
Most of the progress was made with a combination of patience (in soaking the parts) and brute force (after the soaking had done what it could). I have a nice assortment of 2-3' pipe and Crescent wrenches, but it also took a sledgehammer to liberate the polar axis from its casing and sleeve. Thank goodness Ajax motors were build for nuclear warfare, as none of this abuse caused any detectable damage.
The motor was probably the scariest mess. Getting the long bolts out that held it together was fairly straightforward, but inside it looked like a solid cylinder of rust. But I kept chipping away at the parts I could reach and eventually was able to tap out the armature. That was just the start of the real work ahead, but at least I could see and reach everything. In the end the insides looked nearly pristine.
I was reluctant to disassemble the gearbox that mounts the worm gear and half-moon gear through which passes the polar axis. But I couldn't get any rotation leaving it in place as the worm gear axle was badly corroded. The assembly was aligned by shims at the factory, and as expected they largely turned to powder as I took things apart. I think I did a decent job of re-shimming this after getting the parts working again. However the half-moon gear is not perfectly in round and I had to compromise a bit between a minimum of backlash and the gears being a bit tight on the western side of my arc. It's possible I missed something here.
The HH motor's elevation adjustment is done the same way as it would for a prime-focus reflector, because its rotation axis has to be parallel to the earth's. A DiSEqC motor for an offset dish does the same thing, but its shaft is bent at the end to lower the offset dish's elevation to a practical point. I accomplished the same thing by having a very long declination adjustment coupled to the angle irons. I wanted to keep the threaded rod lengths reasonable because they experience a lot of stress when the dish is lowered to point near the horizon.
I recall the beamwidth is about 0.9 degrees at Ku frequencies. That's a very handy number, although it does put a premium on alignment.
This wasn't entirely obvious when I started. The feed mount is not a C120, which is what the Invacom wants. I looked it up at the time, and found some adapter plates that would interface the two together. However this would have to be special ordered from Europe and might have cost more than the entire rest of the project.
I didn't like that anyway because I wanted to be able to easily adjust the skew by hand and the existing feed could essentially do that with its electronics package. In the end I cut out the front end of that box and redrilled the adaptor plate that was originally inside. That meant all the mechanics pretty much stayed the same, although piecing everything together is only a little simpler than solving a Rubik's Cube. There is enough friction in the skew adjustment that the LNB and feed don't move on their own, but I can adjust it quickly by hand to within a degree using the original skew scale.
Thanks for everyone's encouragement!
Prodelin still delivers feeds much like this one for Ku reception on their current 1.8m models. Unlike most C and Ku FTA feeds, this one appears to take advantage of optimizing a feed to a particular dish design. In a quick comparison to a smaller but well performing feed, this one provided better CNRs. I didn't write anything down because I was simply choosing which options worked the best.
Amazing!
Sorry, I have to borrow my wife's camera to take pictures and she's always out when I need it. I was pretty disappointed when I first started working with this Ajax motor because it was in much worse shape than I thought. There were several to choose from at the junkyard, and this one appeared to be in the best condition. But everything was rusted together and nothing would move.
Most of the progress was made with a combination of patience (in soaking the parts) and brute force (after the soaking had done what it could). I have a nice assortment of 2-3' pipe and Crescent wrenches, but it also took a sledgehammer to liberate the polar axis from its casing and sleeve. Thank goodness Ajax motors were build for nuclear warfare, as none of this abuse caused any detectable damage.
The motor was probably the scariest mess. Getting the long bolts out that held it together was fairly straightforward, but inside it looked like a solid cylinder of rust. But I kept chipping away at the parts I could reach and eventually was able to tap out the armature. That was just the start of the real work ahead, but at least I could see and reach everything. In the end the insides looked nearly pristine.
