Looking to grow the dish farm

[TheHamNerd]

So my brother in law was suppose to get me some dishes for free since he manages 2 different apartment complexes, but I have not seen any used dishes yet. I have been looking around, and I am thinking this is a good deal here:
I currently have one of those dishes and LNBF setup with a MicroHD receiver. It has held up so far, and I cannot complain. I am thinking this is a fair deal, and is a quick way to grow the farm. I figure I can get a good diseqc switch like an EMP and go from there.

I am also curious if I should just add one dish, but get a single larger one instead like this one with LNBF combo:
I am not going to make these motorized, as they will be parked on different birds. I know bigger is better, but for the money I am thinking 2 dishes for the cost are a better deal. I am currently parked on 95W and don't plan to leave anytime soon. I want to park a dish on 97W, and possibly 30W if I can see it.

This is a KU only setup for now, until I can find me a good used BUD for C-Band.

Any thoughts...?

TheHamNerd

 

[KE4EST]

I would go with the two dishes. They will get you 95-99% of everything you would want on Ku.

 

[77TA]

Fixed dishes are nice for regular programming on a specific sat like the cctv channels on 95W, foreign channels on 97W, and nbc channels on 72w or 103W. BUT if you like sports there are a ton of wildfeeds you will miss without a motorized dish. Especially on the weekends there are concerts, football, baseball, soccer, rugby, mma, boxing, etc… that can be scanned in with a motorized dish that will be missed with a couple of fixed dishes. I would spend $75 on a motor and a couple hundred on a 1 meter or larger offset dish before getting either of those. If you have a little patience you can even get a deal and save a few bucks. A motorized dish can take the place of 12 or more fixed dishes.

Just my $.02.

 

[TheHamNerd]

Fixed dishes are nice for regular programming on a specific sat like the cctv channels on 95W, foreign channels on 97W, and nbc channels on 72w or 103W. BUT if you like sports there are a ton of wildfeeds you will miss without a motorized dish. Especially on the weekends there are concerts, football, baseball, soccer, rugby, mma, boxing, etc… that can be scanned in with a motorized dish that will be missed with a couple of fixed dishes. I would spend $75 on a motor and a couple hundred on a 1 meter or larger offset dish before getting either of those. If you have a little patience you can even get a deal and save a few bucks. A motorized dish can take the place of 12 or more fixed dishes.

Just my $.02.

I am not really into sports at all. I am a news junkie, and I really like CCTV. I know every news network no matter what country it is in has their own spin on things, but I am tired of FOX, CNN, NBC....etc. It is interesting to see what others think of the USA from their point of view. Also our local news reports only the HOT topics.

I have thought about a motorized setup. Space is not a problem, and the wife is not a problem either...she leaves me alone with my hobbies....I guess I am fortunate there. I am looking for fixed dishes for now, and in the future I can make one of those motorized I guess.

It is still up in the air...I am in no hurry....it is a lot to think about. My first dish is on the roof, which now I understand was a mistake. The next dish, or dishes will be ground mounted so I can tweak them easier. FTA is new to me, and I am really enjoying it. My wife knows nothing about it, and does not even know how to turn it all on...that's why we have cable tv elsewhere in the house. I can play with FTA in my man-cave. My TV is strictly OTA and FTA.

 

[FaT Air]

90cm is more than enough dish for 30 and/or 97, or 95%+ on the rest of the arc. Think you'll do way better than 95% across the arc with them. You'll miss very little.
(btw, for convenience a 'mix' of fixed and motorized is the 'cat's meow' . Motorized to catch those feeds and fixed for the sats with your favorite 'channels' - no waiting for the dish to move.)

Oh, the 'motorized' ku is on the BUD's lip.The little 30 inch white dish (pod) between the 84e and 1.2m.

I am tired of FOX, CNN, NBC....etc

'U' n me both - DITTO

 

[DJdish]

Since you like international news, you´ll do well in having a dish parked at 97w G-19, for about 5 international news channels in English.

 

[TheHamNerd]

NICE FARM Fat Air!!!....hmmm

I figured 90cm would be good. I am not trying to overkill! I am receiving 95W CCTV at 75% to 76% on Signal Quality, and 90% signal level with my CHEAP $30 digital meter. I think I am doing pretty good for an FTA noob. I am also in the market for a better meter....but that is not what this thread is about. Call it beginners luck, but it is not really hard to find birds if you have a little radio RF knowledge, and use dishpointer to get in the ball park! I know a better meter will help me tweak my signals, and I plan to make that move from the cheap meter soon too! So maybe a 1.2M dish motorized in the future would be an asset to the hobby...? Besides....like I said before, these will be ground mounted so if I don't like what I see...then I can go move it. I will not put another dish on the roof...it is fixed on 95W and is not moving...LOL I have learned my lesson there.

 

[TheHamNerd]

Sorry...those signal levels are from my MicroHD under signal info. I am sure I can tweak 95W with a better meter. Looking into a SH-500G, or SH-200

 

[KE4EST]

That is about as good as you are going to see on those numbers. 90 will never change. 76% on quality is great, you will never see 100%.

 

[DJdish]

Yep, your 75-76 Q is very good, that´s about the same I have on a 90 cmts, dish, and I think I had about the same numbers when I tried 96w on a 1.20 mts.
I also like to tune in to international news, I have another dish parked at 97w, as well as another one on 30w, even thought there´s not much of news in English there really.
My next goal iis a mini-bud (90 cmts) to get NHK World (Japan) from 58w on C. I know it´s feasible, I´d like to get a BUD for that bird, but that´s is just not an option at the moment.

