Trying to get into C-Band, may have found a dish?
- Thread starter ssj925
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Replies 50
- Views 6K
First off measure it to be sure what size you have. Hopefully it is bigger, as you said it looks to you, and you can get a decent amount of channels. If it is 6ft then it will still get some of the stronger signals but reception will be limited. At least you would be able to get your foot in the 'c band door' with it.
I can't tell for sure but it looks to me as though the lnb rods are bent? If that is the case you could try to straighten them but another option would be to get a few pieces of similar sized conduit from Home Depot or Lowes to form new ones using measurements from the originals.
Before doing that though you should do a string test on the face of the dish to make sure it has kept it's shape. Post back your results. Good luck with your new hobby!
Yes rods are bent, I'll try and straighten them.First off measure it to be sure what size you have. Hopefully it is bigger, as you said it looks to you, and you can get a decent amount of channels. If it is 6ft then it will still get some of the stronger signals but reception will be limited. At least you would be able to get your foot in the 'c band door' with it.
I can't tell for sure but it looks to me as though the lnb rods are bent? If that is the case you could try to straighten them but another option would be to get a few pieces of similar sized conduit from Home Depot or Lowes to form new ones using measurements from the originals.
Before doing that though you should do a string test on the face of the dish to make sure it has kept it's shape. Post back your results. Good luck with your new hobby!
LNB seems quite old, think it'll still work or should I just buy a titanium lnb now? The guy said it did work before though.
I asked if it was already aligned and he said yes so I assume I get a pole plumb and aim it, it should work. I recently set-up a 36" motorized ku dish so should be similar to get it aligned.
But the question is, I don't have a box to move the actuator. Is there a way to manually move it? The wires are all cut but I'll take a look inside and run new wire if there's a label inside.
Excited to finally try out c-band after all these years.
Two 12 volt car batteries in series for 24 volts DC, wired with a center OFF DPDT switch that's cross-wired, to reverse polarity when flipped to either side. Though, you'll tire of that quickly, it'll work once you find the first satellite successfully.
Or buy one of these: SuperJack C-Band Dish Positioner | Tek2000.com
Man, i hate to say it but those support rods are going to be difficult if not impossible to bend back. Usually once a thin metal tube is bent once, bending it back will just break it apart. I know from experience. But, if you have just one good un-bent tube, you can use that as a template to make more and replace any can not be saved. That plastic piece between the rods and LNBF is just there to hold a LNBF Cover so you dont need that which is good. The LNBF let us know more about it, make and model, maybe some close-up pictures. If it is old, most likely it will need to be replaced, only because 5G interference is really getting to be a problem. But you can always try it out and see how it works for you.
But a 6FT Dish is pretty undersized today. They worked great back in the day, and you will get SOME C -Band signals on it, but you will also miss MANY, including the DVB-S2 signals as they are weaker. primestar31 offered you sage advice. Plant your pole deep enough and tall enough to support a 10 Footer. Once you have has a taste of C Band, you will want to do it right and a 10 Ft is what you need these days. That said, if you find a 10 Footer, you can use your 6 Footer for a stationary dish, or even convert it to Ku Band or something.
A DiSEqC Dish Positioner is what you really want, but these are HARD to find these days. No one is selling these in the USA right now that i know of. You can find old Dish Positioners on ebay, better than nothing i guess, but if i was you i would find a DiSEqC Positioner, such as a V Box.
Good luck, above all else have fun getting this together.
But a 6FT Dish is pretty undersized today. They worked great back in the day, and you will get SOME C -Band signals on it, but you will also miss MANY, including the DVB-S2 signals as they are weaker. primestar31 offered you sage advice. Plant your pole deep enough and tall enough to support a 10 Footer. Once you have has a taste of C Band, you will want to do it right and a 10 Ft is what you need these days. That said, if you find a 10 Footer, you can use your 6 Footer for a stationary dish, or even convert it to Ku Band or something.
A DiSEqC Dish Positioner is what you really want, but these are HARD to find these days. No one is selling these in the USA right now that i know of. You can find old Dish Positioners on ebay, better than nothing i guess, but if i was you i would find a DiSEqC Positioner, such as a V Box.
Good luck, above all else have fun getting this together.
Their method of removing the dish from the pole was apparently lifting it up and dropping it on it's face.If you have a set of torches,oxy/ac,not just a little bernzamatic,you can probably straighten the supports.If you try to do it cold they will likely just break.
