Success!!!!
I must admit I didn't give it a high level of hope - especially after being told by virtually everyone that it was impossible - from C Band Suppliers, Commercial Satellite Experts, Program Providers and people on various forums that said it was iffy with their 7.5 foot dish - and 10 was minimum for Florida.
Today was the day I was determined to find out if I could get a C Band Digital HD signal and get it decoded with a VC-II+ into a HDD-200 on a mini-bud. Before I start, let me say that the mini-bud is in fact a 1.8M, not a 1.2M.
As Prodelin wanted close to $200 for the C Band spars to the 1.8M I had, I wanted some additional assurances before I shelled out 2 Benjamins for spars.
The commercial satellite company that I have recommended in the Sunshine state called me and said they had a 1.8M Mesh SAMI Prime Focus that had come back from a commercial client who was getting to much TI and needed a bigger size.
So I pulled out the DSR-905 and the HDD-200 that I had picked up and made the 45 mile trek out to their facility where they had the SAMI on a 3.5 inch pipe in their back lot near all their uplink trucks.
We decided that 127W would be the best shot as it has the 40 Watt C Band Transponders which are the most C Band Transponders up there.
First thing was to the get the DSR-905 authorized, which turned out to be the most challenging part of this exercise. As the place I was at deals with the commercial Motorola DSR-4400s, they had very little experience with the DSR-900 Consumer line. In fact, they openly stated their hate for Motorola and the Digicipher II + system for reasons I found out as the afternoon wore on.
As it turns out, every 4DTV Program Reseller that I could find was nothing but essentially a call center and had zero technical knowledge - so when it we could not get a hit to take, the CSRs were clueless (big surprise). Of course, Motorola won't talk to you (which is why the commercial company hates Motorola and DC-II) and since most equipment people are not familar with the authorization process problems, when it goes bad you are own your own.
After several hours of nightmares trying just to get the unit authorized and hearing every excuse from Program Resellers (such as they would not authorize us when I told them I was trying with a 1.8M Dish as I needed a 8ft Dish Minimum, or you cannot get HBO-HD unless you also have an analog Receiver and other BS), we went to a steerable 3.8M that they use on site.
After several more hours of frustration trying to take hits on G5 and G1, we were about to call it a day. Then I finally stumbled onto the code for the hidden tech menu that none of these Re-Sellers knew existed. I found it on one of the links that dfergie listed several days ago when comparing the DSR-900 series. Without that link and code, we would have never got it working, so a tip of the hat
: to dfergie for the assist!
I was able to do an authorization reset and within minutes we could see the trip count increase for the Program Guide from the G1 hit.
With that working, we had the 3.8M move to G9 and went to 118-120-122-124 - and finally got a green light for them after switching Horizontal and Vertical a few times (It doesn't help that these CSRs have no idea which transponder Channel 118 is on - and that I am trying to tell a Commercial Company G9 which he knows as Galaxy 13) - too much is lost in translation.
Regardless, finally got it tuned in and we peaked the signal on the 3.8M with a spectrum analyzer for the best null.It gave us a signal of 92 and a quality of 96. That number was important for comparison sake.
As this 1.8M will most likely be fixed at 127W, it was important that the rehit for the channel would work on 127W and there was a lot of debate about if that would work - with most of the Resellers saying it would not again, so then another call to sub to the channels. This one went off without a hitch and HBO-HD and STARZ-HD opened up to reveal their C Band HD Goodness. So much for all the naysayers.
Then the real test came. The SAMI was outside about 125 feet away. We plugged the RG6 Quad in and to our surprise the signal stayed at 92. The Quality did drop to 64...but we were able to repeak it with the Spectrum Analyzer so it bounced between 64 and 68.
I should also note that this was done looking right into a very heavy Thunderstorm with rain and lightning in the line of sight to the bird. To put it bluntly, they were even shocked at the signal and quality level.
They said they would sell me the 1.8 SAMI Mesh for less than Prodelin wanted for my 1.8 C Band Spars, so I am thinking that might be the wise move.
We used 2 Norsat Gold Commercial LNBs which are 25 degrees. They were mounted on the Prime Focus SAMI at 90 degree angles with one connection off each. I know DMS has 13 degree LNBs, but as I know this works, I am somewhat hesitant to change them.
