A tricky proposal for 68E

Analoguesat said:
Nice one VS - nice to see the tinkering goes on :D
Click to expand...

It rarely stops for me AS ..
:D
I sometimes think its what keeps me going ..
I'm driven to push the boundaries of whats achievable by us amateurs.
I'm very much aware that for some if not most ...its about watching TV ..
For me its about knowing that it can be done ..
Chances are I wont even watch most of the 1000's of channels I have access to ..
Its just knowing that I can if I so choose ..
Its a Dxers mentality that goes back to my youth ..and short wave/amateur radio etc..

I have a similar fascination with astonomy ...
I spend an awfully large chunk of my time staring into space ...and to that end I am starting a telescope fund this year ..
Going to save my pennies so one day I can look into the face of Jupiter etc ..first hand instead of just looking at pictures ..and watching documentaries.
I have my eye on a nice 8 inch reflector..
SKYWATCHER EXPLORER 200P EQ5 F/1000 REFLECTOR TELESOPE

Bit pricey ...but you only get what you pay for ...and since I can no longer holiday away from home...
well....lets just say ...I need to keep occupied.
rgds
VS
 
A man after my own heart :D

I currently have one Sky+ box and 3 hobby boxes wired up. I dont give a toss about any programming - Im far more interested in what I can get on my system. Im thinking of swinging my 16E dish round to 36E for a change over the weekend.

Maybe I'll buy another 1m dish over the summer as well :D
 
Keep it for me - I'll have it next time Im down :D

Meet up for a pint as well :)
 
BTW if anyone has wotsat its the 300th anniversary edition and my dilapidated second-hand dish system appears as "one of our top three favourite setups" on the back page :-rofl2

And the forum gets a mention :D
 
Vipersan said:
Hi terry ..
I am going for a bigger dish but not huge....
As to the line amp ..
The whole system fails if it is removed ...I've already tried ..
The motor still moves of course ..but little or no signal from anything other than the strongest sats ...and that using the prime lnb ..
My guess ..
Its boosting the signal which was fine before entering the complex switch sustem ...making it dufficient to negotiate the switches and still produce a fair outout ..
Certainly at this point removing it isn't an option...maybe after the dish upgrade ...but I'm not hopefull .
..Its a long cable run 35 mts may be a bit conservative..
rgds
VS
Click to expand...

Well if you need the amp have you tried one with a good noise floor?

If I have to I use this one.

hXXp://www.sonoradesign.com/images/Sheet_LA14123_11.pdf

Or the best thing would be to use RG-11.

Reading the other posts it seems like you cant replace the coax, 20 years is a bit too long on a coax run and 35 meters is a bit too long for plain RG-6.

If you can a good run of RG-6 quad with a pure copper center conductor may work out if you cant get the RG-11, inviting someone that's small and has attic experience over for a few may do the trick.
 
Hi friends ..
So far so good ..
Started at 9AM this morning ..
Took me all of 45 minutes to take down the Faval 80cm ....and replace it with the TD88
...That was the easy part ..
Alignment is another story .. only just completed that stage..
Firstly ..Its been a while since I put up the TD110..and forgot just what a pain in the @rse the dish clamp bracket was ..
The scale is never reliable to within 1 degree ...so a meter is essential ..
My next problem is that this motor/dish combo is only to cover the blind spot on the TD110 ...so essentially only covers 9 East (and thats borderline obscured) to 62 ++ East ..
This means I cannot align on my due south sat @ 1 west ...
So have to use 9 East making the job a lot tricker supporting the dish etc ..whilst aligning ..
Plus the motor was about 1.5 degrees out ..
Anyway ..
I now have it tracking perfectly from 30 East to 57 East ....and its verrry close on all sats west of that ..
How do I know ...??
Well there is a gap in the trees allowing me to just take in 45 West ..
So managed Canal info news ..but low signal ..and varies in and out of lock..
So Time to contemplate the next stage ..
removing the prime focus lnb ..and fitting the multi feed ..
Wish me luck ...
 
I wish you luck!

Not that you'll need it.
 
Ok, VS, three hours have passed ................... how's it hanging (as it were)?
 
I know it's late, but why not fit a quad LNB to the motorised dish. Keep the original cabling for for the motor/switches/whatever, and the second comes as a direct feed from the LNB run back to your den of iniquity ?
 
