Went dish shopping today!

[digiblur]

I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood and start cold knocking on doors today. Within a matter of an hour, mostly due to visiting with the new found friends, I now will obtain the following:

7 foot mesh with Superjack(hard to read) - Excellent condition. Hard to see the LNB due to the height of the dish. Price?? - Free

12 foot mesh with a STS motor? Good condition, needs a little touch up paint. He should have the receiver out of the attic for me on the weekend. Price?? Free!

7 foot mesh - with a broken arm - not sure if I'll need this one. All I have to do is help the guy install his DSL modem and I'll have it for free. Not sure if he has the receiver.

C-Band here I come!!! I blame this all on Iceberg's C-Band thread he started. At least that's what I told the wife.

 

[Sassan]

hahahaha....thats my next step.....one of these go around and ask people if they use their big ol' dishes anymore.

 

[Tron]

I decided to take a walk around the neighborhood and start cold knocking on doors today. Within a matter of an hour, mostly due to visiting with the new found friends, I now will obtain the following:

7 foot mesh with Superjack(hard to read) - Excellent condition. Hard to see the LNB due to the height of the dish. Price?? - Free

12 foot mesh with a STS motor? Good condition, needs a little touch up paint. He should have the receiver out of the attic for me on the weekend. Price?? Free!

7 foot mesh - with a broken arm - not sure if I'll need this one. All I have to do is help the guy install his DSL modem and I'll have it for free. Not sure if he has the receiver.

C-Band here I come!!! I blame this all on Iceberg's C-Band thread he started. At least that's what I told the wife.

Congratulations!!! Just think of all the shipping expense you saved

That 12 foot mesh sounds sweet. There's one like that around here that I've been itching to inquire about. Maybe you've given me the courage to start asking around myself

 

[hwh]

I wish I could do that. I just don't have the personality type to walk around knocking on strangers doors and asking about their old dishes.

 

[Mr Tony]

All of my neighbors have pizza dishes

I blame this all on Iceberg's C-Band thread he started. At least that's what I told the wife.

uh oh. I'm not going to get a call from Mrs Digiblur pretty soon, am I?

 

[drhydro]

Great job digiblur. As I have often said to those getting into c band, no reason to buy a dish when there are so many out there that can be had for free.

 

[sharpee]

I want one too

Nice job Digiblur.. your efforts are paying off very well.
Slim pickins in my area very urban in the Philly area.
If i have time this weekend i think there is a six footer over a super market that looks like its pointing down, been that way for a while!
The manager seems like a nice guy, i just might ask him about it.
Wish me luck

 

[iafirebuff]

Here in I-O-WAY, out in the country I see TONS of C-Band dishes. Lots are pointed north on all the way down. If I had the room I would go hunting. I bet you could come here and get tons of them!

 

[Tron]

In suburban New Orleans there are still quite a few around from the 80s. Usually, they're pointed down (or in one case, toward the Northeast.... nothing over there ) Many times there will be a DirecTV dish on the same house. In those cases you might assume they've "upgraded" (notice the quotes)...

When I take a daytrip out to the country, I see plenty more that look to be abandoned...

 

[digiblur]

I picked up one of them today. I'm not sure how to measure this things but I measured from lip to lip without the tape measure falling in the "bowl" and it was 10.5 feet. The lnb is a STS with 63db gain and less than 100 degrees TEMP, sounds kind of old to me. Anyone have a recommendation of a C band LNB to use on a FTA receiver?

I hooked it up to a port on the diseqc switch mounted under the 90cm, I wasn't sure what to pick as an LNB on the Fortec Ultra. I did a blind scan a few times with the dish on the ground but didn't find anything. I thought I might get lucky but oh well... I'll wait till I get it up on the pole.

Off to mow the grass and pick up the yard...

 

[Shawn95GT]

I picked up one of them today. I'm not sure how to measure this things but I measured from lip to lip without the tape measure falling in the "bowl" and it was 10.5 feet. The lnb is a STS with 63db gain and less than 100 degrees TEMP, sounds kind of old to me. Anyone have a recommendation of a C band LNB to use on a FTA receiver?

For cheap - the ASC421 LNBF from your favorite DMS dealer is hard to beat. That new BSC321-2 C/Ku LNBF (also from DMS) might be interesting for you too.

If you want an LNB for a co-rotor, Norsats are always good but they are kind of pricey. There are some reasonably priced alternatives. SatEng.com has very good pricing on the Norsats.

 

[digiblur]

Time to update the thread again....

