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Captain Midnight
Last reply · posted in C-BAND Satellite Discussion
Has anyone else had a bunch of trouble tuning Ku band on a 10ft Mesh? My mesh is Ku compliant and the dish is not badly damaged for being 30 years old... But it is frustrating.

Only reason I tried it is because my STAB H-H motor suddenly stopped working and I was curious about how Ku signals would come in on my BUD. I'm using a Chap Corotor with a good Norsat LNB. It just has been a chore to peak the Ku arc. I know now my 1.2m offset beats the BUD hands down.

My dish has a slight warp to it that I correct with turnbuckle tensioned paracords from top to bottom and west to east sides of the dish. But the strangest thing is the tension needed to peak the Ku band is different than the C band tension. I would think both bands would be peaked by the same tension, as it holding the dish in a more accurate parabola shape?

For example, my signal on 87w Newsource goes from 12dB down to 10.4dB after I have the dish tensioned for optimum C band performance.

Anyone have advice for fighting with this? I'm about ready to give up and try to find a fix for the STAB...
14 Replies · 3491 views
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arlo
I have very good results with a sidecar ku lnbf on my 12' solid 'glass dish.
It's a button hook feed so I ended up aiming the feed offset from center as the button hook mount was killing signal. C band vs ku is about 6 degrees offset. No biggie really.
I had to figure out the rough position by holding the thing in my hand. Then bend up a mounting bracket to hang on the c band scalar. Works pretty slick.
But this made me curious. What if a guy were to grab an aluminized space blanket from wally world and try some light spray glue and form it to the mesh dish surface to see if signal got better. Just to see. Hmmmm.
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primestar31
What if a guy were to grab an aluminized space blanket from wally world and try some light spray glue and form it to the mesh dish surface to see if signal got better. Just to see. Hmmmm.
Buy the thick aluminum foil instead. It's MUCH thicker than the stuff we typically use in the kitchen.
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Captain Midnight
Buy the thick aluminum foil instead. It's MUCH thicker than the stuff we typically use in the kitchen.
I've thought about that too. The issue is getting a nice clean and ripple-free surface. Every imperfection will bounce signals improperly. I think I just need to rig one of my 1.2m fiberglass dishes to the polar mount my 7.5ft SAMI uses. The SAMI is not being used.
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N6BY
The mesh size is not the only consideration for using a C band dish for KU band. The amount of deviation from a true parabola is much more critical for KU than C band because of the shorter KU wavelength. (about 1 inch vs. 4 inches for C band)

Your mesh dish probably uses panels, which only approximate a parabolic surface. What happens is that the signals reflected off of your dish panels to the KU feed travel different distances and may arrive partially out of phase, which tends to cancel out some of the signal.
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arlo
I have very good results with a sidecar ku lnbf on my 12' solid 'glass dish.
It's a button hook feed so I ended up aiming the feed offset from center as the button hook mount was killing signal. C band vs ku is about 6 degrees offset. No biggie really.
I had to figure out the rough position by holding the thing in my hand. Then bend up a mounting bracket to hang on the c band scalar. Works pretty slick.
But this made me curious. What if a guy were to grab an aluminized space blanket from wally world and try some light spray glue and form it to the mesh dish surface to see if signal got better. Just to see. Hmmmm.
Just to expand on the space blanket thing. I came across a Wild Blue dish some years ago with the tria sub reflector. The water/depth and calculation thing didn't work when trying to figure out where to put an lnbf on a fabricated bracket. Took my space blanket and some spray starch and plastered it to the reflector. The sun and a piece of paper gave me the "spot" (literally) in a minute. The starch washed right off.
Yeah. Foil. I thought of that too. And the wrinkle free finish. How about a piece of aluminized window film? It heat shapes with a hair dryer and holds up pretty good.
Other than that, I don't know squat.
W
My Ku comes in excellent. Sometimes better than C. I never used any special tools to center the feed, just a tape measure. Some satellites I do have to bump it a click to optimize one or the other, but it still comes in. 9 times out of 10, any bumping of the dish is due to accumulated missed counts in the actuator, or snow weighing down the dish.

I have no idea what my mesh size is. When I bought the house, it had C only. I added Ku for 4DTV back in the day, and it just worked.

