Pieces and Parts

[chapelrun]

At work our building used to have Dish Network but they said that was too expensive, so they put up a regular TV antenna. This works pretty well but of course we only get locals.

Since all the wiring is still in the building we thought we might replace the Dish Network dish with a FTA dish and get a few more channels. The receiver is a Merc II from home that had fallen into disuse and I wanted to reuse as much as I could both on the roof and on the dish - - - so here is what we came up with.

Old DirecPC dish, mount off a Super Dish so it would mount on the existing J pole, Feedhorn off an old PrimeStar and a FSS LNB off an old Dish Network setup.

Dish goes up tommorrow so we will see if it all works together. :up

 

[FaT Air]

At work you have time for this? nice! Here's hoping it goes smoothly and works well for you.

 

[chapelrun]

At work you have time for this? nice! Here's hoping it goes smoothly and works well for you.

Well I must admit, I put the dish together last night and had fun doing it. We had wanted to put it up today but it rained on and off all day - - - Since the receiver is SD only we are going for 101W - - - otherwise I would go for 125W and PBS but we already get some PBS from the regular TV antenna.

BTW, all the parts were in the barn until yesterday and that is why everything is so dusty. I should have hosed it off.

 

[Anole]

Looks good to me.
Very inventive. - :up

Can't quite tell how the feedhorn is mounted, and don't remember the original, so, is the focal length correct?
Might want to cover the feed to keep out the vermin; bit of plastic wrap?
And of course, skew the dish, not the LNB.

If you're not happy with it, the only thing I'd consider is finding the original feed.
Otherwise, happy sailing! -

 

[Mr Tony]

nice dish. Had one of those a while back. They work real well

 

[chapelrun]

Dish on Roof - - Signal Problems

OK - - a co-worker and I installed the new Dish today up on the roof. Pretty sure the dish is pointed correctly but we have low signal.

We tried with the FSS LNB from Dish network but the signal was low - - - so we replaced the LNB with an Aspen Eagle. With the Aspen Eagle got a bit more signal but could not lock the signal.

I think the problem may be that when I put the mount on it warped the dish enough that the signal does not come to a point. Also, based on the size of the dish and the LNB - - - I would think I would get ALOT more signal.

For 12060 H 26700 on 101W has quality about 30 but the signal strength is much lower (like 5 or 6).

I pointed the Dish using a little Sat Buddy and the level was 86.

A few more PIX - - - - any suggestions ??

 

[rv1pop]

not an expert, but that dish would be very hard to warp!
Second though, is that a cap or a resistor load on the unused connection on the LNB? If it has a resistor termination it may drain off too much power and cause problems.
Third thought, the skew of the dish doesn't "feel" right to me .... No I can not read things like that as Anole can(!) but I would check that out.
Then, number four, did you check it with a receiver at the dish to eliminate any problem with the house wiring?
Be Blessed.
POP

EDIT== I know on some of my Primestar LNBs, both H & V need to be powered to work, so that is thought 5!

 

[chapelrun]

not an expert, but that dish would be very hard to warp!
Second though, is that a cap or a resistor load on the unused connection on the LNB? If it has a resistor termination it may drain off too much power and cause problems.
Third thought, the skew of the dish doesn't "feel" right to me .... No I can not read things like that as Anole can(!) but I would check that out.
Then, number four, did you check it with a receiver at the dish to eliminate any problem with the house wiring?
Be Blessed.
POP

EDIT== I know on some of my Primestar LNBs, both H & V need to be powered to work, so that is thought 5!

POP - - - Let me drill down on this one at a time.

I will check the resistor load - - - on Monday (By the way - it is a fairly long cable run - 50 feet or so)

If you look the second picture in the first post - - - I had to drill two holes in the mount in order to have the dish accept the mount - - - these holes were very close to be correct but I may have to take the mount off and drill them larger.

I have the dish skewed at 25 degrees - - - Lat Long is about 39N 78W and DishPointer said 25.5 Skew (I will double check on Monday)

I think I will take my SV-HD8000 to work on Monday and see if that makes any difference - - - - the Merc II had been sitting for a long while and may not be powering the LNB correctly.

