Xtreme 0.3 LNB Product Review

Status
Please reply by conversation.

Arion

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Jul 23, 2005
500
225
I ordered my LNB from Pete at PSB satellite. The order was relayed to his supplier and was shipped the same day. It was ordered this past Monday and I recieved it this past Weds.

The product arrived in a bubble mailer and was adequetly packed. I would have wished for the spec sheet to be included with the LNB but only the LNB and a plastic F-Connector cover was included in the box. The LO freq was printed on the side of the box for anyone who didn't know what the setting is.

On the negative side it's construction is rather cheap plastic which reflects it's chinese or tiwanese heritage. But what do you expect for $27? Also the LNB was a little smaller around the throat and I had to add a small piece of foam rubber around the holder to hold the LNB securely.

Everything else is all plus. There are little tickmarks on the top of the LNB to assist with adjusting the skew angle for fixed satellite setups. Once the LNB was secure I went inside to test it.

My setup on the KU side is a 100cm dish with my original .6db lnb with a circular lnb tiewrapped next to it for the DBS satellites. I am using a SG-2100 dish mover and a fortec 786V3 digital reciever, a Elecom CR-7007 analog reciever and a SS2 PCI card for the computer.

Yesterday I took the time and went through 11 different satellites and checked the signal strenght on a couple of transponders on each satellite for a base line. When the LNB arrived today I repeated the same test to see what kind of an overall average I was to get.

On one transponder there was a 20 point decrease in quality but I attributed that to the uplinker running a smaller signal budget and so I discarded that anomoly.

The results of my unscienctific test....Ta Da.....

With my original .6db lnb that was the best you could get about 3 years ago I ran an average signal strength of 46.8 on the scale of 1 to 100. With the extreme LNB I ran an average signal strenght of 54.7 on a scale of 1 to 100. That is an increase of 7.9%. Although it doesn't seem like much it has allowed me already to pull in some signals that were unviewable with the old LNB. In addition it should reduce rainfade and help with system stability.

I did notice however, for some reason with my PCI card that this lnb is taking longer to lock on lower symbol rate transponders although it doesn't seem to slow down the desktop reciver at all.

Recommendations: If you have a newer lnb say .4 or so I wouldn't bother as the improvement would be marginal but for the older lnb's of .5 or .6 I would definately get the LNB. It's less than $30 and does make a difference in strength. Of course if you have tree's in the way it's not going to help as it still needs signal to work with.

I will have to watch over time as durability might be an issue. As I stated the outward construction looks cheap but this thing does perform!! At some point I might try the little more expensive Invacom but for now I'm pretty impressed with the improvement for not too much money!! :D
 
Arion said:
Also the LNB was a little smaller around the throat and I had to add a small piece of foam rubber around the holder to hold the LNB securely.

interesting...mine fit fine on the 2 different holders I've used. Once for a 30" winegard and a 36" fortec
 
You know, I'm not even sure of the manufacturer of my dish. I bought it off the internet 3 years ago along with a smallear reciever that I wanted to use for a fixed installation on T5 for a audio feed of a show I liked. My dish may be an exception. It fit loosely in the holder without enough friction to hold it tightly.
 
I have a "Hotdish" that is like that...have had it for a while and the LNB holder is warped from the heat and cold in MN.
 
Can you post a picture of how you had tie wrapped the DSS LNB?
 
How heavy is the Extreme .3db?

The Invacom .3db Single is quite heavy for its size...
 
It's pretty simple to tie wrap the dss lnb just do it any way you can. Tie it next to the linear lnb either to the left or the right. Try to keep the dss lnb at the same level as the linear you want to avoid higher or lower if possible. Remember that since the circular lnb is offset from the linear that if you aim at a dss bird you will be slightly offset from where you would aim with the linear lnb.

The extreme lnb is a real lightweight. It's uses a lot of plastic in it's contruction. Like most people I consider heavier as to be better constructed but we will have to wait to see how well it holds up in the cold Northern Michigan winter. I'm sure it will be o.k. though it really doesn't weigh any less than my old one.
 
The Xtreme LNBF 0.3 dB weighs just 6 oz or 150g in the rest of the world : )
 
On my dual output Primestar lnbf's, I run the 2 cables from the lnbf's to a splitter for each. One cable then goes to the digital A/B/C switches and the other goes to the analog A/B/C Switches. I can watch analog or digital on any combination I want. I can have G10 digital on one TV, AMC 1 on another and G11 on a 3rd and then have AMC 3 and T6 analog's on 2 other TV's. Everything going through switches.

On the one dish with only one output (flipped to horizontal for AMC 3 and then flipped to IA 8 for digital), the cables are split for analog and digital like the other dishes. When on horizontal, I can watch whatever. I can have PBS digital on one receiver and AMC 9 on analog on another one still routed through the switches. When the lnb is turned to vertical for IA8 digital, I can't watch anything else on analog on the switch the analog cable is coming into unless it's IA 8 analog. The juice has to be on the A/B/C switch in analog to watch the vertical digital. Even if I took the cable out of the switch, it must be live somewhere into a receiver for digital to work. Make sense?

I'm wondering if these lnbf's have this problem? If I hook up the one cable to splitters, do I have to turn the lnbf for whatever polarity?
Can I watch on whatever polarity w/o it effecting the splitter and the other "system" whether it's analog or digital?
 
This is a standard KU LNBF (Single output), its voltage controlled and you are stuck on one polarity until the voltage changes.

You would get better signal quality on those weaker TP.s (0.3 dB) but would not be as flexible as your current set up, very impressive!
 
MikeI said:
On my dual output Primestar lnbf's, I run the 2 cables from the lnbf's to a splitter for each. One cable then goes to the digital A/B/C switches and the other goes to the analog A/B/C Switches. I can watch analog or digital on any combination I want. I can have G10 digital on one TV, AMC 1 on another and G11 on a 3rd and then have AMC 3 and T6 analog's on 2 other TV's. Everything going through switches.

On the one dish with only one output (flipped to horizontal for AMC 3 and then flipped to IA 8 for digital), the cables are split for analog and digital like the other dishes. When on horizontal, I can watch whatever. I can have PBS digital on one receiver and AMC 9 on analog on another one still routed through the switches. When the lnb is turned to vertical for IA8 digital, I can't watch anything else on analog on the switch the analog cable is coming into unless it's IA 8 analog. The juice has to be on the A/B/C switch in analog to watch the vertical digital. Even if I took the cable out of the switch, it must be live somewhere into a receiver for digital to work. Make sense?


WOW!! :shocked :shocked

How the heck do you remember all that Mike?
I forget sometimes how mine is set up :)
 
PSB said:
This is a standard KU LNBF (Single output), its voltage controlled and you are stuck on one polarity until the voltage changes.

You would get better signal quality on those weaker TP.s (0.3 dB) but would not be as flexible as your current set up, very impressive!

I guess it doesn't make sense to get them for what I want. Thanks for your honest response.

Tony - I tinker with it almost everyday. Constantly changing to see what works best where. That includes the wires inside and the dishes outside.
 
Status
Please reply by conversation.
***

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)