question about arc tracking

[IntelPennny4]

hello everyone. so i’m thinking about upgrading my farm to only two dishes. i have six now but want downgrade and move onto motors bc all my dishesnow are stationary. i know what kinda wire i need and also know i need a mover aka controller for the motors. i only want to track like six birds with one dish. is that possible? how would i go about doing that and also what kinda motor would i need for a short distance of tracking? the birds i want to track are 97-107w

let me know what yous think and thank you

 

[Cham]

Yes it's certainly possible to do all that with 2 movable dishes. C-band you can control with diseqc 1.2 and Ku with USALS using the same receiver.

You would need a linear actuator for C-band with cable that carries the DC for the motor and separate conductors (2-3) for the sensor. A controller such as an ASC1 would run the actuator and memorize the satellite positions. Of course this requires an equatorial mount for the dish which is quite common. An H-to-H mount is also an option however quite rare.

For Ku you need a positioner that does USALS and likely at least a 90cm dish. A Stab HH90 motor would be ok for that setup. Personally I would want a larger dish maybe 1m (100cm/39") dish like which I have one on a stab HH120 positioner. I originally had a 1.2m dish on this positioner and it "broke". Had to get it welded; but I live in a very windy area and your situation might be different.

There will be a lag time when switching channels if the dish has to move. Also the mounts on the dishes have to be set up very accurately so they track the Clarke belt.

Ku is much easier to set up than a C-band system due to scale, so if most of your channels of interest are on Ku it should be relatively easy to get many sats. Just need to make sure the pole for the dish is perfectly vertical, mount the motor on it, and mount the dish to the motor. The receiver will control the motor, all you need to add is add a jumper from the motor to the LNB(F) on the dish. I would start with Ku anyway. Cheaper and easier to deal with.

There should be instructions with the motor on how to set it up, latitude adjustment, dish offset angle, etc.

I'm sure others will have advice for you, lots of varying experiences and knowledge on this forum!

 

[armadillo_115]

More info needed:
Do you want only C band? Or Ku as well?

What size are the 2 dishes you plan to keep using?

Do you want to run more than 1 receiver?

If you're going to invest in motorized, why limit yourself to only 7 birds?

 

[arlo]

Hey Intel. How ya been?
I knew you'd finally want to go motorized. I don't remember if your mounts were polar.
You're going to need a few pieces of equipment to move the dish. No biggie. Wire...easy to get.
Feed it into some PVC or poly pipe for the winter. I think i remember that you were tracking okay. But don't limit yourself to just a few sats. Here I'm getting 131-55W. And tracking perfectly as can be.
Keep in touch!!

 

[IntelPennny4]

Hey Intel. How ya been?
I knew you'd finally want to go motorized. I don't remember if your mounts were polar.
You're going to need a few pieces of equipment to move the dish. No biggie. Wire...easy to get.
Feed it into some PVC or poly pipe for the winter. I think i remember that you were tracking okay. But don't limit yourself to just a few sats. Here I'm getting 131-55W. And tracking perfectly as can be.
Keep in touch!!

hey i’m doing ok it’s that time of year again where i’m bored and have nothing to do bc work has came to a halt for me due to winter. yes this will only be for c band. i am limited to sky view and not only that it’s just a hobby and kinda don’t care for the other birds. i am subbed to cable anyways so no big deals to me.

 

[IntelPennny4]

More info needed:
Do you want only C band? Or Ku as well?

What size are the 2 dishes you plan to keep using?

Do you want to run more than 1 receiver?

If you're going to invest in motorized, why limit yourself to only 7 birds?

c band only and i’m limited on sky view. just one receiver. 10 ft dishes

 

[armadillo_115]

c band only and i’m limited on sky view. just one receiver. 10 ft dishes

In that case, how about multiple lnb's? I believe you could get 3 on each dish. ( I get 55w and 58w on a 10 ft bud after cutting the scaler)
97, 101, 105
99, 103, 107

No actuator or positioner needed.

 

[armadillo_115]

To clarify: I meant 'lnbf's'. I have never used lnb's.

BTW: When I had 55w and 58w lnbf's on the same dish I had to turn one C2PLL 180 degrees. The heat sinks needed to be opposite each other to get them as close as possible.

My offset lnbf on 58w did suffer a slight signal drop, but not enough to lose any desired channels. YMMV.

*Wife had little interest in the channels on 58w. So I stuck in a dielectric slab and would motor it over to 40W and 47w. It got so we rarely watched 40w or 47w either.
Lightning took out that C2PLL on 40w. Not sure when/how I will eventually put it back up.

I once wanted every bird and every channel I could possibly get.

 

[Cham]

Yes with two C-band dishes you could try one movable and the other fixed to your favourite satellite and off-center feeds; 107, 101, and 97 maybe?

In my first response I mentioned equatorial mount... Getting confused with hobbies, I should have said "polar mount".

Nice to have a movable dish, there is always something that comes up on a satellite that you are not pointed at if it's fixed.