61.5w

stevienire

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Can anyone confirm this? I am getting a dish network test screen here on the west coast of ireland. It is very very faint and continues breaking up. Anyone confirm?? I am using a 2.4m Prime focus here on Sligo coast Ireland
 

Hitchcock

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Steve, my hat's off to you, YOU'VE DONE IT, MY MATE! YOU'VE ACTUALLY DONE IT!! YOU'VE ACHIEVED THE "IMPOSSIBLE"!!! :-righton

I believe this is THE FIRST REPORT OF ANY RECEPTION OF 61.5°W IN IRELAND!!! :-rock

SO CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN!!!

:-party1


What really amazes me is that you're managing to pick up the signal (albeit barely) with "just" a 2.4 m dish! I already knew this had been reported possible in Tenerife with a dish of the same size, but up north in Ireland — who would have imagined?! :eek:

Well, what a smack in the face of all the hard sceptics :-doh! — those who maintained over and over it just couldn't be done! :-away

By they way, have you tried picking up any other other satellites further west? I put in a post two days ago in your previous thread and I suggested two other satellites that might be of equal or even more interest, namely DirecTV 1 (72.5°W) and Nimiq 2 (82°W).

Also, I would be interested to know which channels your receiver is managing to find, whether encrypted or unencrypted (You are not using a true Dish Network receiver from the States, are you?). On which frequency is the test card?

Are you using a circularly polarized feed (as opposed to linearly polarised which is how all the European satellites transmit in the Ku-band)? What is the noise figure of your LNB?

Again, cheers for some really NICE WORK there in Ireland! :-cheers

Alfred


P.S. It would be great if you could post a snapshot of your set-up to us here on the Forum.
 

Likvid

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Well, any picture posted here of the screen would be proof.
 

stevienire

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I spoke to soon. I can't receive anything today. That was the first time I ever seen that test card and it was the only channel I could receive on that Satellite. The transponder was 12326. It really was unwatchable but I got the jist of what it was. I have an old Echostar 3000 dish network receiver I got a few years back when working in the US and a Techomate 1500. The test card was in black and white for somereason but looked like it should be in colour.

My signal coming from that satellite is about a quarter of the way up but cant receive anything
 

Orthoclipse

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What type of dish and feedhorn/LNB are you using?
 

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OK, this just keeps getting more and more interesting.:-smile3

Did you replace the feed which came with dish with a circular one? Dish Network (at 61.5°W) transmits everything circularly polarized, i.e. Left and Right (not H and V)! If you use a linear feed, the signal will still come through, but there will a loss of about 2 dB (if I remember correctly), which is considerable!
 

stevienire

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No I didn't replace anything.
 

Orthoclipse

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I'm guessing that you got the C120 LNB with the adjustable feed, as the performance with offset LNBF would be poor?
 

Hitchcock

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stevienire said:
No I didn't replace anything.

Well, then I'd say there's still room for improvement on that dish. At this stage, I must confess, however, I've yet to familiarize myself more with how circular actually works, so I'm not sure at this stage if you'd have to replace the LNB as well or just the polarizer/waveguide. The folks at SMW had a very good explanation (with graphics) of circular vs. linear in their FAQ once, but I can't seem to find it now.
 

Orthoclipse

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You can buy LNBFs in the US which are designed for circularly polarised signals in the Ku-band with a dielectric plate in the feedhorn throat. Invacom also stock them I think. But they are mostly designed for offset dishes, so whatever you gain from the plate, will be cancelled by the mismatch of the offset feed and prime dish.

Perhaps a simpler method would be to attach a plate externally to the feedhorn. The pic below shows how this can be done for a C-feedhorn, although it might be trickier for a smaller Ku feed.
h**p://shop.store.yahoo.com/hightech/dielinforadl.html

Alternatively, if you have a receiver with mech. polariser control, Chaparral have a Ku feedhorn which comes with an optional teflon insert.
h**p://www.chaparral.net/products/feedhorns/ku.html
 

Hitchcock

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But what about a depolarizer fitted between the feedhorn and the LNB, won't that allow him to use whichever European C120 LNB he chooses? I've heard that the 0.3 dB ones from SMART in Germany came out on top in some tests (they also offer 0.2 dB ones in their Titanium series, but I don't think they're available in C120).
 

Orthoclipse

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Hitchcock said:
But what about a depolarizer fitted between the feedhorn and the LNB, won't that allow him to use whichever European C120 LNB he chooses?

Yeah, that SMW depolariser looks like the business alright.
 

Hitchcock

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The only useful link I've managed to google on this subject turns up this:

"Although standard linear feedhorns can still pick up any circular polarized signal, half of the available signal power will be lost."

Half the signal (3 d:cool: is substantial, to say the least!

I also found that Invacom apparently do a combined version, one which outputs all 4 polarizations at once: Left-Hand, Right-Hand, Horizontal and Vertical. And amazingly enough, they also produce one in C120! Note however, this one's not really of interest for receiving European linearly polarized satellites, as the frequencies are limited to the higher bands only (11,700 — 12,700 MHz).
 

Orthoclipse

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The SMW page you were looking for can be seen on the Wayback archive:
h**p://web.archive.org/web/20010112235200/http://www.smw.se/qa/qa5.htm
h**p://web.archive.org/web/20001209051900/www.smw.se/qa/qa8.htm
 

Hitchcock

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Yes, those are the web pages I had so sorely missed on SMW's website for so long! :-crying Thanks for finding them again!!! :-righton
 

Hitchcock

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Orthoclipse said:
I'm guessing that you got the C120 LNB with the adjustable feed, as the performance with offset LNBF would be poor?

I've been looking closer at that auction where he says he purchased the dish, and it seems, by looking at the pictures at the bottom of the page, that they include regular LNBFs (for offset dishes) in the basic package. This does seem a little odd, as the two aren't usually supposed to match, most commercial dishes are offset and require a right angle (90°) feed whereas prime focus dishes usually do a somewhat wider angle (120° perhaps, as in C120?).

stevienire — Did you acquire the basic package from the auction or did you upgrade to the more expensive INVACOM C120 0.3 dB LNB with separate feedhorn?
 

Likvid

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Actually i beleive it's Amazonas at 61.0W you received, it's a new satellite and it got a beam covering Europe with about 50dBW peak at your location.

Probably it was some tests going on as the satellite doesn't ahve any active channels transmitting yet.
 

Lancelot

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That makes a lot of sense Likvid. 50dBW is a huge signal for a 2.4mtr dish though.
I should be able to get that here with my 1.2 Gibbi.

I'm going to have to sit here and scan it all day now :rolleyes:



L.
 

Likvid

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Lancelot said:
That makes a lot of sense Likvid. 50dBW is a huge signal for a 2.4mtr dish though.
I should be able to get that here with my 1.2 Gibbi.


L.

Yes, but the fortecstar 2.4M petalized dish isn't performing like a real 2.4M dish if you get me, it's maybe more like a 1.6-1.8M dish.

Amazonas received 06.10.2005 in Zagreb, Croatia.



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