P* Dish pics / measurements / part numbers

[Shawn95GT]

I bid on a LNB so now I gotta get to FTA'n...

So what do I do? I go take a good look at that Primestar dish that's been getting the evil eye from the woman since I set it up in the back yard and get a good look at it.

I thought this thing was bigger than it really is. It measures 26 1/2" Tall and 35 3/4" wide. I wonder how it will compare performance wise to a Winegard 30".

The part number on it is Channel Master 3040975.

It looks like the previous owner might have tried a little FTAing of his own judging by the plumber's tape LNB mount .

 

[PSB]

I have the exact same dish (mine is 39")! It should work exact same as a Winegard 30" dish. Just add a KU linear LNBF to it and you are good to go!

This dish cant be skewed but the KU LNBF can be rotated to accommodate that! Very nice find, should serve you well!

 

[Mr Tony]

I have a StarChoice dish that is 37x27 being used for StarChoice. The other day I tried to see if it got any better signal and I did have a little signal gain

CCTV on G3 is 75-80 on the 30" and on the SC dish it peaked at 90.

So it might be better...the skew is nice if you wanted to add a DBS (and also the skew on the back is a little more precise than skewing the LNB)

 

[ken2400]

From my readings I think Channel Master made three dishs for P*? I have a 84E 40 x 30(??) and two of the ones you list" I think yours is the mid size one. I need to measure my other two.

Don't have or have seen the other size.

Yours should get a far amount of stuff. I will say one thing. The feedhorn build into the LNBF on P* dishs matches the shape of the P* dish. I don't think you will lose too much if you go with a round LNBF?

Good luck and please post your results.

I bid on a LNB so now I gotta get to FTA'n...

So what do I do? I go take a good look at that Primestar dish that's been getting the evil eye from the woman since I set it up in the back yard and get a good look at it.

I thought this thing was bigger than it really is. It measures 26 1/2" Tall and 35 3/4" wide. I wonder how it will compare performance wise to a Winegard 30".

The part number on it is Channel Master 3040975.

It looks like the previous owner might have tried a little FTAing of his own judging by the plumber's tape LNB mount .

 

[Shawn95GT]

I've got the LNB on the way... now I need to decide both where to put the dish and what kind of tuner to get. I'll probably end up with a CoolSat 4000 Pro.

 

[Shawn95GT]

Once I get a tuner I know I'm going to be wanting a motorized setup. This is a vicious circle here . I found that article describing hacking a motor onto a P* dish and I might just give that a shot. It's funny to think that this dish motorized might be more 'low key' than a Winegard.

Are there any dos and don'ts for 'prettying up' a dish? I've heard that you want to use a non metallic paint...

 

[PSB]

Yes you can paint it any colour you like (non metallic) I have seen a few painted with camouflage colored paint that look great. So any color should work for you!

 

[Stargazer]

One can make their own skew on the PrimeStar dishes. If you could pick up some of those Charter anywhere satellite dishes that had the skew and two lnbf's on it along with the switch that would be a nice find.

 

[Shawn95GT]

One can make their own skew on the PrimeStar dishes. If you could pick up some of those Charter anywhere satellite dishes that had the skew and two lnbf's on it along with the switch that would be a nice find.

How about the back side of a Dish500 dish? I have about half of one sitting in my dish pile. I noticed that it does have skew adjustment. I'll have to see if it'll work with the P*.

 

[PopcornNMore]

Iceberg,

What is StarChoice and how do you subscribe to the service? I picked up several of these dishes this past week and want to start playing around to see how well they work for FTA.

Thank You,
Dave

 

[Shawn95GT]

I took the dish off of the mount today to clean it up. The good news it that the dish itself is pretty light. The dish / LNB arms only weighs about 10# by my bathroom scale.

I noticed some damage to the edge of the dish but I don't think it'll affect the dish's performance any.

I don't think the Dish500 mount will be of any use to add skew to this dish. I'm sure I could 'make it work' but the Dish500 mount looks a bit 'light duty' for this dish.

Do the 30"+ dishes just have a pole mount that lends itself well to the motor-pole mount or do you have to kind of hack something together? My only concern doing so with this dish is that I won't have any means to set / measure the declination.

 

[PSB]

Yes a new dish would slip right onto the motor mounting tube they are the same inside/outside diameter.
(1 11/16" or 42.8mm)

The declination is only set once on a motorized dish so it would have to be built into any modification done, its a lot of work but would save you $ and would work great.

Nice Pictures!

 

[Mr Tony]

Iceberg,

What is StarChoice and how do you subscribe to the service? I picked up several of these dishes this past week and want to start playing around to see how well they work for FTA.

Thank You,
Dave

Starchoice is a Canadian DTH subscription service. The dishes will work for FTA or for the SC system. I did try my SC dish on G3 to see if there was a difference and there was...so I might be moving that dish to the motorized...if I can find an adpter that can fir a 2 3/8 SC dish mount to the 1 5/8 pole

For more info on StarChoice, check out the "Other Satellite Sefvices" here at SatelliteGuys. its the topic right below FTA

 

[PopcornNMore]

Thank you Iceberg for your reply.

Right now I am trying to figure out the focal point length for the Starband dish. It is the same size as Shawn95GT's dish above. I placed a 21" piece of lumber to where the feed support arm would normally go and added about a 5" piece right angle to that to center the KU LNBF. So far, I don't see a signal using my Viacast / Vistar 2000 receiver. I went by examples you gave in your review of this receiver and it was a BIG help. No picture on G10, but I am having fun on my day off from work.

 

[Mr Tony]

if you are just playing around (making sure it works), I would try Doc Scott on IA6...that bugger is BOOMING in at 90+
IA6=93W

11864 V 3515
so for the Viacast it would be
0,1,2,etc
1075000
14
11864000
3515
off
off

http://sadoun.com/Sat/Installation/Satellite-Heading-Calculator.htm for elevation and azimuth

 

[Shawn95GT]

Need any measurements from my dish's LNB arm? I guess it depends on the F/D ratio of the starchoice vs the P*

 

[PopcornNMore]

Thank you Iceberg, I will give it a shot.

 

[PopcornNMore]

Shawn,

My dish has the same measurements as yours. If you could tell me how long your LNBF support arm is, I would really appreciate it.

Dave

 

[Shawn95GT]

Shawn,

My dish has the same measurements as yours. If you could tell me how long your LNBF support arm is, I would really appreciate it.

Dave

I'll measure when I get home tonight.

 

[PopcornNMore]

Thank you very much Shawn.