Joining the C-band club soon...

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northgeorgia

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Nov 14, 2011
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North GA
Well, after a year and a half of promise, my cousin and I finally went to his late father's property today and were shocked to see the nice satellite dish he promised me had completely disappeared! Apparently his surviving step-mother was confused and thought that no one was interested, so she had sold it some months ago for scrap metal. My cousin apologized a million times, but I said it was OK. I mean, we had waited too long and just assumed it would still be there waiting for us LOL

Anyway, I have ordered a used 6-foot stationary dish today on eBay. Not ideal, but at least I'll be able to pick up a great deal of channels (I guess I'll be shifting it around for a while to see what I want to watch). When it arrives later next month, I might need some tips/advice.

Yeah, I'd order a 10-footer from TEK, but I don't have a thousand dollars to throw into the hobby right now. So the six footer is my compromise for now :)

No way to convert a stationary mount to a polar mount? Maybe the trick is finding a spare polar mount lying around, huh? LOL
 
I'd keep looking. There's a lot of BUDS still around that can be had for nothing. I located two a while back that I hadn't noticed and I drive right past them everyday. One has a grapevine growing on it, and the other is a 7 1/2 footer that sits down over the road bank and you have to be paying attention when you pass it to even know it's there. There are some really nice fiberglass dishes still on the pole around here, but most people don't want them due to the weight.

I even know of a 22 foot stationary dish on top of a hill near my home that was abandoned by the cable company that can be had for hauling it off. I wouldn't get discouraged because FTA is worth the effort. I installed satellite systems for almost 30 years, and I get all my programming off FTA. Dropped Dish and DirecTV years ago due to the cost and lousy program packages offered on them. Just not worth the money.
 
Woo hoo! Wow, these six-footers can give you fits trying to tune in! Well, I assembled the dish off and on yesterday afternoon and early evening, trying to keep clear of the cold rain and wind by doing some under the porch and some in the basement -- got it put up. Then discovered how difficult it is to get it set right on the satellite.

First channel was "Movies!" on 101W. Later, I got the Lesea mux on 99W. But not much else. Then I recalled I could try connecting my cheap-o satellite meter. Later I found Classical Arts, Jewelry TV, Univision, and the scrambled CW mux on 91W. Finally getting somewhere, but it was 10:30 p.m. by that point, and since there's no way to mute the sound on that meter (loud beeps are probably not appreciated by neighbors in the middle of the night), I decided it was a good time to quit and try in the afternoon tomorrow with less mud!

Was able to get the GDMX on 99W but highly pixelated. Also got TBN mux on 125W. It's been a while since I did stationary dishes, so I had to remember to adjust the skew, rotate the dish, change the elevation, and also guessing (because I was too lazy to get my ruler out again) the f/D ratio to figure out how far down the lnb should go (trial and error method instead). All this in the gusty wind (and as of 7 p.m., the rain has returned -- fortunately, I finished up two hours ago).

My target and desired satellite to park on: 113W aka the Mexican channels! It is the day after Cinco de Mayo, after all! But since I'm fluent in Spanish, there are so many excellent programs I would enjoy. But there was one channel I valued above the rest. It was a station I was once able to receive via streaming, but by around 2005, countries started putting viewing restrictions on foreign viewers. And that's what happened with this channel -- oh, I really missed it, too! Canal Once! The problem is that this station broadcasts DVB-S2 mpeg4 at 5/6 FEC (8PSK). It would be hit or miss.

Oooh, then I got it! But I lost other stations. Unfortunately, I played around too much and lost the satellite and had to start over. As I slowly started to get signals back, it dawned on me that I was not exactly using quality equipment to "play around" with. My Openbox S10 was, for some reason, deciding it did not want to scan vertical transponders anymore. And it was quite a ratty piece of RG6 cable with a satellite meter in-line that connected to the lnb. Right -- so I just need to relocate the satellite and get Once's signal stabilized, like around 45% or so.

Whew -- took a while, but did it. I closed up shop and connected the Amiko Mini SE upstairs with a length of RG11 cable that had ran to a 76cm dish. Those dishes are pretty far out to get a view of 30W around the trees, so I'll be looking for some RG11 about half that length soon. As you can see from the photo, my stationary dish is probably going to stay near the house for now. Fingers crossed. If I can get just Once and a third of the channels, that'll be good (but naturally, I hoped for more). You can see the results of the scan. Three sports feeds were also picked up. Wow! Once came in stable at 60% and I received 3-4x the channels the Openbox had scanned in. Lyngsat is continuously outdated, but with around 45 viewable channels, I think I picked up all the stations except Conoce Mexico, if it is still on the air.
 

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Glad you got it going, at least good enough for now. Enjoyed the detail write-up! Although an extra carriage return or two would not have hurt. :D
 
Glad you got it going, at least good enough for now. Enjoyed the detail write-up! Although an extra carriage return or two would not have hurt. :D
Oops!!! That's what you get when you're in a hurry. I fixed that -- easier to read now!
 
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You guys giving me an inferiority complex, been running 6 footer for years now (I installed it Dec of 2013), and been loving it. Hope to get a 10 foot solid one day when I get out of town. average signal quality for mine is 70% on what I can pickup so far. Use the 6 foot dish to capture NASA UHD 4K feed for quite some time now. Of course as of lately they have changed something and have fallen below 50% but everything else is good. If they don't come back I'm adding a stationary BUD for it.

Anyway the 6 foot has given my years of great service, I don't regret it for a moment.
 
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