Please Help- Prodelin Dish and LNBF questions

[al last]

I've read and read various sites and all throughout this site (by far the best) but cannot find the answers. So here goes my post...

I have a Prodelin 0179-189 with the rods for an LNB. I also have four adjustable legs to ground mount the dish. I came locally (96002) so the elev is still at 42 degrees.

I want to install an ACTIVATOR on this off-set dish- I only see ones at Sadoun that are listed as 'prime'.

What motor control is best? Sadoun has a new controller box...

I want a great LNB for C/Ku - Do I need one of the Rings to cover Ku from this 6 ft dish?

I have read that a 'prime' dish is best etc. I'm afraid I'm in total saturation from all this info pouring in to me. UGH!

I have a Pansat 2700A, NFusion HD, Coolsat 6100 Private.
Are any of these usable? I want to have Digital and Analog receivers.

Is the 6 ft Prodelin difficult to tune on the digital sats with an off-set?


Thats enough for now! Sorry but will really appreciate all adivse.

73, W6GSQ

 

[phlatwound]

Unless Prodelin has a factory mount ($$$$$$) the only way I know of to motorize a 6' Prodelin offset is to adapt it to a BUD polar or horizon-to-horizon mount. You would have to be able to fabricate some parts to do this. This thread may give you some ideas:

Prodelin 1.2m offset on Birdview H-H mount - SatelliteGuys.US

The G-Box is a good controller.

All of your receivers are usable to some degree, but none of them will do analog.

 

[al last]

Unless Prodelin has a factory mount ($$$$$$) the only way I know of to motorize a 6' Prodelin offset is to adapt it to a BUD polar or horizon-to-horizon mount. You would have to be able to fabricate some parts to do this. This thread may give you some ideas:

Prodelin 1.2m offset on Birdview H-H mount - SatelliteGuys.US

The G-Box is a good controller.

All of your receivers are usable to some degree, but none of them will do analog.

Thanks for the response. I'll check the other forum you mentioned.

 

[turbosat]

That sounds like a ku dish, but it's big enough to get some c-band signals too. But it would take a bit of work to fit a c/ku lnbf or feedhorn on it. If you have no size restrictions on dishes, it would be easier for a newbie to just find a big dish someplace that the owner no longer wants, and move it. 6-10' dish wouldn't require any modifications, just setting a pole and re-assembly, aiming the dish. A regular linear actuator would move it, powered by the gbox or vbox, or an older analog satellite receiver. Check craigslist for both dish and receivers, and also ebay sometimes has good deals on used analog receivers. That 6'offset would be a good dish for ku but heavy to move with a horizon-horizon motor made for smaller dishes.
You could point it at your favorite ku bird, as a fixed dish, and wired it with a diseqc switch with the big dish.

edit: IF you find an analog box anywhere-post here the details before buying>not all the old receivers had motor control built-in.Some used a seperate box to control the motor..Welcome to Satelliteguys too!!!!

 

[Anole]

A number of the members here have those six-foot Prodelin dishes, on the non-penetrating roof mounts.
So, we've discussed and played with them quite a bit.
The above answers are excellent, and I hope you heed the advice.

I was looking for one several years ago, and almost brought one home.
In the end, I found it a little too large for Ku, and a little small for C-band, and better choices presented themselves.
The difficulty of motorizing it was considerable.

 

[Corrado]

I have 2 Prodelins setup out in the yard. I was creative and rigged up some homemade feed brackets. They work great.

I have one setup for 101°W ku and 105°W C band with side by side LNBFs. A conical scalar installed now (not pictured). The other dish on 99°W C band currently.

I wouldn't bother motorize either one of them. It would be better to go with multiple LNBFs in my opinion.

 

[Anole]

About mid-way into a lengthy thread, Linuxman showed some pictures of multiple LNBFs on his Prodelin.
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-ai...way-receive-whole-ku-arc-fixed-dishes-14.html

You can read or scan that thread for a wealth of other info, or just look at the pictures for quite an education. - :up

 

[al last]

I appreciate everyone's input. I had researced SatelliteGuys for Prodelin and found your issues back in yr 2008. I had hoped that in the mean time someone might have had success and it would be a simple matter to patch various parts to this dish. I agree that stand alone on one Ku might be best. So rather than spending good money for something that gives me middle of the road operations as the 31 inch Forenic mounted to my tower at 25 ft, I'll continue my quest for a ten footer, prime focus, and install the dual Ku/C band lnbf being sold now. I'm like some of you. I too am a Ham and have been since 1957-8. I had to build all my stuff from parts as we had no money as a kid. I love fabricating and modifying, but this hardware it might take to motorize the dish appears beyond receiver/transmitter/antenna projects for a retired guy like me (old fart - 65 Hi Hi). I will be staying on this forum from now on. many interesting conversations and info.

You guys are the greatest- Thanks Al W6GSQ

 

[al last]

Thanks Anole- headed thata way....

