Could use some advise from the experts!

[harley_biker]

Hello, just want to say what a great site you guys have. Very friendly atmosphere and a wealth of information. Been following the posts by Cascade and others regarding the "Mini-Bud" project and 1.2cm dish. Been into KU FTA for a while and enjoy the various programming available. This week like to purchase the right equipment to get "C" band going.

It's obvious the required equipment would be 1.2cm dish, some type of lnb, scalar ring and a receiver. Which equipment would deliver the highest amount of gain with a 48" dish.

Seems shipping is astronomical for the dish. Which single vendor could supply all this equipment with fair shipping to California?

Regarding C receiver's, have seen the 4dtv around (Motorolla, GE and some others). Which receiver would you guys recommend that offers the best features for price?

Lastly, the sole motivation for this mini-bud project is to get PAS 9 at 58.0W. There is south american programming from Chile. How would someone find out if this programming is FTA or paid. If it is paid, where can I sign up for it?

Appreciate your help and look forward to contributing to the community.

 

[gabshere]

to the group

first your doing the right thing reading and asking questions first.
now receiving c-band on a 1.2 meter dish if like you read a hobby..... a hit and miss.... some have good results on higher signal Transponders some don't....

so i wouldn't lock in to being able to see alot of channels with a small 4 ft dish. now with that being said and if you live in an area with no restrictions on doing a big dish your cheapest method is get out and look for an old one. last would be to buy a new one.
one of our sponsers (Satellite AV) is in California so i don't know if that would help with shipping.

older analog receivers are good for receiving analog channels ( still a few up there) and can receive wild feeds / sports feeds when they pop in. most can also move the big dish

a 4DTV receiver combines a analog receiver and videocipher and digicipher all into one.
this combines the above channels with the ability to get subscription channels (with purchase) and several can move the big dish. there are also some channles that are in the clear that can be view with the 4dtv. I suspect that a 4 ft dish would be too small to get 4dtv programing with any reliability.

when buying a 4dtv you have to be very careful. these unites have a internal battery that should last 10 years and a lot of the units have been out that long. once this battery fails it would be a costly repair.

another thing about te 4dtv is that unlike the dish or direct that each receiver requires it own sub if you want to wach channels so if you wanted multiple rooms to watch different channels it would probably require several subs and maybe several dishes.

If your wanting just one satellite 58W and i don't know which channel is from chile
here's a link intel 9 @ 58W
then it might be possible with a small dish or even a 6 footer. then no motor would be needed and it should be able to diseqc into your current system. no analog or 4dtv receiver would be needed needed.

 

[harley_biker]

Hi George, thanks very much for the prompt reply. Seems the video format for intel 9 is IRDETO. Have a few FTA receivers and wonder if they will be able to receive this satellite without much headache. Do you know if this is free programming from Chile or is a subscription necessary? Where do people go for affordable subscriptions?

Is this a satellite that can be found on a 48" dish from California? Lyngsat shows the footprint covering north and south countries. Appreciate the warm welcome.

HB

 

[gabshere]

the listing on lyngsat says its a scrambled / encrypted channel so without a subscription ( and i don't know they would do a subscription) you would not likely be able to receive it. maybe another board member will chime in and report. but i'm doing this from work no way right now to tune it in and check.

Is this a satellite that can be found on a 48" dish from California?

i'm unable to confirm weather a 4 ft dish could receive the satellite as mine is a 7 1/2 ft dish.

 

[Anole]

Here is some info on your satellite from another list:

C-Band Antenna (7-1/2 foot or larger recommended) INTELSAT 9 satellite at 58.0 West
BRAZIL: NUESTRA TV
COSTA RICA: FAMILY CHRISTIAN NETWORK ENLACE TBN ENLACE JUVENIL
CUBA: CUBAVISION INTERNACIONAL
MEXICO: MARIA VISION
PERU: BETHEL TV
PUERTO RICO: WORO-TV 13 Fajardo
UNITED STATES: 3ABN SPANISH and ENGLISH SERVICE

Those would be the Free or FTA channels, not the Irdeto or pay channels.
However, the recommendation of dish size might be applicable.
The above came from link 1h on this satellite info site.

I don't see any C-band info on our SatGuy's info site for that bird.

You didn't mention which frequency/transponder you wanted to receive.
It's very possible that some of our members could give you an alternate satellite or alternate (similar) programming.

Picking up a used C-band dish is certainly a wise suggestion.
But if you wanted to explore the purchase of a new dish, tell us where you are located.
We have made recommendations in the past for local dealers where you could go for free pickup.
For anywhere near Sacramento, we'd probably send you to SatelliteAV, who is one of our site sponsors.
In the past, there have been discussions for Los Angeles area dealers, and I have one bookmarked who I'd recommend.

Sometimes a larger dish ships for less than a smaller one.
Here are some pictures of dishes in boxes at Sadoun, another one of our site sponsors.
Since the one-piece 120cm dish is considered oversized by the shippers, it costs more (as I recall) to send than the similarly priced 180cm dish, which comes in several pie-shaped wedges!

 

[pmb1010]

From a guy that did the 120cm mini-bud dish with C/Ku lnb, I moved up to a 6 foot dish with H180 motor.

BIG improvement. Although the 4 footer worked, I'm having much more sucess with the 6 foot dish. Things just work so much better. Less interference from sats 2 degrees over (although there is still enough to be noticable).

Depends on what you really want to do. If you're planning to subscribe to anything with a 4dtv reciever, go as big as you can.
Used 7.5 or 8.5 C band dish can be had for free if you look around enough. I dont have a good way to transport, so for me buying the 6 foot dish that came in a box that fit in my car was a big plus.

Good luck with your project.