Now I can understand why a mesh dish is lacking. A solid dish is a true parabola for the full circle. A dish with fitted mesh panels (flat metal sheet) is only going to be a true parabola at the center of each mesh panel. Anything else is going to reflect back at a point off center. Since the Ku probe has a much smaller collection area, you're only going to get a fraction of the signal. C band has a larger collection area, so it's not as bad. And maybe the scalar rings help further. But I would think a mesh dish is also going to give less signal on C as well.
pacificrim
I'm late to this thread, but I get amazing Ku reception on my 10' KTI.
The factors I dealt with are: PLL Ku LNB in the dual polorotor, adjusting the LNBF in or out of the ring, skewing the polorotor and the final piece was the elevation actuator I put in 2 years ago. It also really helps that I have a pro meter - the Applied Instruments S2.
I found that my elevation/declination even out by a small bit was a giant factor in Ku. I don't adjust it anymore, though I can with a button press, I just found it was easy to peak it at both ends of the arc and figure out where the problem was in either elevation, declination, or a mix of both - without a lot of wrenching back and forth.

I attached a drinking straw to the back of the elevation actuator, then peaked one side of the arc and drew a black marker line where the straw lined up next to a bolt head. Then swung the dish to the opposite end of the arc, peaked that side and marked the straw. There was a noticable gap between the marked lines. I then adjusted the declination and swung it to the other side or to my due south and peaked with elevation, marked the straw - were the lines further or closer?? More declination and elevation adjustments and progressively, the lines on the straw got closer and closer until the same line was the peak for all positions.


My big dish exceeds my 1.2 offset for Ku since I did this.
Ramy
Supporting Founder
Last reply · posted in The Sports Section
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.
136 Replies · 1291 views
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Y
24 team playoff seems to be real close.

Are we really that far from a 64-team tournament?

The benefit of the 24 team playoff:
  • All the cartel teams that cartels want in playoff are in playoff
    • Independent of record too! Bonus.
  • MONEY!!!!! for the cartels.
  • I'm out of ideas.
Cons
  • Regular season really doesn't matter now other than the rivalry games
    • Top cartel teams can lose three games and still make the playoff
  • Going to start resting players?
    • The playoff is going to be *checks notes* several games!
    • Resting players could make games dumb.
    • Maybe even restrict NIL players from games played.
  • How much are streaming sub costs going up a month to pay for this?!
osu1991
AZ.
AZ.
24 team playoff seems to be real close.

Are we really that far from a 64-team tournament?

The benefit of the 24 team playoff:
  • All the cartel teams that cartels want in playoff are in playoff
    • Independent of record too! Bonus.
  • MONEY!!!!! for the cartels.
  • I'm out of ideas.
Cons
  • Regular season really doesn't matter now other than the rivalry games
    • Top cartel teams can lose three games and still make the playoff
  • Going to start resting players?
    • The playoff is going to be *checks notes* several games!
    • Resting players could make games dumb.
    • Maybe even restrict NIL players from games played.
  • How much are streaming sub costs going up a month to pay for this?!
One of the pro's I see is in a year with so many undefeated teams they have a good chance of an opening. Few years back you had lower divisions that didnt get a shot. I love collage football and I have no problem with that addition.

We are in what week 5 now? Been two real good ranked games to watch.....Other than that top 25 teams are playing nothing.
Jimbo
24 team playoff seems to be real close.

Are we really that far from a 64-team tournament?

The benefit of the 24 team playoff:
  • All the cartel teams that cartels want in playoff are in playoff
    • Independent of record too! Bonus.
  • MONEY!!!!! for the cartels.
  • I'm out of ideas.
Cons
  • Regular season really doesn't matter now other than the rivalry games
    • Top cartel teams can lose three games and still make the playoff
  • Going to start resting players?
    • The playoff is going to be *checks notes* several games!
    • Resting players could make games dumb.
    • Maybe even restrict NIL players from games played.
  • How much are streaming sub costs going up a month to pay for this?!
This will be a SAD DAY when this passes ....

They complained the last year that we had a bunch of Blow Outs in the Playoffs ... heres an idea, lets Double the amount of teams and hope for Closer games ... ya right.

This never should have went past 8 teams, 10 at the most.

Now, I have heard that play in games are being talked about, such as #13 plays #24 and so forth, to cut the field down (why cut it down, just don't expand it.)
I'm not sure exactly how thats going to work out or if it was just someone talking.

They were also talking about starting the Season earlier ...

I really don't like the National Championship game being the end of January ... if the Semi Finals are over New Years, thats fine with the Championship game the next week.
Jimbo
One of the pro's I see is in a year with so many undefeated teams they have a good chance of an opening. Few years back you had lower divisions that didnt get a shot. I love collage football and I have no problem with that addition.

