Thanks dee_ann! I already contacted the vendor. He has another kit, unfortunately he is trying to sell it bundled with a 1.2m dish. ;-) If the auction ends without a bid, he might sell it to me separately. Did you have less performance with your self made holder?
Rebuilding an Prodelin/Andrew 1.8
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Well to be honest, I have not yet managed to get anything at all on the dish. Zip....
When I got the kit I tried to match it up to the collection of LNB’s I have and it wouldn’t match up. Apparently there is some sort of intermediary part that I don’t have.
But that’s not a big deal for me because I’m really interested in converting it into a C-band dish. I’ll eventually find that missing part, I’m sure it was not missing from the kit, the bags were sealed and all parts accounted for in the parts list. I’m sure it was included with the LNB kit which I don’t have, have never seen and know nothing about. Yet..
For now I’m going to focus on getting it working for C-band. Of course I may turn it back to KU in the future, I tend to shuffle my dishes around a bit and especially if I get another BUD.
I’ve been trying for a few years to figure out how to bring home an 11’ BIG dish from waaaaay out in the woods and if I ever manage to make that happen I’ll be in big dish heaven.
I was planning on using this dish for subscription Dish Network HD because I had a tree problem but my neighbor cut down all those trees recently so I’m getting by with my 1.2 Prodelin aimed at 129 for Dish HD.
I still may do that anyway if I can get that 11’ dish. Put the 1.8 on 129 then the 1.2 on the next Dish bird with the most HD channels and the 1.0m dish on the Dish bird with the least HD channels.
Even without trees now it’s really nice that weather almost never knocks out my satellite..
I know it sounds tacky but “Bigger IS better” when it comes to satellite dishes.
Anyway, the biggest reason I haven’t gotten this dish working yet (besides me being lazy) is that I haven’t had a decent meter but in about 1 more day I’ll have that problem behind me and I can get serious about finishing this project.
I am not totally sure, but it looks like they might have replacement feed support arms for your (our) dish (scroll down to the end of page):
http://www.satellitedish.com/page-31.htm
http://www.satellitedish.com/page-31.htm
DUDE! That is exactly what I need ! That LOOKS LIKE the C-band stuff!
Can you measure the neck of that feedhorn, please? Also, I would be soooooooo grateful if you could take a multitude of high resolution photos of it from all angles, front, back, top, bottom and everything else between.. With enough high res photos my dad could probably replicate that thing. That is, IF it’s actually the C-band rig. If it is, it’s rare as hen’s teeth, I was just telling my dad yesterday that I have never seen one, not even in photos or drawings but that I know that they exist.
Thanks!
Can you measure the neck of that feedhorn, please? Also, I would be soooooooo grateful if you could take a multitude of high resolution photos of it from all angles, front, back, top, bottom and everything else between.. With enough high res photos my dad could probably replicate that thing. That is, IF it’s actually the C-band rig. If it is, it’s rare as hen’s teeth, I was just telling my dad yesterday that I have never seen one, not even in photos or drawings but that I know that they exist.
Thanks!
~possibly~...... It all depends on if this is an actual C-Band kit. If it is, then I am very interested in one. If it’s just a variation on the KU kit that I already have, then I’m not likely interested in it.
I’m assuming that we can figure this out by measuring the neck of the feedhorn. I ASSUME the C-band feedhorn will be much larger than the KU.
I’ve been trying forever to get this dish working. And a few months ago I decided to make it a C-band mini-bud.
I do not have the proper hardware to attach the much larger LNBF to this dish so I have to make something from scratch.
I am certain that I have the elevation and azimuth set correctly for SES-2 on this dish.
My new meter isn’t due in until late tomorrow evening so this afternoon I went outside and messed with it a bit with my existing fonky meters.
For a very brief moment I got sound and video on one of the religious channels so I know the dish is aimed where it should be.
BUT, I was holding the LNBF a good deal further back from the dish that the KU LNBF would be. I KNOW FOR A FACT that the arms on this dish are the right arms, they were attached to the dish when I got it from the commercial dish farm.
