Can I pickup 121 without a superdish?

Nickster

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Nov 25, 2003
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Can anyone tell me a way to pickup 121 without buying a superdish. I've upgraded to a superdish at home to get my local channels, but I like to take one of our recievers up to the cabin on the weekends. I have a dish 500 there. Is there a seperate smaller dish sold that will work with my existing dish? Would I run them through a DP34? A seperate question I have is ...will my reciever work (at the cabin) without a signal from 121 now that I've upgraded my programming at home?
 
Nickster
Yes you can still use your receiver at the cabin. If your dish 500 is a Legacy LNB, you would have to run a check switch each time you move it to the cabin and again when you go back. If the cabin is DishPro, you shouldnt have to..When you tune to a channel on 121, it would give you the "no satellite signal" msg..It wouldn't hurt to run it each time you change location.

As for the homemade SuperDish, I know there are people who have used a Primestar Dish and fitted the correct LNB to it and attach with a DP34...The LNB is a FSS one (not normal Dish LNB)..I would do a search on this site..I know there are people who did it and have pictures to prove it.
 
That brings up a question I have on homemade Superdish

I can get an old Primestar Dish, but when I get the FSS LNB, does it have to have 2 outputs if I have Legacy equipment (I have a legacy twin)? I've seen some of these have one output, so I wanted to make sure before I bought..
 
Do a search on this topic. There is plenty of information available on it. I think the way around that though is to use a standard multiswitch on that FSS LNB. The output of the multiswitch would then go to one side of an SW21. The other side of the SW21 would be the output of an SW64 being fed by your Dish500 (or one side of your legacy twin LNB). This only works in a legacy environment. Kids, don't try this at home with DishPro stuff.
 
dlsnyder
I did a search here and on the other sites..There aren't that many topics on how they are doing it and they don't really get into detail of what they are using, just things like "a Primestar Dish", "a FSS LNB", etc..

I just thought since I could get the Primestar dish, I could buy a couple of parts and fiddle with it some weekend....maybe when I get some more money :)
 
No one has posted a DishPro compatible LNB for homemade superdishes. I put my own dish up for 105 (now rendered useless because HD not going to 105), but used a legacy LNB/SW64/SW21 to get it to work. Dish is not selling the LNB either. It would be nice to have someone find/test/verify a DP compatible LNB.

A 36" generic satellite dish works great, I got one and the legacy LNB from http://www.sadoun.com .
 
Homemade superdish can only be done in "Legacy" mode right now.

If you have access to a primestar dish, the LNB that comes with it will work. 1 or 2 outputs does not matter, either can be used.

If it is a 2 output one (H and V), then you will need a SW64 to make it work. Just plug one into 3A, and the other into 3B. Your 110 and 119's into the other ports, and you're dancing.

If it is a 1 output LNB, then you will need to use an SW21 in combo with an SW64 or SW44. Take one output of the SW44 and go into the SW21, and then feed the cable from the primestar dish into the other port on the SW21.

Aiming is the most difficult part. I aimed mine using a direct cable from the Vertical to the receiver. Then setup the signal test screen to Transponder 1 on Sat 121. My little SF95 sat finder was semi usefull. I locked on 119 with solid tone, then lowered the elevation about 3 degrees and moved the dish ever so slighly to the right. A solid 115 signal was the result. :)

Hope this helps.

Oh, and check out http://www.satelliteguys.us/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4017 for pictures. :)
 
Nickster said:
Can anyone tell me a way to pickup 121 without buying a superdish. I've upgraded to a superdish at home to get my local channels, but I like to take one of our recievers up to the cabin on the weekends. I have a dish 500 there. Is there a seperate smaller dish sold that will work with my existing dish? Would I run them through a DP34? A seperate question I have is ...will my reciever work (at the cabin) without a signal from 121 now that I've upgraded my programming at home?

Check this thread: http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=20786

--- WCS
 
Yahkin said:
Homemade superdish can only be done in "Legacy" mode right now.

If you have access to a primestar dish, the LNB that comes with it will work. 1 or 2 outputs does not matter, either can be used.

If it is a 2 output one (H and V), then you will need a SW64 to make it work. Just plug one into 3A, and the other into 3B. Your 110 and 119's into the other ports, and you're dancing.

If it is a 1 output LNB, then you will need to use an SW21 in combo with an SW64 or SW44. Take one output of the SW44 and go into the SW21, and then feed the cable from the primestar dish into the other port on the SW21.

Aiming is the most difficult part. I aimed mine using a direct cable from the Vertical to the receiver. Then setup the signal test screen to Transponder 1 on Sat 121. My little SF95 sat finder was semi usefull. I locked on 119 with solid tone, then lowered the elevation about 3 degrees and moved the dish ever so slighly to the right. A solid 115 signal was the result. :)

Hope this helps.

Oh, and check out http://www.satelliteguys.us/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4017 for pictures. :)

Thank you Yahkin..I didnt know if I had to replace the LNB or not...well, I guess some weekend I'll have to go to my dad's buddy's lake house and grab that dish :) (oh, and get a sw64)

So..If I have a Legacy Twin, I would have to swap that out to 2 duals to use the 64, right? (no biggie, I have about 6 or 7 duals laying around)
 
Iceberg said:
Thank you Yahkin..I didnt know if I had to replace the LNB or not...well, I guess some weekend I'll have to go to my dad's buddy's lake house and grab that dish :) (oh, and get a sw64)

So..If I have a Legacy Twin, I would have to swap that out to 2 duals to use the 64, right? (no biggie, I have about 6 or 7 duals laying around)

Like dlsnyder said...yep. I was in the same boat, had the twin. :) My parents had the dual though without a real use for it, so we swapped. THANKS MA!
 
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