Primestar LNB replacement

[Gary Z]

I'm setting up my other 2 Primestar dishes and want to replace the LNB... I have cut the plastic off the throat of the LNB to make it 20mm as Iceberg showed a few months back.

My question is what type of clamp do I need to mount the LNB to the Primestar arm?
Where could I get such a clamp?

 

[gabshere]

most hardware stores have a grounding type clamp for several different size pipes i used one of those ( half of the clamp) for about 2 bucks.

 

[gabshere]

Gary you can also use a zip tie to hold it on temp. and that way you can test to see if you can obtain proper FD for that lnb & dish. Several things i've noticed , and will be testing several different lnb's with several primestars soon is some mount up and work well and some can't adjust out to get proper focal distance. Now two that i have don't get proper focal distance but do get good reception & readings ..... just i don't think they are the best readings that the lnb and the dish can get together .... the reason being is part of the lnb hits the lnb holder. i guess i can modify the holder or lnb to work together ( and that might be a future project. so what i find that works well for these primestars is to retain the original feedhorn and find / buy a lnb that bolts right up to it. maintaining the proper FD for that dish. this is one of several things i'm hopeing to test out with the upcomming lnb testing project..

 

[iafirebuff]

U Bolts also work.

 

[Gary Z]

Thanks gabshere and Larry.

I never though about a U-Bolt. Did you have the problems gabshere is talking about Larry ?

 

[gabshere]

Gary i got good readings
like 91% SQ for a certain channel but with the original setup i might get 92% so its not much of a SQ difference. But the lnb is the one that comes with it (which gets the better reading i suspect a NF of .6 or .7) and the other is a .4 NF lnb so its nothing to worry about just not getting the best it could. This was my basic comparison test with results hopefully i will do more test soon.

 

[Tron]

Noise figure is not the only factor involved, a stable local oscillator can really make a difference. I have a .9 on my 1 meter CM and it performs about equally with the Invacom .3. My Norsat .9 has a L.O. stability of +/- 100khz, as opposed to the Invacom's +/- 1 mhz.

I've heard the L.O. stability on some of the LNBs Primestar used was VERY good...

 

[Gary Z]

I'm using the original LNB on the first Primestar I set up on G10R for my Dad.
It is working great. The other 2 Primestar LNB's don't have a lens over the eye, I'm afraid water will get into them...

The picture is not of my LNB but the feedhorn looks the same though, is the lens cover missing or was it made like that? I'm worried if I use it rain will cause me problems.

 

[Mr Tony]

mine looks the same on the feedhorn

 

[iafirebuff]

I had zero problems. I have never had a Primestar lnb, only used the Fortec Universals on my Primestars.