Back on C band after 15 years What about the LNB and feed horn?

[ken2400]

Back in the mid 90's I had a 6' mesh and some others I played around with.
I picked up a 5' like 5 or 6 years ago. Need to find the photos.
I tossed it up tonight and now have some stuff off 99W


As you can see from the photos I have a rotor on this BUT no way to drive it.
How do I get rid of the rotor or do I need a new feed horn or parts of one?
The dish at night is what I did tonight, the one in the day is from when I picked it up.

Thanks

 

[ken2400]

OMG I pulled it 11/27/2004. I should have this dish up YEARS ago. Oh well better late than never.

 

[FaT Air]

Being an Az-El mount, the servo feed horn is probably the most convenient. A servo driver, that you'd have to calibrate, would do the job of changing the skew?polarity. Google search: servo driver
Just a warning: Today, with 2° satellite spacing, you may have trouble getting some TP's because of adjacent satellite interference. So be on the lookout, you'll probably want a bigger one shortly. Some can still be found "in the wild" for little or nothing. In the meantime, Have fun, & welcome back to C band.

 

[T4Runner]

But if he leaves the old LNB w/the need to have two extra wires on the feedline coax, he'll spend more on the line out to the dish because he will be forced to get a 7 wire settup? Why not just replace the LNB and all he needs is a coax? Unless the fixed elev az settup is to be replaced with a actuator for a polar mount, ... which means he will have to spend $$ for a polar mount... . Nevermind, I'm confusing myself...

 

[Dishman Dan]

Nevermind, I'm confusing myself...

...and me! :doh:

 

[Lone Cloud]

It looks like fine mesh on it. Maybe fine enough to get Ku transmissions also.

If so, I might consider like a 741 C/Ku voltage controlled lnb. You could avoid all that polarotor stuff

 

[ken2400]

Yes it is fine mesh.
Where to buy the 741 LNB?
Thanks

 

[Lone Cloud]

I think Sadoun has it. Just Google it.



That type of lnb is difficult to get aimed just right, but when you get it, they work well. A big advantage is that you only need one cable to it and they switch via diseqc and 22 khz settings, which most receivers have.

 

[ken2400]

How is the BSC621-2D vs 741


Thanks

 

[KE4EST]

Good question? I have both and I can get maybe a little(and I mean little) bit more out of a BSC, that is on an 8' dish, but not enough to make much difference, YMMV.

 

[Lone Cloud]

I have only used the BSC universal. When it was adjusted right it did pretty good. People have been saying that the 741 is a little better.

 

[ken2400]

I also have a ring and feed horn that has both a C and Ku mounts. It also has a rotor on it.

So my next question is would the 741 be a good choice?
should I update the LNB on the horn I have?
Maybe just go get a ESX241?

What would give the most quality on the 5'

Thanks

 

[Dishman Dan]

So my next question is would the 741 be a good choice?
should I update the LNB on the horn I have?
Maybe just go get a ESX241?

I would go with a C/Ku lnbf or separate C band & Ku band lnbfs before I would upgrade a lnb. The really decent performance and control simplicity with todays receivers are a plus. Adding a dedicated Ku dish and multi output lnbfs (Like the ESX242 & ESX522 or whatever) will give you more options for using more than one receiver. Ice buildup is usually a problem in the winter for me and that knocks the Ku out often on my 10 footer so I put up a 1M for Ku.

The C/Ku lnbfs like the 741 are great on C band and a little touchy for setting up Ku band.

 

[ken2400]

I found this feed horn on a 8 or 10' dish that was sitting next to a building years ago.
It appeared to have pulled down and was not worth saving.
The feed horn was as I remember noting when it pulled it both C and Ku so out came the tools.

This and the orig feed horn on the 5' are both Chaparral brand with a 25 deg C band California amp LNB along with a 0.9 deg Ku California amp LNB.

Both work BUT I was having problems with the made in USA servo. I put the made in Taiwan servo on it.
After moving the USA one by hand a little bit and running a few times it seems to work now to. It makes a bit more noise than the Taiwan one.

The orig 5' has a 20 deg C band California amp LNB.

It's nice to put all this stuff to use now.
I do plan on getting some other LNBs soon.

Thanks for all the help so far.