 

[zaxxon]

A four foot dish may work but an eight or ten foot is much. better 4DTV is the only way to go, but don't buy a used one unless you are on a really tight budget. A new one jut dosn't cost that much more.

As for the dish, like everyone said look for a used dish. There a lot of them around. Just look for a house with a big dish in the yard and a small dish on the house. Odds are they are no longer using the BUD and will let it go for nothing or next to it, if you take it down.

 

[harley_biker]

Appreciate the assistance friends. The tp I'm interested in (according to lyngsat) is 4107 H tp 22. Have a relatively small area to install in. Not sure if this area will work. If I ground mount a dish, maybe a 6 footer, it will be in a 20 X 20 area with tall fences surrounding it. There are some trees but think there is a clear shot east to south east from the 80 to 120 degree region. Do I need to put this on a mast, or can it be ground mounted? My only concern is a few trees about 30' away which are 40' tall and of course the ability to receive the signals from orbit. Can this be placed on the ground or does it have to be vertical?

The easy solution is Directv who also carries the network, but it's about freedom of choice. It's kind of a backwards way of looking at it and will cost 5 times as much to do it by C band, but the cost isn't as important as the ability to pull intelsat 9 in, with additional programming not available anywhere else. Still have no idea if it's even worth the effort without knowing what's available on C, that isn't already on Dish or FTA. Thanks, HB.

 

[qwert1515]

I have a 1.2 Meter dish and I have never seen them (signal too weak), also you can not receiver those channels with FTA equipment since they are encrypted with "Irdeto"

 

[harley_biker]

What exactly can be seen on the 1.2 from LA that isn't already available from the pie tins? What receiver is required to get IRDETO? Thanks,

 

[mikekohl]

Take a close look at elevation angles for Atlantic region satellites in California.
With ideal conditions, I would hesitate to suggest anything smaller than 7-1/2 feet for reception of 58 West (Intelsat 9), and you will not be able to subscribe to the Chilean station due to a lack of hardware as well as their inability to sell directly to consumers in the U.S. If this was not a problem, you must remember that ALL of the dish must have an unobstructed view of the satellite, which is going to have an elevation angle in the single digits above your eastern horizon. If DISH Network or DirecTV have this and other channels available in a package without the pain and cost of hardware---the decision has been already made for those living on the West Coast. There's no free alternative.
Should you want to pursue C-band with a 6-8 foot dish (nothing smaller), take a look at 113 and 116.8 West for the two Mexican SATMEX satellites, which have a number of Latin American channels from other countries besides Mexico. Not Chile, but others.

 

[gabshere]

although the channel is scrambled here's the best thing you could do. if you can find someone locally with a big dish to go over and check out what channels are available

there are several other channels on that satellite, that are clear. I'm not a spanish speaker so i don't know.

i don't know what type of showroom Satellite AV has but you can call and ask maybe they are setup with the ability to demo a unit pointing at a c-band satellite...

 

[harley_biker]

Thanks friends, enjoy a mix of multicultural programming, but it seems (after looking as nps) there isn't a whole lot of incentive to go C band. The shopping network and weather channel isn't enough motivation to do anything. Wish there was more information as to what's really on C band with a bud. Read elswhere adult programming is gone from C and you get more for the $ to go with the pie tins.

 

[qwert1515]

What exactly can be seen on the 1.2 from LA that isn't already available from the pie tins? What receiver is required to get IRDETO? Thanks,

I have seen many C-Band feeds, a few have constant programing, mainly:58 99 107 and 121.
The main reason for the 1.2 Meter Dish is to pick up everything available on Ku band without signal problems.

 

[harley_biker]

Is it worth the effort qwert1515 for those for sats? I'm presuming 58, 99, 107 and 121 are C band? Any interesting programming on C from California on a 1.2? What kind of receiver can be used. Thanks.

 

[jayelem]

Chilean programming ...........
Your location is a problem this satellite is very low in the sky for you and the channel is not available by subscription , best Satellite for Chilean TV would be Intelsat 705 @ 50.0 west and again even harder to get from your location , I think your best bet is subscribing to Dish Network or Direct TV if they can provide those channels.

You could of course move to the east coast that would really solve the problem.

 

[truckracer]

definitely go no smaller than a 7.5' dish. With digital you need a tighter beamwidth (the amount of sky the dish sees). The larger dish sees less sky focusing more intense on one satellite eliminating interference from neighboring satellites that may be using the same downlink frequency.

Digital signals are prone to errors in the data stream when you have too much noise from adjacent satellites. Basically the bigger the dish the better.
Some success has been made receiving C-band with 1.2M dishes but this is severly limited at best.

With digital you don't have to necessarily have a strong signal but a clean signal.

The larger dishes accomplish this.

If you can have a big c-band dish in your area assuming you live where there is a neighborhood association or restricted lots, you won't regret the big dish. There is a ton of programming there.

good luck and have fun , keep us posted.

 

[harley_biker]

It's the programming I'm trying to locate! Everyone says there's stuff there, but nobody knows what it is! Going to lyngsat and looking at fta lists is not an option LOL. Wish there was something tangible to browse and help make a decision to go C. Thanks.

 

[turbosat]

If you don't want to read the lists, then the only other way I know is to put up a big dish, with a motor and start looking at the diff satellites. Most of the good stuff is going to be scrambled in one format or another, some may be available in the US, some not. Lyngsat will show you the Digicipher-scrambled programming(requires a Motorola 4dtv receiver) , the channels that are scrambled with PowerVu are not available to us direct from satellite. You're best choice for free international programming is prob G25, at 97degrees on KU.

 

[truckracer]

Lots of multi cultural stuff on G-25Ku. like 100 - 1xx some channels.