I was reluctant to disassemble the gearbox that mounts the worm gear and half-moon gear through which passes the polar axis. But I couldn't get any rotation leaving it in place as the worm gear axle was badly corroded. The assembly was aligned by shims at the factory, and as expected they largely turned to powder as I took things apart. I think I did a decent job of re-shimming this after getting the parts working again. However the half-moon gear is not perfectly in round and I had to compromise a bit between a minimum of backlash and the gears being a bit tight on the western side of my arc. It's possible I missed something here.
The HH motor's elevation adjustment is done the same way as it would for a prime-focus reflector, because its rotation axis has to be parallel to the earth's. A DiSEqC motor for an offset dish does the same thing, but its shaft is bent at the end to lower the offset dish's elevation to a practical point. I accomplished the same thing by having a very long declination adjustment coupled to the angle irons. I wanted to keep the threaded rod lengths reasonable because they experience a lot of stress when the dish is lowered to point near the horizon.
Good thing! I wonder what the beam-width is on Ku with that beauty!? -
I recall the beamwidth is about 0.9 degrees at Ku frequencies. That's a very handy number, although it does put a premium on alignment.
Maybe more info on how you went about that?
Or would it be obvious if we had one in our hands?
This wasn't entirely obvious when I started. The feed mount is not a C120, which is what the Invacom wants. I looked it up at the time, and found some adapter plates that would interface the two together. However this would have to be special ordered from Europe and might have cost more than the entire rest of the project.
I didn't like that anyway because I wanted to be able to easily adjust the skew by hand and the existing feed could essentially do that with its electronics package. In the end I cut out the front end of that box and redrilled the adaptor plate that was originally inside. That meant all the mechanics pretty much stayed the same, although piecing everything together is only a little simpler than solving a Rubik's Cube. There is enough friction in the skew adjustment that the LNB and feed don't move on their own, but I can adjust it quickly by hand to within a degree using the original skew scale.
Thanks for everyone's encouragement!
Pub Member / Supporter
Hello folks, well my luck ran out last week with a nasty thunderstorm and after 39 years here, finally took a hit. Now, the FTA receivers I had for some years worked great until now. Recently picked up a fairly cheap receiver, online, KOQIT and seems to be good, but for the life of me, I cannot get the HDMI output to work with 3 of my Samsung monitors. I can hook it up to my Samsung TV and its HDMI input and it works fine. The 2 receivers I lost also worked fine with them, so am I going crazy? anyone have come across this or have any suggestions? And, since this is a somewhat cheap unit but works, what is everyone out there using for receivers these days? without breaking the bank? I enjoy watching FTA TV, so I will invest more if needed, what is a really good, detailed unit these days. I'm so use to watching a few of them HD channels. Right now I'm down to composite hookups, yuck! Any help or info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Frank 
45 Replies
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1096 views
Take the cover off, show me pics of the board of the bad one and also the bottom of the board. I'm an old hardware electronics tech plus a satellite dealer; I fixed a lot of FTA and regular receivers. I may be able to fix it for you. And yes, they got hit by lightning; it's best to email me the pics at diamondsatellite@snet.net or call me at 203-232-8888. I give you a 50-50 chance of fixing it; I do have spare parts. my phone is a fliptop phoneHello folks, well my luck ran out last week with a nasty thunderstorm and after 39 years here, finally took a hit. Now, the FTA receivers I had for some years worked great until now. Recently picked up a fairly cheap receiver, online, KOQIT and seems to be good, but for the life of me, I cannot get the HDMI output to work with 3 of my Samsung monitors. I can hook it up to my Samsung TV and its HDMI input and it works fine. The 2 receivers I lost also worked fine with them, so am I going crazy? anyone have come across this or have any suggestions? And, since this is a somewhat cheap unit but works, what is everyone out there using for receivers these days? without breaking the bank? I enjoy watching FTA TV, so I will invest more if needed, what is a really good, detailed unit these days. I'm so use to watching a few of them HD channels. Right now I'm down to composite hookups, yuck! Any help or info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Frank
Gary
More room for the return of the Plague & Pestilence?
