KU to 10 foot dish help

[LEEHRAT]

I have 10 foot c-band dish that goes from 81 west to 139 west and that works great.
My 4 foot ku band dish works great for about 12 years but the motor finally played out.
My question is can you attached the ku band lnb I had on the 4 foot to the 10 foot mesh dish and get it to work.
I see pictures on the internet but have not had any luck yet.
the cost and problems of getting a motor for the 4 footer are to high and the c/ku combo lnb had poor reviews.
I tried putting as close to the cband lnb same length and move the dish back and forth a little but no luc.
any help or ideas please advise and thanks.

 

[primestar31]

I have 10 foot c-band dish that goes from 81 west to 139 west and that works great.
My 4 foot ku band dish works great for about 12 years but the motor finally played out.
My question is can you attached the ku band lnb I had on the 4 foot to the 10 foot mesh dish and get it to work.
I see pictures on the internet but have not had any luck yet.
the cost and problems of getting a motor for the 4 footer are to high and the c/ku combo lnb had poor reviews.
I tried putting as close to the cband lnb same length and move the dish back and forth a little but no luc.
any help or ideas please advise and thanks.

Please post some photos of the KU lnb as mounted. Wide ones, so we can see it all well.

Realize that the KU satellite that ku lnb would be looking at is going to NOT be the same one that the C-band lnb is looking at. It'll be one off to the EAST or WEST some degrees depending on which side you mounted the KU lnb.

 

[LEEHRAT]

Please post some photos of the KU lnb as mounted. Wide ones, so we can see it all well.

Realize that the KU satellite that ku lnb would be looking at is going to NOT be the same one that the C-band lnb is looking at. It'll be one off to the EAST or WEST some degrees depending on which side you mounted the KU lnb.

I had it right beside the cband lnb same distance to the center and tried moving the dish back and forth either way but it did not work. I have taken it down now to here if anyone has gotten it to work.
thanks

 

[primestar31]

I had it right beside the cband lnb same distance to the center and tried moving the dish back and forth either way but it did not work.

Yes, it works, I've done it.

It doesn't matter that the ku lnb was mounted the "same distance to the center" to figure out what KU satellite it was looking at. It matters how far away from the c-band feed that's at the very center to figure that out. Even IF you managed to cram the ku lnb right next to the c-band waveguide metal, it would be looking off to the East or West a MINIMUM of 4 degrees, and more likely 6-8 degrees depending on your dish.

It would NOT ever be looking at the same satellite that you presently have tuned in via C-band...

 

[LEEHRAT]

Thanks will try again. I thought of all of that and that is why I moved to dish back and forth 20 degress and still did not get any signal. Good to know it does work. will keep at it.

 

[primestar31]

Thanks will try again. I thought of all of that and that is why I moved to dish back and forth 20 degress and still did not get any signal. Good to know it does work. will keep at it.

You might have to aim in-between your normal sats, to figure out which one the ku lnb sees. Realize that the KU satellite beamed signal crosses over from the opposite side of where the sidecar KU lnb is mounted.

So, IF the KU lnb was mounted on the WEST side of the C-band feed, and say your dish is aimed at 101W, the satellite the KU lnb would be seeing, would be 99w, or maybe 97w, or even 95w.

The same is true IF the KU lnb is mounted to the EAST side of the C-band feed. You aimed at 101W for C-band, the KU lnb would then be looking at 103w, 105w, etc...

Understand?

 

[LEEHRAT]

Here are 3 pictures of my current set up that I cannot get to work. again I move the dish at least 20 degrees both ways and still no signal.

 

[primestar31]

Here are 3 pictures of my current set up that I cannot get to work. again I move the dish at least 20 degrees both ways and still no signal.

Where in the USA are you located? That ku lnb really needs to be inline on the same plane line directly to the LEFT or RIGHT of the C-band feed. Since it's mounted below it, and what appears to be on the EAST side of the dish (unless you are West of the Mississippi ) it's going to be trouble, because it'll be looking ABOVE the satellite arc. The sat signal beam crossover also happens North to South.

Otherwise, it's also so far away from the C-band waveguide, it would likely be looking at about satellite 110w or further, IF you had a C-band channel tuned in on 101W. (for instance)

The easiest fix, is to have the KU lnb all hooked to a receiver, and move it around manually by hand to different locations, and see if you can pick up a signal. That's hard because you also have to be in front of that sort of dish to try that. The problem of doing that, seems to be where your dish arms are on the side, is also where the KU lnb needs to be mounted. Perhaps you can move the arm on whatever side you mount the KU lnb? I had to do that.