When I hold the LNBF where the KU LNBF would sit, I get nothing. When I move back about 8 inches or more, I get a signal.
But it’s really hard to hold it steady and when I lose it it’s hard to find it again.
So I rigged up a kooky gadget to hold the LNBF for me, it will let me adjust it and once I get it on target and locked on a signal, I can then take measurements to make new arms since the old ones are not going to work for C-band.
I had this flexible stainless steel hot water line left over from when I had some work done last year on my water line. It’s flexible but it’s quite tough so it will stay on whatever I bend it to.
I duct taped it to an old swimming pool leave net thing that extends and collapses. It will extend out to like 10 feet long or collapse down to under 5 feet long.
Tomorrow I’m going to clamp it to a five gallon bucket with a cinder block inside then I can prop it up on front of the dish. I can raise it up and down, move it any way I want, tip the LNBF up and down at any angle, side to side, etc..
And since it’s in an actual C-band LNBF bracket, I can rotate it for skew and move it forward and backward.
I’ll be able to find the exact spot where it need to sit in front to the dish then build arms to fit it.
It looks totally ghetto but I’m totally sure it’s going to work fine.
I do not have the proper hardware to attach the much larger LNBF to this dish so I have to make something from scratch.
I am certain that I have the elevation and azimuth set correctly for SES-2 on this dish.
My new meter isn’t due in until late tomorrow evening so this afternoon I went outside and messed with it a bit with my existing fonky meters.
For a very brief moment I got sound and video on one of the religious channels so I know the dish is aimed where it should be.
BUT, I was holding the LNBF a good deal further back from the dish that the KU LNBF would be. I KNOW FOR A FACT that the arms on this dish are the right arms, they were attached to the dish when I got it from the commercial dish farm.
When I hold the LNBF where the KU LNBF would sit, I get nothing. When I move back about 8 inches or more, I get a signal.
But it’s really hard to hold it steady and when I lose it it’s hard to find it again.
So I rigged up a kooky gadget to hold the LNBF for me, it will let me adjust it and once I get it on target and locked on a signal, I can then take measurements to make new arms since the old ones are not going to work for C-band.
I had this flexible stainless steel hot water line left over from when I had some work done last year on my water line. It’s flexible but it’s quite tough so it will stay on whatever I bend it to.
I duct taped it to an old swimming pool leave net thing that extends and collapses. It will extend out to like 10 feet long or collapse down to under 5 feet long.
Tomorrow I’m going to clamp it to a five gallon bucket with a cinder block inside then I can prop it up on front of the dish. I can raise it up and down, move it any way I want, tip the LNBF up and down at any angle, side to side, etc..
And since it’s in an actual C-band LNBF bracket, I can rotate it for skew and move it forward and backward.
I’ll be able to find the exact spot where it need to sit in front to the dish then build arms to fit it.
It looks totally ghetto but I’m totally sure it’s going to work fine.
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Dee_Ann... before I go ahead and take hi-res pics, here are a few low-res ones of what I think is just another ku-band feed. If you want me to still measure I will of course go ahead and do so, just let me know. Also, could you do me a favor and measure the lnb raincover you got with the kit you bought 
from the guy on ebay? I could get one of those but I am not sure if it'll fit over my lnb. thanks!
from the guy on ebay? I could get one of those but I am not sure if it'll fit over my lnb. thanks!I hope that these photos will be helpful. The only tape measure I own with Metric on it is for sewing and its marked in centimeters but of course that’s ultra simple to convert to MM if needed.
I love metric, I wish the US would switch to it because I despise fractions and our outdated measurement system is a pain in the backside. I’m a bit math impaired so fractions really give me a hard time.
Anyway, let me know if these will suffice, if not I can take more/other measurements for you.
Also, the neck of the KU feedhorn I have is about 27mm. If yours is about the same then it’s highly probable you also have a KU kit as well, just a later version, I think.
Looking at your photos, the bolt holes in relation to the waveguide tunnel (is that what it is?) seems to be the same size as the one I have. So I’m pretty darn sure yours is also KU.
