birdviews and ku

[turbosat]

I tried to search for this and got 10pages...don't remember anybody mentioning it yet but how do these birdview dishes do on KU? Anyone put a corotor or c/ku lnbf on one yet to test out?

 

[Cadsulfide]

Check Stogie's Birdveiw install, I think most of them will be good for Ku, if the mesh is small enough. I remember reading here the width of a pencil lead for the mesh size for Ku.

 

[linuxman]

I tried to search for this and got 10pages...don't remember anybody mentioning it yet but how do these birdview dishes do on KU? Anyone put a corotor or c/ku lnbf on one yet to test out?

My Birdview dishes, both the solid and perforated, are the best dishes I have for Ku signal.

The holes on the perforated dish are almost big enough to allow a whole #2 pencil to pass through but not quite. Almost a 1/4" big.

I have a co-rotor on the solid, and a Bullseye II orthomode feed on the perforated. Both out-perform my 1M Primestar dish on Ku which is the next best dish I have for Ku followed by the Primestar 84es I have.

Stogies Ku problems can be read in his thread as suggested above.

 

[Anole]

the short version:

As I recall from following all his threads, Linuxman had good results on Ku with a co-rotor.
Believe he's now running a quad orthomode (whatever you call the thing with two C and two Ku LNBs).
His results with a SatelliteAV CK-1 dual-band LNBF was great on C, but difficult to adjust on Ku.

edit: and from what I gather, the dish + mount are built like a tank.
That actually seems to make them a little harder to fine tune.

 

[caddata]

....if the mesh is small enough. I remember reading here the width of a pencil lead for the mesh size for Ku.

The Birdview is a perforated (round holes punched into sheetmetal before forming) dish. Mesh dishes are made with expanded metal which is sheetmetal that has been split and stretched to form diamond shaped openings. Sometimes the stretched metal is flattened (preferred). Some loss can be expected if the long dimension of the diamond is greater than a #2 pencil.

The rule of thumb for compliance with Ku is to use a #2 wood pencil as a go-no go guage. If the pencil will go thru the openings (the pencil its self - not just the lead), it's not satisfactory for Ku. However, if the pencil will not go thru the openings (the pencil its self - not just the lead), it will be satisfactory for Ku.

Harold

 

[Cadsulfide]

Caddata:

Thanks for the correction, it means more dishes will be good for Ku!

 

[Lone Cloud]

Have an 8 1/2 foot Birdview solid with a BSC 621-2 lnb, two FTA hd receivers, G-box

It's pretty hard to dial in this lnb to make it good for both C and Ku, but I think I must have lucked it into the right position. I'm getting linear Ku on most of the usual satellites. Just got an NFL wild card game on AMC 6 @ 72west on Saturday. That was Ku. I also get (by longitude) 91 w, 97w, 101w, 123w, 125w. The rest is C band.

 

[stogie5150]

You might pull out all your hair getting it right though.

My Birdview has just about cured me for trying KU on a big dish, I can tell you that. Not with as good as my 1m primestars work with a LOT less headaches.

But give it a shot, what the hey!

 

[turbosat]

good stuff

Thanks, great input. I missed out on that subject. I kinda figured those solid BV would be nice for KU, but like Anole said they prob would be tough to aim. But once they're set.....
When warm weather gets back I want to rig one of these 7.5 dishes, prob the perfect 10 model, with a ku only feedhorn and see how it works. This RTN experiment shows that even with a great 1m Primestar there sometimes is a need
for bigger reflectors.

 

[Anole]

msc thoughts

Turbo -

I don't know, but just from the feeling I've gotten reading all the posts, I believe...
- BUDs with the dual-band C/Ku LNBF's, never get the Ku up there like 1m or 1.2m Primestars
- maybe the 1.2 mini-bud guys might get better Ku than real BUDs -
- some of the dual-band LNBF's do not have an F/D to match BUDs on Ku !

 

[voomvoom]

From my experience, I can get better quality signal (I'm talking ku here) with my 90cm, 1m (P*), 1.2m, or Torodial 90 dishes, than I can with either my 10' mesh or 10' fiberglass dishes. But that being said, I'll lose the signal on the smaller ku dishes long before it will go out on the BUD's. Actually, hard winds is about the only thing that will knock out the BUD's. I do have a hard time with the S2 signals, even on the BUD's, but I have a harder time with S2 on the ku dishes. S2 is just harder to get?

 

[turbosat]

anole that sounds sensible to me. The made-for ku dishes just probably have better gain, but like voom says his will hold a signal in rain longer. Size makes a difference, but unless somebody already had a corotor /ku setup for their bud, I'd probably suggest getting an offset dish for ku.
Unless they lived in a really rainy place, maybe and wanted less rain-fade.

 

[Anole]

Was conversing with Stogie.
He's just beginning to play LNBF-swap between his 10 foot Paraclipse (or is it 12'? I can never remember), and 8½ foot Birdview.
The hardware was a SatelliteAV C2, and the SatelliteAV Ck-1.
Hope he'll start a thread with the Ku results, or at least post 'em here.