Just get a new lnbf,will solve a lot of problems.That blue dangly thing is the smashed polarotor which modern receivers can't control anyway.
Just get a new lnbf,will solve a lot of problems.That blue dangly thing is the smashed polarotor which modern receivers can't control anyway.
If the rods are bent too much they won't straighten properly and your lnbf will not be positioned where it should be. If that is the case then you won't get a proper signal and you will need to do the conduit method of replacing them. This is especially important if it is a smaller dish as any loss of signal may make it useless for reception.
The lnb may still work but without a positioner that can run the polarity motor you would be best to replace it with a new Titanium lnbf as the polarity is voltage switched with those.
As primestar31 mentioned above you can move it with batteries and a DPDT center-off switch. Make sure it is a heavy duty type to handle the current. Here is a wiring diagram for doing it.
I believe you mentioned previously that you traveled a distance to get it so it will likely need some tweaking once installed.
Dish is 7.5ft, measured yesterday so better than the 6ft expected.
The rods may all be bent, I'll add pics later today including LNBF info.
Dish definitely is going to need some work. The mesh also needs fixing in some areas.
The LNBF brand is Chaparral but I need to check which model later.
The rods may all be bent, I'll add pics later today including LNBF info.
Dish definitely is going to need some work. The mesh also needs fixing in some areas.
The LNBF brand is Chaparral but I need to check which model later.
Last edited:
I hate to tell you this my friend, but that dish belongs in the scrapyard. First of all it is way too small at 7.5 feet. The actuator is probably still good, so save that.
Spend your time and energy on finding a nice 10 footer. I don't know where you live, but there has to be better dishes than that to be had.
You can still get alot of stuff with a 7.5. alot of fine tuned dishes will get most everything except for 16apsk feeds.
If he's willing to do the work then it's worth it. He's probably still shopping for a 10 ft dish to use.
Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk
How do those 7.5 dishes perform with 2 degree spacing?
You are assuming that after he repairs the torn mesh and the feed support rods that the dish is parabolic. I have never attempted to repair an egg shaped dish. Perhaps it can be done.
I guess if you are retired and have the time, you could spend endless hours repairing the dish. If time is valuable and limited, then spend that time looking for a nice 10 foot.
We recovered a dish for a guy that had 3 missing panels and we replaced the mesh with solid aluminum panels.
As it turned out, the local body shop had a roll of aluminum wide enough and a metal shear and we cut the panels to fit.
When we checked it out, it was as hot as the solid 10 foot Prodelin fiberglass we had up back. It takes a little TLC to get the panels to fit just right but worth the effort.
He's still using it today. I don't know if you want to go to that extent, but it's an option. Since I retired, I'm out of the loop and no longer have any suppliers who handle replacement screen.
Wish I did, I know where there are a couple really nice 12 footers that could use an overhaul. Good luck with your project. I think you'll find it's worth the effort. Lots of good help on here.
I can't tell for sure, but that looks like Unimesh. I have a 10 foot that looks just like that. If it is, getting the panels back in the track in a real pain.Sorry for keep asking. 1st guy never responded back, latest one someone else took, but I did find this one. Looks like it's already down and just needs an LNB and pole?
1 hr away
I was lucky, the one I have is only popped out for about 3 inches and I didn't even try to get it back in. If you try, you're likely to make it worse.
I am not thinking that little bit of mesh is going to hurt what the dish can do. &.5 is on the small side, but play with it and see what you can do while looking for a 10 footer in good shape. My unimesh perforated out runs my 12 foot mesh when it comes to ASPK16 feeds. Of course the 10 was brand new in the box, but as much as I try the 10 perforated does better than the mesh.
I was going to wait until everything was good to go and do a little surprise, but I wanted to ask some questions and decided to show what has been done thus far...
First the questions, to keep it short, for some reason when I have the lnb set to 13/18v, I do not get signal on the TPs. I need to select 13v for H and 18v for V to get a signal. My Octagon SF8008 has this option so it works out for scanning individual TPs but I need it set to 13/18v so it auto switches between H/V TPs. Attached is my current switch set-up...Ku band sat is on a DiSEQC switch Port 1/2, the switch goes to my SG2100 motor, which goes to the STB.
C-Band Titanium LNB is in Port 3 of the switch. Could this be why it's happening? I plan to do a direct connection next to rule out this.
