Direcway lnb

[DpSyChO]

I picked up a Direcway dish headed to the scrap yard a while back and am just now getting around to using it.
I currently have a primestar dish pointed at 101 and getting mid to high 90's for signal and quality with its original lnb.
I tried to set up the Direcway dish over the weekend and am getting in 20's for signal with no quality for any satellite I tried with it connected directly to the receiver (no switches). I tried a few different satellites, changing the transponder to the strong transponder listed on the list. LNB set to 10750 for each satellite I tried. I am guessing the LNB is bad? Would that be a good guess? I know nothing of the history of it/why it was being scraped out.
I did some searching and found:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/183611-does-hughes-direcway-lnb-work-primestar-dish-fta.html
I know of a primestar dish at what looks like an abandoned crack house. According to the tread above, a direcway lnb can be used on a primestar, so a primestar lnb likewise should work on a direcway shouldnt it. No one is living at the crack house, but if I can track down the owner maybe I can score at least the lnb, maybe the whole dish and abandon the direcway if no other options are found. The direcway dish is in awesome shape so I would like to use it if I can find another lnb or a way to mount a commonly available lnb.
Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Anole]

(If your dish doesn't look like mine, then we're talking about different things)

The DirecWay dishes came with at least two variations of feedhorn.
One is a tall oval. Mine is a tall rectangular thing.
(several good pix of oval feed by Intamin and Dee Ann)

On mine, the feedhorn is threaded, and expects screws to be inserted into it through the LNB, from in front of the dish.
The Primestar LNB's I've seen, and DishNetwork LNBs I have, expect a screw to come from the direction of the dish, up toward the sky into the LNB housing.
And so, the holes in the feedhorn are smooth.


If you were talking about using a Primestar feedhorn and LNB on the DirecWay dish, that might be a problem.
The Primestar feedhorn from a elliptical dish like the 84e doesn't really match the mounting holes/location on the DirecWay feed arm.


If it's just a problem finding the bird, let me make one suggestion -
- make sure the pole is plumb
- Set the skew on the dish to none.
- set the elevation required.
- dial in the magnetic azimuth required, and mark the mount & pole.
- now, set the skew on the dish/mount as required.

If you have a large amount of skew dialed in, there is an optical illusion that prevents you from getting the azimuth set correctly.

 

[Elchucko]

If it is the direcway lnb that is bad, you can get a replacement from McClean Surplus on eBay. NEW Hughes DirecWay: DirecPC LNB FSS 11.7-12.2 GHz NIB - eBay (item 190277124377 end time Oct-26-09 10:52:16 PDT)

Chuck

 

[DpSyChO]

(If your dish doesn't look like mine, then we're talking about different things)

Thats the dish, mine has the rectangular feedhorn. Just by looking at the bolt pattern on the lnb I thought it may be the same, didnt check to see which way the fasteners went. Thanks, for pointing that out.
I have been moving the primestar back and forth between 83 and 101, mainly watch 101 though. I was wanting to get either/or with the direcway till I can get a motor and couldnt get either satellite with it, or the other 3 satellites I tried. So I assumed the lnb was bad?

If it is the direcway lnb that is bad, you can get a replacement from McClean Surplus on eBay. NEW Hughes DirecWay: DirecPC LNB FSS 11.7-12.2 GHz NIB - eBay (item 190277124377 end time Oct-26-09 10:52:16 PDT)

Chuck

That looks what I am going to have to do if I cant track down the owner of the house with the primestar and hopefully get the whole dish since I know just the lnb wont swap.

 

[Anole]

- do you suppose?

The picture of the LNB that ElChucko posted, appears to have threaded holes.
I'm sure there is no way to install screws from the back side and into the feedhorn.

It's just possible that the elliptical feedhorns have smooth holes and use the above LNB.
big correction:
This picture clearly shows screws going through the LNB and threaded into the elliptical feedhorn
But, examine your rectangular feed and I think you'll find that it's threaded.

edit:
This previous post may shed some light on feedhorns and LNBs.

last word:
I've also considered drilling out the threads on my rectangular DirecWay feedhorn.
Then, it should fit the more common LNBs, including that Eagle Aspen (Dish Network) bandstacked LNB listed in the above link.
I don't normally like to modify something in a manner where it can't be reversed later when you sober up. -
So, I'll leave that decision to the reader.

 

[Elchucko]

Just to clarify, the lnb that I posted from mclean surplus is for the rectangular feedhorn BUT does not directly bolt to the feedhorn itself. As you can see in attached picture, it bolts to the back of the tube assembly with the feedhorn bolted to the other end and the transmitter bolted onto the bottom.

I have three of these, one on my Motosat system, one on my dish used when a campground has too many trees, and one extra arm with lnb and transmitter in case one of the other two go bad.


Chuck