Big Thanks to All

[lownote2]

Ok, so I'm sitting here since about 3:30pm yesterday watching tv.... for free!! I owe a lot of you some thank you's. Iceburg, Anole, Turbosat, Cadsulfide, osu1991, and anyone else I forgot. I should actually thank everyone here because I have done so much reading in the past couple weeks.

Also, a big thanks (maybe even a plug) to Bryansr. He had a coolsat 6000 in the classifieds. Talked to him on Friday and paid him Friday evening. He sent out the coolsat Saturday.

So, I spent Sunday running all the cable under my house, grounding it, and running it to my living room. All I had to do was plant a pole and tune in the Primestar dish I scored for free. (and pray it worked) I figured when I got home from working yesterday that I would go ahead and set the pole and trench the line to the house so everything would be hooked up and working. I finally found a 2 1/4 pole late Sunday evening (also for free compliments of my Father in law who does construction.)

So I get home about 1pm and am driving down my driveway and notice a box on my front porch. I wasn't even expecting the receiver to arrive until Tuesday at the earlies, Wed being more probable. Low and behold, I don't know who Bryansr knows at the post office .... but there was the coolsat 6000. From Georgia to Missouri, mailed Saturday and here Monday. What a surprise. So of course I got to work on that dish immediately. Dug a hole, made sure it was plumb and level, pounded that sucker in deep and concreted with about 60lbs of concrete. Trenched the line and hooked it up. Mounted the dish and went to work finding G18. Now, luckily for me I have a birddog since I do installations for a living, but I have to say that G18 was a bugger to find. I wasn't having much luck, so I decided to do it the old fashion way.... line up with compass as close as I can and see if receiver would lock and then make a billion trips in and out of the house checking for signal. I finally got a little bit of a lock. ( I say finally, it was only about 20 minutes of work) Then I hooked back up the birdog, played around carefully and found it. Once I found it I maxed it out on my meter. I came back inside, did a blind scan and the rest is history.

Of course..another plug for this site... soon to becoming will be a pub membership because I feel like such a freeloader since I have gained a ton of knowledge from this site.

Just figured I'd share a FTA success story and I owed a big thanks to everyone for being so helpful. My only complaint right now is that I'm already wanting a motor... dang I can see this hobby adding up, but so far I don't have too much money tied up. Anyone reading this thinking of getting into it, if your patient and smart you can do a good job of scrapping up what a lot of people don't want and save $$.

Motor question.... I know mounting that primestar dish to a primestar will be a bit challenging, but can be done. Will I have a problem mounting the motor to a 2 1/4 inch pole?

Also, I've got great signal strength on all G18 channels except the vetrans channel? Shows up as Channel 3-VBA 10.731H 13.240. Signal is only 63-64% and pixilated with choppy sound half the time and other time picture is better but starts to pixilate. Right now it's terrible. Just about all my other channels are coming in at 85-94%. A few jump all over from 63-87 but never break up.
And I have no sound on Retrojams 11.114V 4.340 but figure maybe that's normal or do I need to adjust something?

Once again to all, Thank You!!!!

BTW.. found posts for retrojams no sound problem, looks like I need an ac-3 receiver...dang it. Now if I only understood spanish

 

[Lak7]

And I have no sound on Retrojams 11.114V 4.340 but figure maybe that's normal or do I need to adjust something?

RetroJams uses AC3 sound, you will need some type of Stereo Receiver to connect to.

Congrats! By the way.

 

[turbosat]

motorized

Which primestar dish do you have? If its one of the 84E (stamped on back) elliptical, the fact that the dish isn't sked might lose a little signal for you. But shouldn't make a big big difference. If you got one of the almost round primestars, that part shouldn't matter. You can find lots of threads about 'motorized primestar' if you do a search on here. Put mine on a polar mount, for a c-band dish, interesting project and works well. You'll have to lose some of the hardware off the original mount, heavy! Pick a motor that can handle the weight that's left, some people like these Stab brand motors for primestars. Cost a little more, but more strength. The motor will 'skew' the dish, as it moves, so you won't have to worry about skew any more once you get the motor mounted and tracking the arc. Good luck motoring!

 

[voomvoom]

Congratulations! When you look for a motor, be sure and check for the weight the motor can handle, so you don't get one to small. You may have to do major modifications to the Primestar to lose some weight, so a motor will handle it? It can be done, people on here have done it, but not me. You might consider getting a dish designed for a motor and keeping the Primestar where you have it? Good Luck..!!

 

[Anole]

AC3 solution

If this thread doesn't do it for ya, try searching the FTA department for: Sonic Voom.

Just a little inexpensive external device to convert the AC3 to stereo.
Has various hook-up modes, to solve most problems: RCA out; optical or coaxial in.


PS: you're welcome.

 

[Mr Tony]

congrats on getting it up and working

From Georgia to Missouri, mailed Saturday and here Monday.

I've sent a couple items out o a Saturday and they got them on Monday. I know one went to Missouri too (from Minnesota) so maybe its your post office

Also, I've got great signal strength on all G18 channels except the vetrans channel? Shows up as Channel 3-VBA 10.731H 13.240. Signal is only 63-64% and pixilated with choppy sound half the time and other time picture is better but starts to pixilate.

I know that channel is low signal on my Coolsat too

 

[osu1991]

Congratulations, nothing like seeing those channels scan in the first time.

 

[Cadsulfide]

Good Work Lownote! If you do installations for a living, consider an array as an alternative to a motor. No delays. Keeps you in practice finding weaker sats, and it's like a add stuff as you find the dishes program.

 

[Anole]

Good Work Lownote! If you do installations for a living, consider an array as an alternative to a motor. No delays. Keeps you in practice finding weaker sats, and it's like a add stuff as you find the dishes program.

I do like the motor, but Cad has a good point.
Easy to add that 2nd dish, and then it's just like Oreos - you can't get enough.
But at least, our addiction is socially acceptable, cheaper, and a positive influence on your life and others. -

Anyway, for up to four and maybe eight LNBs (or dishes), there are simple switch hookups over in our FAQ department.
Don't forget multiple LNBs per dish. That's the battle cry of some guys, here!

So, the motor is not the only good solution.

 

[lownote2]

Good Work Lownote! If you do installations for a living, consider an array as an alternative to a motor. No delays. Keeps you in practice finding weaker sats, and it's like a add stuff as you find the dishes program.

I would consider that, but.... I live in a pretty nice little cul de sac and don't think my neighbors would appreciate a dish farm. There's just 1 street coming into here with about 8 homes and unfortunately the south side of my house faces that street. I have an awesome LOS on that side of the house and could pretty much scan the entire arc. Had to move the dish out from the house about 8 feet with future thinking in mind. My house is probably 25 feet from the road on that side, so needless to say when my wife got home the other evening I got quite a ribbing about "that eyesore" in our yard. I don't think it looks bad at all, just bigger than normal dishes. Even had the nosey old neighbor lady find a reason to "walk her dog" just to see what I was doing when I was setting up the dish. Needless to say a dish farm is going to be out of the question. I really wish I lived out in the country. I'd love to try C band, but I'm sure the neighbors would revolt if I tried that here.

Anyway, the Primestar dish for sure says channel master on the back, but other than that I'm not sure about any numbers, will check later. It's the oval type with one arm, not the round one with the three arms coming out.
I did think about multiple LNB's, but that looks like a bit of mod work. Perhaps sometime, but a motor seems more suitable. Sadoun had an hh-100 that looked like it may work without a ton of modification.