Minibud / Microbud FAQ Wiki Sticky?

[pacificrim]

Does anyone want to help work on a document for this subject?

There are a lot of repeat questions that are answered time after time. The answers are likely found with a search but one needs to know what to search for and often that results in the same questions coming up.

Anyone interested? I'm sure most of it can be consolidated from what is posted here over the years.
Just a thought.

 

[Titanium]

I would be interested in helping with a private wiki-type FAQ, but not interested in the feeding Wikipedia train wreck. Contributed much content in past years and observed to much valid information get nuked by bozos and the self appointed knowledge police....

 

[T134]

I would be interested in helping with a private wiki-type FAQ, but not interested in the feeding Wikipedia train wreck. Contributed much content in past years and observed to much valid information get nuked by bozos and the self appointed knowledge police....

Agree! At one time a couple of us were going to launch a FTA Wiki site. Glad it never happened. Can you imagine what it would look like with the children and some of the pirates out there being able to edit?

Pacificrim's idea is good but I'd recommend a post/sticky rather than an open edit deal.

 

[pacificrim]

I agree.
I find it is tough to point people to a single source of info and even some of the better threads are too long and contain out of date and incomplete / incorrect info. It doesn't need to be a voluminous document - just a primer. After all, once people have the basics they need to actually step outside and do it.

 

[pacificrim]

Minibud vs Microbud

Motorized vs stationary

Hardware / LNB practices - Combo vs sidecar

What channels will I get

Best satellites for reception

Which Sat / transponder for pointing

 

[pacificrim]

Minibud / Microbud

Both of these terms refer to an undersize (less than 6ft) satellite dish being used to receive Cband satellite signals. While these terms are used interchangeably, generally a minibud is a dish that is 1m in size or larger and a microbud is smaller than 1m.



Motorized vs stationary

Most hobbyists prefer a motorized dish due to the shear number of satellites available. Some dishes do not motorize easily such as those which were designed for Internet reception or Muzak digital music or even some Direct-to-home services. Those dishes have heavy or odd mounts and were not meant to be motorized. Dishes meant for and available to the hobbyists usually can be motorized quite easily. The motor should match the size and weight of the dish. An undersized motor will fail.

Hardware / LNB practices - Combo vs sidecar

While a used dish may be free or cheap it must be free of defects, dents and warps and should include all parts necessary for mounting and adjustment.

There are 2 options to receive Ku and Cband on a single dish.

1) Dual C/Ku - usually results in losing one when tweaking for the other

2) 2 separate units where one is in the centre and the other beside using a bracket from the arm.

Conventional LNB vs PLL LNB - The new Cband PLL LNB from Titanium is currently the best solution compared to a standard LNB

Conical scalar - a stepped cone that attaches to the Cband LNB that improves reception. (Looks like a blue Devo hat)

The dish should be as big as you can get. This is universally accepted that a larger dish without flaws will work better than a smaller dish. Yes, some makes and models are better so do your research.

What channels will I get.

This depends on where you live, dish size, LNB type, how well you pointed it!

Best satellites

The winner is 99w

Which Sat / transponder for pointing

The strongest transponder on 99w seems to be 4000 H 26400 so that is what you need to aim for and then tweak for 3848 H 15030 and 3720 H 8703