2.4 METER DISH - DIRECT TV

[euronatura]

I need to get at least a 2.4 meter dish for Direct TV reception. I have hte following questions:

1) Does it have to be offset?
2) DTV operates KU o C band or both and at what range?
3) Where can I get a cheap dish that fits my needs?

Thanks

 

[boba]

Where in the US are you? Cheap would suggest looking for an old "C" band solid or Ku mesh 8' prime focus dish still set up in someones yard.

 

[JosephB]

Offset or prime focus doesn't matter, it only affects the apparent aiming of the dish, not the actual performance (though I guess prime focus should actually have better performance)

DirecTV is Ku band for standard programming, and Ka band for HD programming, though since they have a custom dish/LNB for Ka band stuff, bringing your own dish isn't going to work for HD. It's also circular polarization and not linear, so a standard FTA LNB won't work.

Where exactly are you, and what programming are you trying to get?

 

[prt328]

JosephB - what a wealth of info! I am in Mexico (Cabo) and was planning on bringing my DTV HD box with me next trip. I know 101W is outside of the footprint but was going to experiment with 99 and 103; hard to tell from SatBeams if they are in the footprint or not. I have a 1M and 1.8M offset dish with a linear (std?) lnb and also have access to a 10' BUD that is set up for C-Band. At minimum it looks like I will need a DTV "special" LNB if I want to get Ka on anything? If you have any suggestions before I start I would appreciate it!

Sorry to hijack this thread....

 

[JosephB]

The Ka LNB that DirecTV uses actually has 3 LNBs in one. You would need a dish that can focus the 3 satellites at the LNB. There are no switches that you can use to combine 3 separate LNBs, so 3 separate dishes wouldn't work. You must use the special 3LNB assembly that DirecTV provides.

 

[markmain]

In 2000 I bought a special DirecTV splicer that allowed me to use three 1 meter dishes, 2 of them with dual LNB (it's been awhile since I set them up, so I think it was the 101 and 110 that had the duals), and the 119 was a single. This splicer combined one of the cables from the 110 and the only one from the 119, and it outputed to a single cable... so you had 4 cables running back to the 5-in-8-out multiplex box, and that went to the directv boxes for each of the (up to 8) outputs. I was able to get HD with this setup, but I had to upgrade to a more expensive 5-in-8-out multiplexer. I was able to get solid 100s at 350' away from my dish using hard line cable. It's more of a commercial type setup, but it worked. I don't know if they sell that combiner thing any more. It was only the size of any standard 2-in-1-out splitter/combinner that you can buy, but it was specially designed with some simple filtering obviously. it had to be easy to do, because it was no bigger than a simple splitter. Now, having said all that...

I started to read about the future and where Directv is moving towards. And I see that after the new satellite, DirecTV 11 is made fully operational they'll supplying the Dual/Triple/5-LNB dishes and move to 3-LNB Ka/Ku dishes called Slimline3, and they will see 99, 101, and 103 Degrees West. They will become the new standard dish for HD and SD programming and the 5-LNB Slimline will be used for installs in areas that receive local/international programming from 110 or 119.

I guess these Slimline3's will visually look pretty much identical to what we have now, but a smaller LNB.

What I don't see is when this is suppose to take place.

 

[Bob Nielsen]

The Slimline 3 has been available for several months, although Slimline 5s are still being installed as well.

 

[digiblur]

You might want to look at the larger rigs they are installing in AK and HI. They might have the LNB you need.