Dish Farm Update

[McGuyver]

I've been moving dishes from roof to ground, adding one or two here and there and building some for friend's, etc. So I thought since most of you like looking at pictures I have some for you, I added text to most of them. The LNB mod is something I just finished for another friend who had only the 101W on her 3ABN dish so I updated it for the new change over and also added a 3rd as a bonus. I was trying for the 83W (RTV) but couldn't lock a QS to save my life, it was just a bit too far for this arrangement. This is an excellent dish compared to the newer ones of equal size, this old KTI dish is wider therefore rendering more signal for mods like this. The 89W although far off to the side is getting around 90% QS on TP 11955 using my field box (Captive Works 600SP), my friend's old "Manhattan Skyline 1000" shows 99%.

I also had to find a way to temporarily mount this heavy dish on a small ground post so I made up a sleeve as shown in the pics, it worked well for this project, it converts the 1-5/8" rigid post to a 2-3/8" for Primestars and others having a large post clamp.

As you may agree, dish farms are never finished, I'm still thinking and tinkering Have fun!

 

[Tron]

Great dish farm, McGuyver! Could you post some close up pics of how you mounted multiple C-Band LNBFs on the BUDs? I've been toying with adding an LNBF for 91W on my 6' "PortaBUD", which is fixed at 87W. Iceberg did something similar by sawing out a notch in the scalar ring.

 

[McGuyver]

LNB Mountings

Tron, here are a few, need more? just ask, hope this helps ya!

BTW, the stacked scalar arrangement was possible only because I calculated a deeper focal point on my 10.5' mesh, I added about 1.5" to the depth, by accident that is but it worked out for the best for this mod. the other photo is on my 8' channel master dish with 3 lnb's, and the clamps are temp until I fab more brackets

 

[Cadsulfide]

You Dudes rock!

 

[stanleyjohn]

Great setup McGuyver! Knowing me ill catch the FTA bug and expand my set up.For now it will be KU receiving to see what i can get at my location! then ill scope out a spot somewhere on the ground for a larger dish for C recieving.It will be interesting to see how much i can put up outside before the wife screems bloody murder.

 

[McGuyver]

Great setup McGuyver! Knowing me ill catch the FTA bug and expand my set up.For now it will be KU receiving to see what i can get at my location! then ill scope out a spot somewhere on the ground for a larger dish for C recieving.It will be interesting to see how much i can put up outside before the wife screems bloody murder.

It is addicting but better than other habits, lol
Don't know what it is about "wives" but mine doesn't care one bit, maybe it's because she has her Dish Network sub box, lol, I have my FTA farm. In fact I get more channels than she gets, I'm getting well over 100 channels from about 16 satellites, C & Ku combined and it's all free for a one-time investment with no committment terms and monthly subscriptions except for the wifey's sub, Ugh!

Keep in mind that when you're ready to go BIG you should look for a freebie BUD, both of mine were freebies and were not all that difficult to set up. You only have to dig the post hole once and it doesn't usually cost anymore than Ku equipment considering you picked up a freebie dish.
An easy way to find freebies is to join up free with the "Freecycle.org" Yahoo group in your community and place a WANT ad for a big dish or anything you want or you might find something in the listings you can use, people give away all sorts of free stuff, I got many, many small dishes, receivers, cables, remotes and the 8' ft fiberglass BUD for free, not to mention my 3 small 13" field test color TV's that work like new, I even got a bunch of scrap aluminum sheets and various pieces from a guy who restored an airplane and he wanted to clean up his garage. Just do a Google search for your area, type in;
"Freecyle.org in (your City, State)" and you should find a group in your area. Good luck

 

[McGuyver]

Great dish farm, McGuyver! Could you post some close up pics of how you mounted multiple C-Band LNBFs on the BUDs? I've been toying with adding an LNBF for 91W on my 6' "PortaBUD", which is fixed at 87W. Iceberg did something similar by sawing out a notch in the scalar ring.

Tron, one thing came to mind about your dish, I understand they are a tripod feed pole design, it might be beneficial for you to make a duplicate feed pole and arrange them in a quad position so that it may provide better clearance to mount additional lnb's and also add better support and alignment.

 

[Tron]

Yes it is a tripod feed pole design. I'm a bit concerned about the size of my dish being rather small for an arrangement of LNBFs, spacing may get rather tight. If I can get 91W in addition to what I already get on 87W, though, I'll be very happy ...