S
a good surge protector will help to.Hello folks, well my luck ran out last week with a nasty thunderstorm and after 39 years here, finally took a hit. Now, the FTA receivers I had for some years worked great until now. Recently picked up a fairly cheap receiver, online, KOQIT and seems to be good, but for the life of me, I cannot get the HDMI output to work with 3 of my Samsung monitors. I can hook it up to my Samsung TV and its HDMI input and it works fine. The 2 receivers I lost also worked fine with them, so am I going crazy? anyone have come across this or have any suggestions? And, since this is a somewhat cheap unit but works, what is everyone out there using for receivers these days? without breaking the bank? I enjoy watching FTA TV, so I will invest more if needed, what is a really good, detailed unit these days. I'm so use to watching a few of them HD channels. Right now I'm down to composite hookups, yuck! Any help or info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Frank
Pub Member / Supporter
Now that I'm retired, obviously I have different health care insurance. I take 2 prescriptions. With my old insurance I didn't have to pay for either of them, now I do. It's not a huge amount but it led me to dig a little into the cost of prescription medications. I have been using Walgreens for the longest time. But what I found was that Walgreens price is 4.8 times more for one of my prescriptions and the other is 2.3 percent more compared to the lowest price pharmacy. If you pay for prescription medications you might want to have a look at trumprx and see if you can get a lower price.
11 Replies
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64 views
That's ok. I probably take enough for the two of us.
God knows what Bobby takes. Maybe so much they count as a meal?
God knows what Bobby takes. Maybe so much they count as a meal?
Actually I take just 2 prescriptions, Atorvastatin and Lisinopril. They cost me $6 each for 100 pills. Next year that will be nothing.That's ok. I probably take enough for the two of us.
God knows what Bobby takes. Maybe so much they count as a meal?
Supporting Founder
Lifetime Supporter
I was reading this article
thehill.com
That said this-
Last summer, for the first time, streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime claimed the largest share of the television viewing audience, surpassing both cable and broadcast TV. Streaming captured 34.8 percent of July viewers, according to Nielsen data, compared to 34.4 percent for cable and 21.6 percent for broadcast.
And then, sometime in the second half of 2022, cord-cutters became the majority. The share of cable and satellite television subscribers dipped to 48 percent, according to a report from Samba TV, a television technology company.
Now I do not consider those with YTTV and the likes, Cord Cutters, but they still do not have Traditional Cable/Satellite delivered Live TV, so I decided to do the math.
There are, now, 129 Million Households in the United States.
In 2015, there were 100 Million Cable/Sat Subscribers , no streaming Live TV Service.
Today, there are 66 Million Live TV subscribers, including Cable, Satellite and Streaming.
Roughly, Streaming Live TV has 14 Million subs including all of them.
So that means, Cable/Satellite now has, roughly, 51 Million Households
So in just 8 years, lost 49% of their subscribers and by the end of this year, expected sub count to be, roughly, 45 million households.
That means a total loss of 55% since 2015 at the end of 2023.
But out of 129 Million households, 45 million will mean only 35% will get Cable/Satellite Delivered Live TV by the end of 2023.
Imagine what 2024 will be like.
Cable TV ‘cord-cutters’ became the majority in 2022
The steady decline of cable and broadcast television, and the rise of streaming services, reached a sort of inflection point over the past year. Last summer, for the first time, streaming ser…
thehill.com
That said this-
Last summer, for the first time, streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime claimed the largest share of the television viewing audience, surpassing both cable and broadcast TV. Streaming captured 34.8 percent of July viewers, according to Nielsen data, compared to 34.4 percent for cable and 21.6 percent for broadcast.
And then, sometime in the second half of 2022, cord-cutters became the majority. The share of cable and satellite television subscribers dipped to 48 percent, according to a report from Samba TV, a television technology company.
