Newbie/Antiquated needs advice

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efigalaxie

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Jan 11, 2017
6
2
Salem, VA, USA
Hello, I am David - Salem, VA.

I have an old 10ft mesh type dish system. It is still standing. It is in it's 2nd home. I originally had it in Buchanan, VA and it was installed by ACS. I moved, so I pulled the whole thing off the pole and brought it to Salem in one piece and put it on its new pole. I knew which sat and transponder I had it on when I cut it off. I simply swiveled it on the new pole until I picked up the same thing at it's new home and then locked it down. I messed up a bit on the pole placement as I did not account for the roof overhang, so the dish will hit the house if I try to move it too far to the east. Anyway...all that was 20 years ago. DirecTV and DISH came along. Cable internet came along. So the dish has been dormant for 17 years or so. What are the odds that I can plug my old Uniden IRD into it and it takes off working??

I have done enough research to know that I want C-band functionality here. I read an antiquated post here where someone was trying to argue that he could do C-Band just fine with a 36 inch dish. I take it that the consensus was that he is off his rocker?????

Assuming I need a 10ft dish, I guess I would need to move mine out a bit...a chore since my hoss of a buddy that helped me move it has been gone since 1998. I also have a fence near it now so cant get a pickup in there like I once could. The mesh is not ripped but is a little dinged up in places. The frame is true. It is a prime focus. The actuator is a 'Venture', the C/KU band lnbs are mounted on a dual feedhorn ....the term co-rotor comes to my mind for some reason as far as the model goes.

My guess is that I first need to use the old Uniden to check function of the dish in a mechanical sense. If the actuator and dish seem ok, Should I put a new combo LNBF on it or try to use what is there?? I will need to either get the ACS1 or the 60 controller that is floating around everywhere??? Pros/cons......is skew even a thing now???

What is best for a receiver now??I am amazed at the prices of LNBFs and receivers now. What is this ASPK that I see mentioned for one sat??? Do all receivers handle that now or do I need a special one, or is that outdated?

Plus...what are the reputable shops from which to order stuff?? Entirely too many partially working and abandoned websites.

So - Please point me in the right directions.

Do note that I am definitely wanting Ku AND C bands. I also want to pick up as much as possible.
 
:welcome to the forum David :) You have come to the right place for everything you need to know for a fun hobby. It sounds like you may have a decent dish to start with too :). The Uniden IRD is of little value today. But you can check out the function of the dish mover and the feed horn polarity control motor with it and see if those motors still work. There are a couple of different routes you can take to get up and running. You can use your Corotor C/Ku feed and LNBs and possibly control it manually with the Uniden, or buy an ASC1 for totally automatic control. Another option would be to replace the corotor with a C/Ku LNBF that uses voltage switched polarity. The Corotor on your dish would normally be the better option. Look at Titanium Satellite site for more info on these choices. Good products and the best service too ;)
ASPK is a newer modulation type being used to cram more data into the same small space. Look for a receiver that lists 16ASPK and 32 ASPK modulation support.
Keep in mind though that FTA is not so much about "watching TV" as it is "getting TV" ;) The channels come and go without any notice.
 
Magic, thanks for the quick reply. I just got off work and it is raining here. I think I will wait until I can spray the actuator down and run new wiring. ... At least I want to put a meter on what is there. If everything seems to work, then I will buy an asc1 and a receiver. I have the rg6 and wire for the actuator and corotor. I will bundle it with zip ties. Then I will see how far East I can point without hitting the house. Then I will see if what I can't get to is worth the effort to move it
 
Welcome to SatelliteGuys efigalaxie, looks like Magic Static gave you some good info. Just don't be afraid to ask questions, we are glad to help. :)
 
The ASC1 is great. I run the hell out of mine.
I love all of my LNBF's from Titanium. I have 3 of them, CK1S, C2W-PLL, and a C1W-PLL.
His stuff makes everything so easy. His customer support is priceless.

With FTA you will find some bad ass feeds. No Dish or Directv but no bill as well.
 
I messed up a bit on the pole placement as I did not account for the roof overhang, so the dish will hit the house if I try to move it too far to the east.

From 83W up to 40W there is precious little English audio that I have found at this time. 40W and further East... I can't say about those. So you might not want the Eastern arc even if you had it.

Now if you want Spanish and some Portuguese... 78W and further East are very desirable!

EDIT: Oh..I'm in VA as well.Near the Blue Ridge parkway and the NC line. Welcome to the Sat Guys!
 
OK, I am going on faith that my old dish, which is a Winegard.... I think, my venture actuator, my Chaparral feed horn and lnbs.... C and ku..... Are all good.

I have ordered the Asc1. I ordered a V8 super as a receiver.

