DTV International Dish For FTA Questions...

[equant]

I'm sure this has been discussed, but I couldn't find a post.

The 36"x24" DTV International dish is designed to point at 95W and 101W. 95W is a linear LNB and 101W is a circular. I have a few questions...

Can the circular LNB be easily replaced with a new linear LNB (so that it has two linear LNBs)?

With dual linear LNBs, can I point it at any linear sats that are 6 degrees apart and expect it to work? I was thinking 129/123 would be nice.

Or would I be able to swap the oringal LNB's possitions aim for 119/125? NASA/PBS seems like a nice combination.

Thanks for any shared wisdom on this.

 

[Anole]

That particular dish has had several threads full of discussion just in the last year.

With 123° & 125° so close, I would be concerned they'd interfere on that dish.
MikeInBaja seems to have gotten 123° to work on it, but claimed it was a pain to aim.
He's only started a couple of threads in the FTA section, so it should be easy to find his exploits (has a silly name on the thread, though).

The lnear LNB needs to be kept at the focal point of the dish for best performance.
So, you could locate a 2nd LNB either to the east side (for a more westward satellite), or to the west side (for a more easterly satellite).
I wouldn't expect great performance of an offset LNB unless:
- it was aimed at a high-powered circular satellite (NASA on 119°, for instance)
- it was aimed at an easy to receive DSS satellite (Whitesprings on 129°, for instance).

The forum is all about experimenting.
So, while the above are conservative guidelines, feel free to color outside the lines.

 

[MikeinBaja]

That particular dish has had several threads full of discussion just in the last year.

With 123° & 125° so close, I would be concerned they'd interfere on that dish.
MikeInBaja seems to have gotten 123° to work on it, but claimed it was a pain to aim.
He's only started a couple of threads in the FTA section, so it should be easy to find his exploits (has a silly name on the thread, though).

The lnear LNB needs to be kept at the focal point of the dish for best performance.
So, you could locate a 2nd LNB either to the east side (for a more westward satellite), or to the west side (for a more easterly satellite).
I wouldn't expect great performance of an offset LNB unless:
- it was aimed at a high-powered circular satellite (NASA on 119°, for instance)
- it was aimed at an easy to receive DSS satellite (Whitesprings on 129°, for instance).

The forum is all about experimenting.
So, while the above are conservative guidelines, feel free to color outside the lines.

In my experiments, I found 123 difficult to peak (even with the birdog) but I would think that you could probably get 123 and 129 on that rig (with the change to 2 linear LNBs) since the dish is already set up for a 6 degree spread. As Anole noted, you need to maintain the focal point when making the conversion.

I'd probably concentrate on tuning 123 first, since that seems to be the weaker bird - your actual mileage may vary.

Enjoy.

 

[Mr Tony]

Can the circular LNB be easily replaced with a new linear LNB (so that it has two linear LNBs)?

yes

With dual linear LNBs, can I point it at any linear sats that are 6 degrees apart and expect it to work? I was thinking 129/123 would be nice.

I know of a few here who have done that with both that dish and others (Primestars)

Or would I be able to swap the oringal LNB's possitions aim for 119/125? NASA/PBS seems like a nice combination.

I would just move the mounting bracket that hold the 2 LNB's and flip it. You would want to keep 125 on the LNB that is aimed at the centre as KU is weaker. But it could be done

 

[equant]

Thanks everyone. I've got enough confidence to commit to the attempt now.