A new 'toy' to play with..

[Vipersan]

Emailed Stan at Norsat UK this morning and secured the last Ka band C DRO lnb ..
yes I'd have prefered PLL ..but far too pricey just for experiment ..
Thus it will have to do ..
Should be with me next week..
giving me coverage of the gap I have 20.200 to 21.200
I hate gaps..
lol
rgds
VS

 

[Captain Jack]

Will that give you a full Ka spectrum when combined with your other LNBs?

 

[Archive-8]

Much better to get rid of the gaps. As @Captain Jack said, does that give you full band Ka now?

 

[Vipersan]

In theory guys ..
yes ..I should then be able to cover A B C & D (ka)
18.200 > 22.200
at least that's what I hope to get...
covered by Norsat 9000A (A)
SL3(A/B )
Hughes (PartB / PartC)
Norsat 9000C (C)
XMW (D)

 

[Captain Jack]

Are you sure you H180 motor is up for holding all that weight on the LNB end?

 

[Vipersan]

Are you sure you H180 motor is up for holding all that weight on the LNB end?

Cant see why not ..
No issues so far with the extra support provided by elevation jack adjustment combined with the brace I made for the H180 motor and dish exoskeleton..
Easy tracking and height adjustment for over 12 months without issue..
..In fact I just added another 2 lnb offset positions ..
will post photo later..
rgds
VS

 

[Captain Jack]

How much do you reckon it all weighs?

 

[Vipersan]

How much do you reckon it all weighs?

No Idea buddy ..but it's not so much the weight I think ..which is well distributed ..
More the combined weight/lever effect ..
Certainly this would have weighed enough to distort the dish had it not been for the exoskelleton..
rgds

 

[Llew]

In theory guys ..
yes ..I should then be able to cover A B C & D (ka)
18.200 > 22.200
at least that's what I hope to get...
covered by Norsat 9000A (A)
SL3(A/B )
Hughes (PartB / PartC)
Norsat 9000C (C)
XMW (D)

Good setup now VS. The 9000A will be handy for the more unusual sats in the Ka C's.
As you know, I have the same LNB's apart from the Norsat 9000C, but I can extend further up into Ka C with my modded Inverto Saorsat (not that I've found anything in the top half of the band - maybe you will be able to find something up there now).

 

[Vipersan]

Good setup now VS. The 9000A will be handy for the more unusual sats in the Ka C's.
As you know, I have the same LNB's apart from the Norsat 9000C, but I can extend further up into Ka C with my modded Inverto Saorsat (not that I've found anything in the top half of the band - maybe you will be able to find something up there now).

You never know Llew ..
The top end of KaC has eluded me long enough ...and since Id made provision for another 2 lnbs I figured ..what the hell ..why not..
The peaks you have already found in Ka C ...
circular or linear predominantly ?
Annoying that the 9000C has but one polarity at a time ..so some hunting will be neccessary I think.
rgds

 

[Llew]

I'll have to check back on the scans I did with it, if I still have them.

The UHF-satcomm site has a list of possible satellites in that band, if they're up-to-date.

I'll do a more recent scan when I connect it up again, although I expect I'll need to put it on the Gibby, as the Triaxes won't go further east than 42E (if there's any Milsats in that area).

It'll certainly be interesting to see what you can come up with using a pukka LNB.

 

[Archive-8]

@Vipersan & @Llew the modded inverto lnb, can that be used to get band c?

@Vipersan does the new lnb give H+V and L+R via a plate? Or is that part of the band all the same polarity?

 

[Vipersan]

@Vipersan & @Llew the modded inverto lnb, can that be used to get band c?

@Vipersan does the new lnb give H+V and L+R via a plate? Or is that part of the band all the same polarity?

single linear polarity requiring physical rotation of the lnb ...to get H or V
but inserting a mini plate in the feed should produce L or R ..
I'll let Llew answer your other question..
rgds
VS

 

[Archive-8]

single linear polarity requiring physical rotation of the lnb ...to get H or V
but inserting a mini plate in the feed should produce L or R ..
I'll let Llew answer your other question..
rgds
VS

It's a good find :-) do they have anymore I wonder?

 

[hvdh]

The peaks you have already found in Ka C ...
circular or linear predominantly ?
Annoying that the 9000C has but one polarity at a time ..so some hunting will be neccessary I think.
rgds

Circular predominantly, so that LNB skew is no issue, the military are quite mobile users you know... ;)
Though you stated the Sicrals use linear. Hope you'll check that again!

 

[Vipersan]

It's a good find do they have anymore I wonder?

I doubt it Chris ..at least from the impression I got from Stans reply ..
These are old stock ..no longer in production..
He may have other lnbs for other Ka bands though ..
A B & D ..
it cannot hurt to ask so I'll PM you his email address..
His name is Stan Mullery GM of Norsat UK.
Just be your polite self..
rgds
VS

 

[Vipersan]

So ..
how do you get another lnb close to focus ??
on an already crowded feed system ...
Well ...slept on it again ..and came up with this simple adaption..
Took a few hours cutting ...bending drilling and painting the steel bracket ..
But am happy with it ..
Just as I was about to fit then test it ..
You guessed it ..
raining again..
roll on summer ..
anyway grabbed a couple of pix before the rain got too heavy..
rgds
VS

 

[Llew]

@Vipersan & @Llew the modded inverto lnb, can that be used to get band c?

Sorry, missed your post. I replaced the DRO puck with a 9.750 GHz one from an old Ku LNB (the one in the Inverto is 10.6 GHz).
I adjusted the DRO screw to bring down the oscillator enough to be able to scan in, for example, the ACM feed at 20880V on 5.2W.
I haven't found any feeds higher than that frequency yet. May be too deaf, b/w limited. VS may be luckier with his Norsat ;)

 

[Vipersan]

So not really about the 9000C ...but relating to the stack mounted lnb above ..
Thick cloud overhead ..and not one of my SL3s will lock any Newsnet feeds ...so decided to try the 9000A stack mounted with the XMW feed ...a feed made from an inverto Ka lnb ...and a feed made from my spare Trust feed ..
Still no signal above 5db ...
So I figured what the hell ..
I haven't used my all copper funnel/concentric ring Ka feed made a while back...recently ..
and never on the 9000A ..
Well ...
Still no lock ..but almost ..
Signal level on the newsroom frequency rose from 5.4db to 7.8 db ..
Thats some increase ..
A good match I reckon ..
and on a day with less threatening cloud ..
maybe ..just maybe..
Bloody cold again here ..thick rain cloud ..and damned dark ..
I just had to put the Central Heating on again ..
Bloody ridiculous for end of May..

 

[Archive-8]

@Vipersan you really need another dish just for Ka band :-)

 

[Vipersan]

@Vipersan you really need another dish just for Ka band

Agreed Chris ..
but sadly no physical place to put it ..
Old terraced houses with limited area ..backyards ...not gardens don't provide such dish space.
cest la vie

..No choice really but to get creative with the space I _have_ got..