Not possible CH ...
As I've already said ..I can't get another cable to this remote dish ..
Its the other side of 2 terraced houses ..
I have just one cable to play with ...installed 20 years ago ..and sadly it does appear it ain't up to scatch ..
No probs on the lo band ...but top end 12500 and above the signal drops off quite dramatically.
Been a long day ..and I'm quite knackered ..
A definate improvement overall with the new dish ..
Signals which where around 7db (unamplified) are now topping 9 ..
Still need the amp in line for some frequencies ..
Perhaps might try and get one with less gain now..
No probs finding anything with the centre (focus) lnb ..
have set the second lnb tilted high to the left of centre (as you look at the dish ) ....set it about 6 inches along the bar ..just to test..
I'll spend the evening seeing if the offset lnb can pick something up ..just to be sure its working ok ..
Ladders are away for the night..
but once I get _something_ on the offset lnb I can get the ladders out again ..and start aligning and skewing etc..
The dish itself is up and solid ..everything bolted up tight ..added a third u bolt to the dish clamp around the stub ..for good measure..
Everything looks good ..so far ...but a bit gutted that really ..the cable could do with replacing ..and thats no longer possible ..
My neighbours where fine about the cable ..when it was fitted ..but a loft conversion is now in the way in one of the houses ..so its definately no longer an option.
cest la vie..
rgds
VS
 
I use triax dishes all the time so I guess I'm just used to them, I don't find them all that bad to do. Sounds like you've got it all in hand as usual vs. You've probably already considered this but could you pull in new cable using the old cable as a draw wire ?
 
Rick said:
could you pull in new cable using the old cable as a draw wire ?
Click to expand...
Or just change the sections you can get to.
 
Sadly I can't use the existing wire as a pull through ..its stapled down to the pearlings ...and now ..in theory runs behind a false wall in the converted loft space ..
I had considered huevos's idea of just replacing the sections I can get to ...but I figured joints in the line might actually be worse than the old cable ...even its it poor condition ..
Incidentally ..this will give you an idea of how dramatic the improvement inserting the Global TVRO amp ...in line ..
I now have TMB at 62East
If I select prime focus lnb diseqc 1 ...I get 12db and a locked signal ...without the line amp ..
If I then switch to the offset lnb ..
Diseqc 2 ...
...and then move the dish west until I max the signal ...
The best I can achieve is 6db ...and no lock...
If I then insert the line amp ..the signal rises giving 9db ...and I have a picture ..
Of course the offset lnb hasn't been ajusted yet ...just pivoted the ally bar to slope downhill right to left (maximum tilt atm)
Not sure just how much effect this has ...but I think I would also have to add some skew ajustment ..
This is the bit I find tricky ..
I know what to do ..but getting a mental image of how much tilt and how much skew ..thats tricky ..
as mentioned the offset lnb is approx 6 inches to the left of the focus.

..and it looks like I'll still need a line amp ..unless I do something with the cable ...and I can't see any serious improvement options there .

at least it wll work ..and even if the multifeed turns out to be a failure ..
The increased dish size was certainly worth all the effort..
rgds
VS
..
 
Vipersan said:
I figured joints in the line might actually be worse than the old cable ...even its it poor condition ..
Click to expand...
VS, I know "common wisdom" is that you shouldn't have any joints but I have tested well made joints with my Satlook and the loss is so small as to be almost irrelevant. If the cable there is poor it is bound to be at one of the ends... and if you are worried about the length of the run you could use WF165 for the sections that can be changed and just leave that small section that can't be accessed in standard cable.
 
I agree completely. If you can replace half the old cable with wf165 say you should see a marked improvement. Just be sure the joints are well made and be sensible about it. It's probably not worth two joints for 1m of cable
 
Intact you could add a second line amp on one of the joints. It might just amplify too much noise. But I would give it a try myself.
 
Hi friends ..
Up the ladder again and still struggling blind ..
at this extreme East location ..I have no real references to setting up ..so here's what I tried ..

Centred the focal lnb on 36 East ...but need the offset to see 6.5 degrees beyond the focus ..so using usals to position for 36East ...I then set the usals offset to 1.9 degrees instead of 2.4 ..to gain half a degree of shift..
In theory I could then use Turksat at 42 degrees East to align the offset lnb ..
36 - 0.5 + 6 being 42 ...
This worked just fine for peaking up Turksat ..and I got a respectable signal level ..
..ajusted tilt ...position on ally bar ..and a bit of extra skew ..rotaing anticlockwise..
Filled with hope I then went back home and moved the dish to focal position 62 East ...using disec1.2 ...as usals can't get to this position ..
Ever hopeful I then switched to the offset lnb and did a blindscan on ...in theory now positioned at 68.5 East ..
Nothing ...??
I expected at least a hint of a signal ...but got nowt ..
Is my logic flawed ?
If not then I have to assume that dishpointer is inaccurate ..and I can't in fact see this bird ..
Comments welcomed.
rgds
VS
 

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