Primestar score............The 129 Project

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Greg Mueller

Greg Mueller

Munich Oktoberfest
Original poster
Mar 3, 2006
851
86
Datil, NM
Well if this don't work for 129, I don't know what will.

The wife and I took a drive in the country today, and I spotted a large dish mounted low to the ground out of the corner of my eye. I almost got whiplash my head jerked around so fast. Yes it said Primestar across the front. I wheeled around and came back to it. Pulled in the drive way and knocked on the door. I asked the lady if she had plans for that old dish and she asked me if I wanted it. Wow!

It seemed large at the time but I had never seen a 1 meter dish in person and I was in kind of a hurry to get going lest she change her mind.

When I got home I started really looking at it and found the following info stamped on the back

1.2 meter
Part #3040646
Mold # 1.2M-1
Made in USA

I found out it was made by Channel Master and I was able to download a PDF instruction booklet. It measures 48" wide and 52" tall and I got the LNB with it too, but I don't think that is of any use.

I think I'm going to have fun with this :D
 
Can't wait for you reporting the progress on that project, because I had the same idea in mind, but didn't have the guts to buy all the stuff and then don't know if it works with a DP Dual and the center of focus on the primestar dish.
 
There are a couple of them I pass by when I go to my Car pool buddys house ( he lives about 3 miles away, he lives in the country like me) I ought to stop and ask about them , 1 for FTA and now 2 for 129 is a good Idea... (although when the installer comverted one of them he mounted the D* dish on top of one of the P* dishes...)
 
if you are going to use it for 129 you need to swap the LNB out

Primestar used Linear polarization so it would work for 105 or 121

Depending on the mount, you may just be able to gut an old Dish LNB (single or Dual...gutting meaning taking the case off which is pretty easy to do) :D
 
Memories... I never had , but friends did and I was at the Ranch when the D* folks swapped them out to D*... (should have asked for the dish:) ) edit... thinking about It I kinda know the folks that did the swaps, might have to go to their place of business and see if they kept any P* dishes.
 
The Primestar LNB holder is a clamp type affair. Two plastic halves clamped around the throat of the Primestar LNB. I just CADed out a simple part that will fit on the holes of the existing LNB holder and through the use of a "U" bolt, hold the 129 LNB (after I brake off the plastic housing) in the same place as the original Primestar LNB.

Think the distance from the dish surface to the LNB is real critical? I guess if it weren't perfect, I'd be under-illuminating or over illuminating the dish. But with this much dish, maybe it won't matter that much. I think it will be within an inch or so of the right place

Think it will hurt the LNB to not have it's plastic cover on it? (weather)

Now I have to try to find some 3" OD steel pipe
 
You might want to leave the white cover on the LNB waveguide. When I was doing primestar, in Louisiana, we had some defective LNBs where that cover cracked and fell off, which resulted in spiders and bumblebees getting in there and blocking the signal. The first one I ran on, I thought it was a bad lnb so I took it off and dropped it to put the new one on. Imagine my surprise when a bumble bee rolled out. The lnb was good, after all.
 
Greg Mueller said:
Now I have to try to find some 3" OD steel pipe
Click to expand...


Greg, the pipe is a common corner post used for galvanized chain link fencing. By the way I have 5 old Primestar dishes mounted in my backyard that I use for FTA KU band. The focal point of the LNB is critical to a degree. You can zero in on the sweet spot with a signal meter and then make your measurements for the mount makeup. Please post some pics of your project when you get going!:)
 
Thanks for the tip on the fence post Indy. I was scratching my head on that one. I will take some pics and make a little web page

Chadzx11
Thanks for the tip on the white cover. I tried to take that cover off a legacy LNB, but didn't have any luck and yes, I could see there was a nice big spider nest snuggled up to the back side of it.






Hopefully the legacy LNB and the DP LNB are the same physically, so they will mount up the same. I didn't want to take the plastic cover off the 129 LNB until the new dish is ready to go
 
Today I found my second 1.2 meter Primestar dish. I figured once I got one I'd find others :)

The two are slightly different, although they have the same inscription on the back. (mold # etc)

The first one is all grey. The dish the LNB support pipes and the LNB are all painted sort of battleship grey.

The second dish is sort of white. The LNB support arms are unpainted and look like bent electrical conduit. The LNB is the same whitish color as the dish.

The little plastic piece that holds the LNB is slightly different too. I noticed some cracks in the plastic on the grey dish LNB holder and was going to swap it for the plastic LNB holder from the whitish dish, but I don't think it's going to work.

I tried to call Channel Master but they are closed for the day. I was going to see if they still have any parts.

Anyone know which is the older? Any other details?
 
Good things come in threes. Today I found my 3rd 1.2 meter dish. Now I have one each for 110, 119 & 129.

Now if I can just hurry up and retire and move to the property in NM
 
Primestar used three different types of dishes made by channel master. There are the 75E and 84E elliptical dishes and there is the round 1meter type that you have. The 1.2m white dishes that you came upon as far as I know where never used for by primestar. I have one also. They are mostly used for other commercial purposes. I have a 84E dish with a skew setting on the back that I'm working on to use as a 110/119/129 dish. When I get it done you all are going to love this thing. Here is kind of what I going for. http://www.cyberestore.com/product_info.php?cPath=23&products_id=102
 
Two of the three I have are gray and had a big "Primestar" Sticker across the dish (you can see where it was on the last photo) http://www.muellersatomics.com/VSA.htm
There are also "Primestar" stickers on both sides of the LNB
The white dish didn't have a sticker on the dish but it does have them on the LNB.

All 3 are 1.2 meter

Friday I ran into a 75cm Primestar, but it was at a rental house so I couldn't get it
Here's another take on Primestar conversion
http://global-cm.net/CM84EMULTIINSTALL.htm
 
Last edited:
Greg Mueller said:
Two of the three I have are gray and had a big "Primestar" Sticker across the dish (you can see where it was on the last photo) http://www.muellersatomics.com/VSA.htm
There are also "Primestar" stickers on both sides of the LNB
The white dish didn't have a sticker on the dish but it does have them on the LNB.

All 3 are 1.2 meter

Friday I ran into a 75cm Primestar, but it was at a rental house so I couldn't get it
Here's another take on Primestar conversion
http://global-cm.net/CM84EMULTIINSTALL.htm
Click to expand...

Yeah, I saw those on www.global-cm.net
Seems like they would work ok but they are ugly as hell.
 
A bigger dish is the ultimate solution. I've got a buddy way out in BFE that was tired of rain fade. He has a 110/119/61.5 setup. His two dishes were already mounted out behind his house so we bought three fence posts, 3-90cm dishes, and some concrete. We put them far enough away from each other so we could move them for future changes like 129, etc. His wife and kids have removed the term "rain fade" from their vocabulary.
 
Greg inspired me to experiment so I decided to play around with my 1.2 m Channel Master this weekend and see what improvement I could get from the 129 satellite signal. With my 622 I was getting 92 with a D500 and an I adaptor. On the 1.2 CM I am now getting 98. I spen a good 30 minutes tweaking the dish an that's the best I could do. I hope this helps some with the rain fade. We'll see.
 
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