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Ok, so here’s my LNBF third hand experimenters stand. It’s soooooooo ghetto...
But, it does indeed hold the business out there in front of the dish and allows me to adjust it every which way possible until I find the perfect spot.
(During this process I’m not using the PLL LNBF because I am under the impression that it can be a bit troublesome during scans and initial setup. So I’m using a regular LNBF to find out where it needs to be at then I’ll replace it with the PLL one in the end.)
Once I’ve done that then I can take precise measurements and cut some new conduit to make new arms for my little C-band mini-bud.
I’m hoping to make this dish for on SES-1 for MeTV and then realign my 10’ BUD so it will pick up Retro TV on SES-2 (it does not currently, it’s not aligned properly)
I’m looking forward to watching classic Doctor Who all summer and Harvey Toons too!
But, it does indeed hold the business out there in front of the dish and allows me to adjust it every which way possible until I find the perfect spot.
(During this process I’m not using the PLL LNBF because I am under the impression that it can be a bit troublesome during scans and initial setup. So I’m using a regular LNBF to find out where it needs to be at then I’ll replace it with the PLL one in the end.)
Once I’ve done that then I can take precise measurements and cut some new conduit to make new arms for my little C-band mini-bud.
I’m hoping to make this dish for on SES-1 for MeTV and then realign my 10’ BUD so it will pick up Retro TV on SES-2 (it does not currently, it’s not aligned properly)
I’m looking forward to watching classic Doctor Who all summer and Harvey Toons too!
Attachments
Still waiting for my new meter to arrive (probably laaaaaaaaaate this evening) and I couldn’t stand it anymore.
So I wheeled out my little cart thingie that I use for a stand to put stuff when I’m ‘dishing’ and connected up one of my old meters and within a few seconds I had it locked on SES-1.
I got the church channels and the MeTV channels (no sound though ) I think this old meter doesn’t decode the AC3 audio on MeTV.
Anyway, since it stays in place now I can take a tape measure and get an exact measurement.
I was just experimenting with this, for now. I’m waiting till my new meter comes in. I also need to attach a proper mounting collar to the LNB that will hold the LNBF in place permanently.
I am now 100% confident that I can convert this dish into a very usable C-band minibud. And with the PLL LNBF in there, it ought to do a very decent job. I don’t think it will out perform the 10 foot dish but it should be just fine unless we get heavy rain.
So I wheeled out my little cart thingie that I use for a stand to put stuff when I’m ‘dishing’ and connected up one of my old meters and within a few seconds I had it locked on SES-1.
I got the church channels and the MeTV channels (no sound though
) I think this old meter doesn’t decode the AC3 audio on MeTV.Anyway, since it stays in place now I can take a tape measure and get an exact measurement.
I was just experimenting with this, for now. I’m waiting till my new meter comes in. I also need to attach a proper mounting collar to the LNB that will hold the LNBF in place permanently.
I am now 100% confident that I can convert this dish into a very usable C-band minibud. And with the PLL LNBF in there, it ought to do a very decent job. I don’t think it will out perform the 10 foot dish but it should be just fine unless we get heavy rain.
Attachments
I have plan to throw away original feedarms and make a new ones. Moreover, side arms (red) will be adjustable in length to give more flexibility in experiments, such as adding subreflector and transform offset to Gregorian. To central arm (blue) will attach additional horizontal bar to be able easily make multifeeds. And, for fixing additional LNBs, another bar will be attached (green). That is the plan for this summer. 
One thing I learned today is that when you replace the factory LNBF with an aftermarket model it’s very likely that the focal points won’t mesh up.
So having arms that are adjustable in length is a must if you plan to use LNBFs that differ greatly in size, length, etc.. It does make a difference, I learned this today, the hard way and it took me years to realize this.
So having arms that are adjustable in length is a must if you plan to use LNBFs that differ greatly in size, length, etc.. It does make a difference, I learned this today, the hard way and it took me years to realize this.
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