BSC621 KU band problems solved

[Skyscanner]

Nice day today, so I decided to tweak a couple of my dishes. 1 is a 10' stationary mesh dish aimed at 103 W. I installed a BSC621 on it last summer. Had to find a "happy medium" between C and KU, neither worked real hot, but OK enough to get programming.

skewing the BSC621 would pull the Ion channels in at 90+ but would barely show Pentagon on KU. Skewing for Pentagon would come in at 90+, but barely get the Ions.

I recently learned that the KU skew is off on that bird, so I looked for a way to skew C and Ku separately. When I examined the throat of the BSC621, I observed that the H and V did not align. I checked 1 of my Geosatpro CK1 LNBs and noticed that H and V did align properly on it. Checked another BSC621, and they didn't align either. I believe this would account for the poor KU performance many have reported using this LNB.

I loosened the 1/2" jam nut on the very end of the KU sectiion, where the cable connects, and carefully rotated and tweaked both the C and KU LNBs on 103W and tightened it back up. Ion & Pentagon are now both 90+. Careful though, it's difficult to hold the threaded nub and tighten the jam nut without rotating the KU LNB inside the housing. Needs wrench flats on it, but it can be done.

Anyway, I suspect that some of you who have had bad luck on KU with the BSC621, if you look down its throat, you might find that they're not in alignment. It's pretty easy to bring them into alignment with a little practice if they're off, mine were off a lot. The skew on most birds are the same on C and KU, but apparently not on 103. It's nice to finally have decent performance out of my BSC621.

I would be interested to know if anyone else has found misalignment between the H and V on C and KU on your BSC621.

 

[Mr Tony]

yep. My 621 is misaligned. I just got a C/K1 and they are lined up properly. Tried to see if I could get both C & KU On 107.3 on the big dish.

Most of the stuff on C-Band DVB......75-80 quality on the Pansat 1500
KU DVB was around 90
DCII was around +9.0 to +10.8

so yeah the CK1 is lined up properly

 

[Babadem]

Nice day today, so I decided to tweak a couple of my dishes. 1 is a 10' stationary mesh dish aimed at 103 W. I installed a BSC621 on it last summer. Had to find a "happy medium" between C and KU, neither worked real hot, but OK enough to get programming.

skewing the BSC621 would pull the Ion channels in at 90+ but would barely show Pentagon on KU. Skewing for Pentagon would come in at 90+, but barely get the Ions.

I recently learned that the KU skew is off on that bird, so I looked for a way to skew C and Ku separately. When I examined the throat of the BSC621, I observed that the H and V did not align. I checked 1 of my Geosatpro CK1 LNBs and noticed that H and V did align properly on it. Checked another BSC621, and they didn't align either. I believe this would account for the poor KU performance many have reported using this LNB.

I loosened the 1/2" jam nut on the very end of the KU sectiion, where the cable connects, and carefully rotated and tweaked both the C and KU LNBs on 103W and tightened it back up. Ion & Pentagon are now both 90+. Careful though, it's difficult to hold the threaded nub and tighten the jam nut without rotating the KU LNB inside the housing. Needs wrench flats on it, but it can be done.

Anyway, I suspect that some of you who have had bad luck on KU with the BSC621, if you look down its throat, you might find that they're not in alignment. It's pretty easy to bring them into alignment with a little practice if they're off, mine were off a lot. The skew on most birds are the same on C and KU, but apparently not on 103. It's nice to finally have decent performance out of my BSC621.

I would be interested to know if anyone else has found misalignment between the H and V on C and KU on your BSC621.

Maybe you should communicate your findings to the manufacturers or retailers of the BSC621.

 

[Lak7]

Maybe you should communicate your findings to the manufacturers or retailers of the BSC621.:

They are "kinda" aware, there is Fix It post on how to re-align do to "user error" by using a wrench to tighten the Ku cable.

 

[meinename]

Care to post pics looking down the throat of your fixed BSC621?
I checked mine against the "Fix It" PDF and it says I'm fine. :up
Signal Q says otherwise. Performs about as well as my 75e

I had it once but after a limb the size of my shin fell on my BUD, I haven't got the Ku side working well yet.

 

[Lak7]

What I did to get mine working was.....
I measured and re-measured trying to get the Scalar centered / parallel to the Dish. Nothing I did was good enough so....
I measured the distance the Old Feedhorn was set past the Scalar, used that to set the BSC621, set in the Scalar as Square / Straight as possible, then loosened the bolts holding the Scalar, and adjusted to best signal.

 

[Skyscanner]

Dang! I just looked up the technical bulletin Lak7 referred to, and it exactly describes what I found, but the problem isn't with over-tightening the connector [although that could do it], the problem I observed was due to poor assembly on their part. Anyway, it's fixed now, but this is information I could have used last summer!

 

[eurosport]

I have a C/K-1 on my 10 footer and the NBC satmux channels on AMC-6 Ku come in at about 65% on it and 98% on my 1.2m P* ....more proof that mesh buds don't like Ku too much!

