Got a C-Band dish...now some questions

[Mr Tony]

well this morning I hooked up the polorotr to the Pansat 2100 to see if it still worked and it did...went to a satellite and the little thing inside quickly moved to -45 and +45

so I assume its just trial and error to get the right skew? So if my skew is +5 for a satellite, do I put BOTH V & H polarities at +5 or one at +5 and one at -5?

I assume the latter as there is only one skew part in there

 

[drhydro]

Iceberg, you just put one in.

 

[Mr Tony]

oh ok

 

[WyrTwister]

now you say line it up at 10:30/4:30 but drhydro say line it up to 12:00...so which is it??

The way it looks right now is the LNB if I line that up to 12:00 inside the LNB there is a metal piece (the obvious skew) that lines up also at 12:00 So wouldn't I do it that way if my skew for G4 is +5?

And in the setup for the digital receivr, if its +5, do I set both V & H for +5 or one as +5 and the other as -5?

I have mine with the polarotor & LNB at 10:30 & 04:30 . These can be reversed & it would not matter , . The way the " F " connector is located on my LNB , 04"30 looks to be better at keeping rain out of the " F " connector .

The thing is , if you get it off a little , you can adjust in the sat menues in the receiver . The pansat will probably defauslt to -45 and + 45 degrees .

After you get it up and going , I would try to rotate the LNB so it is pretty close to the + 45 & - 45 .

Course , I have to keep reminding myself , you are not running a motor .

With the motor , you get it set correctly on the due south & it is pretty well OK untill maybe the extream east or west sats .

With a stationary dish , you have to deal with skew . when you fo searching for another sat .

Either re-set the skew for every sat or just compensate with the receiver menue settings . Sa long as your receiver has wnough adjustment range in the menue .

I think the pansat will go from + 90 to - 90 ?

The 3 wires from the polorotor are usually red ( = DC positive ) , white ( pulse ) & black ( - DC ground ) , although you may find them other colors .

Look for these markings on the receiver ;
5 + or +
5 - or - or ground
Pulse or a symbol that looks kind of like a top hat

There is probably a fourth connection that I have never used . It may be for a DC switch , like a 22 khz or Diesq 2 way switch ? To change between 2 coax feeds of feedhorns with a H and a V LNB ? or a C band & a Ku band LNB ?

Wyr .

 

[WyrTwister]

Here's the LNB I got recently (Thanks DrHydro)

so in the 4th picture that would be like aiming it at 12:00, right?
The 3rd picture is what the inside looks like when its at 12:00 (picture 4)

If you are shooting at due south , I would go for 04:30 & 10:30 .

The current position of the probe inside of the feed horn may not tell you much , except where it was at the last time the LNB was used ?

Looks like you have red , white & black wires - good . Could not tell from the picture , three or six wires ?

To tell if the polorotor ( black plastic box in your case , although most are blue ) id OK , just hook it to the receiver & see if the probe moves , as you change TP's .

if the receiver menue is srt to - 45 & + 45 , this will tell you where the probe will be ( idealy ) for H & V .

Wyr

 

[WyrTwister]

Don't expect too much for the 6ft dish. It's good for fun. I would say you will get less than 10% of the C-band channels. You will probably get some luck with Pas9 and couple channels from Anik sats.
FTARock,

I got pretty much all of the analog ( with varing degrees of quality ) on a 90 cm offset dish . Not much DVB-S .

Wyr

 

[WyrTwister]

what kind of wire should I buy to run the polorator to the box? Would something like 20 guage wire work? How much shielding should it have

(I'm not talking the coax....I'm talking about the wire to run the polorotor)

I used some 18-3 twisted shielded from work .

You can try something cheap like 4 conductor phone wire . Some have posted that if the polorotor " wanders " the shield helps . Do not know . I grounded the shield to the scalar ring . May depend on distance , too ?

Wyr

 

[Mr Tony]

OK...hooked up the LNB from DrHydro (yes it only has 3 wires for the polorotor)

ran up to Rat Shack and got some 20 guage wire and hooked that up to the Pansat 2100, which has a spot for polorotor...and turned it and smoke came out of the Pansat (uh oh)...yep. Wired wrong (had red and black screwed up outside)

Hooked the polorotor cords to my Toshiba TRX1420 and hooked up cable. Aimed and got CH 16 in real good (Shepards Chapel or something like that). Toshiba has auto skew so I skewed it. Now I slaved the Pansat to it and scanned V

BAM....4 feeds...some with quality up to 70 (vertical polarity)

right now scanning H polarity

so we're slowly getting there

 

[Mr Tony]

Looks like you have red , white & black wires - good . Could not tell from the picture , three or six wires ?

three wires...red, white, black

To tell if the polorotor ( black plastic box in your case , although most are blue ) id OK , just hook it to the receiver & see if the probe moves , as you change TP's .

yep it moves

if the receiver menue is srt to - 45 & + 45 , this will tell you where the probe will be ( idealy ) for H & V .

