What to do with old Dish Antennas?

[Mr Tony]

I thought that I'd got it, but the "22k switch" and "DISEqC" confused me. how does your setup look like? Sorry about the ignorance ;(

really bad drawing below..


receiver-----diseqc switch----port 1----G10 dish
------------------------------------port 2----feed from motorized dish
------------------------------------port 3----22k switch-----0K side----119
------------------------------------------------------------------22k side----91

yes I could probably run 2 lines to the switch but since it was about a 25 foot run, I figuired it was easier to run one line and use a 22k switch to choose between the LNB's

 

[Mr Tony]

Here is a partial view of my setup. The Coolsat controls the Motorized Dish (the M dish)

The other receiver can choose from G10, the motorized (whatever satellite it’s on) and the music channels. I have one receiver (the old Viacast) that is set up just for the audio channels and hooked up through the stereo in the garage.

 

[global0]

really bad drawing below..


receiver-----diseqc switch----port 1----G10 dish
------------------------------------port 2----feed from motorized dish
------------------------------------port 3----22k switch-----0K side----119
------------------------------------------------------------------22k side----91

yes I could probably run 2 lines to the switch but since it was about a 25 foot run, I figuired it was easier to run one line and use a 22k switch to choose between the LNB's

Great. So, one should be able to get similar results by just using a setup like this:


reciever --------------------------------diseqc-port1 ------------------- 82
diseqc-port2 ------------------- 91
diseqc-port3 ------------------- 110
diseqc-port4 ------------------- 119

Or the similar but simpler version of using just a two port for 82 and 110, right?

[EDIT] somehow the editor does not line up the "diseqc" ports under each other, but they are assumed to be the four ports on the same unit.

 

[Mr Tony]

you could but then there is no extra room for other dishes

The 22k switches help that out

 

[global0]

Gotcha, Thanks!
Let's hope it doesn't rain this weekend. There is a salvage yard here that I am going to check out at lunch time for a couple of old d-500 dishes :-D

 

[Greg Mueller]

I want to try this between the house and shop.
Turn one into a WiFi transmitter and the other into a receiver


http://www.wwc.edu/~frohro/Airport/Primestar/Primestar.html

 

[global0]

I want to try this between the house and shop.
Turn one into a WiFi transmitter and the other into a receiver


http://www.wwc.edu/~frohro/Airport/Primestar/Primestar.html

Very interesting. Please post your results!

 

[partyharty]

I want to try this between the house and shop.
Turn one into a WiFi transmitter and the other into a receiver


http://www.wwc.edu/~frohro/Airport/Primestar/Primestar.html

I have done this in the past and was able to get very very good reception (almost 2 miles) with 802.11b (it went from a storage building to the house. It is however directional, and IT IS VERY VERY TOUCHY. (I said that in caps because it is important). All in all a good project (although I used Dish Network Dishes in mine the primestar dish would be better, I just put my primestar dishes to better use).

Chris

 

[Stargazer]

I wonder if the 802.11 g would work better (have a farther range) when using the dishes in a wi-fi setup. How much more range can you get with the Primestar/SuperDish? With a C-Band dish? Do the mesh dishes make a difference in the signal compared to the solid ones?

 

[Greg Mueller]

I found an article on the net about contests that they have once a year to see who can WiFi the farthest. One guy did 25 miles with 2 buds. I think they were about 10'. I can't find the article now, drat
CORRECTION ! It was 125 miles!!!!!!
http://www.wifi-shootout.com/

 

[partyharty]

I dont know how far it would have gone but mine was right at 2 miles. I figure it would have gone quite a bit farther if I had pushed it.

 

[global0]

really bad drawing below..


receiver-----diseqc switch----port 1----G10 dish
------------------------------------port 2----feed from motorized dish
------------------------------------port 3----22k switch-----0K side----119
------------------------------------------------------------------22k side----91

yes I could probably run 2 lines to the switch but since it was about a 25 foot run, I figuired it was easier to run one line and use a 22k switch to choose between the LNB's

All right back on the audio track, I picked up a couple of old d-500 dishes (one of them has a single LNB and the other one has a dual) and I started the test simple. So I pointed the the single LNB dish to 119. Scanning brought up a few audio channels all right (there were more but the rest of them are scrambled). I thought that it was all fine until I started playing around. when I was in the transponder menu, I noticed that it can only see one side of the transmission (I don't remember whether it was H or R but it was consistent). So, it got me curious, why is that?

 

[Mr Tony]

Does the Dish 500 have a Twin (the bigger LNB...looks like 2 combined together)

If you are only getting one polarity, it must be a Dishpro. DishPro stacks the frequencies on top of each other. Dang it, I know there is a way to do it but you have to do a conversion....It makes all the polarities vertical.

If you can blind scan, that might solve it...let me see if I can find it

 

[Mr Tony]

found it
http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=41037&highlight=dishpro

 

[global0]

Does the Dish 500 have a Twin (the bigger LNB...looks like 2 combined together)

If you are only getting one polarity, it must be a Dishpro. DishPro stacks the frequencies on top of each other. Dang it, I know there is a way to do it but you have to do a conversion....It makes all the polarities vertical.

If you can blind scan, that might solve it...let me see if I can find it

Yes, the other one has a dual LNB. But I thought I'd start simple and went for the single.
No blind scan ;( Its on the shopping list. I have a dreambox and a CW600 and none of them has a Blind Scan. Or let me put it this way, it is not documented So, I am not aware.

 

[Mr Tony]

oh yeah...the so called "blind scan" on the Captiveworks. I have one of them too

See my link above and see if that works.

 

[global0]

Thank You Sir! That thread is very informative. I'll try it tonite and report, but based on the thread, it should work.

 

[global0]

Can you use directv dish+LNB to pickup these audio channels? The guy at the salvage yard had a few of them too. I am trying to avoid the band stacking problem and conversion, etc.

 

[Mr Tony]

DirecTv LNB's (as long as it isnt the Phase III which has 2 LNB's) will work great

Old Dish Network Legacy (the ones that don't have the Dishpro logo on them) work great too

 

[global0]

Thank You! I'll try the "Elchucko" algorithm (I am formally naming it after him ) with the one that I have and if it doesn't work for whatever reason, I'll try a D*TV dish. Thanks again! Ya, da maaan! :up