Now I do not consider those with YTTV and the likes, Cord Cutters, but they still do not have Traditional Cable/Satellite delivered Live TV, so I decided to do the math.
There are, now, 129 Million Households in the United States.
In 2015, there were 100 Million Cable/Sat Subscribers , no streaming Live TV Service.
Today, there are 66 Million Live TV subscribers, including Cable, Satellite and Streaming.
Roughly, Streaming Live TV has 14 Million subs including all of them.
So that means, Cable/Satellite now has, roughly, 51 Million Households
So in just 8 years, lost 49% of their subscribers and by the end of this year, expected sub count to be, roughly, 45 million households.
That means a total loss of 55% since 2015 at the end of 2023.
But out of 129 Million households, 45 million will mean only 35% will get Cable/Satellite Delivered Live TV by the end of 2023.
Imagine what 2024 will be like.
881 Replies
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71406 views
Sony is discontinuing it's last 4K disc player, Panasonic has been rumored to be doing the same, the end of physical media is unfortunately, about to happen.
cordcuttersnews.com
Bad News For Blu-ray Fans: Sony Has Stopped Making a Popular Player | Cord Cutters News
Sony has discontinued its final standalone UHD Blu-ray player, the UBP-X700/K, ending shipments of the device with no successor model announced. The move, first spotted by Japanese website Kunkoku.jp and confirmed through the status of the product on Sony’s own website, marks the company’s...
cordcuttersnews.com
I am so done with Sony on so many levels. This is just one small piece of it.Sony is discontinuing it's last 4K disc player, Panasonic has been rumored to be doing the same, the end of physical media is unfortunately, about to happen.
Bad News For Blu-ray Fans: Sony Has Stopped Making a Popular Player | Cord Cutters News
Sony has discontinued its final standalone UHD Blu-ray player, the UBP-X700/K, ending shipments of the device with no successor model announced. The move, first spotted by Japanese website Kunkoku.jp and confirmed through the status of the product on Sony’s own website, marks the company’s...
I Love my Sony equipment
I Love my Sony equipment
That's an odd name for it.
Staff member
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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....
68577 Replies
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2675974 views
Why are ViP922s So rare? like its crazy how ebay has none, i checked everywhere, also, i got a ViP222k now, which is actually activated!
28 Replies
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716 views
LOL. It depends if the person saw it during the years when they were actually still available which is 1968 to 1983 meaning the person could be 43-58 years old or they can even be a few years old if they learned to read and write at a young age and actually saw a telephone with that label somewhere recently just like even here in San Francisco, payphone still exist physically in public places but whether they can be used or not is a different issue. It still looks like this even today:
S
so that persons in hiding lol
I remember this in the news too...
www.nbcnews.com
$14,000 spent on rented rotary phone
A widow rented a rotary dial telephone for 42 years, paying what her family calculates as more than $14,000 for a now- outdated phone.
www.nbcnews.com
That is a misnomer. In the old days you subscribed to telephone service. That included the telephone line and one telephone. An extension cost $1 a month extra. So that $14,000 over 42 years was for the service not the leased telephone. There is no way they paid $28 a month for 42 years for a leased telephone.I remember this in the news too...
$14,000 spent on rented rotary phone
A widow rented a rotary dial telephone for 42 years, paying what her family calculates as more than $14,000 for a now- outdated phone.
Howdy folks long time no write.
Issue(s): Horizontal transponders (esp. Weigel mux) breakup/mosaic/sputtering audio, JTV less so (but received perfectly up until a month or so ago.
Vertical is fine (Daystar). Up until recently couldn't even get any signal on Weigel Mux but JTV was perfect.
What I did to improve things: A slight westward move improved reception but only slightly (approx 72 on the micro HD, sorry no dB to post). I removed the 3-way C-Band splitter and used a 2-way to get a 1-2 db signal gain ( the power port goes to the Startrak - the micro HD doesn't have enough juice ! (1st clue) even after swapping the switching power supply it came with with a heftier linear 12 V supply (less RFI too !).
