OLD Primestar dish?

[meinename]

The multiswitch talk above made me wonder....Would this work?

It would work for a one receiver setup, I think.
I'd like to see it done

But I defer to our more experienced members on this...

 

[willie8605]

It would work for a one receiver setup, I think.
I'd like to see it done

But I defer to our more experienced members on this...

Yeah, one receiver is what I was thinking for this particular setup. Multiple receivers would make it a bit more complicated, I bet. I'm not sure if this would have any advantage over just using 4 LNB's with the H&V combined into one output and one 4x1 Diseqc. This would reduce the amount of coax you have to deal with by half (between the diseqc's and LNB's). It could be that having the separate H&V outputs produces a stronger Q signal for each output since each one has a dedicated line....but then again they are combined later on down the line in the multiswitch so, again, I don't know if it's any better that a combined H&V LNB.

 

[Anole]

opinion:

- it's not the traditional way
- it might work (don't know for sure)
- custom programming a PCI based system might be okay, but for a standard STB, it would be awkward
- using 2x4's or 4x4's followed by diseqc switches would also allow for free expansion to more receivers
- I'd be surprised to find someone with four dishes equipped with those dual-output LNBs.

See this page in the Switches FAQ for suggestions.
And, feel free to read preceding pages of the FAQ for more background info.

 

[eurosport]

- I'd be surprised to find someone with four dishes equipped with those dual-output LNBs.

Um....(raises hand)... that would be me!

 

[willie8605]

Um....(raises hand)... that would be me!

Mind telling us how you have that setup configured?

 

[Anole]

surprised:

- I'd be surprised to find someone with four dishes equipped with those dual-output LNBs.

Um....(raises hand)... that would be me!

That's ONE!
And if you remember the old joke, you know what happens when we get to Three! - - -

 

[scmoore61]

New question. I have only been able to lock in on dish network with this set up. Does this mean that only the circ. part of the lnb is working?

 

[scmoore61]

Dishpointer says to rotate lnb 38 degrees to the right. Would that be the dovebar on the front?

 

[turbosat]

Dishpointer says to rotate lnb 38 degrees to the right. Would that be the dovebar on the front?

That be the thing! May have to loosen some little bolts on the lnbf, not sure how that "dovebar" style operates. Look for a skew-marking scale on the front of it someplace.

 

[Anole]

Here's a picture of the Dove Bar, with the bolts marked you need to loosen for skew.
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/180066-dish-elevation-question.html#post1878880

Also, the Dove Bar doesn't do circular, nor the frequencies that circular are on.
If you got a little signal, that's 'cause the DBS satellites put out so much power.
If you want to receive circular, get a circular LNB (or maybe the Invacom QPH-031, which does both).

 

[scmoore61]

Thanks for the replies. I'm not trying to get circular but so far all I have gotten is 500 scrambled dish channels and 2 FTA channels showing how to install a dish smart card. Good picture though! The signal meter only gets excited when I'm pointing at one of the dish sats. From 119 to 123 is not that far and as many scans as I've run after moving it a little this way and that I would have thought I would have gotten something. Even a blind squirl finds a nut once in a while.

 

[scmoore61]

I went back to the website that had the info about rotating the lnb 38 degrees to the right. Silly me thought to the right was looking at but after rereading the info it from standing behind the dish. The guy that thought that up must have way longer arms than mine.

 

[turbosat]

From behind the dish, skew goes clockwise, increasing as you go further west from your true south sat. Satellites east of true south, just the opposite. Simple, once you know the point of reference!

 

[a_hockeynut]

This thread was so timely for me! I started trying to setup my primestar dish for 83W (RTN/RTV) with a universal LNB retrofit to replace the primestar LNB, and was not having much luck. I was toying with the idea of getting a standard LNB to try, but after reading this thread decided to put the old primestar LNB back in and without moving the dish locked on RTN/RTV!!!! My signal quality was only slightly less (2%) than what I am getting on my 36" and standard 0.3dB LNB! I am very pleased, and now ordered a multi-switch to combine the H/V outputs from the primestar LNB. Thanks so much for this very helpful and timely info!!!!!

 

[a_hockeynut]

I got the following 3x4 multiswitch:
SADOUN S-SM34 DirecTV FTA 3x4 Multi switch

I have the multiswitch on the primestar, with V terminal to the 12v input, and the H terminal to the 18v input.

Now I tried to hookup a diseqc 3x1 to have access to 2 other LNBs from my other dish. The presentation in the faqs on switches shows kind of what I want:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/fta-mpeg2-faqs/134124-switch-setups-simplified.html#post1344315

So from that, I think I want the following:

receiver -> diseqc port 1 -> multiswitch -> primestar
reciever -> diseqc port 2 -> lnb1 from other dish.
reciever -> diseqc port 3 -> lnb2 from other dish.

Question is, do I have to do anything with 22khz settings? I haven't had to in the past, but I am not getting this setup to work very good.

Thinking about this more, it might be because the RTN feeds are week, and so by adding one more thing in between my signal drops too low. Strange thing was I had to going for awhile with a pretty good signal strength, and then it went away on me. And I had another receiver hookd up directly and could see the RTN feed was unchanged.

I should also point out I am very careful to power off my receivers before connecting/disconnecting any switches.

 

[Tron]

The 22k setting should be off, as your multiswitch is not a 4 x 4 or 4 x 8.

 

[a_hockeynut]

Thanks Tron. I will make sure I have 22k OFF (I know sometimes I have seen 22k set to AUTO on my receiver). I have also had some bad connections and replaced a number of them, so perhaps that also enters into the equation. I wish there were an easy way to tell which connections are bad, instead of trial and error. But at least now I know how to be sure it is not a setup issue!

 

[Tron]

Make sure your LNB setting is 'STANDARD', not 'UNIVERSAL'. The 22k will say 'AUTO' if universal is selected. Since the Primestar LNBs are standard, you want 'STANDARD' with a L.O. of 10750.

 

[a_hockeynut]

Ahhh (light goes on)! That is why I see AUTO sometimes! I used to have a UNIVERSAL LNB on my system (see my signature). Gives me one more setup thing to make sure I got right... all set to STANDARD! Thanks for helping me out with this Tron!

 

[zamar23]

Here's another interesting page on PrimeStar Dish Conversion. It looks like these dishes, supplied to Primestar by ChannelMaster, were actually made by Andrew Corp. as per MIL specs, ensuring high quality tooling for accurate parabolic profile, and efficient dish design, making them an attractive find for so many years.