Next question, my actuator (which works, been moving it using a 24v 2A ac adapter and just switching the (+) & (-) wires to move either way) was mounted on the left side of the dish (when looking from behind). This allowed the dish to easily pass beyond 139W which was useless to me. I want to get 58W and when I moved the dish all the way that direction, it stop around ~ 72W (you'll see below how I know this). I ended up switching to the position of the actuator to the right side, which still allows it to get to at least 139W (perfect) and when moving all the way towards 58W, I feel like it's still stuck around 61W? (Won't know for sure unless I check 61.5W).
Am I missing something? I already changed the actuator limit, the reason it stops is because the actuator arm itself is basically touching the dish mount (i'll add a pic later).
Regarding the switch situation, I saw in a different thread about the ECODA 22Khz switch being able to pass DiSEQC and Power. My plan was to use the current set-up, and have the motor out connect to the 22Khz on the 22Khz switch, and then use the C-band LNB and connect to 0Khz port. Would this work?
Now the story of the 7.5 that could...initially I straightened the bars enough, and used measurements to find the focal point. I then used my receiver to try and find some C-BAND sats, but was not able to get anything at all. I didn't change the elevation settings since the person was a 1 hr drive away and assumed it was correct. (Using my phone as a declinometer, it was set to 48 total, although the tvosat says it should be 44[this is combined with the 5 degree angle]). Instead, I removed the C-band LNB and stuck in a DP lnb I had laying around. Brought out the good old SV HD 8000 and tested the dish arc. I was able to get 72W to 129W using this lnb and it was tracking it quite well.
I also decided to remove two of the most bent rods and use only 2, this allowed the the lnb to be much more center and since the titanium lnb is so much lighter than the original, it actually is quite stable. I may get some conduit and try to make the other two rods (I got some but it ended up being just a bit too small). This is when I tried going back to the C-BAND lnb and tried the 13v/18v trick and was able to lock on my first c-band sat 105w.
As of right now I have been able to find 105w, 123w and 125w but nothing else. Probably need to adjust some more settings on the dish, although I already optimized 123w using the adjustments on the dish. After tuning for 123w, going back to 105w, it isn't showing up anymore, so definitely need to tweak it around still.
For a dish positioner, as mentioned here to me, they're getting hard to find. I decided to build the wifi arduino based dish positioner. I am having the pcb made right now and everything should be done in 3 weeks. Until then I am using the 24v adapter and may make that dpdt switch to make life easier.
Sorry for the long post and pics, but I'm still here don't worry =D
Also, is their anyone in California here getting 58w? Just curious if I should be able to rotate the dish with the actuator enough to get 58w all the way to 139w.
First the questions, to keep it short, for some reason when I have the lnb set to 13/18v, I do not get signal on the TPs. I need to select 13v for H and 18v for V to get a signal. My Octagon SF8008 has this option so it works out for scanning individual TPs but I need it set to 13/18v so it auto switches between H/V TPs. Attached is my current switch set-up...Ku band sat is on a DiSEQC switch Port 1/2, the switch goes to my SG2100 motor, which goes to the STB.
C-Band Titanium LNB is in Port 3 of the switch. Could this be why it's happening? I plan to do a direct connection next to rule out this.
Next question, my actuator (which works, been moving it using a 24v 2A ac adapter and just switching the (+) & (-) wires to move either way) was mounted on the left side of the dish (when looking from behind). This allowed the dish to easily pass beyond 139W which was useless to me. I want to get 58W and when I moved the dish all the way that direction, it stop around ~ 72W (you'll see below how I know this). I ended up switching to the position of the actuator to the right side, which still allows it to get to at least 139W (perfect) and when moving all the way towards 58W, I feel like it's still stuck around 61W? (Won't know for sure unless I check 61.5W).
Am I missing something? I already changed the actuator limit, the reason it stops is because the actuator arm itself is basically touching the dish mount (i'll add a pic later).
Regarding the switch situation, I saw in a different thread about the ECODA 22Khz switch being able to pass DiSEQC and Power. My plan was to use the current set-up, and have the motor out connect to the 22Khz on the 22Khz switch, and then use the C-band LNB and connect to 0Khz port. Would this work?
Now the story of the 7.5 that could...initially I straightened the bars enough, and used measurements to find the focal point. I then used my receiver to try and find some C-BAND sats, but was not able to get anything at all. I didn't change the elevation settings since the person was a 1 hr drive away and assumed it was correct. (Using my phone as a declinometer, it was set to 48 total, although the tvosat says it should be 44[this is combined with the 5 degree angle]). Instead, I removed the C-band LNB and stuck in a DP lnb I had laying around. Brought out the good old SV HD 8000 and tested the dish arc. I was able to get 72W to 129W using this lnb and it was tracking it quite well.