I have had issues with the uHD before signal breaking up that a reboot would clear up (clue #2 = dying tuner?) - FYI, I reinforced the IF input and removed all flux from the pcb completely with a Flux Removal Pen (MG Chemicals Cat No. 4140-P) which definitely makes a huge difference.
I went outside and pushed and pulled reflector slightly and no improvement. Pole (actually tower in yard - the neighbours love me..NOT) is plumb, checked with carpenters level. Dish was last peaked in 2017 or so, after overhauling 24" Von Weise, new Acme, fresh grease, etc. Focal length, f/d ratio etc meticulously adjusted. One panel has a tear so planning to repair that this weekend when my cousin comes over ( to help me out (old guy here) forecast calls for sunshine.
What has changed: My utility company has installed new high tension line poles (one smack dab in the middle of 101°W target! But they put it in last year and reception (of JTV (HOR) at least) was fine, BUT when they came out to transfer the wires over this year from the old (sawed in half) pole that's about when the troubles started (coincidence?), but again Daystar (VER) was fine. I always had this pole in the light of sight of 101° before with no issues. (fyi my zenith sat 74° is unobstucted, but can't test)
In the meantime Weigel mux is trying to break in MOSTLY in LATE at night (less cell usage?) (audio not video except for a frame here or there) so don't know what has changed with this mux which suddenly "woke up". I have never had to fuss with dish moves on this satellite ( the slightest move +/- motor clicks loses lock, wheres normally on C-band I can go significantly wider east or west and still have a strong signal ( have these gone "spot beam" or narrower somehow and what is the slight difference in Az listed on Lyngsat to 100.9° affect things ( isn't that the declination i.e. requiring a tweak of declination?).
Long story short (too late, ha), if I had another DVB-S2 box to try and / or a newer more stable PLL lnb ( I have been meaning to upgrade many a time but never got arround to it) I could determine if it's my antiquated receiving equipment, or my dish/feed alignment ( doubtful as it tracks everything from 55 °W to 133 ° W nicely.) or the dreaded 5G! (BUT only on HOR and not VER?).
I read another post where the OP (with his smaller 7.5 footer) played around with the illumination to peak desired transponder and reduce qrm on interfering/ stronger xpndrs (even on 103° W). So will play with that too - and cut away the RG-6 a and pull up a fresh section with new PPC and coax Seal. Open the throat cap see if any cobwebs are there and check servo operation (also changed in last maintence 10 years ago).
Finally, this will probably be the last chance I get to play with the BUD from the looks of it (providers leaving, auctioning off rest of spectrum imminent above 4.0 Ghz, and to keep the peace with neighbours so it would be nice to have that mux back for the long, cold and dark winters to comfort this old man before I call it quits and buy a VHF/UHF/FM Yagi and get MeTV, H&I from my Vermont local stations (checked at a friends today and they come in nicely - except ABC) .
Only one guy in town (Montreal) I may be able to get a receiver or PLL lnb from to try (RPS Sat) so hopefully with elimnate that as a possible culprit. Be nice to pick up a cheap or used PLL lnb to try w/o 5G BPF (money is tight )
Like others I couldn't care less about "tv" (well maybe just a liitle or a lot) it's the challenge that excites me , I can get MeTV other ways OTA (no pirate crap).
So what do you guys (and gals) think ?. p.s. I don't have a spectrum analyzer and there are def/ cell towers nearby (half a Km or so away).
Oh and time permitting will hammer out dings too and wire damaged mesh on one section for an extra dB or two. Hesitate to touch Declination, Elevation and pole mount but will play around with those a little too... Why is this mux for finicky suddenly ?(8psk, 5/6 fec, beamwidthetc.. man wish they went back to VER I think everthing would be fine! For the engineers out here does 5G QRM affect one poliarization (HOR) more than another (VER)? I understand the strong interference swamps out the input mixer/local oscilator in the hapless old C-band lnb (I think it at time affect KU too esp. LPB on 101°W KU - incidentally thos were weak or "gone' but are back almost at the time MeTV improved..hmm Terrestrial interference?
