1.8m Patriot Offset Dish install

[taz291819]

I work for a television station, and we have plenty of old dishes and parts laying around. I plan on taking an old 1.8m Patriot Offset dish home this weekend (with a non-penatrating roof mount) to use for IA6 only, C-Band.

My problem is, the dish was used for Ku, and when I took the Ku LNBF off, I noticed "harness" for holding the LNBF is pretty small. It's way to small to hold a C-Band feedhorn (due to the C-Band feedhorn diameter).

I've searched the internet trying to find an adapter of some sort, but no luck. This is a pretty old dish, with an old-school "2-screw clamp" to hold the LNBF, not the normal rectangular slotted-style.

Has anyone had any success mounting a C-Band feedhorn to one of these older offset feed arms?

Thanks in advance.

 

[PSB]

Hello and WELCOME to the SatelliteGuys.US FTA forum!

Anytime I have done this I have had to fabrcate the LNB holder myself. Take measurements first and make sure to mount the LNB at the same height and F/D from the dish.

Not a whole lot on IA-6 C-Band, but there are some real interesting feeds (HD)

 

[taz291819]

Hello and WELCOME to the SatelliteGuys.US FTA forum!

Anytime I have done this I have had to fabrcate the LNB holder myself. Take measurements first and make sure to mount the LNB at the same height and F/D from the dish.

Not a whole lot on IA-6 C-Band, but there are some real interesting feeds (HD)

Thanks, I figured I'd have to fabricate something.

And yeah, I need IA-6 for monitoring purposes. :up

 

[gabshere]

i thought i saw one .....let me look

yeah heres one. Don't know if its what your looking for.

http://www.satelliteav.com/shop/item/AC-CBAND+ADAPT

you can always e-mail or call the guys over there at Satellite AV , they have always been helpful for me

 

[taz291819]

i thought i saw one .....let me look

yeah heres one. Don't know if its what your looking for.

http://www.satelliteav.com/shop/item/AC-CBAND+ADAPT

you can always e-mail or call the guys over there at Satellite AV , they have always been helpful for me

Nah, that one won't work. I'll have to take a picture of the feed arm and post it. For the time being, I'm going to see how well zip-ties hold up, just for temporary purposes.

I have access to one of our 8-foot mesh dishes if I want it, but it's installed on a pole running up the side of our building. Taking it down would be extremely dangerous without a cherry-picker, and for the price of renting a cherry-picker, I could almost buy a new one.

I'll post some pictures here shortly.

 

[voomvoom]

Is the dish a Prime Focus or an Offset?

Al

Edit: never mind, after rereading your post, I see it's an Offset.... Sorry!

 

[ftarock]

You will have some obstables to overcome:
1. Better use an offset feedhorn for the dish. I suggest to buy an offset feedhorn for C-band. Dow Electronics carries some Andrew/Patriod offset C-band feedhorn.
2. 1.8m is considered as undersize for C-band, therefore you must have it set up everything correctly to get as much signal as possible (correct lnb/feedhorn, Focal Length....). IA6 is sitting between G11 and G3C, 2 degs apart, so with this size it will see 3 sats at same time. Not mean to discourage you or anything. But don't supprise if you don't get channels that you are looking for.
If I were you, I would try to look for a prime-focus dish locally. Reason is that it's easier and cheaper to buy lnb(f) for the prime-focuse type.
Good luck

I work for a television station, and we have plenty of old dishes and parts laying around. I plan on taking an old 1.8m Patriot Offset dish home this weekend (with a non-penatrating roof mount) to use for IA6 only, C-Band.

My problem is, the dish was used for Ku, and when I took the Ku LNBF off, I noticed "harness" for holding the LNBF is pretty small. It's way to small to hold a C-Band feedhorn (due to the C-Band feedhorn diameter).

I've searched the internet trying to find an adapter of some sort, but no luck. This is a pretty old dish, with an old-school "2-screw clamp" to hold the LNBF, not the normal rectangular slotted-style.

Has anyone had any success mounting a C-Band feedhorn to one of these older offset feed arms?

Thanks in advance.

 

[PSB]

I use a 6' dish (As does Iceberg) for C-Band and it works GREAT, pulls in about 98% of C-Band Digital channels )

I also used a 1.7m off-set dish for C-Band in the UK (Back in the analog days)

 

[ftarock]

Because you are using correct scalar ring/lnb(f) for the dish. Putting a prime-focus scalar ring on offset is not a good idea, espcially with this size for C-band.
Just try to give some headup so he knows there are some problems of using the dish before putting it up.
In UK, the sats are not crowded. Analog and digital are different animals.
One can still get watchable analog picuture with interference from nearby sats, with digital that's a tough luck.