 

[meinename]

What I did to get mine working was.....
I measured and re-measured trying to get the Scalar centered / parallel to the Dish. Nothing I did was good enough so....
I measured the distance the Old Feedhorn was set past the Scalar, used that to set the BSC621, set in the Scalar as Square / Straight as possible, then loosened the bolts holding the Scalar, and adjusted to best signal.

A problem for me with those instructions is that I have a button-hook BUD.
Also my Bud is a .42 and my original feedhorn is molded/fixed at .34
(measurements 103" wide x 14" deep)
So the only thing I got from the original feed horn was Focal length
I should go remeasure the lnb distance for 8 points from cross-scalar to BUD edge and from ku back to BUD edge. :up

I was hoping skyscanner or anyone would post pictures of a well-working one inside the feedhorn so I have a reference to check against. :
I did check it back when I started but that means very little.
My probes form a T ( 2 overlap) but the Isolation bars are a + figure like in the bulletin.

 

[Skyscanner]

There are pictures at dmsiusa.com/technical/bsc621t1.html their instructions for the fix aren't correct. 1st, forget about the polarity mark. All you have to do is make sure the isolation bars and V & H probes are all in alignment. If they're not, follow their directions until they are. They should not form a "+" like they say, everything should align.
Sky

 

[Skyscanner]

Sorry, don't know how to link, just cut and paste to your browser and that should get you there.

 

[Skyscanner]

Let me clarify: no need to loosen the 3 screws and separate the unit, just loosen the jam nut at the end of the KU section and rotate until everything in the C LNB and K LNB are in alignment. Carefully retighten the jam nut, making sure everything is still in alignment, it wants to move, will take patience to get it pegged. If you, like me, are using the 621 on 103W where the C and KU skew is off, this will also allow you to skew the C and KU separately.
Sky

 

[Lak7]

They should not form a "+" like they say, everything should align.

I just looked at my old BSC621, worked fine, upgraded to DMX41
The Isolation Bars do from a "+", as the "Fix It" explains.

 

[scottc98]

If you, like me, are using the 621 on 103W where the C and KU skew is off, this will also allow you to skew the C and KU separately.
Sky

Now, that is a good idea for a fixed solution for 103W. I put away my BSC621 months ago but I may decided to try it out again. The probes were misaligned and have now been "corrected"

 

[Skyscanner]

If you followed their instructions and it works for you, great, all I know is, it didn't work for me in the application I mentioned: Stationary C band at 103W, which has a known KU skew problem.

 

[scottc98]

well.....Cband at 103W is useless for me with my dish size but I can see how the modification could be use on a larger, stationary dish.

I've got a B1 on the 1.2m now and it works great. Would like to get some KU back in the future w/o having to throw another lnb off center.

Of course, if only they made a dual KU/C lnb.

 

[Mr Tony]

Scott
Approximately how many C-Band channels in the clear do you get?

I assume a few satellites are stronger like 121 & 99W?

 

[scottc98]

Ice,

Let me check (BS right now so will take some time). My range is 72W to 135W (Damm neighbor's tree is blocking my east side).

NOTE: There are more but only listing what is in the clear AND on Lyngsat. Doesn't not include any feeds or FTE channels (Please move to WUT section if you wish to discuss those)

72W:

PA cable
NASA

CWs were strong until they moved off of DVB-S

87W:

THIS
TVN

91W:

CWs
EWTN
The WORD

97W:

KCGS
BYU

99W:
GMAX
ABC HD
WAPA
Carriebean nets
NBC WY - occasionally; old BSC locked it
Telavista
World Harvest
MyTV HD

101W:

Golden eagle
2 more I believe as well (religous channels)

107.3W:

A channel mux
NW legislature
Tele Quebec
Weather mux

111/113:

about 8-10 channels (some bleed over to both sat locations

116W:

Haven't scanned in awhile, but I remember the Edusat stuff coming in

121W"

STO
Sportsman
TW
Babyfirst
HITN
ETV - have to move dish to lock; breaks-up a lot
American one-- had to move to lock (i.e would lose babyfirst but get others; haven't lock it since being back from NZ)

125W
TBN---haven't checked in a while; was barely getting enough to watch

127W
Carriebnvision/intersat mux
LCN

131W
QVC ---was watchable but hasn't been recently

133/135/137:

only get about one mux that direction today. Use to get the jones nets and alaska mux a handful of times, but never really watchable


Thats just off the top of my head......Remember, it doesn't include any FTE or feeds

also, with very little margin of error for this dish, it might be possible to get more if I fine tuned as stationary....

 

[scottc98]

I assume a few satellites are stronger like 121 & 99W?

121 and 99 are pretty strong. 91 is really strong as well.

I'd have to say I stick to those 3 the majority of the time. Otherwise its 87 for THIS, 72 for shuttle launches

 

[Mr Tony]

good to know. Have a 6 footer at 99 so might put the 4 footer after testing it out maybe permanently on 121