Any thoughts or suggestions ( cheap or free solutions please) greatly appreciated. Cheers.
p.p.s. Micro HD can't display Decades and Toons but records them fine so I can watch on another box/media player (Ali chip set issue). Another reason to upgrade.
Anybody interested in a nice C/KU system free ? (for next Spring/Summer 2027)
[Sami 10' mesh, Corotor II+, Eagle Aspen (very old) C-band lnb, Norsat Ku lnb, Channel Master C/Ku (H/V) switch, Startrak 400 Analog receiver w/ motor control, Geosat uHD DVD-S2, CW600S for Mpeg-2]
Issue(s): Horizontal transponders (esp. Weigel mux) breakup/mosaic/sputtering audio, JTV less so (but received perfectly up until a month or so ago.
Vertical is fine (Daystar). Up until recently couldn't even get any signal on Weigel Mux but JTV was perfect.
What I did to improve things: A slight westward move improved reception but only slightly (approx 72 on the micro HD, sorry no dB to post). I removed the 3-way C-Band splitter and used a 2-way to get a 1-2 db signal gain ( the power port goes to the Startrak - the micro HD doesn't have enough juice ! (1st clue) even after swapping the switching power supply it came with with a heftier linear 12 V supply (less RFI too !).
I have had issues with the uHD before signal breaking up that a reboot would clear up (clue #2 = dying tuner?) - FYI, I reinforced the IF input and removed all flux from the pcb completely with a Flux Removal Pen (MG Chemicals Cat No. 4140-P) which definitely makes a huge difference.
I went outside and pushed and pulled reflector slightly and no improvement. Pole (actually tower in yard - the neighbours love me..NOT) is plumb, checked with carpenters level. Dish was last peaked in 2017 or so, after overhauling 24" Von Weise, new Acme, fresh grease, etc. Focal length, f/d ratio etc meticulously adjusted. One panel has a tear so planning to repair that this weekend when my cousin comes over ( to help me out (old guy here) forecast calls for sunshine.
What has changed: My utility company has installed new high tension line poles (one smack dab in the middle of 101°W target! But they put it in last year and reception (of JTV (HOR) at least) was fine, BUT when they came out to transfer the wires over this year from the old (sawed in half) pole that's about when the troubles started (coincidence?), but again Daystar (VER) was fine. I always had this pole in the light of sight of 101° before with no issues. (fyi my zenith sat 74° is unobstucted, but can't test)
In the meantime Weigel mux is trying to break in MOSTLY in LATE at night (less cell usage?) (audio not video except for a frame here or there) so don't know what has changed with this mux which suddenly "woke up". I have never had to fuss with dish moves on this satellite ( the slightest move +/- motor clicks loses lock, wheres normally on C-band I can go significantly wider east or west and still have a strong signal ( have these gone "spot beam" or narrower somehow and what is the slight difference in Az listed on Lyngsat to 100.9° affect things ( isn't that the declination i.e. requiring a tweak of declination?).
Long story short (too late, ha), if I had another DVB-S2 box to try and / or a newer more stable PLL lnb ( I have been meaning to upgrade many a time but never got arround to it) I could determine if it's my antiquated receiving equipment, or my dish/feed alignment ( doubtful as it tracks everything from 55 °W to 133 ° W nicely.) or the dreaded 5G! (BUT only on HOR and not VER?).
I read another post where the OP (with his smaller 7.5 footer) played around with the illumination to peak desired transponder and reduce qrm on interfering/ stronger xpndrs (even on 103° W). So will play with that too - and cut away the RG-6 a and pull up a fresh section with new PPC and coax Seal. Open the throat cap see if any cobwebs are there and check servo operation (also changed in last maintence 10 years ago).
