Multifocus 3LNBs and motor

[harmi]

Could you pls help. Currently having 3LNBs for (13E, 19.2E, 23.5E) on fixed dish. Additionally I will have payTV from 4th position soon (1W, they use dedicated receiver with paired device and card). 4LNBs for required position on one dish are too much. I can not have 2 dishes because of space. I would like to be more flexible by installation of SG2100 because of available view. [SIZE=-1]Wavefrontier [/SIZE]is much more expensive and not flexible. Current receiver is required to keep due to better features. Therefore final requirement is 2 receivers, one dish, 4 different satellites. To reduce number of rotations, I would like to keep current 3LNBs for most frequently used satellites/positions on the dish even with motor. I see two basic issues - the first issue is how to setup current receiver to use motor and disecq switches for multifocus (if I choose programs on one of 13/19.2/23.5E positions, dish should go to "basic" position where all 3 LNBs look at appropriate satellite, while motor should rotate in other positions and middle LNB should be active only). Second issue is whether second payTV receiver will not confuse motor - maybe first "master" receiver should control the motor and second payTV receiver should be used as decryption device only without ability to control the motor. Not sure whether this is realistic and can work together. Thanks for advice.

 

[Anole]

I understand the question.
You have an interesting solution.

I guess how much trouble you are willing to go to determines how you proceed.
If you go with a motor, only the existing receiver will control it, and must be used to position the dish to the alternate direction for the subscription receiver to operate.
That seems awkward at best...not even considering how to program the receiver, wire the switches, et al...

If you could invest the money on a different dish and LNBs instead of the motor, this wouldn't be much of a problem.

But, I'm in the USA, and am not familiar with the characteristics of those satellites.
Perhaps another member will come up with better ideas.

 

[Sadoun]

I don't see why not. If you can use the same LNBF to receive the signal from 19.2E and 1W, here is how I would do it.

Assuming the 19.2E LNBF is the one at the focal point of the dish, you could move the dish 20.2 West (to get to 1W satellite) using the motor.

Basically the way I would connect it is as follows:

PayReceiver
|
FTA Receiver
|
Motor
|
4-Way DiSEqC SW
|
|_ Port 1---- 19.2E (1W) LNBF
|
|_ Port 2 ---- 13 E
|
|_ Port 3 ---- 25.5E

When you move the dish to 1W, the switch will move to Port 1. Now the put your FTA receiver on STDBY and turn on your PayRec.

Good luck and I hope it works for you.

 

[harmi]

Thanks for both comments. Locally (central Europe) I received more negative opinions so far (or recommendation to save the troubles using either wavefrontier OR motor with one LNB only) and Sadoun's article contains first schema I could see. As the antenna is on gable roof without comfortable access, I would like to have as much opinions as possible before final decision to avoid changes in the solution. Thanks again.

 

[harmi]

Result

Just to finalize - I decided to go for single LNB on motorized dish (85 dish replaced by 100), paytv is running on Hyundai receiver (from paytv operator as it is paired with Nagravision card - not comfortable, but emulation is here quite popular and monthly cost for this payTV is not worth all the work with key management and of course risking legal actions(...). Original Humax 5500+ receiver is necessary for Cryptoworks card and was reconfigured to rotate the dish. Disecq switch and 2LNBs were deinstalled with old 85dish. Now I can receive approx 18 satellites 45E to 18W, Nilesat 7W is just at the threshold of quality with 100cm dish (weaker channels at 17-20%), the rest is moreless OK. East is limited by the house roof - west is fine as it is gently sloping down and surely optically is visible behind 18W. I can't catch anything behind 18W (22W indicates something around 10%, but no picture), therefore it seems to me for improper installation of dish-motor-mast resulting in too big difference in following orbital curve, mainly for western direction. There is difficult access to the antenna, therefore I need better weather and courage to climb there. Teoretically I should be able to watch something even on 45W (10` elevation and dish 90cm).

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[Anole]

Just to finalize - I decided to go for single LNB on motorized dish (85 dish replaced by 100)...
Now I can receive approx 18 satellites 45E to 18W,...
There is difficult access to the antenna, therefore I need better weather and courage to climb there.

Congratulations on your success.
Thanks for sharing your unique problem with us.
Most of us don't have much appreciation for the problems (and satellites) of Europe.
As for me, I try to stay off dangerous roofs whenever possible.

 

[Tron]

Most of us don't have much appreciation for the problems (and satellites) of Europe.

Well, I have an appreciation for them, I just with I could SEE them from here

Harmi, send some European FTA our way

 

[harmi]

Thanks. After checking your sky view I realized that your visibility starts around 14W (elevation 3.58), which avoid you to see relatively wide offer of european channels at 19.2E and 28.5E positions with majority of english/german channels, but for you below horizon. Tron, regarding your request, I would need substantial upgrade of my devices to fulfill your requirement and cost/benefit analysis would reveal that trip to Europe to asses sky offer is much more efficient.... Anyhow looking forward to resolve my western blindess (18W till ~40W), although I think majority of spanish channels there is about europe, not latin america.

 

[Tron]

FTA is relatively unknown here in the States. Much of whats up there over North America is either direct to home encrypted pay programming (Dish, DirecTV) or is uplinked for broadcasters and cable companies. As a result, FTA receivers are not commonly available at local retail outlets

 

[harmi]

Oh, interesting. While also in Europe you need to pay for quality, it is common that you find a lot of FTAs and almost always you will find someting to watch, of course, depending on your language skills and interests. I finished now with 1700+ FTA channels between 18W and 53E (and still hoping to add some after correction of western view), but I doubt I will watch more than ~40 channels in addition to ~15-20 on payTV. Majority of FTAs is of course out of my interest, various teleshoppings or iran music etc. Having motor is moreless about exotic and technical ability to catch some weak statiions out of official satellite beam, close to the horizon etc., my "usual expectations" would cover programs split on 3 satellites. If you are interested in quality, you need to buy some package like SkyDigital/UK, Digital+/Spanish etc., but still you can find a lot of programs with general "focus", mainly on 19E and 13E (~700+ channels or so). Some national packages are limited due to copyright to watch in certain country and/or citizenship of particular country. Additionally you might need to pay concessionaire fees, which is some kind of tax for state-owned national TV, which cannot live from advertisement only due to obligatory programmes for education, minorities etc. - this is limitation for national programmes only. Not sure whether something like this fee you have in US. Such national programs are available for either one-off payment only $50-120 for the card and maybe also some small (1USD monthly) fee. If you buy payTV, the offer is sufficiently wide to cover all focus areas incluing children, movies, sport, news etc. (usually at least 20-30 programs), but if you need more, you need more cards. And not too many boxes support many cards, especially with different crypting techniques. Fortunately, even smaller offer vendors start to cumulate now programs, i.e. year ago you have bought card for 2-3 national programs only and for another program you had to have another card. But now even national programs card vendors allow you to subscribe some other programs.
Unix devices (like Dreamboxes) offer quite comfortable way to bypass having official cards using sw emulation (some systems are not broken, but majority is). For this you need to watch changed keys, download them to device and if you do not have someone who can spend time on this management and you only share these keys, it is quite timeconsuming exercise (in addition to risking legal action..). Anyhow it seems, that even some FTAs are migrating gradually to payment mode, it is already case with some national packages, that you need to pay something basic at least or there are announcements from time to time that some current FTAs will be encrypted.

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[iafirebuff]

I wish we had an FTA system like that here Minus the gov. fee.