 

[TheHamNerd]

96W...? DJ what is on 96W that I might be missing? LOL

 

[TheHamNerd]

must be 97 W

 

[FaT Air]

CCTV at 75% to 76% are . Really good 'numbers'. Bigger dish may only improve by 1 - 5 or so. Dunno, except for the 'experience' with the S9 where 'strong' Tp's basically changed very little, but many reported, but un-receivable on the 30 inch, came in like gangbusters on a larger dish.
I'm satisfied with the low 70's I get on the 'pod' 30 inch* with the S9. Some are only in the 50's but lock just fine. Although there are a few in the high 70's and a few in the 80's but IIRR the 80's are likely more often on C band. *CCTV is 72-73. Seems a very large increase in signal is necessary to get numbers above the low 70's with the S9. Seems like there's a 'plateau'. (Think the Panny 3500 has a more 'truthful' meter, it's a lot lower also) Think I should swap out the pod with the 1.0M???? hmmmmmm-----
96W must be a typo, I couldn't catch anything between 95 and 97 except maybe the 'pod' isn't big enough??? LOL

 

[danristheman]

97 is my favorite ku bird 99w is my favorite c band bird if you need info on micro bud look at the stuff i posted.

 

[Xizer]

Those 90cm's are definitely sufficient for G19 and G3C. The international channels on there are very strong. You could get them with a 76cm I'd bet.

However I would say you should get a 90cm and motorize it so you can move around between the G19 and G3C and also one of those 1.2m's and stick a C-Band LNB on it and put it on on 58W for NHK World HD. It is invaluable for news/documentaries about East Asia.

I consider NHK World an honorary Ku news channel like CCTV, the G19 stuff, etc. because even though it is on C-band you can receive it so well on a Ku antenna. I believe you could get it with a 90cm with perfect peaking but that is pushing it. Remember the channel is only DVB-S which is easier to receive with small antennas and in addition it has an incredible amount of error correction. Its FEC is 1/2 - the highest level of error correction that can be had - meaning half of its packets are just for error correcting. I can hold a lock on the signal with a strength as low as 10%.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/tv/schedule/index.html
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/tv/howto/reception.html

Perhaps if you like what you see experimenting with that C-band on a Ku dish there it will encourage you to look into a proper sized C-band dish where you will be able to receive three additional great HD news channels; the RT family of networks over on Galaxy 18 C-band. Unfortunately the RT's do not come in well on a small dish.

The stuff on G19 and G3C is not HD so it just isn't as enjoyable imo.

Also keep in mind when parking a stationary antenna on those birds you lose out on all the CNN wildfeeds that show up on G16, CNN Newsource on SES-2, all the news wildfeeds on G17 (I often see Al Jazeera America stuff on there), ABC NewsOne on G17, etc.

 

[Cham]

I have both fixed and motorized Ku dishes, and Ku/C band combo on the C-band dish for the weak Ku. Actually right now I have 90cm dishes on 125 and 97, 1.2m on 103, and a 90cm motorized for 30W to 123W. The c/Ku combo does approx 50W to 139w, depending on the season (trees). On the fixed dishes it is possible to use more than one LNBF to get, lets say, 118 and 125, 95 and 103, 72 and 85, etc with switches and extra wiring...
I even have one stationary c-band dish that receives 91, 99, and 107 using three LNBFs. Works great!.

Requires some strategizing ... Best to figure out what your interests are and go from there... A motorized Ku dish is a great starting point.

 

[phlatwound]

...A motorized Ku dish is a great starting point.

Ditto.

 

[TRG]

At one point I had a fixed dish on 125w. (My wife and I are big PBS fans) A second dish was fitted with a motor and covered 72w-103w. Originally I only had one motorized dish. The travel time from the eastern end of the arc to 125w seemed to take forever. Limiting the movement of the motorized to 31 degrees instead of 53 degrees by adding a fixed dish sped things up dramatically! I agree with Cham "Requires some strategizing ... Best to figure out what your interests are and go from there... A motorized Ku dish is a great starting point."

BTW - I find that a 90cm dish on 125w is marginal on some of the feed transponders at my location. The full time transponders like 12180 and 12112 come in great but the feeds are hit and miss. Montana PBS is strong one minute and drops to zero and then pops back up all the time. That causes the video to hesitate and is very annoying. I'm considering an investment in a 1.2 meter dish to park on 125w some time in the near future. Hopefully that will give me a little boost in reliability on 125w.

 

[DJdish]

96W...? DJ what is on 96W that I might be missing? LOL

I see now, I meant 95w, typing after midnite, without reviewing, results in crazy posts, I guess.

 

[TheHamNerd]

Hmmmm...All this is very good info

I wrote down a few birds of interest that I was going to park dishes on. They are:
95W
30W Questionable if I can see it. May have to relocate my ONLY dish on the roof that is on 95W to 30W
97W
107.3W
125W

I will never put a dish on the roof again as I have learned my lesson. BUT, that dish will probably be the one to get 30W. I just didn't want to move it off 95W since I have a great signal on it. My dish farm will be behind the house, and I didn't want to install them in the front yard. I do have a better view to the South than in my back yard. I don't think my wife will like the dishes in the front side yard....I would probably be sleeping on the couch for a long time...