Any one use a TV video transmitter (UHF or VHF) to help in dish tuning?

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ken2400

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Sep 4, 2004
1,309
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Central NY State
Looking to get a UHF or VHF video transmitter so I can leave my receiver inside.
Does anyone use one and what make and model?

Thanks
 
I guess I'm lucky as I can leave the TV and receiver inside when I work on the dish farm

I place it in front of the deck door
 
Ebay would be my suggestion.

I use my Visionsat IV 200 PVR receiver and the ATSC Digital Haier 7" TV for tweaking at the dish. The TV is small and it has a little stand and runs on batteries or with the power cord and it has A/V jacks.
 
If your receiver uses an IR remote, you may also want to consider adding a wireless remote extender to your shopping list. Having to go in and change a TP or move the dish motor is nearly as maddening as having to go inside to check a television after every adjustment.

I hate solving one problem but creating another in the process. ;)
 
What would be really nice for what you are proposing is if you had an AZBox receiver and the virtual remote program would work better so that you could stream real-time video from the AZBox to your PC.

Then, you could take a laptop out to the dish, be within range of the WiFi, and see the quality meter in real time. You could then adjust your USALS or DiSEqC motor positions outdoors from the laptop, change satellites and TPs and all without having to lug all the other stuff out there.

This would be great if it worked. I cannot get it (the virtual remote) to do anything but screen shots and that isn't even perfect yet.

I really do understand your goal here, and it is a great idea. My dish is roughly 300 feet away from the house, across the yard. So I have a gist of what you want to accomplish.

In the dead of winter when you have more spare time to fool around, you really hate putting on a coat, hat and gloves and boots to run out there to make a tweak. Then undress from all of that so that you can come back inside and not leave a mess and do this repeatedly.

Just as much, you don't really want to haul a TV and your receiver and all the other junk out to the dish and run an extension cord out there in the middle of winter and sit out there and play around for too long. Even dressed well, it isn't convenient.

This year was poor in my area for doing much of anything, every day that I had off work when the weather was warm, it was raining. I would take all my equipment out there, fool around for a time and then have to pack it all back up and rush it out of the rain, then it would quit raining and I would try again, but mother nature just couldn't make up her mind and I got frustrated going in and out.

Being able to haul one device, say a laptop, out there and have that perform all the functions you need would be awesome. Something like Pismire is referring to.


RADAR
 
I used to pipe the Coolsat or Geosatpro through a TV card into the PC and then use VNC to access the PC on my iPod touch.
It worked but the delay time added up.
2 seconds for the TV tuner card
1 second for LAN transfer and display.

When I timed it, any movement at the dish took 5-6 seconds to register. That kind of time REALLY adds up.

So I decided to move to something alot more responsive and less digital.

I use something called a "Nippon America Video Sender"
Cost about $28 shipped off eBay.
Broadcasts analog on UHF Ch. 14-31
Comes set on Ch. 19
It will broadcast or work as a channel modulator depending on which way you flip the power switch.

I then use my portable analog Sony TV to check the meter while I'm working.
2.2" screen isn't enough to read the Coolsat meter numbers but is fine for the Geosatpro meter.

I "recently" added a set of "Powermid" X-10 IR-extenders.
Haven't spent too much time using them for setting up yet.
Too much everyday shuffle, not enough tweaking needed to motivate me to get out there and mess with things.
 
I've actually used my son's baby audio/video monitor while I was up on the roof to align my dish! The video screen is small but you could output that to a larger monitor. :)
 
The last time I used a set of two way radios. My wife calling out Q's while I was on the roof adjusting the dish - not doing that again. :)

I've since picked up a Bell+Howell mini LCD TV and a UHF TV transmitter off ebay. Total investment was about $50-$60.

Since UHF/VHF TV signals are gone now, if you can find an older mini UHF/VHF TV then you should be able to pick it up at a good price.
 
Another way would be just leave the setup in the house ...then just run a single video cable from the receiver inside to outside a small battery powered portable TV with A/V jacks.

If you do a lot of installations and tweaks, it might be worth it to buy a couple hundred feet of wire....just put Video jacks on each end.
 
"I use something called a "Nippon America Video Sender"
Cost about $28 shipped off eBay.
Broadcasts analog on UHF Ch. 14-31
Comes set on Ch. 19
It will broadcast or work as a channel modulator depending on which way you flip the power switch."

I used something similar to this...but not this particular model. It worked OK...the only complaint I had was frequency drift while the unit heated up. So I guess you will want a TV monitor that has some kind of fine tuning on it to offset this drift. The unit got pretty warm but not hot...I strapped a heat sink to the unit but it didn't help much.
 
I purchased a dual LCD monitor DVD player on EBay for only $10 including shipping that was advertised as the DVD player not working. I wanted to use the monitors outside with a receiver while adjusting the dish. They work great! The added bonus is that the DVD player works as well and only had a slide switch in the wrong position.
 
Nippon video video sender, is not FCC approved and not legal to send video signal on TV broadcast bands!!:(

You are sending a AM double sideband video instead of AM video filter "VSB" will result in 12 MHz wide signal carrier instead of normal 6 MHz wide video channel.

You may be interfering the digital TV signals, and may get busted by the FCC!!:eek:

You should look for type FCC Approved video senders on 902 to 928 MHz, 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz.:up

Just want to let you know.......
 
I bought those UHF Transmitter on Ebay for $29 that can tune from 14-83. They are low power because of laws (less than 300mW). Lots of interference, signal drifts as you watch channel and you have to retune with a small screwdriver, and range limited. Once you move in different rooms the signal is gone.
Good only if you are out in the open within 50ft.
 
Not at this time, exactly. I have a wireless security camera (with audio) I could aim at my TV, and bring my portable DVD player and its receiver outside. UHF remote is relatively easy, for I have a UHF remote setup, and a UHF>IR setup I made for my summer with Sirius (where I was lent a Sirius tuner for repairing it, and set iu up in the back room where I could run its antenna), and set up my security camera and UHF remote system to run it from my TV lounge and office. BTW, the camera is a 1.2Ghz FM, and can be received on an analog satellite receiver, with a simple wire antenna.

Practically, I think it is just as easy to bring out my 14" portable CRT TV and satellite receiver. Since my dishes are just off the deck, just a short extension cord is needed.

My C-band dish was way on the other side of the yard, so it was a bit of doing lugging stuff out there, when C-band stuff was bigger (receiver, TV, power supply for 5" TV, dish mover box, lawn chair, big wrenches)

I have back-fend one coax from a receiver to tweak my Shaw Direct system.
 
I've found the simplest way is to use two diplexers, and feed the RF output from the receiver into one diplexer and use another diplexer and a portable tv on the other end where the dish is. It's simple, easy, and works really well. No extra cable runs, no transmitters to play around with.

I picked up a Maxpeak SAM DVB-S meter which works great and makes dish pointing super easy and quick. I got it for $350 on ebay. It's one of the best tools I have when pointing a dish. I use it for AMC 1 and AMC 21. Only drawback is that it doesn't have a setting for AMC 10, since there are very little DVB signals on there. When I point my 8" to AMC 10, I have to use a portable tv and diplexors.
 
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