Question....... How do I combine my C and ku coax lines into a single. I may be wrong, but I think my Uniden IRD had both lines come all the way in. Do I simply use a multi lnb switch? I have to do that before the Asc1? My receiver will go into the Asc1?

What are a good list of tools for aligning/aiming? I have coax tools. I will be using the compression fittings.

It is amazing to see how the landscape has changed. I was once subscribed to a satellite magazine.... Orbit? that was pretty awesome and served as a TV guide for the bud. VideocipherRS was the new thing. I had a package from one of the most prominent subscription clearing houses that was about 80 a month. Directv and Dish destroyed that. 4Dtv has come and gone. It looks like Rainer is putting something together, but they require you purchase THEIR receiver at $750...... Stupid.
 
OK, I am going on faith that my old dish, which is a Winegard.... I think, my venture actuator, my Chaparral feed horn and lnbs.... C and ku..... Are all good.

I have ordered the Asc1. I ordered a V8 super as a receiver.

Question....... How do I combine my C and ku coax lines into a single. I may be wrong, but I think my Uniden IRD had both lines come all the way in. Do I simply use a multi lnb switch? I have to do that before the Asc1? My receiver will go into the Asc1?

What are a good list of tools for aligning/aiming? I have coax tools. I will be using the compression fittings.

It is amazing to see how the landscape has changed. I was once subscribed to a satellite magazine.... Orbit? that was pretty awesome and served as a TV guide for the bud. VideocipherRS was the new thing. I had a package from one of the most prominent subscription clearing houses that was about 80 a month. Directv and Dish destroyed that. 4Dtv has come and gone. It looks like Rainer is putting something together, but they require you purchase THEIR receiver at $750...... Stupid.
Yeah youll need a 4x1 DiSEqC switch, and yes the routing will go from receiver to asc-1 from asc-1 to switch and port 1 to c or ku and port 2 to the other. There is pretty good instruction on the asc-1 on hooking it up and setting it up. There is more information on Titaniums website and you can ask here.

Im not so sure the V8 super is the best way to go(though this is a personal opinion), I got a V7 just so i could pick up H&I and Decades but i had to do some settings without video output to get it to output video and neglected to write the procedure down, and if memory serves i think the V8 has the same procedure but im not sure. Now I can no longer find the information needed to get the video back on it after doing a firmware update. Having tried several different boxes over the last 3 or4 months im convinced I need a box with north american support. While more expensive will work far better and have fewer issues then the cheaper boxes. These would be the Linkbox or Manhattan receivers currently.

While im new to the FTA world, it didnt take me long to figure out to keep Rainer at arms length at best. I had heard a rumor that the folks over at Manhattan were trying to bring to market some sort of subscription service for 2018 but dont know more then that. I can say that there is plenty up there to watch and will be one of the main portions of our tv viewing structure once our contract is up with directv. Like many we have become pretty displeased with what we get for the price we pay. Seems like for my family a mixture if internet tv subscription service, ota reception and fta will be the main staple in our home in the very near future cutting our monthly costs from 199+ a month to less the 80 per month (plus what ever maintenance we need to do on equipment). Id sure like to see some affordable c-band subscription offerings, since as im writing this an 1/8 of an inch of ice has crippled our directv service (however c-band was still running strong (at the edge of the arc no less) when i returned from applying icemelt to customers drives and walks) and all I have right now is the option of netflix or dvds (c-band is currently setup at my business). Good luck with the hobby, im hooked.

Edit: By no means am i saying the V8 is a bad box or you should return it for a Linkbox or Manhattan receiver. It occurred to me about 5 minutes after I posted this that with 4k boxes coming out this year that its probably not a bad idea to start with a cheaper box to see what you can get and see how the new boxes perform before spending a significant amount on a receiver. Dont be like me with 6 or 7 receivers sitting on a shelf (and its mostly cause i didnt ask around and wait for answers and not being patient, a move i seriously regret).
 
Hi Efigalaxie!
When I was using my corotor dual band feed I used a 22KHz switch right at the dish, that way I could set up the receiver for a universal (dual band) LNB and have one cable running from the dish to the receiver or ASC-1 in your case. The 22KHz port is attached to the C-band LNB, the 22KHz on port goes to the Ku LNB, and the cable from the ASC1 attaches to the common connector (output). I made the cables from the LNBs to the switch long enough so the switch is protected behind the dish in an inclosure to protect everything from the weather.

Worked great because each satellite would have both C and Ku when selecting channels. Some receivers might not have the 5150/10750 universal option though, and I have no idea on the one you ordered. Maybe someone who has one can fill us in. :).

Also when you set up the skew on the ASC1 make sure not to adjust the angle (-90 to +90, usually -45 or +45 for H and V transponders is normal) You can adjust this once you have everything else working if fine-tuning is required. If your feedhorn was installed properly very little or no adjustment would be required anyway.