I also decided to remove two of the most bent rods and use only 2, this allowed the the lnb to be much more center and since the titanium lnb is so much lighter than the original, it actually is quite stable. I may get some conduit and try to make the other two rods (I got some but it ended up being just a bit too small). This is when I tried going back to the C-BAND lnb and tried the 13v/18v trick and was able to lock on my first c-band sat 105w.
As of right now I have been able to find 105w, 123w and 125w but nothing else. Probably need to adjust some more settings on the dish, although I already optimized 123w using the adjustments on the dish. After tuning for 123w, going back to 105w, it isn't showing up anymore, so definitely need to tweak it around still.
For a dish positioner, as mentioned here to me, they're getting hard to find. I decided to build the wifi arduino based dish positioner. I am having the pcb made right now and everything should be done in 3 weeks. Until then I am using the 24v adapter and may make that dpdt switch to make life easier.
Sorry for the long post and pics, but I'm still here don't worry =D
Also, is their anyone in California here getting 58w? Just curious if I should be able to rotate the dish with the actuator enough to get 58w all the way to 139w.
With us here in Europe, 13V=vert, 18V=hor. So can you rotate the LNB 90 degrees, and does it work then under the setting 13/18V?
Regarding your switch setup questions:
What type Ku LNB do you have now? A universal type (13/18V [Vert/Hor] and 0/22kHz [Lowband/Highband])?
Or some other type? (with one output Hor, and one output Vert? ~~ explaining why you have two ports connected on your diseqc switch??)
Without pictures it is hard to say anything about your actuator setup.
Greetz,
A33
It's a Invacom QPH-031 so it's not universal. I have Port 1 on cicrular and Port 2 on linear. 13/18v mode works fine on the linear qph-031.
But the c-band lnb doesn't get any signal on 13/18v mode. I need to do 13v for H or 18v for V to get signal. Tomorrow I'll run a 2nd RG6 wire directly from the c-band 2nd lnb out port and see if that helps.
For the actuator, post #21 shows how I got it and which side it was mounted on: Trying to get into C-Band, may have found a dish?
I moved it to the other side. The dish goes up to this point:
After this point if I let the motor go further, the dish basically falls down until the bolt and actuator hit each other:
Did you read this:
I'm not familiar with the Invacom QPH-031. Does it use/need 22kHz?
If none of your LNBs switch on 22kHz, you could indeed use an ECODA 22kHz switch, I think.
However it has constantly DC-through on both ports, I believe, so your receiver would have to supply power constantly to two LNBs and one Diseqc motor.
- So why not use a diseqc 1.1 switch? Your receiver seems to support it.
- Another option would be to use a 2/1 diseqc 1.0 switch, either "position" or "option", allowing 2 of the 4 ports of the 4/1 switch to be used for your Ku LNB. (Some old receivers, however, don't give a repeated diseqc command, as would be needed for this cascaded/serial use. However, most (modern) receivers do, I think.)
[By the way. If you don't want the motor current through the switch, you could split off a parallel line to the diseqc motor, right after your receiver, if you want. So you don't need to go to the motor and back to the switch, with your cabling. Just mentioning this as a possibility...]
For the actuator: Yes, it is clear that that construction should be changed!
Greetz,
A33
Similar threads
Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 0, Members: 0, Guests: 0)
Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 103) Show all
- ssj925
- FTA4PA
- mburns85
- ToxaMan
- aqeeq
- Satfaca
- a33
- satwrench
- azcoder
- mr_rye89
- goodmi
- OswaldFTA
- BabaLouie
- stecle
- Long Hair
- Brct203
- old satellite guy
- sanpat
- James leandre
- juventusbrown
- SiMeCaIs
- Trust
- orac
- N6BY
- mr3p
- cyberham
- Titanium
- clucas
- iBoston
- catamount
- Ricardino_bp
- lme
- forecheck
- mikekohl
- primestar31
- waylew
- Lee60
- pacificrim
- SDA_FL_USA
- Elsguy
- armadillo_115
- brice52
- phlatwound
- GravelChan
- JFOK
- mc6809e
- Mr_Dc2tracker
- Keith Brannen
- TvSteve
- so2344
- norman881
- Corrado
- KE4EST
- AZ.
- Lajaba
- lost_mesa
- Comptech
- Art7220
- Waafu
- iTurbo6
- wvman