Finally, this will probably be the last chance I get to play with the BUD from the looks of it (providers leaving, auctioning off rest of spectrum imminent above 4.0 Ghz, and to keep the peace with neighbours so it would be nice to have that mux back for the long, cold and dark winters to comfort this old man before I call it quits and buy a VHF/UHF/FM Yagi and get MeTV, H&I from my Vermont local stations (checked at a friends today and they come in nicely - except ABC) .
Only one guy in town (Montreal) I may be able to get a receiver or PLL lnb from to try (RPS Sat) so hopefully with elimnate that as a possible culprit. Be nice to pick up a cheap or used PLL lnb to try w/o 5G BPF (money is tight )
Like others I couldn't care less about "tv" (well maybe just a liitle or a lot) it's the challenge that excites me , I can get MeTV other ways OTA (no pirate crap).
So what do you guys (and gals) think ?. p.s. I don't have a spectrum analyzer and there are def/ cell towers nearby (half a Km or so away).
Oh and time permitting will hammer out dings too and wire damaged mesh on one section for an extra dB or two. Hesitate to touch Declination, Elevation and pole mount but will play around with those a little too... Why is this mux for finicky suddenly ?(8psk, 5/6 fec, beamwidthetc.. man wish they went back to VER I think everthing would be fine! For the engineers out here does 5G QRM affect one poliarization (HOR) more than another (VER)? I understand the strong interference swamps out the input mixer/local oscilator in the hapless old C-band lnb (I think it at time affect KU too esp. LPB on 101°W KU - incidentally thos were weak or "gone' but are back almost at the time MeTV improved..hmm Terrestrial interference?
Any thoughts or suggestions ( cheap or free solutions please) greatly appreciated. Cheers.
p.p.s. Micro HD can't display Decades and Toons but records them fine so I can watch on another box/media player (Ali chip set issue). Another reason to upgrade.
Anybody interested in a nice C/KU system free ? (for next Spring/Summer 2027)
[Sami 10' mesh, Corotor II+, Eagle Aspen (very old) C-band lnb, Norsat Ku lnb, Channel Master C/Ku (H/V) switch, Startrak 400 Analog receiver w/ motor control, Geosat uHD DVD-S2, CW600S for Mpeg-2]
12 Replies
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473 views
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.
551 Replies
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19097 views
More specifically, these:
A more scholarly story is here:
www.bleepingcomputer.com
A more scholarly story is here:
PHP warns admins of two critical flaws, emergency patches coming tomorrow
The PHP security team is warning administrators to prepare for emergency security updates tomorrow to address two critical vulnerabilities, as information about the flaws has reportedly leaked ahead of their scheduled disclosure.
When I heard about this exploit I was wondering how quick you would be on it.
12 minutes after the patch was release I had it patched.When I heard about this exploit I was wondering how quick you would be on it.
Lon.TV
Time for another AWESOME video from Lon Seidman of LON.TV!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhwivKnNZrw
Direct YouTube Link - Lithium UPS Battery Backup Review - Oupes UPS 1200 Review
The Official LON.TV Website
Lon on Facebook
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhwivKnNZrw
Direct YouTube Link - Lithium UPS Battery Backup Review - Oupes UPS 1200 Review
The Official LON.TV Website
Lon on Facebook
0 Replies
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9 views
My OTA is not working anymore. This started after the latest update. I have the OTA dongle with a OTA antenna that I've been using for years. My hopper does not recognize the dongle anymore and when I go to the OTA setting, it has a screen that says to plug a dongle into the USB. I tried unplugging and plugging back, in the same usb port and other ports. The Hopper does not recognize it. Anyone have same issue?
202 Replies
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5288 views
Hi all. If you were using a single tuner USB OTA adapter that is no longer working, please PM me. Thanks.
Staff member
HERE TO HELP YOU!
9 Replies
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88 views