Think there are some vendors that still sell satellite "ribbon cable", which often has two RG6 runs, one set of actuator/counter wires(4 or 5), and one set of corotor control motor(3) all in one piece. Makes a simple job of installing! Then you'll have a spare cable for other dishes or receivers you might add later. I would also get some diseqc switches and spare 22KHz switches too. You will eventually need them anyway! :)


How do I combine my C and ku coax lines into a single
 
Hi Efigalaxie!
When I was using my corotor dual band feed I used a 22KHz switch right at the dish, that way I could set up the receiver for a universal (dual band) LNB and have one cable running from the dish to the receiver or ASC-1 in your case. The 22KHz port is attached to the C-band LNB, the 22KHz on port goes to the Ku LNB, and the cable from the ASC1 attaches to the common connector (output). I made the cables from the LNBs to the switch long enough so the switch is protected behind the dish in an inclosure to protect everything from the weather.

Worked great because each satellite would have both C and Ku when selecting channels. Some receivers might not have the 5150/10750 universal option though, and I have no idea on the one you ordered. Maybe someone who has one can fill us in. :).

Also when you set up the skew on the ASC1 make sure not to adjust the angle (-90 to +90, usually -45 or +45 for H and V transponders is normal) You can adjust this once you have everything else working if fine-tuning is required. If your feedhorn was installed properly very little or no adjustment would be required anyway.

Think there are some vendors that still sell satellite "ribbon cable", which often has two RG6 runs, one set of actuator/counter wires(4 or 5), and one set of corotor control motor(3) all in one piece. Makes a simple job of installing! Then you'll have a spare cable for other dishes or receivers you might add later. I would also get some diseqc switches and spare 22KHz switches too. You will eventually need them anyway! :)
I think his system is already installed. I think he was asking how youd combine the c and ku feeds as the older receivers had a c coax lead and a ku coax lead both entering the receiver. I know there are some receivers out now that have dual tuners, however you still have to get the commands to the asc-1 for full automation and thats where the DiSEqC switch comes in, and for example in my setup the switch is right at the corotor using only one rg-6 on the ribbon cable to the asc-1 and a short lead to the receiver. Now im not sure how others setups work but in my case ku isnt anywhere near as good on my c-band as it is on an offset dish at the edges of the arc. It could be just some artifact of the dish im using which will be answered this spring when i swap to a different 10' dish. I have had some other issues with the dish im using that were odd. But for c-band it pulls everything in fine, it even did the 97w mux that disappeared pretty well with the exception of a few weekends. Some people i have talked to as well as many posts i have read on these forums kinda indicate that the digital signals work way different then the analog signals did and that a dual c/ku setup is a compromise, even with a corotor. They indicated to me that its highly possible that ill never be able to get both bands to completely work together. Fatair had a setup id like to experiment with some time where he grafted a offset ku dish onto the bottom lip of his c-band dish. Or I could just have 2 receivers and 2 dishes, or 2 dishes and a receiver with dual tuners. But back to the topic it sounds like since hes ordered a receiver, and is or has ordered an asc-1 he now needs a 4x1 DiSEqC switch with an enclosure or to install it inside his feed cover. From there he just needs to get the cables all set up and plug the receiver in and start scanning the arc and programming the asc-1.
 
KE4EST has a store here http://www.nc-electronics.com/store.html and offers them, Titanium offers them at his store http://www.titaniumsatellite.com/products and some over at satelliteav http://www.satelliteav.com/p/shop/?ws_cat=429. I only list the folks because i know they are reputable and use what they sell. There are other places to get them and youll have to find a water tight enclosure if your feed horn cover is missing. It wouldnt be a bad idea to go ahead and spring for a new servo motor while you are at it if you are planning to stick with the corotor 2.
 
OK, another question, should I split my ku out from the c band. Use the bud for c band and get a small dish and motor for ku. If so... What size
 
Well thats kinda a loaded question really. I would certainly recommend you at least try what you have already. In my humble opinion there isnt a whole lot on ku vs. c-band. But the PBS mux on 125w AMC 21 is the one thing I dont pick up on my BUD I kinda wish I did, however I get every thing else I was interested in with a corotor 2. I guess its kinda gonna depend on how well you pick up ku signals with your dish, but you will likely spend a significant amount of time tuning your dish even though it used to work in the analog days. I do have 2 seperate dishes but I put my motorized ku dish in first, and followed about a month later with a 10' c-band dish, then added the corotor 2 about a month after that. For the most part though I only use the 10' dish. Dont even have a receiver hooked up to the ku dish currently.

Its been said here before in several threads and from practice ill verify its truth, peak for c-band first then try for ku after. Small changes in dish alignment make a big difference in ku reception. Good luck!
 
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