Wyr

The Toshiba goes from 0 to 90
right now H is at skew 3
V is at 58

 

[Mr Tony]

scanned H and only got a couple feeds (none of which are on Lyngsat) and real low quality.....Looking at the footprint for H I am between 42 & 43 and for V I am in 43

have to tweak now

 

[Mr Tony]

tried tweaking and STILL can't get any H polarity stuff....can get a couple feeds really low (quality 10) but nothing else.

V comes in at 45-70.

 

[Mr Tony]

decided to switch back to the DMSI C-Band LNB and I have to turn the LNB 90 degrees to get the right polarity. If I put it straight up, the polarity is backwards

 

[WyrTwister]

OK...hooked up the LNB from DrHydro (yes it only has 3 wires for the polorotor)

ran up to Rat Shack and got some 20 guage wire and hooked that up to the Pansat 2100, which has a spot for polorotor...and turned it and smoke came out of the Pansat (uh oh)...yep. Wired wrong (had red and black screwed up outside)

Hooked the polorotor cords to my Toshiba TRX1420 and hooked up cable. Aimed and got CH 16 in real good (Shepards Chapel or something like that). Toshiba has auto skew so I skewed it. Now I slaved the Pansat to it and scanned V

BAM....4 feeds...some with quality up to 70 (vertical polarity)

right now scanning H polarity

so we're slowly getting there

Sorry to hear you smoked the skew on the Pansat . :-( I guess this means we all should use a volt meter to check ?

TP 15 & 16 on G4 are 2 religious channels . Just about the strongest analog that I came across . They came in best on the 90 cm mini-bud .

T5 or T6 haveral ABC feeds that are pretty strong , plus PBS .

What number did the analog receiver teek it on the skew ?

Best of luck ,
Wyr

 

[WyrTwister]

The Toshiba goes from 0 to 90
right now H is at skew 3
V is at 58



Does it go from -90 to 0 , continueing to + 90 ? That gives you 180 degrees of movement . Which ought to hit most anything .

Wyr

 

[WyrTwister]

tried tweaking and STILL can't get any H polarity stuff....can get a couple feeds really low (quality 10) but nothing else.

V comes in at 45-70.

After tweeking elevation and east - west .

Were you watching the signal quality on the receiver ? I have foundit to be more discerning than anything else . Also , whyle watching signal quality , manually tweek the skew , in the receiver menu .

Check on lyngsat , those H TP's you are not getting ( on DVB-S ) may be DC II ( which your receiver can not deal with ) or TP's from an adjacent sat ?

Although most sats have opposite polarity from those to the east & the west of it .

Might try manually driving the skew through out its entire range of rotation & see what does or does not pop in from the sat you are aimed at and those to either side ? Check lyngsats to see what channels are on those adjacent sats .

Wyr

 

[WyrTwister]

decided to switch back to the DMSI C-Band LNB and I have to turn the LNB 90 degrees to get the right polarity. If I put it straight up, the polarity is backwards

I have read of this before . Mismarked .

How is the performance , comparing the LNB to the LNBF ?

Hang in there , you are making progress ;

Wyr

 

[Mr Tony]

Sorry to hear you smoked the skew on the Pansat . :-( I guess this means we all should use a volt meter to check ?

no it was my stupididty....when I wired it up I used quick connects and I just put them backwards

TP 15 & 16 on G4 are 2 religious channels . Just about the strongest analog that I came across . They came in best on the 90 cm mini-bud .

T5 or T6 haveral ABC feeds that are pretty strong , plus PBS .

yep...got ABC feeds, PBS and the 2 church channels

What number did the analog receiver teek it on the skew ?

Best of luck ,
Wyr

3 for H polarity and 50 something for vertical

 

[Mr Tony]

The Toshiba goes from 0 to 90
right now H is at skew 3
V is at 58



Does it go from -90 to 0 , continueing to + 90 ? That gives you 180 degrees of movement . Which ought to hit most anything .

Wyr

Toshiba only goes from 0-90
There is a way to set it for normal or inverse

 

[Mr Tony]

After tweeking elevation and east - west .

Were you watching the signal quality on the receiver ? I have foundit to be more discerning than anything else . Also , whyle watching signal quality , manually tweek the skew , in the receiver menu .

yep. Did that...tweaked to the best spot for analog then skewed the LNBF for optimum digital signal.

Check on lyngsat , those H TP's you are not getting ( on DVB-S ) may be DC II ( which your receiver can not deal with ) or TP's from an adjacent sat ?

nope. I'm talking about the networks on there. I get the "wb" feeds fine

Might try manually driving the skew through out its entire range of rotation & see what does or does not pop in from the sat you are aimed at and those to either side ? Check lyngsats to see what channels are on those adjacent sats .

Wyr

have to try that.

 

[Mr Tony]

I have read of this before . Mismarked .

How is the performance , comparing the LNB to the LNBF ?

Hang in there , you are making progress ;

Wyr

both are about the same. The issue with the DMSI one is I have to manually skew and it seems like there is a fair amount of "wobble" so it has to be aimed just right or I get no signal.

I stopped working on it because its night time and it was pretty chilly today

The LNBF with the polorotor I hook to the analog and slave the DVB box whereas the DMSI LNBF I have to use the DVB box and slave the analog