LarsV
Member
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2007
- Messages
- 5
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
- Age
- 44
- My Satellite Setup
- WaveFrontier Torodial T-90, Prodelin 1184 1.8 m, Invacom 0.3 Single Universal LNB, 8 regular LNBs, DM500-S, various switches
- My Location
- Copenhagen, Denmark
Hi everybody.
I'm a new user on this forum. I've been browsing the forum for a while, but this is my first post.
I recently installed a Prodelin 1184, 1.8 meter offset dish for the purpose of receiving channels from Astra 2D (i.e. BBC, ITV etc.) in Copenhagen, Denmark at 55º 40' N, 12º 35' E.
I bought the dish cheap second hand and I originally anticipated using the included feedhorn along with a quattro C120 flange LNB from Invacom. But when we installed the dish, I found that the holes in the circle of the included feed horn wouldn't fit a regular C120 flange (the lnb-connecting end of my feed horn has 6 holes evenly spaced on a circle with a 44 mm diameter and that somehow doesn't fit the average C120 ).
So what we did was to take a regular quattro Invacom LNB (i.e. no C120) and try to fit this into the 22 mm clamp. After some creative problem solving we managed to get the LNB fitted and I was able to align the dish to the Astra 2D satellite.
I was mostly interested in optimising the installation for transponder 10.891 H (ITV etc.) as I’ve been told that this is one of the most difficult transponders to receive in Denmark. After hours of fine-tuning, I was able to get the transponder to a BER reading of 2.4 * 10 -2 and a MER reading of 7-8. The picture looked fine with no mosaic or break ups.
However, the figures mentioned above does not provide me with significant signal reserve to deliver a stable picture 24/7 in most weather conditions (it often rains in Denmark these days). I figured I could and probably would get much more out of the dish, if I could use a feed horn with a C120 lnb.
Well, I contacted the Prodelin representative in the US to hear if they had other feed horns or maybe an adapter available. They forwarded my request to some very nice and helpful people at their German representative. He explained to me that the feed horn I had was the only one from Prodelin for my intents and purposes. He told me that I would in fact be able to use it with a flange LNB, if I bought one from SMW. He explained that the Quattro-LNB from SMW would fit the original Prodelin feed horn I have.
However, the feed horn looks a bit dirty and has some wear from saltwater etc. (i.e. the big front cover is only partly transparent). I also have some concern that the noise figure on the SMW LNB is specified to be as high as 0.9 (!!!).
So I’m thinking that I might get a much better result from buying an Andrew universal offset feed horn and use this with a C120 LNB from Invacom.
Since this is fringe reception and every little db counts, I really would like some advice from you expoert-guys before I purchase anything.
Which setup would you recommend me (and why):
1) The setup with the original (partly used) feed horn from Prodelin and a SMW LNB with a noise figure of 0.9
– or -
2) An Andrews universal feed horn with a 0.3 db LNB from Invacom?
- Or do you recommend something completely different?
Please let me know your thoughts and also if you reckon this would actually improve my BER and MER readings on the meter. I would like the BER to go as low as 1 * 10 -5 and the MER to go to the low 20s.
Thank you in advance for any help or suggestions.
Regards,
Lars
I'm a new user on this forum. I've been browsing the forum for a while, but this is my first post.
I recently installed a Prodelin 1184, 1.8 meter offset dish for the purpose of receiving channels from Astra 2D (i.e. BBC, ITV etc.) in Copenhagen, Denmark at 55º 40' N, 12º 35' E.
I bought the dish cheap second hand and I originally anticipated using the included feedhorn along with a quattro C120 flange LNB from Invacom. But when we installed the dish, I found that the holes in the circle of the included feed horn wouldn't fit a regular C120 flange (the lnb-connecting end of my feed horn has 6 holes evenly spaced on a circle with a 44 mm diameter and that somehow doesn't fit the average C120 ).
So what we did was to take a regular quattro Invacom LNB (i.e. no C120) and try to fit this into the 22 mm clamp. After some creative problem solving we managed to get the LNB fitted and I was able to align the dish to the Astra 2D satellite.
I was mostly interested in optimising the installation for transponder 10.891 H (ITV etc.) as I’ve been told that this is one of the most difficult transponders to receive in Denmark. After hours of fine-tuning, I was able to get the transponder to a BER reading of 2.4 * 10 -2 and a MER reading of 7-8. The picture looked fine with no mosaic or break ups.
However, the figures mentioned above does not provide me with significant signal reserve to deliver a stable picture 24/7 in most weather conditions (it often rains in Denmark these days). I figured I could and probably would get much more out of the dish, if I could use a feed horn with a C120 lnb.
Well, I contacted the Prodelin representative in the US to hear if they had other feed horns or maybe an adapter available. They forwarded my request to some very nice and helpful people at their German representative. He explained to me that the feed horn I had was the only one from Prodelin for my intents and purposes. He told me that I would in fact be able to use it with a flange LNB, if I bought one from SMW. He explained that the Quattro-LNB from SMW would fit the original Prodelin feed horn I have.
However, the feed horn looks a bit dirty and has some wear from saltwater etc. (i.e. the big front cover is only partly transparent). I also have some concern that the noise figure on the SMW LNB is specified to be as high as 0.9 (!!!).
So I’m thinking that I might get a much better result from buying an Andrew universal offset feed horn and use this with a C120 LNB from Invacom.
Since this is fringe reception and every little db counts, I really would like some advice from you expoert-guys before I purchase anything.
Which setup would you recommend me (and why):
1) The setup with the original (partly used) feed horn from Prodelin and a SMW LNB with a noise figure of 0.9
– or -
2) An Andrews universal feed horn with a 0.3 db LNB from Invacom?
- Or do you recommend something completely different?
Please let me know your thoughts and also if you reckon this would actually improve my BER and MER readings on the meter. I would like the BER to go as low as 1 * 10 -5 and the MER to go to the low 20s.
Thank you in advance for any help or suggestions.
Regards,
Lars