How good are 110 CM Fortec Star Dish Gray, And how good SNH031 Invacom Universal LNB KU band?

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N5XZS

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Jan 23, 2005
4,515
2,537
Albuquerque, NM, USA
Any ideas folks, since I am replacing my old 90 CM dish with new 110 CM dish will be there some improvment for TV DXing fun? Same goes for SNH031 Invacom Universal LNB KU band?

Thanks!:)
 
I am using an SNH-031 on a 9036 dish. I find it is much the same as the larger invacom quad as far as signal & Q, and much the same as the ESX-521 (standard) lnbf.
Maybe someone else can comment on the dish, the only fortec star I have is a 120cm and I would likely recommend another brand unless the price is really low. I find it is too wobbly, could be built just a bit stronger. It does work better than the 36" by maybe 10-15% Q or more. Maybe F* has a new better model out now too.
-C.
 
Why would you say "TV Dxing" when OTA has nothing to do with FTA?

Once you get above 90cm the shipping is pretty expensive and the Fortec dishes I've used were very thin and flexed in the wind. A good quality 90cm dish will beat a crappy 100cm dish anyday on signal quality :)
 
As Iceberg said shipping gets expensive on larger dishes, but I highly recommend if you can, go for a 1.2 meter dish.
I have had the GeoSatpro 1.2 Meter KU OFFSET Dish for a few years and I am happy with it, and signals are strong. Also it is lighter than the Fortec 1.2 Meter dish so I can use it with a normal H-H motor with the larger post.
 
Why would you say "TV Dxing" when OTA has nothing to do with FTA?

TV DXing doesn't only refer to OTA. I'd consider any television reception beyond the intended broadcast area to be TV DXing. In this case, it would be the reception of the fringe areas of satellite beams and/or sidelobes. Extreme cases would be that guy in Brazil who went to great lengths to receive the Astra satellites beaming towards Europe, or a group of enthusiasts in New Zealand receiving sidelobes of American satellites. No antenna radiation pattern is perfect and sidelobes of satellite beams aren't always published in the public footprint maps!
 
I'd consider any television reception beyond the intended broadcast area to be TV DXing.
well technically then any feed would be considered that since we are usually not the intended broadcast audience ;)
 
Well look's at a bright side since I live in New Mexico there are will be signal spillovers, for today birds and the future birds to TV DX with!!:D:hungry:

Let's just have fun baby!!....
 
well technically then any feed would be considered that since we are usually not the intended broadcast audience ;)

I didn't say anything about an audience ;) Anyway, if I had more real estate, I'd love to see what I'd be able to pick up with a 20' dish or something. I was seriously considering building an L-band antenna to try and pick up WorldSpace's AfriStar satellite (at 21 degrees East), which in Newfoundland is above the horizon albeit barely. The maps WorldSpace put out showed the end of coverage being a couple thousand km's away but I hypothesized that was because of the low elevation and the general use of low gain antennas with the service. After talking with some people in Europe who said that for some reason a standard DVB-S receiver would not receive the signals, lack of motivation to buy a proper WorldSpace receiver, and among other things WorldSpace practically becoming defunct, I never did it. I bet a 20 turn helical antenna would've done it. Now we'll never know :( The signals were between about 1.4 and 1.5GHz, which is in the range of what FTA receivers receive, so instead of using an LNB you'd use an antenna, or an LNA and antenna.
 
Even the old analog needs an amp to pick up ATV transmissions in the 1.2gHz band. A good long helical and 20dB of amp would do wonders though... Was looking into amateur DVB-TV just for fun on 1.2 just for the reason that there are lots of receivers around... Maybe someday.
 
I'd assume with terrestrial 23cm a preamp is primarily going to be there to overcome long lossy coax runs although depending on the vintage of your receiver you'll have varying degrees of success with the difference between the noise figure of the preamp and the receiver. Just for putzing around with WorldSpace I probably would've just gone with a 3 foot run of coax :) DVB ATV would be awesome! I know it's been done and has been out for several years but even analog ATV is cost prohibitive. Heck, you can't even get an ATSC modulator without bartering your first born. I have 70cm analog ATV gear and have worked one person on it! Not enough activity and not enough repeaters.... and probably not a whole lot of hams who I'd care to see in 1080p anyway ;)
 
Fortec Star dishes were never known for their material or construction. Two reasons they sold well several years ago, they were readily available and not too expensive.

I would look at the many other brands and models and compare before buying. I can assure you that you would not be very satisfied with the quality of the Fortec Star dish.

The Invacom is a quality product and remains the benchmark that consumer LNBFs are compared.
 
Yup Invacom makes a pretty good LNB.....the only drawback of them is the weight. If the dish has arm supports this is a moot point but a QPH031 on a 76cm dish weighed the arm down too much to give bad results
 
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