Bandstacking technology thoughts

[kymics]

Wow! With the advent of Iceberg bringing Toroidal to the masses and jerryt/Anole making bandstacking understandable, it feels like this concept of hobby FTA has just taken another step forward.

Any sense on what equipment (more so STB's) work well with bandstacked LNB's? You mentioned that you need to do a blindscan of the H and V as separate satellites, so that would also be desirable in a box.

Speaking of, jerryt how are you able to blindscan with satellite cards only, you have one of those oddball versions that supports it?

 

[jerryt]

Wow! With the advent of Iceberg bringing Toroidal to the masses and jerryt/Anole making bandstacking understandable, it feels like this concept of hobby FTA has just taken another step forward.

Any sense on what equipment (more so STB's) work well with bandstacked LNB's? You mentioned that you need to do a blindscan of the H and V as separate satellites, so that would also be desirable in a box.

Speaking of, jerryt how are you able to blindscan with satellite cards only, you have one of those oddball versions that supports it?

I have a Skystar 2 version 2.3 which supports blind scans, but only used it while I was figuring everything out.

I just convert satellite init files for bandstacking LNB's then convert to either Horizontal or Vertical as needed.

 

[qwert1515]

How would you compare the "Skystar 2 version 2.3" to your STB in what it finds and the speed?

Thanks.

 

[Mr Tony]

Any sense on what equipment (more so STB's) work well with bandstacked LNB's? You mentioned that you need to do a blindscan of the H and V as separate satellites, so that would also be desirable in a box.

Rreally any box wil work. Some arre easier than others. For a blind scan, I use LNB LO of 13850. Sure the frequencies are whacked but it will blind scan both polarities. If you manually enter the frequencies then you can leave it at 10750. The reason I need to use 13850 is all of my boxes only scan from 11700-12350 when the LNB LO is 10750 (950-1600 IF freq). When set to anything else it will scan the whole KU arc (950-2150 IF freq). My Coolsat 5000, Pansat & Fortec work fine with the LNB LO as 13850. The CS8000 I leave it as 10750 and do a math problem (CS8K has no blind scan). Example is is the frequency is 12000 H I enter it as 12600 (24600-H frequency) and change to V and it works fine.

 

[jerryt]

How would you compare the "Skystar 2 version 2.3" to your STB in what it finds and the speed?

Thanks.

I have a CS5000 which I also use while figure this bandstacking stuff out. It was slower then the PC, but the CS5000 scans both TP and Channels. The PC blind scan only gives you a TP list, and it misses strong TP's. What is up with that?

But PCI cards can get PBS HD !!

 

[Mr Tony]

Those numbers are advertized, and I am sure they would not lie (wink, wink). I am going by how they perform in the real world (My back yard).

so true. Until you try them you can't go by a box says

1) I could not find ANY lnb that would tune 87 in a multifeed where 87 was not in the center, The P870 (Or any FSS 105 type) works perfectly. What does that tell you?

I get the PBS mux at around 80 on the Pansat. When I use to have a LNB angled off the best I could pull was 60. This is 6 degrees off dead centre on the T90

2) These Band Stacked FSS LNB's have given me the highest signal signal strength I have ever had to date. Much better then my 0.3 Invacom. What does that tell you?

The signals on these are the same or a smidge better than most other LNB's I use that advertise .4 or .5

I like the fact you can slip these LNB's right between 2 LNB's that are 4 degrees apart on the T90. So I was able to do 85,87,89,91,93 with 3 LNB's at 85,89,93 and just slip the bandstacked LNB's in between and use zip ties

 

[jerryt]

Rreally any box wil work. Some arre easier than others. For a blind scan, I use LNB LO of 13850. Sure the frequencies are whacked but it will blind scan both polarities. If you manually enter the frequencies then you can leave it at 10750. The reason I need to use 13850 is all of my boxes only scan from 11700-12350 when the LNB LO is 10750 (950-1600 IF freq). When set to anything else it will scan the whole KU arc (950-2150 IF freq). My Coolsat 5000, Pansat & Fortec work fine with the LNB LO as 13850. The CS8000 I leave it as 10750 and do a math problem (CS8K has no blind scan). Example is is the frequency is 12000 H I enter it as 12600 (24600-H frequency) and change to V and it works fine.

Blind scan with 13850 and you get both Vertical and Horizontals? WOW.

 

[Mr Tony]

yep. If I set the LNB LO to 13850 it will scan the whole sat both sides. I set it to V only and it scans from IF 950-1600 the original V sides and from 1600-2150 the normally H polarity stuff (obviously on V side).

So when I scan AMC3 the highest V is 12180 and then a little bit later you see what is Montana PBS at 12145 (the normally H side it scans down the frequencies). it's hard to describe but it works fine when blind scanning. Just the frequencies are off

 

[kymics]

I like the fact you can slip these LNB's right between 2 LNB's that are 4 degrees apart on the T90. So I was able to do 85,87,89,91,93 with 3 LNB's at 85,89,93 and just slip the bandstacked LNB's in between and use zip ties

That's good stuff but then you have a limited number of satellites that you can get on one receiver. If they were all bandstacked, you could use multiswitches/diseqcs instead of disecqs/switches to distribute all the sats to a bunch of receivers.

I guess some pros and cons for either way.

 

[jerryt]

yep. If I set the LNB LO to 13850 it will scan the whole sat both sides. I set it to V only and it scans from IF 950-1600 the original V sides and from 1600-2150 the normally H polarity stuff (obviously on V side).

So when I scan AMC3 the highest V is 12180 and then a little bit later you see what is Montana PBS at 12145 (the normally H side it scans down the frequencies). it's hard to describe but it works fine when blind scanning. Just the frequencies are off

Hey Iceberg, when you do a blind scan with LOF of 13850, do the vertical channels scan in 3100 higher or lower then Lyngsat?

 

[Mr Tony]

higher

The frequencies show between 14800 & 16000. When I do a blind scan on the fortec that is the frequency range it inputs

The "normal" verticals are between 14800 & 15450 and the "normal" H now V due to bandstacked are between 15450 & 16000. Its nice as I dont need to do the math and it scans all them in. When I scan 91 any TP with a S/R of 30000 I remove once the blind scan is done (those are data and the Fortec hangs on those for like 2 minutes at a time) and do a satellite scan