Picked up new to me 10' dishes, questions

[drhydro]

Picked up new to me 10' dishes, adding Ku lnb and other questions

Howdy folks,
I went and picked up my 10' mesh dish this weekend (as per my post on Thursday) , and got more than I thought I would. Here is a complete listing of what I have:

1 10' Channelmaster mesh dish with mount, very small grill size (approx 1/8th")
1 10' fiberglass dish with mount (not sure of brand)
3 2" actuators
2 c band feedhorns with c band lmbs
2 Drake 1724 c/ku recievers, analog / one of these has a vcII decoder
all mounting hardware

So here is my plan. I am going to mount the mesh dish and I want to set it up for c / ku band, analog only initially. I will add a DVB reciever (probably a satworks 3866) as funds become available ;-) Here are my questions. Do I have to replace the entire feedhorn with a dual (c/ku) lmb feedhorn / corotator to get both bands? And if so where are recommend sources / brands for the needed equipment? Also a good source for the proper cable?

I would guess that this is the first "upgrade" i should do to this system, as replacing the LMBs / feedhorn is not going to be fun once the dish is mounted on an 8' pole.

The fiberglass dish I will probably give away to a friend with one of the recievers/ mount/ actuator, if i can find someone to take it lol. Is this dish only able to pick up C band, or will it also pick up Ku? I read somewhere that some of the fiberglass dishs will only pick up c band, is there any way to tell if this dish is capable of picking up both bands?
Thanks in advance,
Thomas

 

[Covack]

both dishes can be used for C/KU, You will need a corotor II, plus a .5 or .6
ku lnb the servo motor will handle H/V polarity on both, If your cband lnb is weak You might won't to replace it also.

Corotor $100.00 or less
lnb $ all depends on quality
hope this helps some. Covack

 

[drhydro]

What determines the quality of a LNB? I see degree ratings on them but i have no clue what they mean. Could the gurus on this forum shed some light on this for me? thanks in advance for the help

 

[PSB]

The lower the noise level the better, I use a 0.5 LNBF

 

[drhydro]

What do the degree readings on an LBF mean? Does that refer to operation temperature? i live in northern vermont and -20 is not an uncommon sight.

 

[PSB]

Yes its operating and storage temperature, gets kind of cold here too, cant wait.

http://www.dmsiusa.com/documents/ASC321.pdf

 

[drhydro]

Thanks for the info folks now i just need to find some cable, the only place i can find that has what i need only sells 1000 foot rolls. Any tips?

 

[HookedOnTV]

I might have a line on a big dish myself. Was wondering if a DVB card in a PC can control the movement of the dish or if this has to be done with a set top unit?

 

[TuxCoder]

My local Radio Shack had their quad shield RG6 marked down to 12 cents per foot this past week. I don't know about other locations, or if that's really a good price but it was good enough for me.

 

[drhydro]

what i am looking for is the "web cable" with two strands of rg6, plus all of the wiring to run the polarizer and the actuator, as seen here.
http://www.21st-satellite.com/tvro_cables.html

 

[Mr Tony]

My local Radio Shack had their quad shield RG6 marked down to 12 cents per foot this past week. I don't know about other locations, or if that's really a good price but it was good enough for me.

damn thats a good price....wish my local ones had it that cheap

 

[TuxCoder]

Heh, I'm almost on a first name basis with those guys, I've been in there so much in the last month or so.

This obsession with all the many kinds of digital tv signals (especially the free ones) is starting to get out of hand. Sure I joke with others, about the irony that I've spent so much money thus far, just to receive free television channels, but there's got to be a line drawn somewhere. Way out there, but that's somewhere.

This has been deep thoughts by TuxCoder.

 

[drhydro]

ok, i have found the "c band ribbon satallite cable" online for about .85 per foot. Ive looked on radio shacks sight and haven't seen any there. Anyone have any suggestions for sites i should look for?
Thanx

 

[PSB]

http://skyvision.com/index.html

 

[drhydro]

Thanks for all the help and patience to PSB and others who have answered my questions on this forum, with your help i will show my wife i am not totally insane (just partially) :-D Im sure i will have more questions lol

 

[HookedOnTV]

ok, i have found the "c band ribbon satallite cable" online for about .85 per foot. Ive looked on radio shacks sight and haven't seen any there. Anyone have any suggestions for sites i should look for?
Thanx

that auction site has a couple listings, if you google for cband ribbon cable there is a link to a place for $.64/ft

 

[mkm4]

Don't forget to include the shipping charges when purchasing the cable. It can get expensive.

 

[drhydro]

OK, im all set for cable now, whew. Now comes the fun part, setting up a pad/ mast for the polar mount. I've talked to a gentleman locally (I'm in northern vermont) and here is what he is recommending:

He said to take 2- 55 gallon drums, cut off the ends and weld them together, end to end. Inside the top drum weld in two crosses of rebar, 1" down for the first one, 13 " down for the second. These are welded horizontally to the drum, so that if you stand the drum(s) on end and look down it will look like the crosshairs of a rifle scope.

Then weld 4- 18" long 3/4" galvanized bolts to the rebar crosses (vertically to the drum). Dig a hole deep enough for the barrels to fit in while leaving 4" of the top barrel above ground. Before back filling make sure two diagonal bolts (of the 4 welded to the rebar) are orientated on a north- south line. This facilitates adjustment of the mast / pole if need be.

Backfill around the barrels, keeping the top level and the barrels plumb. After backfilling, fill the barrels with cement/ rocks level to the top of the barrels. When I am done filling i should have a flat, level, circular pad with four bolts 5" long coming up in a square pattern. To this I will bolt a 7' long, 4.5" diameter steel mast (concrete filled), welded to a base plate. The base plate is bolted to the 4 bolts and VOILA, one pole suitable for a 10' dish.

The person I talked to said he had close to 25 years of commercial / residential installs in northern Vermont, and that this mast setup worked the best. Not only are the concrete filled barrels stable (read as heavy), they are deep enough to get below the frost line. If the pad SHOULD shift the plumb of the mast can be adjusted by using spacers in between the base plate and the pad. The hieght of the mast is mandated cause I usually get in between 3 -4' of snow on the ground that stays most of the winter, and i want to try to keep the dish from plowing snow as it tracks ;-)

What do you folks think? Overkill or just barely enough?
Thanks again :-D

 

[PSB]

Sounds like good advice, here is some more material in case you have not seen it yet!



http://www.geo-orbit.org/sizepgs/grndpole.html#anchor72594

http://www.geo-orbit.org/sizepgs/grndpole.html#anchor28895

 

[HookedOnTV]

In searching for more learning material I came across a very good 10 part faq,

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/Satellite-TV/TVRO/