Best C-Band conical scalar rings for Channel Master offset dish?

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paulvr

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For my 180 cm Channel Master Offset disk I wanted to buy a set of conical scalar rings.
Living in Europe there are some things to consider:
1. Prices in Europe are sky-high while postal rates are minimal
2. Prices in the US are much lower but postal rates to Europe tend to be absurdly high
3. In China I can order such rings for US $6,99 plus relatively cheap postal rates to Europe.

However, are all conical scalar rings the same or are there big differences? When using a severly limited size dish the last thing you want is suffer unnecessary extra losses.

Does it make sense to order at a place like Alibaba or would I be cutting myself in the fingers doing so?

Personally I'll use it for C-Band only, but a friend who uses the same dish with a C/Ku LNB intends to use one for his installation too. I do wonder however what such scalar rings intended for C-Band reception improvements would do to his Ku-Band reception.

Is there anyone who could give me some advice in this matter?
 

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Thanks, but no thanks. I had a short discussion with this gentleman a few yearsa ago in which I got cussed out fiercely for having asked a critical question in public about one of their products. That is his problem as far as I'm concerned because I do a lot of product reviews in my country and neighboring countries. When I encounter someone with such a bad temper the last thing I would do is to recommend him or his company to my readers as a source for purchasing equipment. The customer having an issue is bound to get blaimed for whatever might not work as he or she expected. So I won't be his customer, that's for sure.
 
Sorry... I have never cussed any customer or reviewer or been accused of having a bad temper before. These comments are sure out in far left field for anyone who interacts with me personally or in business.

I participate in these forums as a hobbyist, as I enjoy the technology and try to give back to the hobby. Customer service, product support and positive customer interaction is the primary focus of myself and my business.

With your permission, May I link to our previous email exchange from several years ago? I would be happy to do so to allow forum readers to completely know the facts of our exchange and make up their own minds on this matter. I would only edit the emails to remove personal contact information.

Back to your original question. This scalar is tuned for c-band frequencies. The effect on KU frequencies will primarily be illumination shaping.
 
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Thanks, but no thanks. I had a short discussion with this gentleman a few yearsa ago in which I got cussed out fiercely for having asked a critical question in public about one of their products. That is his problem as far as I'm concerned because I do a lot of product reviews in my country and neighboring countries. When I encounter someone with such a bad temper the last thing I would do is to recommend him or his company to my readers as a source for purchasing equipment. The customer having an issue is bound to get blaimed for whatever might not work as he or she expected. So I won't be his customer, that's for sure.

I don't believe you.

If you truly believe this, then there's some real misunderstanding of his position on your side. Statements such as you made here in this post DEMAND you back it up with proof. Brian is one of the most generous, level headed, ethical, truthful small business owner that I've ever dealt with.
 
Perhaps it is possible, you got "cussed", by someone else selling FTA, however I feel very confident in saying it was never done by titanium. What would a person trying to make a living benefit, by acting in such a childish way?

Sent from my Moto X
 
Thanks, but no thanks. I had a short discussion with this gentleman a few yearsa ago in which I got cussed out fiercely for having asked a critical question in public about one of their products. That is his problem as far as I'm concerned because I do a lot of product reviews in my country and neighboring countries.

That is the funniest thing I have heard all day.

PLEASE PLEASE put that up! I know it is not true.

Brian is highly compassionate and is always serving people.
You can be as dumb as dirt, Brian will take an hour for a 3 dollar part to make sure it works right for his customer.

Brian post it up. He is trying to play 2 sides of 1 card..... Public and private.

paulvr is such a *****hat he will never concede
 
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Brian has put up with me and my craziness he has helped me out with my setup several times, even being a good teacher. I knew little about dishes before I got on here but he has help me out tech related to FTA ,he told me about my minibud how to set that up. He has given me great customer service, maybe you had talk to someone else selling his products and they gave you a hard time.
 
Dear Brian,
Indeed it involves your response of a few years back in which I quoted some of my readers and by other people from a British satellite website people who were disillusioned by the performance of your PLL-C-Band LNB. You decided that it was "highly unprofessional" of me to quote such responses. And after that you kept claiming that your ASC-1 box would work fine with the AJAK H2H mounts while in reality I know from the late Rainer Schulz, better known as "Ponny" that this was not at all the case at the time and that he was doing all he could to help you get this problem under control.

Instead of being honest about this you kept acting as if you were personally insulted by criticism of people, some of whom I know and respect as being very knowledgeable and sincere in our line of hobby. Normally, as a reviewer, I would have considered testing some of these things myself but given the fact that anything but "hooray" would be unacceptable as an outcome I decided against it.

As for the rest of the comments found here, with all due respect, just search the internet for non-American reviews on the subject. I haven't kept track of any possible developments at Titanium since this unpleasant exchange of words, but only half a year ago I spoke with another disappointed C-Band PLL-LNB customer trying to sell it second hand but not finding a buyer so I have no particular reason to assume that things have changed all that much. It's always nice when a firm like yours supports an hobby forum but it may never hinder objective discussions about the pro and cons of any product. And no, it's not a lack of professionalism for me as a journalist to report on views that differ from yours.
 
