I converted everything I could to digital. You're going to have to bury a lot of old wire anyway. You might want to make the transition. If you do, the dish and actuator is the only part you will reuse. If you use the old analog receiver, you'd rebury the ribbon cable. I imagine its pretty expensive, and I don't know where you buy it. But I live in a rural area. And if you use the old receiver, you'd reuse your old lnb. If its a co-rotor, its a good one. It may well be worth the effort if it is. I've still got a good Drake receiver and co-rotor II I never used. I do know they worked because I used the old receiver and lnb to set up the satellite dish. But I changed everything out before I buried the wire.
A v-box or g-box would power the actuator with four wires if you do decide to do away with the analog receiver. The wires don't need to be shielded. I used old orange cords spliced together. It doesn't matter. You just need to use heavy enough wire to carry a DC current. I used 12 gauge wire for the motor and 14 for the reed sensor. But you don't necessarily have to use anything that heavy. I believe 18 and 22 gauge were suggested. The motor is either 24 volts or 36 volts. Two wires go to the motor and two to the reed sensor. That's it.
And you'll have either one or two coax lines. One would be for c-band and one for ku. Or you can use a 22hz switch (which comes on most combo lnb's) and just run one coax. I put two coax lines in the conduit anyway. Its always good to have an extra just in case.
There are several digital c/ku lnb's. There's a BSC621, GeoSat CK1 or DMX741. There may be others now. All are fifty dollars with shipping. Your positioner (v-box) costs $50. With the positioner you can either use the remote with the positioner or usals on your receiver to program your satellite positions.
The v-box stores up to 99 satellite positions. So the sky is the limit.
Get your dish plumb and scanning the Clarke Belt and watch c/ku fta. You'll have a good time doing it. I think you can do it for a couple of hundred dollars.
You're going to have to buy four or five bags of concrete to bury your pole.
That's about it.
And to get the old concrete off the old pole, get yourself a sledge hammer. It will bust up the old concrete pretty easily. I've had good luck salvaging most of the poles I've found. It's a good way to save a lot of money, too.
Have fun!!!