 

[McGuyver]

Yes it is a tripod feed pole design. I'm a bit concerned about the size of my dish being rather small for an arrangement of LNBFs, spacing may get rather tight. If I can get 91W in addition to what I already get on 87W, though, I'll be very happy ...

Yes it might be tight on a 6' ft'er but it should be doable, the lnb's might need to be really close requiring a slice of the scalar right next to the throat mount but I first guaged or should I say; noted the position of the 87W by using my step ladder and a rod clamped to the top of the ladder, pointed at the edge of the scalar, then I navigated the dish to the 91W and measured the distance between the two positions, in my case on my 8 ft it was something like 4.25" (don't quote me on this number) and then I calculated the portion of scalar to trim from each lnb dividing the difference between the two. I would use this method in both directions to double check the measurement of distance just to be sure and what ever you do, don't move the ladder one bit while doing this and do it while the wind is calm. This method should give you some idea if it's pheasable.

 

[Ironsides]

Sweet Dish farm!

McGuyver sweet dish farm! Your dish farm looks like my antenna farm but yours is better! Awesome and very neat work too! As said before you ROCK!

 

[McGuyver]

Howdy Ironsides, thanks Bro and I bet your's is just as nice I fell asleep early while watching TV, it happens every time, lol but I got up to check my eBay watches and just happened to find a new listing that popped up only a few minutes after signing in, I bought a used Viewsat 9000HD for $70 bucks shipped free and the seller is here in Calif too, not far from me. It's in good working cond he says. I have noticed a lot of stb's on eBay really cheap. The hacker's report that support is falling off fast for IKS and these guys are dumping their boxes really cheap. I also bought a Brand New Nfusion Solaris for $46(total) shipped. What a deal on the Solaris! Retailers are selling this box for about $180 bucks

 

[Ironsides]

Great Deals!

Wow great deals! I looked at the Nfusion and thought about one myself but I didn't see any go that cheap. I decided to wait and it paid off for me, I am getting ready this week to get something new for me. Made a deal with one of the members here on Sat Guys and can't wait! It will be my 1st real HD box! I can do HD with my 7020 but I have to send it over to the computer. So that will be my first HD receiver and I am really excited about that.

I am thinking about putting my Direct PC dish I mod'ed to use my Invacom lnbf back up and use it for the that Pansat thing I just got. If the new receiver will work with the DMX 741 I might stick it on that. My Dreambox is on my Primestars and I might take one of those and stick it on my Neusat. LOL One dish one receiver kinda of thing! LOL! I need to get another video hub so I can flip from one receiver to another...

Congrats on your finds, I never get that lucky to find something like that. I was really interested in the Neusat 9000HD because I had so much fun with the 6000 I have. But I decided I would wait and see how this new one I am getting works for me.

 

[Corrado]

Excellent work McGuyver, great pics of the farm.

 

[McGuyver]

Thanks Corrado!

And Ironsides, that's not the only good deal, very early this morning when I woke up to get a drink, I decided to check in here and read a bit and also check some receivers I was watching on eBay, as I was searching through the used Viewsat 9000HD's I just happened to catch a new listing that was just posted about 2 minutes before I opened the web page and there was a used VS9000HD for sale, not a bid, it was "Buy it Now" with a $70 price tag and free priority mail shipping so I couldn't resist and bought it. The seller shipped it out this afternoon and hopefully I'll see it around Thursday next week. It takes an extra day or so to get anything delivered to this hick town Post Office.

There are other's of this model and plenty of other brands as well. It looks like it's a good time to catch a good deal on eBay, the hacker's are giving up their boxes due to lack of support, no more bin files for the VS9k HD or the Nfusion Solaris. I never liked the idea of buying used receivers but it was too good to pass up. I must admit, I bought another VS9K HD for less than $100 bucks shipped. Both are said to be in good working condition. I already gathered the factory bin and other utilities and guide for when it arrives.

 

[guapoharry]

Those pics would look good in this thread also....

 

[McGuyver]

Thanks for bringing that up guapoharry, I meant to do that long ago but forgot about it.

I posted my farm there now, done deal

 

[mr3p]

great pics and cool setup.

 

[ynnedibanez]

yeah, looks great!!