 

[1captain]

the Prodelin people do make a polar mount kit, for their offset feed Ku dishes, their manual was a big big help when I motorized my 1.2m here, after reading it it only took a few hours to have it tracking to the T. if you google Prodelin you should find it. an their is a local sports bar here that still has several large dishes up an 1 of those dishes is a 1.8m Prodelin on a polar mount with a actuator on it.

also they are great playing dishes, I have a 1.8m Channel Master here that is motorized, an for Ku it is the way to go,you will get more out of it being motorized than having it fixed on 7 to 12 satellites. they have so much gain in them (the 1.8m model dishes), an I was shocked when doing the tuning on the 1.8m dish here. now for c-band it will work better than a 6-ft prime focas dish, but the name of the game with C-band is size matters, an realy as todays standards with all the DVBS-2 stuff out their, a good an well tuned 10-ft prime focas should get most of any feed or signal that you should want to lock.

now as far as the tuning al last on a 1.8m offset dish, to get them right on the money yes it's a little rough, but not bad, it all depends on what you will be using as a metering device to give you signal stenght wile you are tuning it, if you just use a fta receiver it will get maxed out with the gain from that dish, wile a good meter will show the little loss or gain as you are tunning it, I just went threw this the other day wile setting the 1.8m up on a motor, use a SV-8000 to move it an the signal meter is the SV sat on 100 on just about all the sat's that I needed to hit for my tunning. so that is why a meter would be a smart choice, to get it perfect.

good luck with that dish you will enjoy it they realy have some great gain with a 1.8m.

 

[Sadoun]

the only way I know of to motorize a 6' Prodelin offset is to adapt it to a BUD polar or horizon-to-horizon mount. You would have to be able to fabricate some parts to do this.

That is what I would suggest as well. Use one of the Polar mounts and custom fit it on your offset dish.

 

[1captain]

here is a link to satcom, look at the bottom of the page, you will see that you can order a polar mount. I went threw the trouble to fab 1 over to a Horizon motor, but for the price it would less work an cheeper.


Cart - Satcom Resources
http://www.satcomresources.com/

Edit: Satcom does not supply the link location for their products, click on antennas, then select "ku band rx only" antenna, then select 1.8meter an look at the bottom of the page for polar mount.

 

[al last]

1Captain you are so right on. I found the manual and it shows the activator arm/motor. EXACTLY what I needed. Please let me know what activator you were able to use and the controller box type if possible.

Thanks again, Al

 

[Anole]

If I recall, 1captian built up a beauty of an H-H motorized mount!
That was a lot of custom fabrication, beyond the ability of mere mortals. -

However, if you would be happy with a standard motor 'n polar mount, one of our gold sponsors has a deal currently on a 24" actuator.
I'd recommend the Gbox in my signature to drive it.

 

[1captain]

Thanks Anole, an that is the H to H mount that is running the 1.8m Channel Master dish right now. I am going to bring that tread back an post some more pictures of the re-mod that I had to do to get the 1.8m to fit on it. but I have been very happy with the 1.2m that was on it, an it has ran flawless for well over a year, but now the 1.8m is really the real hot ticket for Ku, an it really shows when I start looking to the east on the AlanticBirds an Telstar-12.

now as far as a motor controller al last, I use the G-Box V-3000 by the powertech, that Sadoun sells (a site sponsor here), an it is a very good product. an I had my doughts at 1st about the G-Box handling the high count gear step up on the read switch, but it does just fine, an have even built another mount that has a higher count well over 7000 counts an the G-boxs works great with it too. I have used these G-Boxs from day 1 when they 1st came out, before then I used a MotecII, an just like the G-box so much better for their double counts. Sadoun also has actuators too.

now I don't use actuators here, on all of my dishes I use all H to H mounts, but to put a actuator on that 1.8m I would use a heavy duty actuator due to the weight you are pushing. on another forum their is a member that also has a 1.8m motorized too an he uses a Jager H to H mount, now they come from some where in Europe, don't know where or how to get 1, but if you would search some of the Euro forums I think you will find 1, but they will be very costly with the shipping from over the pond.

 

[k4pbp]

Hello,

Do you happen to know the focal distance for your Prodelin dish. I have the same dish but the LNB support rods are missing. Prodelin wants $100 as a minimun parts order plus shipping. It would be very helpful if you could measure the distance from the feed scaler face to the center of the dish. I am planning to make adjustable rods for my dish.

Thanks and 73'

Richard - K4PBP

 

[Anole]

If I remember , Linuxman in his thread on the dish, had a picture , with the focal distance marked.
You can search for that thread.
It's a long one, so browse is lightly.

here it is:
Linuxman and entire arc on 6' Prodelin:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-ai...st-way-receive-whole-ku-arc-fixed-dishes.html

May be mentioned in this thread:
Pendragon does 6' Prodelin on AJAK 180 for Ku !
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/237608-1-8-dual-axis-prodelin-conversion.html