We are in what week 5 now? Been two real good ranked games to watch.....Other than that top 25 teams are playing nothing.
There are 68 Power 4 teams, so eventually they will get there I wouldn't imagine ...
Scott Greczkowski
Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU! Cutting Edge
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
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....
68492 Replies · 2670136 views
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ClarkGable
Rock And Roll All Nite - Kiss
harshness
Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution - AC/DC
Bobby
Kiss - The Art Of Noise
long_time_Dish
Beautiful Noise - Neil Diamond
sdfntx
White Noise - Jessie Baylin
dishstaller
Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
Can't help but wonder if a worker overlooked checking the harness. I rarely ride a roller coaster anymore but when I do I check the harness myself pretty aggressively.
Can't imagine what the son is going through.

24 Replies · 188 views
Jimbo
dishstaller
Had no idea there were that many redundancies built into those restraints.
Jimbo
Had no idea there were that many redundancies built into those restraints.
It makes sense, however, I would want more types of restraints, so if one doesn't work, the other does ... the restraints coming over the shoulder I would have expected ... with a Seat belt as last resort.

Fwiw, I inquired with what they use on Coasters at Cedar Point, various Coasters, different restraints according to what the car and track requires ...

NONE of the Coasters at CP use THAT particular system :)
I'm glad to see ...
dishstaller
with a Seat belt as last resort.
According to the article, when you see a seat belt on a ride like this, it is basically used as a way of making sure the rider isn't too large/fat to safely ride the ride.
Jimbo
According to the article, when you see a seat belt on a ride like this, it is basically used as a way of making sure the rider isn't too large/fat to safely ride the ride.
Well, the over the shoulder support is better, but would require reconfiguring the cars.
Jimbo
Heres an article from the Akron Beacon ... seeing Six Flags has bought Cedar Point and Kings Island, they are included ...
I said earlier that Cedar Point doesn't use this type of seat restraint ... well, it does use it, But the difference is, the ones up here ALSO have the Over the shoulder restraint as well ... like I was suggesting that they should have used with the Goliath.

One of the new(er) one at Cedar point the Gate Keeper, uses the Clam shell .. I have rode it many times and have Mostly felt secure, that ride will stop you part way on the ride and you just hang, till the ride is ready to continue ... I typically ride the Front Car ... when its getting ready, you ARE hanging, in the car, looking down .... it would require 2 separate restraint systems to unlock at the same time to possibly get out of it.

meStevo
Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in The Sports Section
Schedule drops tomorrow. Mandatory mini camps in June. Hall of Fame game August 6th.
108 Replies · 1553 views
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Y
Selfish Drake Maye holds back on giving the ball to Bills unlike Jags game, gets the win on the road.
zippyfrog
That image is so true - especially after that Giants/Commanders game yesterday.
dfergie
Some tight games that went to the wire...
Y
Selfish Drake Maye holds back on giving the ball to Bills unlike Jags game, gets the win on the road.
A big win for the Patriots, and they are now 3-2.

Browns lose a close one with... The Jets. That is a classic Browns loss (granted, any loss is a classic one it seems). 49'ers, Vikings, and Chiefs remain undefeated. The AFC north have a three way tie at 3-2 for second place. :eek:
osu1991
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M
Hopefully nowhere near a microphone.
dishstaller
Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in Internet Television (IPTV) Discussion Forum
Wasn't exactly sure where to post this. Just had a customer come in inquiring about internet. He has HughesNet and had heard good things about mine. He asked if we provided email addresses and it kinda caught me off guard. I said he should be able to keep whatever email he had been using....my sister in law is still using a BellSouth email addy and they haven't been around here for many years. He said he had gotten a letter from HughesNet stating that they had until Nov 16th to save, move, forward, whatever, their Hughesnet emails because they would lose them after that date.

I have never heard of a company simply mass-deleting email accounts (the customer still has his HughesNet service). From what I understand, in the past, the company who was ditching their email service simply sold the customer base to a company like Google.

Anyone else getting this letter. He said he would show it to me tomorrow when I go out there and set up his internet.
6 Replies · 89 views
Foxbat
Doing a Google of the HughesNet Email notice, it seems that HughesNet has been trying to eliminate hosting emails since 2019. And with HughesNet filing Chapter 11 back in August, it would be a smart move to switch to a more stable Email provider. Even AT&T farmed out their Email to Yahoo! years ago.

SpaceX's Starlink and the Cellular 5G Home Internet solutions have pretty much relegated HughesNet and its high latency, low bandwidth Internet service to History. If Earth had shorter days, maybe a Geostationary Internet Solution might have stood a fighting chance…
dishstaller
Well, I helped him set up a gmail acct....I actually wanted to see what the new process is for setting up a gmail acct since it had been years since I set mine up. Anyway, I showed him how to forward the emails he wanted to keep over.
navychop
If Earth had shorter days,

Wouldn't we then die of old age sooner?

🙄
  • Wow
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Foxbat
Wouldn't we then die of old age sooner?