Sounds like a bit of sour grapes either that or they have better available equipment overseas than what we have here. FWIW I bought one of Titanium's LNB's a few years ago when I was playing around with a mini bud and it worked better than the run of the mill LNB's that most people buy. With my new 10' dish I tried the LNB that came with the package as opposed to the older one purchased from Titanium and the PLL LNB averaged 10% to 15% higher signal strength. Maybe as I get more experienced a polorotor feed horn and stand alone LNB's are in the picture as I know they are the best available but from my admittedly limited experience the PLL LNB definitely is better than the average one sold over here today.
 
Brian, you may as long as you publish the complete exchange. I must admit that I do cite from memory, I don't think that I kept any of our mail exchange. As far as the "sour grapes" remark by Arion are concerned, I don't really know what this is all about. First of all, all products, yours and ours, are fabricated in the Far East so there is no specific reason to be either nationalistic or to speak of "sour grapes". Furthermore, initially i assumed that a PLL LNB like the one by Titanium would most likely perform better than others. Just like I assumed this for Ku-Band LNB's.
In reality this doesn't really appear to be the case. From all kinds of places like Finland, Austria, Germany and Britain I've seen comparison lists made by people who tested the Titanium product and came to the conclusion that they were at best average meaning that it's very well possible that at one part of the band they do fine while on other parts they lag behind other products. Personally I use Norsat 8515 LNB's with parallel combined AV-Comm scalar rings (own modification) for best results with my 10 ft Unimesh dish.

And yes, the well known Octagon Ku-Band PLL LNBF also has it's perks but it often is inferior to either the Black Ultra or the Invacom SNH031 in combination with a Raven-Andrews offset feedhorn. Actually a fairly comperable situation with the experiences I hear from my readers with regards to the Titanium product.

As far as the ASC1 product is concerned, I was initially very interested at the time and therefore most disappointed when my good friend Rainer told me that things weren't at all OK when Brian kept claiming they were. And given the fact that he was Titanium's main representative in Europe there is no reason at all to even begin to doubt his words.

In my now 35 years of experience as a writer of books, magazines and articles as wel as a reviewer of satellite equipment I have had always superb contacts with a whole range of US manufacturers from Echostar to Norsat and from Gardiner to Chapparal, just to mention a few from a long, long list but I never ever encountered the kind of indifferent and bitchy reaction that I received from Brian. It was the last thing I expected being a former Californian resident myself a long long time ago and knowing how generally kind and open minded Californians tend to be. Hence the fact that I closed this chapter definitively assuming that I encountered the excaption that confirms the rule. And by the way, if you search on this very site you'll also encounter particularly nasty exchanges of words between Brian and one or two of his customers at the time. I sure wasn't the only one encountering this attitude.

And for those who like to go on bashing, feel free to do so. After all you have a president who sets the example how to do so. No problem for me, it generally tells more about you than about me. Nothing wrong with fidelity towards someone but to start name calling and making nasty assumptions without even knowing what the whole thing is all about is just plain stupid.
 
Hard to believe you'd expect a $40 LNBF to perform as well as $180 Norsats used on an orthomode feed... No bashing from me, but since you are trying to besmirch his good reputation, it's also a requirement for you to put up the PROOF or shut up.

I still do NOT believe the things you are saying about him, and I'm sure nobody else on this site does either.

Quite frankly, you will never change that opinion, since it's obvious you can't back it up with proof.
 
Dear mr. Primestar,

You are a king in insulting but a pauper when it comes to adequate reading! I NEVER EVER made any judgement myself on this Titanium product, I never owned nor tested one. I merely mentioned the fact that I had received a number of reader's comments about it. And like I said, if you look in the archive of satelliteguys you can find some really bad putdowns of people who mentioned that they felt very disappointed with Titanium products. But apparenty that's like cursing in church on this site.

So of course I didn't compare anything. Initially I was quite prepared to do so but I quickly changed my mind. I just gave some general background information about myself but apparently anything is good enough to get you raging based upon not properly reading what I said. Good luck. And as far as proof? What proof? I simply declared why I won't turn to the source that was recommended to me. Do you really think I'd be crazy or obsessed enough to build some kind of dossier on whomever behalves poorly to me or to customers? Forget it! That's really not worth it.
 
Thank you Paul for your ok to post the email exchange.I am currently on an extended Independence Day holiday weekend and will return to the office in a few days and post the old emails towards the end of the week.

I apologize that my interaction has been perceived as "bitchy, cussing, dishonest, unkind, close-minded" and any other word choice that you wish to conjure to attack my character. I don't understand this obsession, but I continue to wish you the best in the hobby and with your professional consulting and review contributions. Members will be able to decide independent of your or my recollection of the events leading up to this drama.
 
There's no drama involved, Brian, my objection against your way of speaking is that you seemed to think that as a professional I have no right to mention complaints that my readers made to me about your products. Of course I may report the things people write to me about. Besides I mentioned these things, I did not and will not take a position on their being right or wrong. I only pass judgements upon my own experiences.

