Advice on a good dish for C and Ku Band?

[grantsa4]

I am trying to decide on a dish that could get me Ku and C band. I have looked at a few recievers and the Merc II looks like the most fun and would get me the best results.

Can anyone advise me on a good dish to go along with that receiver and what else I would need for KU/C Band reception?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[qwert1515]

For reliable reception for C-Band you are most likely going to need a 6 ft dish or larger, are you allowed or do you want to have that sized dish?

 

[grantsa4]

Hmmm, doubt it, I live in a townhouse so doubt 6ft would be possible. If C band is not an option for me, what would you recommend for a good KU Band dish?

 

[qwert1515]

You should check to see if you can have a large dish, Iceberg is in a similar situation, but he is on the board of something and he is allowed to have the dish on his porch.

If you can't then you will be limited to Ku band(Theres a lot of ku band stuff, so I am not sure if I want to call it a limitation).
You will need a 31" - 39" dish, you are most likely protected by the FCC rules allowing upto a 39" dish.
If you can I would say get a 36" or 39" dish otherwise you may want to upgrade later.

For dishes I like the Fortec Star, Azure Shine, and Geosat brands.

For LNB's I like Lava (no name brand, but works the best), Fortec Star, Others will recommend the Invacom but I have had bad experience with this LNB so I can't recommend it.

A HH (Horizon to horizon) motor like the Stab, SG2100, Geosat are nice motors which will allow you to receive everything or almost everything in view of your location.

For my main setup I use a 1.2 Meter Geosat dish and I can receive all Ku signals, and some of the stronger C-Band signals.

 

[grantsa4]

Thanks for the advice and info - very much appreciated. How difficult is it to set up one of those?

 

[qwert1515]

It's not that hard, but it does take some time getting used to setting one up.

For the first time I would recommend manually pointing the dish at some satellites to get a feel on how to do that.

One of the biggest mistakes a person might make in aligning a fixed dish are: not skewing the LNB, wrong dish elevation (Mainly because a lot of dishes the elevation scale is off by a little bit, and also because the dishes are offset dishes meaning that they are actually receiving a signal that is 22 degrees higher than they look like they are pointing to.) Also FTA satellites signals are much weaker than Dish Network or DirecTV.

Really it takes time and patience.

Then you can try with the motor. As long as everything is setup correctly (the elevation bolts) and the mast is leveled it is fairly easy as long as you read the instructions that come with the motor, and you ask questions here

Also you should wait for others response and Iceberg's response about townhouses, and Satellite Guys gold sponsors are the best place to purchase your hardware and equipment from.

EDIT - Also if you want to receive everything (This is mainly for feeds) and you have a fairly good computer and don't mind using it, then it is a good idea to get a DVB PC Tuner card, then you can watch 4:2:2 feeds and HD. (You can always get this later)

 

[grantsa4]

Where is a good place to get a DVB Tuner card?

 

[Mr Tony]

You can put a bigger dish up in a townhouse. The only drawback is if they say to take it down you have to. The FCC OTARD says as long as the dish is under a meter and on your exclusive property they can't say anything. OPver that you have to work something out.

Yes I am on our HOA board but I had the dish up before that....and the president at the time didnt care

 

[qwert1515]

Where is a good place to get a DVB Tuner card?

I would recommend one of SatelliteGuys Gold Sponsors, or Ebay (You have to be careful there), I got mine there before I discovered this site.

I would recommend the Twinhan 102G, since that's the card I have and like, the only thing a PC card can't do that a normal receiver does is blind search, so that is why you also need a normal receiver.

 

[Anole]

As I was just advising someone the other day, getting started in FTA with a DVB card is a lot like building your own house.... and cutting the timber, too!
I think you were on a good path with your Mercury II, Pansat 3500sd, or maybe the Visionsat IV200 (can record, with addition of a USB hard drive).
In a lot of ways , getting a pre-fab and adding on later makes a lot of sense.
Particularly in initial setup and alignment.

It's the old chicken and the egg problem.
How do I get a signal to work with when I don't know if I've aimed my dish right OR have my receiver configured right?

 

[tdti1]

For both c/ku I would go with the Patriot 3.1 meter, it's a very nice dish, for best results a feedhorn with quality lnb's is also a good choice, you will need a stand alone positioner and a reciver that can control a servo, most Pansats will work.

 

[gabshere]

As I was just advising someone the other day, getting started in FTA with a DVB card is a lot like building your own house.... and cutting the timber, too!
I think you were on a good path with your Mercury II, Pansat 3500sd, or maybe the Visionsat IV200 (can record, with addition of a USB hard drive).

i would totally agree with this statement. if i was just starting out and got a dvb card or usb version , i would be lost now... probably too frustrated to even try , get a good blindscanner as your first receiver and later add a card. it will ease your headaches. plus it will make the hobby enjoyable.

 

[updatelee]

i would totally agree with this statement. if i was just starting out and got a dvb card or usb version , i would be lost now... probably too frustrated to even try , get a good blindscanner as your first receiver and later add a card. it will ease your headaches. plus it will make the hobby enjoyable.

exactly, cause even if you decide to get a pc sat tuner down the road, you;ll still use that nice blindscan ird to find the feeds freq/pol/symbolrate