Hi all,
I've not long been into playing around with satellites but when a friend of mine gave me his old Channel Master 183 (http://www.channelmaster.com/pdf/type183.pdf) , i've gotta say, i'm somewhat hooked!
Anyway i'm looking for some help with this dish. I'm told it's a very good 1.8m dish, the only problem is, when i recieved the dish it had no arms, and til now i've just been using arms i made myself. It took me ages of playing around with the LNB trying to get the correct focal distance but even now i feel like it may be slightly off due to signal strengths.
I've had a look around but been pretty new to all this i'm a little lost. I found that the focal length can be calculated using is the f/D ratio? I think it was called that but frankly it all went straight above my head. The calculations i attempted brought results that we're way out. The PDF address above does state that this dish does have a "Long Focal Length". Is there any way to calculate the focal length on a dish such as this?
It's a long shot as i'm told CM no longer make the dish but if anyone has this dish or knows the length the arms need to be it would be much appreciated!
One other thing, i'm using an Invacom 0.3dB LNB 40mm at the moment but ive seen on the satellitesuperstore.co.uk a Channel Master feedhorn with a 0.3dB C120 flange LNB http://www.satellitesuperstore.co.uk/dishes-motors2.htm (3rd item on the page). They say it improves the dish area that is illuminated. Could anyone tell me if it would actually make a difference.
Thanks in advance
I've not long been into playing around with satellites but when a friend of mine gave me his old Channel Master 183 (http://www.channelmaster.com/pdf/type183.pdf) , i've gotta say, i'm somewhat hooked!
Anyway i'm looking for some help with this dish. I'm told it's a very good 1.8m dish, the only problem is, when i recieved the dish it had no arms, and til now i've just been using arms i made myself. It took me ages of playing around with the LNB trying to get the correct focal distance but even now i feel like it may be slightly off due to signal strengths.
I've had a look around but been pretty new to all this i'm a little lost. I found that the focal length can be calculated using is the f/D ratio? I think it was called that but frankly it all went straight above my head. The calculations i attempted brought results that we're way out. The PDF address above does state that this dish does have a "Long Focal Length". Is there any way to calculate the focal length on a dish such as this?
It's a long shot as i'm told CM no longer make the dish but if anyone has this dish or knows the length the arms need to be it would be much appreciated!
One other thing, i'm using an Invacom 0.3dB LNB 40mm at the moment but ive seen on the satellitesuperstore.co.uk a Channel Master feedhorn with a 0.3dB C120 flange LNB http://www.satellitesuperstore.co.uk/dishes-motors2.htm (3rd item on the page). They say it improves the dish area that is illuminated. Could anyone tell me if it would actually make a difference.
Thanks in advance