I do however find it very strange that you kept insisting that the ASC1 box was perfectly suitable for an AJAK H2H mount (of which I have two in service on my testing gear) while others like Rainer and also some folks here on satelliteguys told the exact opposite story. Of these others I can't tell but I knew Rainer as a most knowledgeable and reliable pillar in the professional world and I never had any doubts at all about this knowledge and/or judgement.

The exact words that were used are of no importance to me, if they are to you feel free to publish anything you like. But the moment you accused me of unprofessional behavior combined with the things mentioned above that finished the topic for me. Like I said, no drama involved, perhaps you have better sides as well, I got to know your abrasive side and felt that there was nothing to gain by continuing any further discussion. I told it honestly, there's nothing more to it than that.

Wishing you a pleasant rest of your extended holiday weekend and to all others here, I hope you're having a good 4th of July celebration wherever you are.


PS:
By the way, I'm not a great seacher and neither do I wish to make some kind of a big deal out of this since I rarely participate in discussions here, but when I checked with the "search" option for things involving the ASC1 and the AJAK mounts in relation to Rainer (Ponny) I saw that even less than a year ago the problems still weren't solved. I didn't check all links but please look at:
https://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threadloom/search?query=user:Ponny and check for instance #31.

You accused me of not being professional by mentioning some complaints uttered by your customers and asking for your reaction. But when you yourself had such a very hard time acknowledging that things just didn't work you between the ASC1 and the AJAK mounts, you would have saved yourself a lot of trouble by stating so honestly instead of insisting that things were OK. To my humble opinion it's that that hurts your reputation far worse.

When people turn to me for advice I must be absolutely sure that I refer them to someone who will not say that things are fine while in fact they aren't. Even when you count upon the chance that eventually you'll find a solution you must at all times be true about the present state of affairs of that moment. That's where things in my eyes went basically very, very wrong.

I never had such experiences in the earlier days of the satellite era. Not with companies like Drake, Seavey and Winegard with whom I started my main reviewing work where American products are concerned, nor with any other American company since. That is until the early years of this century. Then it started with a Florida company who sold a C-Ku LNBF that was widely advertised and acclaimed but often wouldn't switch between C and Ku and kept insisting that it was all the customer's fault until about two years later.

Perhaps the low price of such equipment did play a role (the scalar rings of that one looked like they were made of used sardine can material) but even then one must always be honest. There's nothing more frustrating for a customer than hearing that it's his inability that causes malfunctioning while in reality it's the product itself that is faulty. For European customers often the price of shipment and importation taxes from the US adds so much to the cost that the original price isn't even the main obstacle. I must however compliment Brian on that part, the fact that his products are sold through Amazon in Britain makes at least that his prodcuts are indeed available at an accessible price, at least until Brexit takes effect. I did in some cases refer readers to Amazon als a source to order the C-Band PLL when asked about it, but of course without giving any judgement or evaluation. This particularly when I knew no source for affordable Zinwell LNBF's which I do know from own experience to be fairly reliable even though I must admit that I also have encoutered some disappointing ones later on .
 
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paulvr you SAID IN ONE OF YOUR POST had a short discussion with this gentleman a few yearsa ago in which I got cussed out fiercely for having asked a critical question in public about one of their products.

Post it up. PUT UP THE PUBLIC POST!!!!!

I have a ASC1 and a AJAK and it works fine. I have had small issues with the count being off a few times, this was fixed with ease. A 50 cent part and 5 min of time.

The issue of taxes and cost is an issue on you and your government. Reflects nothing on him.
Maybe you should take issues with your democracy.
 
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I merely told danristheman why his suggestion wasn't an option for me. Nothing more. I had no idea that I started a shitstorm in which all kinds of people, now you, try to make a court case out of this. I quote from memory, and I'm sorry when I'm not supposed to have that. If you're so incredibly interested you may start searching yourself on this forum. I really don't want to spend hours doing this, don't even know if this is possible. Sorry but this just isn't worth my time. I have a lot of other obligations to fulfill.
 
I merely told danristheman why his suggestion wasn't an option for me. Nothing more. I had no idea that I started a shitstorm in which all kinds of people, now you, try to make a court case out of this. I quote from memory, and I'm sorry when I'm not supposed to have that. If you're so incredibly interested you may start searching yourself on this forum. I really don't want to spend hours doing this, don't even know if this is possible. Sorry but this just isn't worth my time. I have a lot of other obligations to fulfill.

I'll make it easy for you and any others out there that want the truth that you seem incapable of providing and only give libelous anecdotes about.

Here is your entire posting history, which took me exactly 10 seconds to lookup and provide.

https://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/search/14334499/

https://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/search/14334527/

ALSO, this appears to be the EXACT THREAD where above you posted that Brian "CUSSED me out FIERCELY". As you can see, it did NOT happen:

How about a Chapparal C-Band OMT with "studs"?
 
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