AZBOX What LNB Please?

[ndennis]

I have a 20 year old 10' dish with the original C and Ku LNB's. I use to use it with a 4DTV which is now dead.

I bought an AZbox Premium HD a few years ago and have left the dish pointing at Galaxy 19 Ku/horzonital and my AZbox gets some channels.

I also have a DiSEqC Positioner to move the dish and I just got it working with the AZbox. But everything is still stuck on horizontal Ku.

I want to replace the two old LNB's with a single Universal LNB for C and Ku (really don't know what that means for sure). But I do not know which one to buy and what hardware needs to be changed in my 10' dish.

Any help please?

 

[waylew]

This is what you're looking for;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-UNIVERS...237?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d2f83f665

Note I'm not recommending this or the seller,just for information purposes.As I understand it these aren't being made anymore and I only saw one other seller with a ridiculous price (indicating that he doesn't have any).
I'm sure others will chime in.

 

[danristheman]

I would say talk to our vendors on here Wallyhts, ke4est, titianium satellite they can help out for what you need.

 

[rick522]

Save your money for a polarity motor about 20.00 . check your 3 wires at the feedhorn at the dish. if you could borrow a receiver to check you should be able to hear the motor switch polarity or look inside the feed and see if it moves 90degrees

 

[. Raine]

What model/brand DiSEqC Positioner do you have? If possible, post a picture of the feed you have, Rick522 may be right and you might only need a polarity motor or have a bad connection in the wires going to it. Your old LNBs might work better than the combo Ku/C LNB, too.

 

[FaT Air]

But everything is still stuck on horizontal Ku.

Using the 4DTV to operate the servo (select polarity)??

It's been noted that those combo C/Ku LNBF's 'leave a lot to be desired' - in many instances will be tuned for one band and the other suffers.
I'd replace the feed/lnbs with a C band PLL LNBF ** and add a small Ku dish (Possibly on a motor for feed hunting or a couple of fixed dishes, [ 125w & 97W ] ?? )
** Let the FTA box select the polarity. (Do 'all the chores' of operating the system, band, sat, polarity)

 

[ndennis]

Thank you all for the fast replies. I'm 71 years old and things are a little harder now, but really want to get this thing working properly again. It was a lot of fun and we get to see things most people have no idea about.

This is a picture of the dish mounted on the corner of my house on a tall pole to avoid the trees as much as possible.

You can imagine how difficult it is to work on it standing on the roof. It's a lot of trouble just get at the LNB's.

My DiSEqc Positioner says it's a DMS International model.

I have the cables leading to the C and Ku LNB's. And I have the wires hooked up to the DiSEqc Positioner including the limiter wires.

So there are only three wires left unattached which I'm guessing control the polarity. But as I recall from my 4DTV the polarity would change a little depending on the satellite? I remember I could individually fine tune the polarity for each satellite to get better signal strength.

Question please: Does a Universal LNB do away with all this polarity stuff?

I just assumed LNB's have gotten a lot better over the years. True, false?

One problem I have with this AZbox is when I scan for channels it first scans a transponder in Vertical then Horizontal, but there is no Vertical because I have no way of changing the polarity, so it re-scans the Horizontal again which adds the same channels over. So I get two of each channel. On Galaxy 19 that's over 200 channels. But I've recently learned to use Lyngsat.com to decide what transponders to scan.

I'm not against getting another / better receiver if that would help a lot with all this if you have any suggestions.

Thanks again,

Dennis

 

[ndennis]

Using the 4DTV to operate the servo (select polarity)??

It's been noted that those combo C/Ku LNBF's 'leave a lot to be desired' - in many instances will be tuned for one band and the other suffers.
I'd replace the feed/lnbs with a C band PLL LNBF ** and add a small Ku dish (Possibly on a motor for feed hunting or a couple of fixed dishes, [ 125w & 97W ] ?? )
** Let the FTA box select the polarity. (Do 'all the chores' of operating the system, band, sat, polarity)

I was composing my previous post when you posted this. I have no idea what a PLL LNBF means? But I want to keep my big dish because it works well on C band and I get stronger signals on Ku.

Thanks.

 

[FaT Air]

Does a Universal LNB do away with all this polarity stuff?

No. A LNBF would do away with the servo polarity feed and LNB. It is an Low Noise Block Feed. Polarity is selected by the receiver supplying 18v (Horizontal) or 13v (vertical) to it via the coax.
PLL - phase Locked Loop. Don't drift in frequency as much as a DRO style. www.titaniumsatellite.com
DRO/PLL thread at fridgefta

 

[ndennis]

I also want to mention I have an unused Genix DiSEqC Switch for two LNB's. It was unusable on my 4DTV because there were two cables coming out of the 4DTV. One for C and another for Ku. And each LNB has it's own cable. So I don't know if it's useful or not?

 

[FaT Air]

Another alternative [keeping C and Ku on the BUD //and U off the roof//] : Titanium satellite dish mover/ polarity controller (servo) Model ASC-1 (will run your feed/LNB unit. (corotor) (if the servo is good) and move the dish via the FTA receiver. 22khz switch needed to select C or Ku. or your diseqc switch)

 

[ndennis]

Okay, so this ECODA 22KHZ TONE FTA MULTI SWITCH will allow me to keep everything as is and allow my AZbox to control the polarity and move my bud with the DiSEqC Positioner? Not bad for seven dollars!

 

[ndennis]

Just bought a ECODA 22KHZ TONE FTA MULTI SWITCH on Amazon for $6.58 with free shipping via Prime. I will be here Monday.

Even if it does not work out it's only $6.58. Thanks!

 

[Titanium]

If you wish to keep your existing C/Ku feedhorn, you will need a controller for the polarity servo. Your current controller only positions the dish and does not have the ability to change the polarity or adjust the skew.

This is why Fat Air suggested the Titanium Satellite ASC1. If you replace your current controller with an ASC1, it will interface with the existing C/KU feedhorn and the AzBox for automatic polarity control/skew adjustment and dish positioning.

The Ecoda switch is a good unit and will work great with your system.

 

[ndennis]

Okay, I just bought a Titanium Satellite ASC1 on Amazon. It should be here Monday. If I have any problems I'll ask here.

The DiSEqC Positioner was only about $30.00. So no big deal if it sits on the shelf.

Next I need to get the dish aligned again after many years of storms shaking it.

And I want to put some sort of a counter weight to balance the dish. I use to wear out actuators every few years. A counter weight should help.

Anyone have any thoughts about mounting a counter weight? What materials to use, etc.

Thanks again everyone.