I picked up the second dish. A 10 footer. This one was much lighter than the other. The LNB was a lot newer (I think a 50 degree temp one) including the actuator. The analog receiver has no remote so I'm stuck working the transponders on the front. I brought the TV outside(in the dark of course), hooked up a piece of 18/3 for the servo and the RG-6. The dish is on the ground with no pole. I put it on TP 15 and started waving it around the sky. Within 10 minutes boom! I had video! AWESOME! It almost brought a tear to my eye! I found three analog TP's on G4! Awesome! I shoved the wagon under the side of the dish so it would hold for now. I looked through the back of the dish and I can see I'm shooting right through a tree. I hooked up the cable to the diseqc port, configured the fortec for cband and started scanning. It was awesome to see some DVB signals with 4 digits frequencies coming down the screen. I didn't see the nets but I'm not suprised due to my "ghetto" dish mount and the tree. I did find a few channels, including two HD ones and some 4:2:2 material but since we are not in the feeds area I won't mention them.

Time to get the tree trimmed back and this sucker in the ground!

Started comparing symbol rates to lyngsat and noticed I was on the wrong polarity. Switched polarities and boom..the nets on G4R popped up at 50% quality. I'm curious to see what I can really get out of this setup as I have no way of tuning the skew nor is the dish mounted correctly. It was neat to see WVGN on the screen again.

 

[Tron]

Digiblur, I'd love to see a pic of your C-band dish, propped up on a wagon, receiving the nets!

MAN, I've gotta get up the nerve to go around and ask for BUDs...

 

[digiblur]

Digiblur, I'd love to see a pic of your C-band dish, propped up on a wagon, receiving the nets!

MAN, I've gotta get up the nerve to go around and ask for BUDs...

I couldn't find a signal at first so my last resort was to prop it up the pole like it was mounted in attempt to find the correct elevation. I propped it up and instantly saw a color flash on the screen. I then threw the wagon under it to hold it up. I picked up a Motorola Super 350i receiver with videocipher board....and REMOTE!! I was able to fine tune the skew this time and it looks like I'm able to get the nets at around 50% with this ghetto mount. I could probably get them better if I actually took the time to peak this thing but that's later when I get a pole sunk in the ground.

 

[Mr Tony]

I put it on TP 15 and started waving it around the sky. Within 10 minutes boom! I had video! AWESOME! It almost brought a tear to my eye! I found three analog TP's on G4! Awesome! I shoved the wagon under the side of the dish so it would hold for now.

yep. TP15,16,17. 2 church channels and a feeds channel. I was so happy when I got those too on my C-Band setup

I hooked up the cable to the diseqc port, configured the fortec for cband and started scanning. It was awesome to see some DVB signals with 4 digits frequencies coming down the screen.

yep. Its nice to see a 4 digit frequency once in a while

 

[Mr Tony]

Started comparing symbol rates to lyngsat and noticed I was on the wrong polarity. Switched polarities and boom..the nets on G4R popped up at 50% quality. I'm curious to see what I can really get out of this setup as I have no way of tuning the skew nor is the dish mounted correctly. It was neat to see WVGN on the screen again.

I couldn't find a signal at first so my last resort was to prop it up the pole like it was mounted in attempt to find the correct elevation. I propped it up and instantly saw a color flash on the screen. I then threw the wagon under it to hold it up. I picked up a Motorola Super 350i receiver with videocipher board....and REMOTE!! I was able to fine tune the skew this time and it looks like I'm able to get the nets at around 50% with this ghetto mount. I could probably get them better if I actually took the time to peak this thing but that's later when I get a pole sunk in the ground.

CONGRATS! 50 is pretty good for a Fortec. I think my 6 footer maxes out on 60 on those. The Pansat gets up to 75.

Those nets are awesome! Its cool to see the oddball VI commercial

 

[Tron]

Digiblur, thanks for the pics! Now you're a C-bander! One of these days I'll take the plunge... I've been eyeing several BUDs around here, all of which I'm sure are no longer in use and would probably be mine for the asking. Congrats on the new channels!

 

[kuperman]

Dude, that setup is hawt. Shame my neighborhood probably won't let me do big dish (that and there's really no place for it in the back yard)

 

[sharpee]

Wow, Congrats!! Very exciting!
I'm still looking for my bud. I have a couple of doors to knock on this week end.
Looks like there is a house right down the street that has an 8 footer with a direct tv dish near it! I sure hope the bud is not in use anymore.
I'll be more than glad to "relieve" the owner of his old dish

 

[drhydro]

I remember the feeling of elation that I experienced getting my first c band signal. Congrats on your new toy Now comes the fun part, getting it up on a pole