68cm Fracarro penta digit.

[Sandybob]

As my larger dishes are ground mounted and will not get anything past 33E, I had an idea to try a smaller dish mounted higher up to clear the offending buildings. I choose the 68cm Penta digit and single Fracarro Lnb to try out. I set it up first on a ground stand to see what it was like and after trying to peak the dish I found that when you put pressure on the top of the dish, the sides of the dish spring outward slightly, this resulting in an increase in signal quality. After spending some time trying different packing pieces behind the dish I was able to increase the signal quality by 11%, pulling in some channels that it would not before.

Next, I tried the Inverto black line ultra, which surprisingly resulted in a drop off of quality on most but not all channels, so I refitted the Fracarro Lnb. The Lnb holder also looks like it does not want to fit together, but it works ok.

After fitting it up on a scaffold pole and T&k brackets I checked the signal strength/quality across my new arc of 45E-45W

Sat/channel/freq/signal strength/ signal quality

45E Prima tv 11685V/5776 90S/91Q
42E Tay tv 10969V/29981 91S/90Q
39E Skat tv 12648H/30000 90S/94Q
36E Cont ser 12621V/2889 90S/70Q
33E Tv8 11105H/2441 90S/60Q
28E BBC1 10801H/21991 97S/97Q
23E Tv NH 11914H/27478 94S/95Q
19E BBC wn 11596V/22000 92S/96Q
13E BBC wn 12596V/27500 92S/94Q
9E Newroz 11842V/27500 92S/90Q
7E Trt A 11554H/27487 90S/65Q
5E Glas 11766H/27475 92S/92Q
1W Pvtv 11900H/2800 92S/90Q
5W France5 11591V 20000 92S/92Q
8W Eqt sng 11076H/2097 93S/97Q
12W Spor It 12544H/17435 87S/65Q
15W Voa 12608H/19263 90S/70Q
22W Canal 12734H/18067 86S/74Q
25W Nta 11674V/27500 90S/70Q
30W Tv5 12092V/27480 94S/94Q
35W ? 11462V/5247 87S/65Q
45W ? 11497V/7587 90S/67Q

I know it's not picking up the weaker transponders on some satellites, but overall I am quite pleased with it and also quite surprised what you can pick up on a small looking dish.
ps dont laugh at my piece of hose pipe - 11% increase in quality!

 

[satelliteman]

Nice install

 

[sonnetpete]

I'm really surprised that the Black Ultra performs poorly compared to the Fracarro LNB, unless it isn't suited to the unusual Penta design. Did you not try the Black Ultra before introducing the packing piece? Pleasing results from a dish that performs well for it's size though.

 

[Sandybob]

Hi pete, yes I did try the ultra before the packing but not after, I was quite surprised, it did improve quality by 1% or 2% on a few satellites, but generally it was on a par or lower especially 23.5E which dropped 8% on some channels. I tweaked the ultra three times to check but the Fracarro was slightly better overall. It may be due to the smaller dish size, shape (or just me lol).

 

[hexah]

A fine looking dish.

Try 11475 V 29950 3/4 on 16e on a clear blue skies day. Also try 11144 H 2442 2/3 on 10e (give it a while to lock up).

You should get it if you are tracking the arc well, and the wide beamwidth will help.

 

[belodetek]

As my larger dishes are ground mounted and will not get anything past 33E, I had an idea to try a smaller dish mounted higher up to clear the offending buildings. I choose the 68cm Penta digit and single Fracarro Lnb to try out. I set it up first on a ground stand to see what it was like and after trying to peak the dish I found that when you put pressure...

Hi there Sandybob, apologies for being slightly off-topic, but I have a sat internet set-up I've cobbled together myself from parts and have managed to loose the metal arm, which holds the LNB from my Fracarro Penta Digit 68cm dish (Motorhome Europe mobile satellite Internet OnAstra Newtec Sat3Play)

Fracarro don't sell the arm separately and have directed me to buy a whole new dish kit. I am loathed to do this for a number of reasons.

If you still have this dish, is there any way you can send me the measurements for the LNB arm, which should be the square galvanised tube, bent at a certain angle.

The measurements I need are:
- size of the square tube
- length of each end to from the end of the tube to the start of the bend
- bend radius

If I can get these measurements, I can just buy a piece of steel and make a replacement myself.

Cheers!

 

[Lazarus]

Staff Note

Member Sandybob hasn't been on the Forum in the past 5 years, so I hope another Forum Member might be able to answer your question.