Proximity to airport

[Andyboy90]

i am moving to a new place that is about 8kms (5 miles) from an international airport. I am planning on installing a 10ft bud in my backyard. The dish will kind of have a direct line of sight to the airport with only some trees in the middle. I have read that the airport radar can significantly interfere with c band. Since its an international airport they will probably have strong radars and transmitters. Just wondering if this will impact my setup upto the point of rendering it useless

 

[Titanium]

Yes, radar can impact your C and KU reception. The size and function of most commercial airports isn't likely to affect the intensity of the interference. Most only have regional radar and communications before handing the flight off to another control center.

The commercial airport interference is outside of the downlink frequencies, but if strong enough, can easily overload the LNB or receiver's front end. Often, just the selection of a dish location can provide line of sight shielding from interference. LNBs and waveguide filters are often used to filter out this interference.

Best to have a qualified RF engineer perform a site survey before any significant investment. If that isn't an option, connect wideband, unfiltered LNBFs (both a C-band and a KU band types) to a quality spectrum analyzer and point the feedhorns towards the horizon in 360 degrees and look for increases in the noise floor and spikes. Repeat from different locations on the property and compare the readings.

 

[Andyboy90]

Yes, radar can impact your C and KU reception. The size and function of most commercial airports isn't likely to affect the intensity of the interference. Most only have regional radar and communications before handing the flight off to another control center.

The commercial airport interference is outside of the downlink frequencies, but if strong enough, can easily overload the LNB or receiver's front end. Often, just the selection of a dish location can provide line of sight shielding from interference. LNBs and waveguide filters are often used to filter out this interference.

Best to have a qualified RF engineer perform a site survey before any significant investment. If that isn't an option, connect wideband, unfiltered LNBFs (both a C-band and a KU band types) to a quality spectrum analyzer and point the feedhorns towards the horizon in 360 degrees and look for increases in the noise floor and spikes. Repeat from different locations on the property and compare the readings.

My house will be in a city and I dont have a big backyard and my dish will cover 1/3rd of my yard so i dont really have lot of options to move its location. I just realized that apart from the airport we also have the regional flight information centre by the airport .There are about 100 air traffic controllers in this building and they can supposedly talk to all the aircraft via the radio in my province (Alberta) and bordering provinces so I am assuming they have pretty strong transmission equipment. I will start with a small ku band dish and see how it does with the spectrum analyzer and then move to c band

Edit:typos

Edit 2: i just realized that if i get a shorter pole i could block the line of sight to the airport with the cedar fence and still maintain the full line of sight to the satellite arc. I dont know how much the wooden fence would help me but better than nothing.

 

[Titanium]

If the wood fence doesn't provide adequate attenuation, chicken wire or hardware cloth with grounding would make an excellent RF fence. Wouldn't stand out too much if attached to the wood fence.

 

[wvman]

If the wood fence doesn't provide adequate attenuation, chicken wire or hardware cloth with grounding would make an excellent RF fence. Wouldn't stand out too much if attached to the wood fence.

Chicken wire has pretty large holes. If the interference is microwave, wouldn't it pass right through the chicken wire? I never built an RF fence, so I don't know too much about them. The chicken wire available around here has holes about an inch in diameter. Just curious.

 

[Magic Static]

Chicken wire has pretty large holes. If the interference is microwave, wouldn't it pass right through the chicken wire? I never built an RF fence, so I don't know too much about them. The chicken wire available around here has holes about an inch in diameter. Just curious.

C-Band frequencies reflect off chicken wire but Ku doesn't. I've seen homemade C-Band mesh dishes made from wood frames and chicken wire. You can make a really big dish cheap.

 

[Titanium]

Ideally, one would use a mesh with as small of opening as possible. We would use 3/8" or 1/2" chicken wire but preferred hardware cloth with smaller openings and welded wires to construct RF fences.

 

[wvman]

C-Band frequencies reflect off chicken wire but Ku doesn't. I've seen homemade C-Band mesh dishes made from wood frames and chicken wire. You can make a really big dish cheap.

In the early days, I built a C-Band dish from plans posted in Coop's Digest. When it was finished, it looked like a backstop and a baseball game. It worked quite well, but changing satellites amounted to moving the feed around to locate the next one. We've come a long way since then.

 

[wvman]

Ideally, one would use a mesh with as small of opening as possible. We would use 3/8" or 1/2" chicken wire but preferred hardware cloth with smaller openings and welded wires to construct RF fences.

Hardware cloth is expensive these days. I suppose you could fasten a piece around the outer edge of the dish to block interference. You'd probably need a piece at least half the focal distance wide, depending on where the interference was coming from.

 

[Titanium]

Build a tin chicken shed! LOL

 

[wvman]

Build a tin chicken shed! LOL

Never thought of that. Oh, BTW, I sent that receiver back yesterday. Never did hear anything from Ebay. I'll bet that doesn't surprise you. LOL

 

[wvman]

C-Band frequencies reflect off chicken wire but Ku doesn't. I've seen homemade C-Band mesh dishes made from wood frames and chicken wire. You can make a really big dish cheap.

I found a 1.2 meter offset dish over the weekend I'm going to look at Saturday. Do they make a motor heavy enough to motorize one of those. Not sure what size pole it takes. Will know more when I go look at it.

 

[Titanium]

Maybe this would make servicing the dishes more convenient and double duty for blocking interference? LOL

 

[wvman]

Maybe this would make servicing the dishes more convenient and double duty for blocking interference? LOL
View attachment 134979

Believe it or not, there are some of those still in use around here. I wouldn't want to sit long in one watching TV. They're pretty smelly in the summer?

 

[Magic Static]

I found a 1.2 meter offset dish over the weekend I'm going to look at Saturday. Do they make a motor heavy enough to motorize one of those. Not sure what size pole it takes. Will know more when I go look at it.

Sure they do. I have a VonWeise moving mine. The stock fixed mount for a 1.2M Channel Master fits a 3"O.D. pole. There are polar mounts made in EU. I modded a c-band mount for mine.

 

[wvman]

Sure they do. I have a VonWeise moving mine. The stock fixed mount for a 1.2M Channel Master fits a 3"O.D. pole. There are polar mounts made in EU. I modded a c-band mount for mine.
View attachment 134980

I'm almost certain this one doesn't have a polar mount. Nice job. Never tried building one before. Could possibly use the mount off a 7.5 foot Unimesh that's got the screen trashed out and make it fit. When I said motor, I was thinking of something like this.

 

[Magic Static]

For a reference, here is the thread where I put that together.
? offset angle Primestar 1.2m

 

[wvman]

For a reference, here is the thread where I put that together.
? offset angle Primestar 1.2m

Thanks, great thread.

 

[Magic Static]

I'm almost certain this one doesn't have a polar mount. Nice job. Never tried building one before. Could possibly use the mount off a 7.5 foot Unimesh that's got the screen trashed out and make it fit. When I said motor, I was thinking of something like this.

You might get away with a STAB HH120 and some mast adapters But I wouldn't be happy with it.

 

[danristheman]

Maybe this would make servicing the dishes more convenient and double duty for blocking interference? LOL
View attachment 134979

You want a phone book with that pic Brian?