question

[hawaii]

more questions

I did not get a response from local satellite guy. Luckily, a 1.2 showed up on Craigslist for $60 with steel base, 8 concrete center blocks, cable with ground wire-so I snatched it quickly with Home Depot rental pickup. It was an adventure: 1) taking it apart, 2) loading it on the truck, 3) getting through rush hour traffic and 4) unloading by myself. Now I have some questions for set up. All of your help has gotten me this far and let me say big thank you (mahalo) in advance!
1) The LNB holder needs to be replaced for the GeoSat SL1 PLL to fit. When I look online for a replacement there are many holders that do not specify compatibility for the DTV 1.2 dish. Here are two examples
LNB holder 1and LNB holder 2 . Could you recommend one of them?

2) In a couple of months I will be moving and my hope is there will be a way to add concrete foundation mounting. For now, the non penetrating roof mount will have to do. The only obstacles: 1) the mount base is bigger than the gravel area which reaches over the plastic boundary about 4 inches high. My first idea is to put down a layer bricks on top of the gravel and adjust each brick using a level. Then put the concrete blocks on top of the mount to anchor it. Is there better way to do this?

3) Aiming the dish- I can see the rusty long screw/bolt is for elevation and side screw/bolt is for the fine tuning the azimuth.

4) The pic below shows the skew with the degrees currently at 60 - loosen the four bolts to turn dish clock or counter clockwise. I believe that I should skew the dish so LNB bracket to lowest position because FTA does not need it. Is there a specific degree setting?


5) This dish does not have the elevation degrees label to go by. I. Do I just get behind the dish and try to adjust by using the satellite app on smart phone and satellite finder meter? This pic below is a view behind mounting pole - facing east to southeast satellites:

Here is the satellite finder app on my phone from same location behind mounting pole-
There is tree in the way of the most eastern satellites.
6) My hope in the future is to get a motor STAB HH120 and modify the back of the dish to this type.

It looks homemade and is lighter than the current hardware. I found this here (thread #7). Would this work in my case?

 

[Anole]

LNB mounting:
start at my post #24 in this thread, using conduit hanger clamps...
http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=94189&page=3
Might give you some cheap, local, immediate solutions.

Make sure your replacement LNBF is the exact same...
- height
- angle
- distance from the dish.

 

[hawaii]

I took off the DTV three LNBs front housing. The DTV LNB housing is the same length as the GeoSat Pro LNB. So my target is to build a bracket to keep the GeoSat in this position. Just below the GeoLNB in this pic is a bolt which I can create the conduit hanger clamps to keep this lined up with the middle hole behind it.

 

[cyberham]

Satellites Receivable in Honolulu with 90cm Dish

...I would love to catch any USA, Euro and Japanese programing would be awesome...

You can generate reports changing parameters such as dish size, location, etc. from here. Below is a report for a 90cm dish located in Honolulu for satellite footprints that cover Hawaii.
View attachment SatStar_Honolulu.pdf

 

[hawaii]

I finally got everything set up to receive Galaxy 19 -97west. I skewed the dish rather than LNB since it has a measure on the back -66. The elevation (18.6) was done with a sears protractor placed on the back (plastic hump with skew numbers on it see picture below). Used android phone compass (104) and satellite finder. I added a satellite meter in the line to receiver. Moving dish around, the meter found a satellite. After doing fine adjustments for strongest signal, took meter out. Sadly, MicroHD did not get a signal except that the LNB is attached and working. I got creative and added neighboring satellites. Just in case I got a different satellite. When clicked through the satellites, a momentary signal (about 2seconds) came through for Galaxy 16 -99west.
I think my problem is complicated by LNB holder may not be best placement, since this is a modified DT dish. Did I use correct way to measure elevation? Why is cheap meter so sensitive but MicroHD not?
Any suggestions? Thank you

 

[Anole]

Wow! Sounds like success to me.

Show us a few pictures of your LNBF mounting.
Like to see what you came up with.
If your LNBF is at the same place and angle like I mentioned before, you should be good.

Now if you want to choose a poor channel (low Q), then try moving the LNBF slightly toward or away from the dish, you might squeeze out a little more.

Same for skew by twisting the LNBF.
On a channel with a high Quality reading, you probably won't see any improvement.
Yes, twisting the dish for skew was probably best - just talking about fine tuning.

Cheap Meter: it gets the high powered DBS satellite signals.
It has no tuning to reject them.
Your receiver only gets the signal it's tuned to, rejecting all else.
Just use the meter to find out where to look across the sky for satellites.
Then use what you've learned to zero in on a proper bird with your receiver.
Sounds like you've already learned that lesson. :up

 

[hawaii]

Thank you for swift response and encouragement Anole. LNB is attached with #2 and #3 (Home Depot) since it allowed movement without having to cut or grind edge. I do need to add a spacer. It is very solid - thx for steering in that direction.

 

[Anole]

Thank you for swift response and encouragement Anole.
LNB is attached with #2 and #3 (Home Depot) since it allowed movement without having to cut or grind edge.
I do need to add a spacer. It is very solid - thx for steering in that direction.

Those conduit hanger brackets may not suit everyone, every time, but they ARE easy to get locally and experiment with.
You can adjust LNBF height by using larger or smaller bottom bracket, and fine tune by squeezing or spreading it!

Double check that the LNBF looks at the same spot on the dish as original feedhorn.
(had a feeling yours might be aimed a little low)
If you do change it, ya might need to adjust the dish to restore your signal.
Use the weak signal (low Q) trick described above.

Beautiful pictures!
Now enjoy your reception for a while, and keep reading SatGuys for ideas.
If one of these days you get curious and reaim at another satellite, I'm sure you'll do just fine.
And of course, we're always here to help. :up
.