Cant Receive C Band Programming

[8valve]

Thanks to Google, I have found this wonderful resource. Please forgive me for not doing a lot of search/read. I live very remote in the Mountains and connect to the web via 24.4K Dial Up. Its basically useless.

A little background. In the Mid 1980's I bought my first C Band system and over the following years did a lot of receiver upgrades as well as dish upgrades.

I have just returned to my home from a 10 year assignment in the UK, now retired I want to get back into C Band, especially breaking news feeds. Of course there is always a problem. With the Chile Mine Rescue about to take place, I fired up my
C Band system. It consists of a Chaparral Sierra II, Co Rotor for C and KU, and my 12 foot Paraclisp dish.

To my surprise, there is hardly anything that I can receive on C Band. I did find a few live transponders on the position that Telstar 4 and Galaxy 6 used to be docked at. Also down low, was the Shepherds Chapel and Up High was some cooking program. Since I can drive my dish to these positions with perfect picture, with high confidence, the tracking is good.

Has C Band been basically vacated ? Or is there a new technology in use that my older equipment cant handle. I also tried my Chaparral Cheyenne and Houston Tracker System 4 which also received exactly the same programming as above mentioned.

If there is good free to air programming on C Band, what do I need to upgrade to.
Or is it better to keep my dish and get new LNB and a new Free to Air Receiver.

Thanks for your help and thoughts.

Paul

 

[Lak7]

Has C Band been basically vacated ? Or is there a new technology in use that my older equipment cant handle.

Plenty of C Band up there, it's just all Digital. You need at least an FTA DVB Receiver, like the Coolsat 5000. And if you want HD, something like the AZBox Ultra.

New receivers can not directly control your Positioner and Skew, but these units can be "slaved" to your existing setup - keeps costs down.

 

[8valve]

Plenty of C Band up there, it's just all Digital. You need at least an FTA DVB Receiver, like the Coolsat 5000. And if you want HD, something like the AZBox Ultra.

New receivers can not directly control your Positioner and Skew, but these units can be "slaved" to your existing setup - keeps costs down.

Thanks for the fast response.
Can I use my existing LNB to feed a Coolsat 5000 ?
So my existing receivers are useless except to position and skew ?
Can you direct me to a link that would list available C Band programming that is Free to Air ?
And Lastly, even though the new transmissions are digital, should I not see some type of messed up signal on the old analog receiver

Thanks
8Valve

 

[Lak7]

should I not see some type of messed up signal on the old analog receiver

Nope, like trying to tune FM signals with an AM radio.

Can I use my existing LNB to feed a Coolsat 5000 ?

Probably. Your LNBs are probably designed to run on 18 - 20 volts, where the Coolsat outputs 13 or 18, depending on which polarity is needed.

Can you direct me to a link that would list available C Band programming that is Free to Air ?

Nothing is "up-to-date", but this will give you an idea (after you understand what you are looking at, not easy to read at first)
Keep in mind that almost every Sat has a new name
SatelliteGuys.US_TheList - TheList
North & South America - LyngSat

There are a ton of terms and technology to learn when going from Analog to Digital, not hard, just takes time.

This page is what you are looking to do....
Connecting BUD C KU Band dish to one DVB receiver

Or, if you buy a new Feed / LNB (LNBF) like this, the new FTA receiver can control the Polairty....
DMX741 Standard CKU C and Ku Digital LNB LNBF for Linear or circular Reception of C or Ku Band Satellites & FTA satellites

First thing first though, you need to get a receiver.

 

[wildbill47]

BUD

I love my bud but as mentioned above need to add a DVB receiver to lnb with a DC block. The reason for the change is cost. a analog channel is only 1 but using the same transponder for digital can put 8 or so depending format. Ku is good too.

 

[8valve]

Nope, like trying to tune FM signals with an AM radio.