Thoughts?
I must admit I didn't give it a high level of hope - especially after being told by virtually everyone that it was impossible - from C Band Suppliers, Commercial Satellite Experts, Program Providers and people on various forums that said it was iffy with their 7.5 foot dish - and 10 was minimum for Florida.
Today was the day I was determined to find out if I could get a C Band Digital HD signal and get it decoded with a VC-II+ into a HDD-200 on a mini-bud. Before I start, let me say that the mini-bud is in fact a 1.8M, not a 1.2M.
As Prodelin wanted close to $200 for the C Band spars to the 1.8M I had, I wanted some additional assurances before I shelled out 2 Benjamins for spars.
The commercial satellite company that I have recommended in the Sunshine state called me and said they had a 1.8M Mesh SAMI Prime Focus that had come back from a commercial client who was getting to much TI and needed a bigger size.
So I pulled out the DSR-905 and the HDD-200 that I had picked up and made the 45 mile trek out to their facility where they had the SAMI on a 3.5 inch pipe in their back lot near all their uplink trucks.
We decided that 127W would be the best shot as it has the 40 Watt C Band Transponders which are the most C Band Transponders up there.
First thing was to the get the DSR-905 authorized, which turned out to be the most challenging part of this exercise. As the place I was at deals with the commercial Motorola DSR-4400s, they had very little experience with the DSR-900 Consumer line. In fact, they openly stated their hate for Motorola and the Digicipher II + system for reasons I found out as the afternoon wore on.
As it turns out, every 4DTV Program Reseller that I could find was nothing but essentially a call center and had zero technical knowledge - so when it we could not get a hit to take, the CSRs were clueless (big surprise). Of course, Motorola won't talk to you (which is why the commercial company hates Motorola and DC-II) and since most equipment people are not familar with the authorization process problems, when it goes bad you are own your own.
After several hours of nightmares trying just to get the unit authorized and hearing every excuse from Program Resellers (such as they would not authorize us when I told them I was trying with a 1.8M Dish as I needed a 8ft Dish Minimum, or you cannot get HBO-HD unless you also have an analog Receiver and other BS), we went to a steerable 3.8M that they use on site.
After several more hours of frustration trying to take hits on G5 and G1, we were about to call it a day. Then I finally stumbled onto the code for the hidden tech menu that none of these Re-Sellers knew existed. I found it on one of the links that dfergie listed several days ago when comparing the DSR-900 series. Without that link and code, we would have never got it working, so a tip of the hat
: to dfergie for the assist!I was able to do an authorization reset and within minutes we could see the trip count increase for the Program Guide from the G1 hit.
With that working, we had the 3.8M move to G9 and went to 118-120-122-124 - and finally got a green light for them after switching Horizontal and Vertical a few times (It doesn't help that these CSRs have no idea which transponder Channel 118 is on - and that I am trying to tell a Commercial Company G9 which he knows as Galaxy 13) - too much is lost in translation.
Regardless, finally got it tuned in and we peaked the signal on the 3.8M with a spectrum analyzer for the best null.It gave us a signal of 92 and a quality of 96. That number was important for comparison sake.
As this 1.8M will most likely be fixed at 127W, it was important that the rehit for the channel would work on 127W and there was a lot of debate about if that would work - with most of the Resellers saying it would not again, so then another call to sub to the channels. This one went off without a hitch and HBO-HD and STARZ-HD opened up to reveal their C Band HD Goodness. So much for all the naysayers.
Then the real test came. The SAMI was outside about 125 feet away. We plugged the RG6 Quad in and to our surprise the signal stayed at 92. The Quality did drop to 64...but we were able to repeak it with the Spectrum Analyzer so it bounced between 64 and 68.
I should also note that this was done looking right into a very heavy Thunderstorm with rain and lightning in the line of sight to the bird. To put it bluntly, they were even shocked at the signal and quality level.
They said they would sell me the 1.8 SAMI Mesh for less than Prodelin wanted for my 1.8 C Band Spars, so I am thinking that might be the wise move.
We used 2 Norsat Gold Commercial LNBs which are 25 degrees. They were mounted on the Prime Focus SAMI at 90 degree angles with one connection off each. I know DMS has 13 degree LNBs, but as I know this works, I am somewhat hesitant to change them.
Thoughts?
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