Any other thought would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[rv1pop]

Of my 5 runs, the shortest is over 80 feet so that would not be a problem. The longest is over 250 feet and is on a Mercury II.
One of the P* LNBs had a decal that said the V if not used has to have 9V applied to for the LNB to work... , so that was the reason for #5. If you can get a lock at the dish, then any problem are in the other OLD cabling - probably a splitter or a filter, trap or block.

In an apartment complex where I was the facilities manager, the cable company would come in and put DC blocks in any lines they could readily get to, regardless of what apartment they went to - just to cause us headaches. Also put in filters.

 

[DK_Sat]

I have the same dish looking at SES 1 at 101.0 w FR, 12060 H 26700 i get 90Q with Coolsat 4000 receiver.
When i blind scan 101 i get 53 channels.

 

[waylew]

I'll try this again ,site wouldn't let me post last nite,said I wasn't logged in but I was.
Anyway,first unskew the dish and set your skew at the lnb,there should be multiple holes in the lnb to bolt up to change skew.Also I'm thinking you focal distance is not correct using the primestar feed on that dish.Take it loose and move in and out and see if that makes a difference.
I had(have) one of those dishes pointed at 101 using a BSC321S and it worked great,also had it on 123 back when the RTN's were there and worked good there too.I made a bracket with a U bolt so I could adjust skew and fd.Dish is presently set up with a direct triple lnb seeing 99-101-103.Seems to be getting good quality even the ka's but I decided not to sub,yet anyway,so I don't know how good it really works.
This is the short version of what I tried last nite,so let's see if it will post this time.
Edited to say ,hey it worked!

 

[chapelrun]

Made a bit of progress today. Someone had suggested looking for grounding block or similar. I did not find a grounding block but someone had added a short piece of cable with two barrel connectors - - - completely removed those and pointed the dish again. Went from 86 on the Sat Buddy to 93 (not great but some better). I forgot to bring my SV-HD8000 to work so I will tomorrow. I think maybe the Merc II is not getting enough juice to the LNB. I found one more LNB also that I will try tomorrow after I try the SV-HD8000 receiver. If that does not work I think I will Plan "B" it and go with a different dish.

 

[Anole]

I was remembering this thread and wondering if there was ever a resolution.
Then, I went over the facts in my head, and did come up with something.

Since the dish was made up out of mis-matched pieces, is there any chance the feed support arm is wrong?
On this page of the Impakt Products site, they sell arms in three sizes, for the 70e, 75e, and 84e dishes.
I believe if you get the wrong one, it fits but won't focus properly.

Well, that was my big idea. But, let's review the other possibilities.
- put the dish back on its original mount, and shim the pole ... or use the proper pole
- 75e and 84e feedhorns are different. Still not sure the one you are using matches this dish
- if the elevation on the mount isn't reading properly (it should), that's a bad sign
I can't see any reason that dish shouldn't do a bang-up job.

 

[chapelrun]

Not resolved yet. Next step is to replace dish with larger better dish. It is 75 today with the sun shining but it is also Monday - - - so it will not happen today.

Also, we had been going for a certain channel on 101W which is now gone. So we may go for PBS or 89W and some NEWS. Must be KU though as we are not allowed to put a BUD on the roof.

 

[richyrich]

I think your problem is the mount from the Super Dish; which holds the FSS Dish Pro LNBf/fss feed horn scalar combo too far from the dish; you'll need a measurement of the distance from the dish plate and the angle it holds it at compared to the dish; from a working direcPC dish and Horizontal only lnbf combo, as if it is receiving what it normally does...

 

[chapelrun]

I think you both are right

OK, I re-read Anole's post and richyrich's post - - - and I think you are both right.

I'm going to find the original mount and try that before I try yet another dish!

Here is the Dish as it looked when I put it up originally! I notice immediately that the Hughes LNB has much larger Feedhorn than the Feedhorn currently on the dish.