Anyone making a spring FTA "to do list"?

[iafirebuff]

Maybe I have cabin fever, but I am making a "to do list" for FTA. I plan on trying fo 30w wiht my spare Primestar, maybe running a receiver to my bedroom, and my "big" project - trying to make a Primestar dish into a "Dish 1000" - I think it should be easy, just need to figure out a way to mount the triple LNB to the Primestar. What's on your list?

 

[Pepper]

I'm wanting to get a new receiver with blind scan and better motor support. If I use the motor for about 15 minutes it just quits moving after a while, I'm pretty sure one of the circuits in the receiver is overheating. It used to be about 5 minutes usability, I attached a fan to the one chip that has a heat sink and now it works for about 15-20 minutes.

 

[iafirebuff]

No worries of overheating up here! Although we are having a heat wave - it is in the high 20's! We been below zero for a few weeks now
That does keep the motor cool

 

[jayelem]

My Spring to do list will be - To Scrap or Not To Scrap - that is the question.

Going to pull out my old Birdview Dish, see if it's not warped first , then I'll do a LOS survey, I'd like to get 40.5 West - 139.0 West. , retrofit feeder support arms add LNB and hopefully track the arc if the motor still works.
8-9 ft Solid dish should outperform a 10 ft. mesh or at least come close.

God willing , I'd love to add C-band back into my FTA.

 

[Mr Tony]

since it was balmy yesterday (28 here in Minneapolis after 2 weeks of below zero), moved the C-Band dish back to the deck

had to dismantle it (take off LNB arms and the 3 bolts holding the dish to the frame), then move it piece by piece through the house and ouot on the deck (it was in the garage on the south side of house and deck is on North side)

first the dish
then the mount
then the arms
rebuild and throw it up on the old crappy cable spool to clear the roof line and now I have my nets back on G4. The G3 Equity stuff is goofy as I get a 60 quality but it keeps breaking up. Need a 75

 

[Anole]

FTA rcvr w/ hard drive

I'm keeping my ear to the ground for a decent FTA receiver with hard drive.

The Conaxsat CNX-V1 and the Sonicview SV-4000 USB both let you hook up your own USB drives.
One doesn't have blind scan, and the other doesn't actually transfer files (based on what I've read).
Think there's a Pansat 6000, too, but it's as buggy as the others.

Not really much I can -do- about these, but if their manufacturers fix 'em, I could certainly buy one.

 

[MJFlash]

In between all the rain, I'm actually doing my list. In the last week, I've updated one dish from 24" to 90cm, moved from a Dish 500 to a Dish 1000+ (adding two new LNBs), have added two more DPP44s to support 8 Dish receivers + 4 FTAs, and will next be upgrading my motorized dish from an SG2100 w/80cm to an HH120 with a 100cm Fortec Star, running three more RG-6 runs, adding another LNB to another dish... it never stops! Man, I love this hobby!

 

[Keith Brannen]

Who can wait until spring when a FTA idea/change pops into ones head??? Certainly not me!

January found me moving the LNB I had pointed at AMC4 to Galaxy 11, then to AMC1, then back to Galaxy 11, etc., all during freezing or just above freezing weather. Even did one move at night! Also had to use the hairdyer once to unfreeze the bracket! (Remember this is an addiction, not a hobby.)

I wasn't getting a good signal on Galaxy 11 and figured out that I was trying to shoot through part of my Star Choice dish, so when the temperature was almost at the freezing mark, out I went and moved the dish back along the wall as far as I could (about 20 inches). It did increase signal quality on Galaxy 11 by about 15%, but there was still some interference. Couple of days later I go out and buy a circular LNB and point at Echostar 8 to get GOLTV instead of moving the Star Choice dish (which I did think about, but common sense finally prevailed).

I found there were a couple advantages to working in the cold as opposed to working in the heat. You definitely work faster, and seem to plan out the changes better to spend the minimum time outside. Of course, found several disadvantages as well, frozen fingers topping the list. A word to the wise, ALWAYS have spares of the nuts, bolts, and washers you are using. If you thought hunting for that dropped nut in the grass is a pain, wait until you drop it in the snow and have do the "needle in a haystack" hunting with bare hands to find it!

 

[airgator96]

looking to get a 2.4 dish, and HD recvr that will play 4:2:2

 

[voomvoom]

I call my FTA "to do list", the Never Ending Story. I keep adding to it. Plenty to do, plenty to do, and Oh-Yeah, I have plenty to do. I'm not even going to mention "I want to's"!!!

Al

 

[iafirebuff]

Sounds like spring can't wait! I am anxious!

 

[airgator96]

It doesn't look no where near spring here in KC... we got it again with the snow!

