What can I do with all this stuff?

[shaggy_5420]

Hello to all!

I am not exactly new to satellite installations but it has been a while since I did it on a regular basis. I have this problem with not letting satellite equipment go in the trash, and another equally annoying (to some) hobby of letting it gather in boxes and a pile of old pizza pans and BUDs and old actuator arms and the like. I was an office manager for a small local satellite company for a little while and I received training to install the pizza pans, and was certified to install AOL+, DirectWay and a few others (I think Starband as it was pretty new at the time) dial return and sat return. I never actually setup a Cband or ku band dish for programming though but I know I have the basics pretty much down pat. I always seem to be on the look out for satellite equipment and I have a small collection of items relating to Cband and ku that I was curious if I would be able to put into use. Here is the list of items that I have ammassed and the condition its in.

- Drake ESR 1624 VCRS
- IQ Prism VCRS (has remote)
- HTS VCII Tracker System V (has remote)
My neighbor gave me these when a tree limb fell on his 12' monster dish and he sold it for scrap

- Kenwood 1000 (no remote but has a lot of front panel controls)
- Zenith 1000 (has remote but I don't know if it functions as it keep popping its internal breaker on the back panel)

I also have a friend who was moving out of the country and he gave me his old FTA recievers for $20, a pair of Neusat sp6000 regulars, I saw after powering it up that he had them setup for eye-patch activities and immediatly did a factory default/reset and installed the original manufaturer supplied bin/software. They seem like very nice recievers, however from my research I can't find very much out about this brand receiver being used for c band or kuband FTA (legitamate that is apparently the eye-patchers cant get software for this one any more LOL!! score one for the good guys)

I have a Primestar 75E dish and 2 sets of arms and 2 LNBs, I have already set a pole and the dish is setting on it waiting for me to study some more before I aim it at Galaxy 18 at 123 (thats my hope anyway)

I have 2 BUD dishes that I don't know if I will be able to setup without learning more, I dont have all the details but will post some pics tomorrow to see if they are any good. One was given to me by the neighbor who had a tree fall on his old one, but the replacement got damaged on the way to his house to replace the old dish, so he let me have it cause he didn't want to mess with it, it had an interesting actuator/positioner that has a bunch of chains and gears and no arm, so at least I got an interesting positioner. The other one I spotted on my drive home just sitting on the ground next to its pole with a pizza pan mounted on the lip of the old BUDs pole, looking like satellites biggest little joke. The people told me I could have it, it worked before the dish was knocked out of alignment. They told me that the guy sent out to align it talked em out of re aligning it and sold them a pizza pan, I inquired about the reciever and they told me the installer told them that they had to hand it over when he installed the pizza pan (they told me that sounded fishy) The dish is about 6' across wire mesh I think its a good find. I will measure the dishes, and get the info off of the LNBs and post the info tomorrow and see what if anything I can do with these.

The one I got from my neighbor looks like its at least a 7' dish and the smaller one looks to be about 6', both have chapparel feed horns (the smaller one has some adjustment on the throat of the feedhorn/scaler rings?) and both LNBs are california amplifier brand.

I live in a rural area and I can put up just about any dish setup I want so eventually I want to get a BUD setup, but the Primestar is going to get installed very shortly as I can only watch so much NASA. If anyone has a suggestion as to a better sat to aim at with the Primestar I am all ears but it seems to have the most programming that looked interesting on ku digital (unless one of the pieces of equipment I listed above will help in that department) I have also been considering motorising the Primestar but that will have to wait till I get a fixed setup to my liking. Thanks for any info in advance, and sorry this is so long winded.
John

 

[shaggy_5420]

Well, we just got done with some 60-75 mile an hour winds here in MO and I watched as my smaller BUD was thrown into the air did a single flip and returned to earth on its feedhorn LNB assembly! I hope its not damaged beyond repair. I wasn't about to go fetch it in the yard while the wind was going (I just read some articles about wind loads... no thank you, I choose life) I will be snapping some pictures to attach to show the BUDs and the newest damage that happened today, after I get back from the neighbors house who is letting me borrow his expensive signal finder (I really want to get G18 on the smaller PrimeStar dish I set yesterday, gotta check and see if its still plum after all that wind)

 

[SatPhreak]

The list of receviers at the top of you list are all analog. There is not much left on analog, but they can still drive a c band dish. The Neusat recievers are dvb-s receivers and they can get a lot of FTA channels on both ku and c band. The primestar 75E is about as small as you can go for reliebable ku band reception. The bud with the chain drive system is a H-H motor, and they alow you to see the whole arc, unlike a actuator jack which will only get about 3/4 of the arc. You should be able to set up a decent system with the stuff you have accummulated.

There was a time when the little dish companies would give you a free system if you traded in a c band receiver, so that doesn't sound too fishy to me.

Sorry to hear about the little dish getting blown around, hopefully it isn't too damaged. You will find many people here that can help you get it all set up and working as long as you are a bit of a do it yourself type person that doesn't mind a little work.

 

[shaggy_5420]

Thank you for the response, I actually just borrowed the neighbors sat finder (its nice battery operated, dual meters, multiple voltages, should work nicely) I am getting ready to go try and hunt down 123 for G18, and put the neusats to work.

I went out and tried my best not to get too upset at whatever damage I found and to my surprise, the little dish looks great, the LNB and the feed horn were kind of twisted. I guess that the support arms were not too snug, thank the satellite god/s! it looks like some minor bending at the point where the feed horn attaches to the arms, just the flat metal part and not the tubes.

I don't know the first thing about restoring the dishes so I will put up some pics when I get in tonight, I want to utilize as much daylight as I have, there is actually something that I would like to watch on that bird tonight, that I read about in here.

 

[Cadsulfide]

I have a Neusat Sp6000 getting 123W just fine at the Bakery in town, blindscan is a bit slow.

 

[shaggy_5420]

If you think that the SP6000 is slow, wait 'till you try a Conaxsat Trio, it took almost an hour to blind scan 123. I guess I should mention that I got 123 locked in last night sometime about an hour after dark. I think that even with the slow blind scan I may just have to purchase this Conaxsat Trio off of my buddy, actually trade him for it, I forgot to mention that I have a couple of directway/HN dishes and modems laying around here. My friend was using the CNX Trio for a bunch of radio stations, and NASA (hes a HUGE SPACE BUFF) and he can't get high speed internet where he lives. I think it's a great trade for me, and I guess he feels the same as he wants the high speed internet. I like the trio cause it has a PVR, AND a Divx / AVI player. If it werent for him (my buddy) I would have never heard of FTA, aside from all the Craigslist Jerks who want to help the eyepatch crowd. He has agreed to let me use his extra Trio since he has 3, and the one he let me borrow has been in his garage/guest apartment unused for almost 6 months.