I use a 6' dish (As does Iceberg) for C-Band and it works GREAT, pulls in about 98% of C-Band Digital channels )

I also used a 1.7m off-set dish for C-Band in the UK (Back in the analog days)

 

[PSB]

TRUE!

You are best to use a conical scalar ring if you have one, but I feel its still worth trying with a regular scalar if that's all the OP has!

I would also like to add what GREAT products patriot make!

TRUE professionals


www.sepatriot.com

 

[taz291819]

I have several feedhorns and LNBs to use, as I mentioned, I work for a television station.

It's been raining the past two days, so I can't take any pictures of the dish. I'd love to use a prime focus dish, but of all the dishes we aren't using (that I can have), they're all offset dishes, except for the mesh dish I talked about above.

If I can't get it to work, I'll purchase an offset LNBF.

btw, the LNB is a commercial grade Fortec, I have a TI filter also.

The IRD I'm using for setting it up is a DSR-4800 (we have quite a few extras), ASI out to my decoder.

I'm only looking for one transpoder, IA6/18.

 

[taz291819]

Also, I have access to a 1.5m offset dish, made by Channel Master, and it's in better shape than the Patriot 1.8m. The feed arm is a bit more "updated", as it looks as though it'll hold the C-Band feedhorn with no problems. I just think I'll have a better shot with a 1.8m dish though.

 

[dem0nlord]

I'd try calling Patriot about parts availability. My 1.8M Andrew was a Ku dish when I got it, I just bought C band supports and feed clamp through Dow after Andrew gave me the part numbers.

 

[ftarock]

DSR 4800 is a nice receiver for both qpsk/dc2, capable to do 4:2:2 SD.
Talking about ASI, I think you are interested in the HD therefore ASI is used for piping Transport Stream to HD decoder??
BTW, you will have a hard time to use DSR 4800 setting up the dish because it does not show you signal meter.

I have several feedhorns and LNBs to use, as I mentioned, I work for a television station.

It's been raining the past two days, so I can't take any pictures of the dish. I'd love to use a prime focus dish, but of all the dishes we aren't using (that I can have), they're all offset dishes, except for the mesh dish I talked about above.

If I can't get it to work, I'll purchase an offset LNBF.

btw, the LNB is a commercial grade Fortec, I have a TI filter also.

The IRD I'm using for setting it up is a DSR-4800 (we have quite a few extras), ASI out to my decoder.

I'm only looking for one transpoder, IA6/18.

 

[taz291819]

DSR 4800 is a nice receiver for both qpsk/dc2, capable to do 4:2:2 SD.
Talking about ASI, I think you are interested in the HD therefore ASI is used for piping Transport Stream to HD decoder??
BTW, you will have a hard time to use DSR 4800 setting up the dish because it does not show you signal meter.

Our DSR-4800 has a signal meter on it. Though, I also have a inline signal meter and a DVB-S card, which has the signal meter software.

And yes, it's for HD, ASI out of the DSR-4800 to a HDD-1000 for decoding (HD-SDI output from it).

 

[ftarock]

I am not aware that there is HD1000 ASI input model. Most take HSI though.
About the DSR 4800, are you talking about the 2 bar on the front panel? Uhm, I forgot about that. Not sure how sensitive the 4800 is when it spots the signal.
Have fun setting up the dish

Our DSR-4800 has a signal meter on it. Though, I also have a inline signal meter and a DVB-S card, which has the signal meter software.

And yes, it's for HD, ASI out of the DSR-4800 to a HDD-1000 for decoding (HD-SDI output from it).

 

[taz291819]

Well, it was a no-go. Man, what a long day! Since I had to fabricate a mount for the feedhorn, I had no way of telling what my problem was (azimuth, elevation, feedhorn placement).

I'm just going to take down the 10-foot C-band dish off our building and use it. At least I know it works perfectly.

Thanks for all the help! I'm sure I'll be back next weekend.

 

[WyrTwister]

Nah, that one won't work. I'll have to take a picture of the feed arm and post it. For the time being, I'm going to see how well zip-ties hold up, just for temporary purposes.

I have access to one of our 8-foot mesh dishes if I want it, but it's installed on a pole running up the side of our building. Taking it down would be extremely dangerous without a cherry-picker, and for the price of renting a cherry-picker, I could almost buy a new one.

I'll post some pictures here shortly.

I tested a 90 cm offset dish as a mini-bud . Used perferated strapping ( plumbers tape ) to hold a regular C Band LNB - feed horn - poloroter .

Not bad on strong sats - channels . Pretty weak on weak sat - channels .

Bigger dish should give bigger results .

Best of luck ,
Wyr