 

[Mr Tony]

Who can wait until spring when a FTA idea/change pops into ones head??? Certainly not me!

ditto. Get an idea and do it

I found there were a couple advantages to working in the cold as opposed to working in the heat. You definitely work faster, and seem to plan out the changes better to spend the minimum time outside.

oh my god that is so true. When its nice out I take an hour bringing stuff out and getting it all ready then decide what to do. When its -8F out you plan everything and hope that it doesn't take alot of time to do.

 

[Mr Tony]

projects to do once it either gets warmer or the snow melts off the roof
-rerun a cable from the motorized to inside. Right now my "slave" cable is in two pieces
-move a few LNB's around on the T90 dish. Want to put 87 back on for the PBS stuff (now that the CS8000 decodes AC-3 in the box). Also put IA6/G26/T6 back on.
-redo the cabling under the deck and clean it up
-put compression connectors on the cables that have the twist on ends

But using Keith's theory, I'll do it all when its cold out. Working under the deck isn't bad when I'm doing laundry as the dryer vent is right there so we just warm up the hands with the dryer exhaust

 

[Keith Brannen]

But using Keith's theory, I'll do it all when its cold out. Working under the deck isn't bad when I'm doing laundry as the dryer vent is right there so we just warm up the hands with the dryer exhaust

That's the type of advanced planning/thinking I'm talking about! Get a load of laundry done, have an outdoor hand warmer, and get some FTA work done!

 

[iafirebuff]

Last fall when it would get chilly out at sunset (I seemed to be outside aiming dishes in the dark, cool crisp fall air alot last fall), I would build a bon fire in our fire pit and sit by the fire while the Fortec was blind scanning

 

[drhydro]

This spring i have a few projects:

1) New pole mount for the 1.2, along with a 36v actuator/ mount mated to a vbox.

2)New pole mount for my 6' BUD, luckily I will have a backhoe here for that. Where it is at now the LOS is limited, time to fix that.

3) And this is the big one, removing all 4 of my roof mount KU dishs and relocating them. We are putting a new roof on and there is no way I am penetrating it. Up till now, with one exception, I have used existing roof mounts for these dishs. A couple of them are looking at the only LOS for my property that is available. Figuring out where and how to relocate them should be fun, wish me luck :-D

 

[CharredPC]

Officially THE most pathetic To-Do list here. Ready?

1. Move to a location that allows dishes once the lease is up here.
2. Decide which way to go this time- STB or PCI card. Then-
3. Buy an FTA setup (bigger the better)!

Yes, I left out the part about setting it up... but isn't that nearly as much fun as using it? How can that be a chore?

 

[Tron]

I need to take a leaf blower up to the satellite farm and clean out the fall leaves. Next, replace some of the zip ties that have deteriorated due to UV light. Finally, I need to run a cable from the farm into the side window of my house so that I can get a feed over to my other PCs

Since its comparably warm down here (lows in the 30s), I can get started as soon as Mardi Gras is over

 

[Davage]

I'm glad to see that it isn't just me who is dreaming of spring and all of the FTA projects to do. I am anxiously awaiting spring to tackle my FTA list.

Project # 1 - Install C-Band Dish I have a C-band dish that I've obtained for free by simply removing it from my wife's friend's back yard.

Project # 2 - Move all of my DBS and FTA Dishes to a point in the yard where the neighbours can't see them, but where they can still get line of sight to the birds. Since I'm putting up a 6 or 8 ft BUD, I figured that I'd be nice to the neighbours and move my 3 smaller dishes out of sight.

Project # 3 - Mounting a deep fringe antenna up in my attic to pick up over-the-air signals. My set of rabbit ears doesn't work too well except for our local channel. I know that I would probably get better signal if I mounted it outdoors, but again to avoid getting complaints from the neighbours I am going to mount the antenna in my attic and hope for the best.

Project # 4 : Buy another inexpensive FTA receiver to use on Galaxy 10 to put in the spare bedroom for guests to watch.

I know that some of the folks here would say "Who cares what the neighbours say", but I am also doing my best to keep the resale value of my house as high as possible, because I am hoping within 3 years to move to a house that is a little more rural and where I can start a dish and antenna farm.

All of the above projects will involve an maze of cables/connectors/splitters/switches I'm sure. I'll have to draw it all out on paper and figure out how much more RG6 cable I need to buy too. An additional FTA receiver may involve putting up another reflector. I have used a 24" Bell ExpressVu dish with linear LNB and have picked up Galaxy 10 in the past successfully, so I may do the same again for the guest room.

To some, this would seem like a lot of work. To me it is going to be a lot of FUN!