 

[LEEHRAT]

In North Carolina mountains. I guessed about 10 degrees off and have been trying to pull in by moving dish in house and looking at my ku signal and getting nothing. thanks

 

[arlo]

And here's mine from a previous post here.
Stick your dish up in the air to its Zenith and mount it inline straight across from your C-Band feed. With the 0 mark pointing straight up just like you would do with your C-Band LNBF.
In my case I've inverted my Titanium LNBF 180 degrees to keep the heat sink away from the sun.
Anyway. The Maverick 0 mark points straight up. After that skew is not a big deal during signal finding and final tweaks.
Because I have a button hook I needed to angle the Ku LNBF a bit away from the dish center as the dish mount was killing signal. It ended up being so that If I aim the dish for let's say 99W, a Ku signal on the same sat is 5 degrees further east. An easy calculation for mover counts for signal finding.
The front of the Ku LNBF is roughly where the front of the C throat is.
It wasn't really that hard to do. I initially hand held the LNB to find a signal "somewhere" in the vicinity of where I thought it should be. Fashioned up a bracket and mounted it.
99W tp's come in around 17dB.
After all of that it was a bummer to find out that there's really not much on Ku worth watching.

 

[Brct203]

This is what i'm using. Universal Ku on one side, Circular C on the other. The key, as mentionned above, is to have all LNBFs in the same plane that is perpendicular to the polar axis.

 

[cyberham]

Leehrat: More thread reading for you. In my case, I installed a Ku LNB on a 1.2m C-band dish. On your 10-foot dish, beamwidth of your dish would be narrower so aiming might be more touchy.

See my description here:

C- and Ku-bands on 1.2m Dish

I have installed my GEOSATpro SL1PLL Ku LNB on my motorized 1.2m dish with Titanium C1PLL LNBF and CS1 scalar. This allows me to receive C- and Ku-band satellites on the same dish. Currently, I am receiving on C-band 91W, 97W, 99W, 105W, 107.3W, 113W. On Ku, I am receiving 87W, 89W, 91W, 95W...

www.satelliteguys.us

 

[LEEHRAT]

Thanks for all the help. I will get it on the plane and get it to work this week. thanks again

 

[LEEHRAT]

Does it matter the size of the holes in the mesh 10 foot dish to get the ku signal? picture attached

 

[primestar31]

Does it matter the size of the holes in the mesh 10 foot dish to get the ku signal? picture attached

Yes. IF you can put a pencil through the holes, it's too large of holes. Otherwise they should be good.

 

[Comptech]

Ku is possible, but trust me a 1 meter or a 1.2 will get you much better reception. As sais above you will be 4 degrees away and bumping the dish. Do them separate with a multi switch if you can.

 

[arlo]

Comp. Got any coffee?
It never occurred to me mesh size having an effect on C or Ku reception. Really?
And in my case of receiving Ku on my dish with a side car LNBF I actually get a wide beamwidth.
During a TP blindscan I get adjacent sat transponders. Requiring a look at sat charts to find out if they are unpublished ones or are coming from another sat either side of my target. Or.......
Crack out the old Dreamlink or Linkbox. I can't figure out why they will display satellite ID's and Enigma2 receivers don't. But in fact they do tell me. I'll find transponders mixed with target transponders from "next door"
Of course the filter out by degree is no good if you don't sync with ones in the xml.

Give me a few difficult sat's and tp's that you think a dedicated FTA dish would get better vs a side car Ku LNBF on a C Band dish. Very interested because I'm pondering the "wow" factor of putting up another dish before the frost sets in up here. My hold-back is finding a genuine Stab HH-120. Nonexistent. Thank you Covid. I mean (for you Bri) I can get my dose of shortwave Jesus on my HF rigs. The Ku experience so far seems like....Ok, I got it working. But so what?
Now. About that coffee.

 

[LEEHRAT]

got it done and have all the channels I had with my 4 footer so I am happy. here are the pictures. if anyone wants the details of how to set it up let me know. the date photos taken was 11/3/21 not date in pictures

 

[JFOK]

LEEHRAT,

With my 8 foot Tek2000 dish I am able to get most of the ku signals that are up there.
Brian (Titanium) suggested that I could use a pipe hanger from a place like Home Depot or Lowes to attach the ku lnbf. It worked like a charm. It took a little while adjusting to get the best readings , but now I’m getting for example, the 103w kU NBC feeds at 11.2- 11.4 db. I don’t know how many degrees separate my C and ku bands, but in order to get 103w ku, I move my dish to the same location as 113w C Band.

John