Motorize my Setup!!

[Babadem]

I would like to motorize my 36" 3ABN Dish. My Latitude. is 42° and Longitude is 71°W. My Question are as follows:

1) Which is the best motor and most durable to buy that can work with my 36" dish

2) Which LNB will best? It should have Circular/Linear capability and has multiple outputs for 2 Receivers.

3) As my Longitude is 71° would Satellites 70°W or 72°W, be my True South Bird? Considering my location, which would be my farthestEast or West of my Location?


I thank you all in Advance for your responses.

 

[N6BY]

I would like to motorize my 36" 3ABN Dish. My Latitude. is 42° and Longitude is 71°W. My Question are as follows:

1) Which is the best motor and most durable to buy that can work with my 36" dish

2) Which LNB will best? It should have Circular/Linear capability and has multiple outputs for 2 Receivers.

3) As my Longitude is 71° would Satellites 70°W or 72°W, be my True South Bird? Considering my location, which would be my farthestEast or West of my Location?


I thank you all in Advance for your responses.

Most of the FTA KU band transponders are linear. But if you need both I would get the Invacom QPH-031. It does exactly what you want.

Odds are, your longitude is not exactly halfway between them (71.000 degrees). If you enter your full address into dishpointer.com you can get your exact longitude. Then you will know which one (70 or 72) is closest to south.

At 42 degrees latitude, assuming that there are no line of sight obstructions, I would expect that you could get a maximum of 65 degrees east or west of your longitude. So your range might be 6W to 136W.

As for the best motor, I also have a 36" dish that I am looking to motorize. It has a 1 5/8 inch pole diameter. Maybe someone else here has a recommendation for us?

 

[Machman]

I could be mistaken but I don't think there are any known transponders at 70W that can be seen from North America, so it wouldn't be possible to use it for alignment purposes.

As for motors, I have my 90cm Fortec on a Sadoun DG280 and I'm very happy with it. Even with a lot of weight on the end of the arm it doesn't stall out, though it runs a little slow at 13V. I've used it with both USALS and DiSEqC 1.2 and it tracks the arc very accurately. I had it set up in under an hour and never needed to adjust anything again.

 

[Mr Tony]

I would aim for 72W. Use USALS to motor first to 72 then aim the dish

 

[N6BY]

I could be mistaken but I don't think there are any known transponders at 70W that can be seen from North America, so it wouldn't be possible to use it for alignment purposes.

As for motors, I have my 90cm Fortec on a Sadoun DG280 and I'm very happy with it. ...

I tried to get 70W (Star One C2) from California. Looking at the coverage map I can definitely see why I got zero signal - Star One C2 at 70.0°W - LyngSat Maps

I'd order a Sadoun DG280, but last time I ordered from Sadoun it took 30 days to get my stuff.

 

[Machman]

I tried to get 70W (Star One C2) from California. Looking at the coverage map I can definitely see why I got zero signal - Star One C2 at 70.0°W - LyngSat Maps

It has a Mexican Ku beam that reaches into the southern U.S. but I don't know if it's active. I'd check it myself but none of my dishes has LOS to it.

I'd order a Sadoun DG280, but last time I ordered from Sadoun it took 30 days to get my stuff.

I always thought that motor was an exclusive Sadoun product for some reason, but now that I look at the box it's actually sold under the PowerTech brand. A Google search for "powertech dg-280" turns up a few other vendors.

You might also consider the DG380 since it's only $10 more. It has automatic backlash adjustment, which eliminates the one thing that I don't like about the DG240 and DG280: the manual backlash adjustment screw is easy to break during adjustment. It also can handle 120cm dishes and comes with stainless hardware. If you want to go cheap there's also the DG240, which I also have and like.

(I've had good experiences dealing with Sadoun and would buy from them again, but I can understand if others feel differently).

 

[N6BY]

Sadoun shipped my previous two orders quickly. The problem was that the item I ordered this last time was out of stock, and there was no indication of that on the ordering page or an option to cancel. Oh well, at least I'm happy with the quality of what I got.

Before I order a small dish motor, I'd like to see if I can get KU band on my 10' Unimesh, which is already motorized. I'm not sure if the problem is that my mesh size is too big or the BSC-621 C/KU LNB is not a good performer for KU. Or maybe a little of both?

It would be nice to get both C and KU on one motorized dish. This is just a hobby and I don't mind the trial and error of experiments to get the best reception.

 

[brentb636]

For a motor, you might also consider the tiny STAB hh90 or larger STAB hh100. My HH90 is handling a 90cm dish easily, and the 3 year facotory warranty makes it attractive. I also have a single button SG2100 and DG380 which perform well, but without the longer warranty. My winters are not as severe as Iceberg's, we're protected by Lake Michigan until it freezes over, but we do get a lot of stiff winds off the lake.

 

[Babadem]

Thanks guys for your responses. What are the differences between SG2100 and DG380 motors? Which one is more rugged or durable all round? Since I may have to mount my setup about 8 to 9 ft on the side of my house for a better LOS, I would like to buy a motor that would perform well without me climbing the ladder all the time to fix the motor.

 

[brentb636]

The DG380 is rated to handle a heavier load. Whether or not that factors into reliability is anyone's guess. I have 3 motors, they've all been reliable. Still I have to go out to the dishes frequently and adjust them. A little wind can be an irresistible force. Don't count on not having to visit the roof several times a year, even though nothing is broken !

 

[Babadem]

I'm just wondering............will ViewSat Ultra work well with SG2100 or DG380 or do I have to get a different STB?

 

[brentb636]

I believe we have members with the Ultra, and it does okay, unlike some of the earlier Viewsats.

 

[skewed]

Yes it works pretty good with moving the motor, but really bites with the blind scan.