Probably. Your LNBs are probably designed to run on 18 - 20 volts, where the Coolsat outputs 13 or 18, depending on which polarity is needed.


Nothing is "up-to-date", but this will give you an idea (after you understand what you are looking at, not easy to read at first)
Keep in mind that almost every Sat has a new name
SatelliteGuys.US_TheList - TheList
North & South America - LyngSat

There are a ton of terms and technology to learn when going from Analog to Digital, not hard, just takes time.

This page is what you are looking to do....
Connecting BUD C KU Band dish to one DVB receiver

Or, if you buy a new Feed / LNB (LNBF) like this, the new FTA receiver can control the Polairty....
DMX741 Standard CKU C and Ku Digital LNB LNBF for Linear or circular Reception of C or Ku Band Satellites & FTA satellites

First thing first though, you need to get a receiver.

Many thanks for all that good info. I understand what you shared.
Now I have a lot of reading and learning about digital vs analog. I will probably have more questions later down the road.

Thank You
8Valve

 

[Lak7]

Get a receiver first, check ebay, prob find something for under $50.
Even check Craigslist.org for you area.

 

[8valve]

Get a receiver first, check ebay, prob find something for under $50.
Even check Craigslist.org for you area.

Ok, will do. So any receiver that is FTA DVB will work for my needs ? Do any of the FTA receivers come with dish positioners/skew like the old analog receivers did.

Also, I have two of the old Macom descramblers. Are these also paper weights LOL ? One is intergrated in the Houston Tracker IRD, the other is stand alone.

8Valve

 

[brentb636]

Some of the older DVB-S receivers ( like the Pansat 2700A) come with 5v connectors on the back for skew control, but not the actuator control. You'd be better off replacing your lnb with this lnbf C Band Satellite TV Equipment 4DTV Receivers, Dish, & Dishes, Servo Motor, Actuator, VBox, and VBoxII, DP710, DSR922, Satellite TV , for $29 and getting a GBOX positioner to interact with most receivers Sadoun Powertech GBOX V3000 Positioner DiSEqC 1.2 Compatible .
Sorry about all the links, it is painful on a dial-up.

Brent

 

[Lak7]

Also, I have two of the old Macom descramblers. Are these also paper weights...

Yes

 

[Anole]

So any receiver that is FTA DVB will work for my needs ?
Do any of the FTA receivers come with dish positioners/skew like the old analog receivers did.

As noted, a couple of older receivers have skew control.
But, not dish positioner control, so there is little argument to look for one.

There may be a dozen models which we could recommend, and several dozen we couldn't.
Making up a list is difficult.
So, as you find prospective receivers to consider, please post them here and get input as to how useful they might be to you.

Some have poor or non-existent support, but might be useful at a reduced cost.
Others would be a mistake to get in bed with, at any price. -

 

[coinmaster32]

They DID make a analog and fta receiver hybrid. It was called a satcruiser.
However from what I read the interface was a PITA to use.

 

[delta_charlie]

Hi, just wanted to mention a lot of news in on Ku band. CBS newspath on 99W had excellent coverage of the mine rescue down in Chile. I watched it for hours - what an amazing story!

Regarding your slow dialup - you can get much faster page loads by using Firefox and turning of auto load of images. Turning of Java script can often help too but some web pages will not work at all with java off. Also turn off auto update if running windows and use manual updates only when you are done using the computer for browsing. Doing these things should help you research much faster.

Hope this helps, DC

 

[truckracer]

I have used both lnbfs and corotors etc, I personally like keeping the corotor. This will be a bi more confusing but you can just split the coax at the back of your receiver from the c band lnb, you can also split the ku signal (if you have ku) then use short jumpers to a diseqc switch so your fta receiver can get both c and ku. That's how I do it.
Your lnbs are probably ok - I would try them. You may want to get an HD capable fta receiver. There's a lot of fta HD up there.

 

[truckracer]

You have to flip channels on your analog box to get the right polarity for your fta receiver