Wideband Feedhorn install how to

[kelleyga]

Well, I had bought some months ago a wideband corrotor II feedhorn and was never able to get it to work. So I gave up and installed back the regular chaparral corrotor II C/Ku and I was able to get high signal at my true south and all other sats.

My equipment:

Pansat 3500
10 feet Mesh Dish
Chaparral corrotor II c/ku
Vbox


Today I came from work and so the Wide band feedhorn in a corner where I threw it after not being able to get it to work. I decided to try again and same problems.

I am able to get NSS806 at HIGH SIGNAL 99% in almost all TP, but when I move to another sat lets say PAS3r I can not make any TP go more than 28% or so. With the regular corrotor (no wideband) and can easily get 90+% signal and same for other regular C or Ku sats.

WHat Am I doing wrong? WHy now with the WideBand I can ONLY get high signal from the sats that have L/R and not from the H/V?

I know my feed is center I measure it again, and as I said befor, with the regular corrotor I can get 90+% in almost all TP I hit.



I am about to get the hammer out and hi this Wideband feedhorn, maybe it will fix it.

 

[mkm4]

WHat Am I doing wrong? WHy now with the WideBand I can ONLY get high signal from the sats that have L/R and not from the H/V?

The widebands are optimized to receive circular signals, but the dropoff shouldn't be that big. Are you aligning it properly?
Check the Chapparal Feedhorn FAQ.

 

[kelleyga]

I think I am aligned properly because if I use the current regular corrotor I am able to get 100% signal at my true south AMC9 and then I go to the east side of the arc to PAS3R and get great signal on Ku 85% +, them from there once aligned I move thru the arc and find all satellites with great signal strenght 90% +.

Now, on saturday when I tried this again, I deleted all channels, settings,etc from my Pansat 3500s. I then aligned and started scanning. I noticed that SEVERAL channels come in V and not in H as noted on lyngsat, and some other channels come H instead of V as noted in lyngsat. I assumed it was a mistake in lyngsat, but maybe is me. Is that normal? I get a lot of channels comming V or H when lyngsat lists them the otherway.

When my dish is pointing true south, if I get myself infront of it, the Ku is at 11:00 o'clock and the C band is at 5:00 o'clock. I read in the chapparral page that is the way to get it. For the Wideband I tried the same way.

 

[WyrTwister]

I think I am aligned properly because if I use the current regular corrotor I am able to get 100% signal at my true south AMC9 and then I go to the east side of the arc to PAS3R and get great signal on Ku 85% +, them from there once aligned I move thru the arc and find all satellites with great signal strenght 90% +.

Now, on saturday when I tried this again, I deleted all channels, settings,etc from my Pansat 3500s. I then aligned and started scanning. I noticed that SEVERAL channels come in V and not in H as noted on lyngsat, and some other channels come H instead of V as noted in lyngsat. I assumed it was a mistake in lyngsat, but maybe is me. Is that normal? I get a lot of channels comming V or H when lyngsat lists them the otherway.

When my dish is pointing true south, if I get myself infront of it, the Ku is at 11:00 o'clock and the C band is at 5:00 o'clock. I read in the chapparral page that is the way to get it. For the Wideband I tried the same way.

If H & V are screwy , try rotating everything 90 degrees ?

Wyr

 

[AntAltMike]

I don't stay on top of the hardware anymore but as I recall, some wideband LNB systems use different, agile frequencies for its local oscillators to shift the desired signals into the industry-standard L-band range of 950Mz to 1,450 Mz, whereas some other systems may internaly stack them, such that the receiver must rescan the satellite output to find some of them at their new frequencies

 

[kelleyga]

Well, I can rotate the feed, but what I want to find out is if I can trust lyngsat about H & V. Maybe I can post some of the channels I am getting and if I am getting them H and V so see if you guys get them the same way.

 

[AntAltMike]

You can trust Lyngsat. What you might not be able to trust is the compatibilty of your receiver's polarity control setup with your present feedhorn/LNB assembly.

Someday, someone is going to make us pay to use Lyngsat, just like they did with 100,000 Watts and the so-called "Ardman" website, or someone will buy it and screw it up like the did with TV Tome, but for now, it is golden.

 

[mkm4]

Well, I can rotate the feed.

You might not need to physically rotate the feedhorn. Check your receiver settings, there might be an option to rotate the polarity.

 

[ticoman]

Same here ...

I think I am aligned properly because if I use the current regular corrotor I am able to get 100% signal at my true south AMC9 and then I go to the east side of the arc to PAS3R and get great signal on Ku 85% +, them from there once aligned I move thru the arc and find all satellites with great signal strenght 90% +.

Now, on saturday when I tried this again, I deleted all channels, settings,etc from my Pansat 3500s. I then aligned and started scanning. I noticed that SEVERAL channels come in V and not in H as noted on lyngsat, and some other channels come H instead of V as noted in lyngsat. I assumed it was a mistake in lyngsat, but maybe is me. Is that normal? I get a lot of channels comming V or H when lyngsat lists them the otherway.

When my dish is pointing true south, if I get myself infront of it, the Ku is at 11:00 o'clock and the C band is at 5:00 o'clock. I read in the chapparral page that is the way to get it. For the Wideband I tried the same way.

How big is your dish.....I have a similar problem with a wideband feed....I get every possible satellite but PAS3......

 

[spyder]

When my dish is pointing true south, if I get myself infront of it, the Ku is at 11:00 o'clock and the C band is at 5:00 o'clock. I read in the chapparral page that is the way to get it. For the Wideband I tried the same way.

When your dish is at 'true south', not your true south sat keep in mind, but where the dish is at its perfect azimuth center ( at dead center top). The wideband feedhorn should have the ku lnb at 12:00 and the c band lnb at 6:00. Making the dielectric slab perfectly parallel with the ground. In this position the circular signals will be received with optimal quality.

Your skew settings when receiving circular signal should then falf half way between the horizontal and vertical settings on each side. For example: if your H setting is 0 and V is 90. Then L should be 45 and R should be +135. Diferent receivers report skew numbers diferently so this will depend on the receiver readout of skew position. Your actual numbers may vary so experiment with these settings.

You should notice no dropoff whatsoever on ku signal strenth when using the wideband feedhorn as the ku probe is located in front of the dielectric plate and thus the signal will not be interfered with by the plate. You may notice a very slight drop in signal strenght on linear c band signals, but if everything is properly alligned and focused this should be hardly noticable. On all the setups I've had I can rarely see a diference in signal strength between a standar linear Chaparral feedhorn and a Chaparral wideband model. Dish and feedhron allignment and focus is always the key to quality reception.

 

[kelleyga]

Hi Spyder, thanks for your answer. I already put the regular chaparral back as I could not get the wideband to work good. I will try this weekend. I will set the lnbs at 12 and 6pm. Now one thing I got confused in your explanation.

Are you saying I need to play with my SKEW setting in the pansat?

Now, I know I have great aligment as I can get from AMC12 to SATMEX with GREAT signal in all C and Ku (or at least all transponders with big signal) 90% or 99%.

Well, let me know, thanks.

 

[spyder]

Are you saying I need to play with my SKEW setting in the pansat?

.

That's correct. The skew settings for the circular signals 'should' fall at approximately 45 degree on each side of your H and V settings. Receivers report these numbers differently so there is not set value at which they should be. It just takes a little experimentation.