FTA conversion?

[McGuyver]

Has anybody ever tried converting a Dish 500 antenna by mounting a FTA/Linear LNB and using a FTA receiver to pick up FTA channels? Is the Dish 500 antenna large enough? I live in So. Calif. I was curious to try this as a experiment or will I be wasting my time? Mind you, with no hacking intensions!

 

[lumpkin666]

Just about everyone will tell you that a dish500 is too small. If you have the parts and time, I say give it a shot. It may not work, but then again, someone was posting that they were picking up some minimal signals using a converted 18 inch dish. Don't expect to pull down a lot with that dish though.

 

[turbosat]

Tried that with one of the bigger DN dishes last summer, got some of the stronger newsfeeds on SBS6, Galaxy11 and only the strongest stations on G10. The ones that came in were just 'ok' and Im sure the least amount of rain would have washed any of them out pronto.

 

[McGuyver]

That's pretty much what I thought, I have the hardware and the time and the motivation to try it, the weather is usually quite nice here in So Cal and just maybe I'll find something with it. Thanks for all of your replies, your posts are appreciated.

BTY, my neighbor across the road has a 10.5' Luxor mesh dish that she said I could have, she isn't sure if the receiver is still around, her hubby passed away many years ago and she said the dish hasn't worked in years. It's in generally good condition and it's all there. It sits on a 3.5" pole encased in concrete, I know that I'll have to dig a huge hole if I choose to pour concrete but my back says: NO! hahaha!!! I have 2.5 acres with most areas clear for a view but I don't want to set up this monster in my back yard area either, how far away can I set up this dish from the house without losing too much db in cable length? Or does it really make a diff with a big dish?

I'm also guessing that it has a C-Band LNB under the plastic cover and if so I was planning to buy a combo LNB, any suggestions on which is a good C/KU LNB to buy for a good price?

 

[Mr Tony]

yes it can be done. But you will only get the really strong signals. I have done it a few times. For a while I had an old DIrectv phase II dish with DBS LNB at 91 (there was some free audio channels there), a KU at 101 (to get a few strong transponders), and a DBS at 110 for my Dish subscription

Also had a KU LNB on a 18" dish and could get the strong stuff at the top of my arc (IA6, G11, IA5, G3)

Thread on subject
http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=83729&highlight=phase

 

[grusome]

About the 10' dish, I have installed them as far as 150' with no noticable loss on C band. On Ku it's another story. Only the strongest transponders did very well with cables at that length. At 100', both seemed to be fine. That was using older, analog equipment. Newer Ku lnb's should have much lower noise figures and better gain than the stuff I installed back then. (as should the C band lnb's)
My last C/Ku setup was about 7 years ago and worked fine for analog signals on both bands. I have a newer setup that I plan to install once I get my broken foot healed up. So, with the right equipment, I'm sure you can move things further out and not have too much problems. But, as always, the shorter the cable run the better.
grusome

 

[McGuyver]

Concerning the 10' dish

Thank you all for your input, the best location for the 10' dish that I thought will be appropriate is about 60' from the house.

Any suggestions about the mounting? How deep would I need to plant a 3.5" pole to securely hold this firm? I do have high winds here in the high desert, sometimes up to 60 mph or more but not often.

And thanks again, :

 

[lumpkin666]

The 10' dish that i just relocated had about 3 foot of pole under the ground. I dug the new hole down to "shoulder deep" (didn't measure with a measuring tape, but I was tired by that depth so that was good enough!). I also left the hundreds of pounds of concrete that was already on the pole, and put a few hundred more in the hole/on top just for good measure.

 

[grusome]

I always dig as deep as I can. In the case of a large dish that you are trying to keep rigid enough to track the Clark Belt, deeper is better. Along with plenty of concrete to hold things together. If you are sinking a 3.5" pipe, either drill a couple of holes about mid-way down the pipe (the part in the ground) and run a couple of long bolts thru the holes, enough that they stick out a few inches on each side of the pipe or weld something to the pipe so that when the concrete is poured around the pipe and sets up, the pipe won't turn in the concrete when one of those high winds comes up. (learned that one the hard way!!)
Be sure the pipe is as plumb as you can get it and cut the end that the dish will be mounted over as square as you can. All that will help make aligning the dish to the sat arc much easier.
grusome

 

[McGuyver]

Holes....

Sounds like digging the hole and pouring concrete is the hardest part, not looking forward to that one....EEEEEEEK!!!

Thanks for all the advise, now.......when do you guys want to get started digging the hole?

 

[Anole]

Where in So Cal are you located?
I might bring the beer and watch.

 

[McGuyver]

Digging

I might go for that Anole but promise you don't stumble around drunk and fall in the hole.

 

[McGuyver]

FTA 20" Dish500 Conversion

I finally got all the AMC-4 FTA channels on my converted 20" Dish500 antenna, by using my CW600S-premium I could pull in all the channels nicely. My Manhattan Skyline 1000 had trouble with the weak ones.

The CW600S-premium has a sensative tuner and I get all of them without digitizing. Whewww!!! I'm a happy camper now

 

[Mr Tony]

cool