🙄
Still the same number of years, just more Sunsets…😉
K
Even AT&T farmed out their Email to Yahoo! years ago.

I still have one of those although I've been trying to wean myself off it.
JSheridan
Among my many email accounts I still have a .netscape.net which AOL assimilated a while back.
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dfergie
Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU!
Last reply · posted in TV Shows
Hard getting used to the new younger Gibbs, Mark Harmons son had the right look but I understand he didn't want the role.
Still I'm enjoying, pretty good job with Franks.
62 Replies · 4173 views
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"MysteryMan"
Best episode ever.
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Jimbo
Best episode ever.
I actually think the very first episode was One of the Best ...
S1 E1 Yankee White
Where it all started in what was it, 2003 ?

edit:
Sorry, I got the shows mixed up, were talking Origins ...
I've liked Most of them once we've gotten past the 1st 3-4, getting to know who was who took a bit in the beginning.
It's a bit harder seeing we already Know the person, then go back and see how they became that person.
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KAB
KAB
Mark Harmon is coming back as Gibbs in Origins, for the full season. Just saw, Dinozzo too, on NCIS . That will be an interesting writing project.
dfergie
Really good one with OG Gibbs bookending it...
R
Really good one with OG Gibbs bookending it...
Will the OG Gibbs be on NCIS or will Tony be on NCIS Origins?
TheRatPatrol
Last reply · posted in TV Shows
Anyone else watch this show? Any guesses as to what was in the box Gibbs gave to Abby that was on her desk? It look liked it was glowing.

I also heard that someone was leaving the show at the end of this season. Any guesses as to who thats going to be?
2130 Replies · 214632 views
Jimbo

Howard ...
You don't like Tony, or Tony as the Director (he's only been there for 30 seconds now) or you don't like NCIS ?
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Howard Simmons
Howard ...
You don't like Tony, or Tony as the Director (he's only been there for 30 seconds now) or you don't like NCIS ?
Tony as the director.🙄
Jimbo
Tony as the director.🙄
Would you rather have LaRoche ???
dfergie
I liked this episode and a toned down Tony...
H
Last reply · posted in FTA Receiver / Equipment Support
I just received 6 receiver 2 port mini Multiswitch and it work great, no external power need it, and you can connect 6 receiver instead of 4 on most Mini Multiswitches... If anyone is interested in where they can get one PM me....
IMG_1786.webp
3 Replies · 54 views
Titanium
Have you tested using external power? Over the years, have found unpowered polarity switching to be unreliable. Especially problematic when used with DiSEqC motors or switch stacking.
H
No I have not. I just got it the other day and it is connected to six receivers working just fine. What I do is non power mini multi-switches work best with LNBF's and with LNB's
H
It also has a IPS and a OPS switch on the side of it with a power led light showing when is on. It seems to be very nice build switch
Bobby
Supporting Founder Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in DISH Network Support Forum
This is a thread that will keep you apprised of 4K events that will be showing on Dish channel 540. Keep looking here for information.

As of today, 9-27-17, there are no scheduled events posted for the next 2 weeks. That is subject to change on a daily basis.
761 Replies · 166967 views
Bobby
MLB, Brewers at Dodgers, Wednesday 10-14, 5PM PDT, Channel 148-02.
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Bobby
MLB, Brewers at Dodgers, Thursday 10-15, 6PM PDT, Channel 148-02.
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Bobby
CFB, Notre Dame at BYU, Saturday 10-27, 4:30PM PDT, Channel 148-03.
Bobby
NASCAR, Freeway Insurance 500, Sunday 10-18, 12PM PDT, Channel 148-04.
Bobby
CFB, Ohio State at Indiana, Saturday 10-17, 9AM PDT, Channel 148-01.
CFB, Arizona State at Texas Tech, Saturday 10-17, 12:30PM PDT, Channel 148-01.
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Former member 209992
Last reply · posted in SatelliteGuys Support Center
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.
524 Replies · 17857 views
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Foxbat
Yeah. It's probably something going on with the MacBook as my iPhone has been pretty snappy.
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Scott Greczkowski
I have been optimizing the site the past few days... and got us here now. :) We are rocking now!

Screenshot 2026-10-15 144737.webp
Foxbat
Yeah. It's probably something going on with the MacBook as my iPhone has been pretty snappy.
I rebooted my MacBook Air and it's zipping right along. Sorry, but it was taking over 20 seconds to load pages, with the pulsing blue bars so it was munching on something.
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Scott Greczkowski
Remember folks... just like DNS... its always Foxbat. :D
Foxbat
Remember folks... just like DNS... its always Foxbat. :D
WTF… …What the Foxbat!😱