90s Analogue Sat User, back in game.....

[gmdx]

Hi Folks,

As the title says, was a previous enthusiast with a motorised setup in the early 90s - MIMTEC S2 IRD, Polar mounted petalised 1.8m dish (distorted) and IRTE 90cm Dish. Had great fun with newsfeeds, footy etc. Have had $ky digital in all its variants for years but having had a 2nd LNB and a dish give up the ghost, have decided to get a slightly larger offset dish (just an 80/85cm one to start with) and will stick it on an H2H mount in a few weeks. Im looking for some advice about receivers however.

Have a lot to catch up with with digital format(s) as Im only used to analogue and after a quick read of WotSat a few months ago, I noticed that all the receivers listed only had voltage switching of polarity - arrrrgh! Will this not cause me problems? I still have a current skew adjuster (cant remember what they are called) by IRTE, and a Swedish Microwave LNB (0.8dB NF I think), but no feedhorn (it was for a prime focus dish anyway - my new dish is offset). Anyway, if I need to stick with a voltage switching LNB, will this not cause problems with reception of weaker sigs?

My other query is a recommendation of what receiver to buy. Just looking for a system that picks up as many sats as possible, given the dish size, HD preferred (though Ive no idea how many broadcasters transmit in HD, unscrambled).

 

[Lazarus]

FTA HD Channels listed here _http://en.kingofsat.net/hdtv.php?&standard=All&ordre=freq&filtre=Clear

 

[rolfw]

If you are using an 85cm dish then a DiSEqC motor will be suitable and a separate polariser is normally not required for this setup, perhaps get yourself an Inverto Black Ultra LNB from one of our advertisers and you'll be up and running.

There are lots of HD receivers around capable of driving a DiSEqC motor, some have better tuners than others, but ask five people for a recommendation on a receiver and you are likely to get five different suggestions.

In my opinion, it's more what to avoid.

 

[Unhban]

In my opinion, it's more what to avoid.

Agreed. I've had a Fortec Star Passion for a couple of years and couldn't recommend it. Granted the PQ (picture quality) is very good, but things have moved on and it lacks what I would call the deeper menus, as well as slow responses from Fortec to problems.

So I'm now looking to a new receiver and looking at the Vu+ Solo and Duo, as well as the brand new Clarke-tech ET 9000, all getting very good reviews, but somewhat pricey. However, the higher price is because these are somewhat future proof, as they're open-source using Linux, so have available plugins and alternative firmware to mould the receiver to how you think a receiver should work, now and in the future. Also, they have sensitive tuners so good for the weaker sats of course.

And no... the volts going up the satellite cable doesn't affect the reception of weaker signals.

Hope this helps in some way.

Unh.

 

[gmdx]

Thanks for the replies folks, all comments noted. Iĺl see about a Black Ultra LNB then, have been reading a few of the user comments - I like the idea of being able to move the feedhorn towards/away from the dish to find the optimum signal. Id still have thought a polariser would have been helpful for a motorised setup, it certainly helped reduce my ¨sparklies¨ back in the analogue days, and I see the sky LNBs still have markers on them for setting skew. Maybe Im missing something.....do polar mounts and/or horizon to horizon mounts twist the dish (therefore skew) as well as turning the dish to each satellite? Excuse my ignorance on this but Im a bit rusty having been out the game for a while. Running Linux here but not a computer genius so not sure to what degree I can implement the computer/receiver together.

 

[Lazarus]

Yup. Skew is managed by the locus of whichever positioning method you implement.

 

[Channel Hopper]

I'd spend a couple of hundred on getting the 1.8m back into service.

The Mimtec box was a beast. Virtually bulletproof

 

[hexah]

+1

A V Box can be used with the 36v actuator.