First experimental photos.

[Fisty McB]

I recently moved to new accommodation which has given me the opportunity to get my spare Zone 2 dish set up. I'm not great at drilling into walls etc. and I'll likely look for a more permanent solution later this year in better weather. So in the meantime I've the dish sitting on an old car tyre with a multi lnb set up (28, 19 & 13). It's quite a high up area so wind is a factor, in this case I use a wall and two waste bins to provide some shelter. Securing behind the dish from tilting back is four 2 litre plastic bottles filled with water, and a block of wood.

With the dish aimed with focus at 19E, for 28E everything comes in fine, even the rather weak 11.222 transponder on Eutelsat 28A though it does disappear in heavy rain. Once everything is on Astra 2E/F/G it should be fine. 19E is mostly OK though some of the Astra 2C transponders, especially those that are DVB-S2, go in moderate rain. 13E is fine on most DVB-S transponders, but S2's are difficult to lock.

Depending on weather & time I'm planning to move the dish on to a balcony bracket that is to be attached to a washing line end pole so making adjustments at around head height should be easier to do.

I plan later on to get a bigger dish in a few weeks or months time, but for now I can get around 1000 FTA TV channels in settled weather.

 

[gibertini]

needs must m8, looks like you have took a leaf out of the A/S installation manual

 

[Fisty McB]

Some recent adjustments, got a balcony bracket to mount on a pole supporting a washing line which allows making adjustments easier. Still centred on 19 east, 28 east is pretty much rock solid even on the Eutelsat transponders. Signals have now improved on both 19 and 13 east with much better reception of DVB-S2 transponders from both positions.

Have a new dish on order however, will likely get to work on it around the end of the week or weekend with the weather forecast looking favourable.

 

[Piltdownpaul]

When the new dish arrives a word of warning, never mix crossplies and radials!

 

[Fisty McB]

Well I got my hands on an 80cm solid dish (bought from a forum advertiser, I believe) and have had a bit of a play about with it over last weekend. I've now got a four-lnb set up going as can be seen in the photos, the fourth positioned for 23.5E which is coming in good and strong. I've ordered some slim LNBs to see if I could get 13/16/19 to comfortably sit - it was sort of possible to do it in this set up albeit with some compromises among all three therefore not giving good results on some of the weaker signals from these birds. Apart from that, I'd say that by shifting the bracket rail a wee bit (and moving the 13E LNB in the process) that 9E should be able to come in on the far side (new Diseqc switch also ordered). If the three new LNBs fit where I want them, then a refocus on 16E might also be able to bring in 5E too. All down to a bit of experimenting, should things be too tight there's a 100cm dish lying in wait to ease things. For now everything is working well, the DVB-S2 signals from all brids are coming in strong - on Eutelsat 28A the C1 & C3 transponders still show their weakness but still hold up in moderate rain pretty well. There was a heavy hailstorm hear earlier today where on Eutelsat 28A only the signals on 11261 showed any signs of break up during it and didn't disappear - everything else including all the other three positions were still rock solid albeit with a small SNR drop, but no rain fade wipeout. Once Eutelsat 28A is taken out of general commission and its broadcasts moved over to the new Astra 2 birds reception here should be rock solid.

I did purchase a Triax multi-LNB bracket which fitted on to the LNB arm of the dish but I soon found out that at least for the 13/19/28 east combo, I'm just too far west for the bracket to accomodate all three on their own, even with it being turned upside down to improve the elevation tilt. The difference in elevation tilt where I am between Eutelsat Hot Bird and Astra 2A/E/F is approx 5 degrees, and the bracket can't tilt high enough up to get 28E with the centre of the bracket at around 15E. Probably a bid of drilling and clipping of the Triax bracket could work, but I'm happy with the universal bracket for now, maybe the Triax bracket is more useful if the dish was pointed near due-south (Eutelsat 7 West A is the closest due-south sat here) where the elevation difference between nearby satellites is a lot less.

I can't remember whoever said something like this could get quickly addictive - maybe addictive isn't the word but it's certainly a nice time killer!

 

[Piltdownpaul]

Well I got my hands on an 80cm solid dish (bought from a forum advertiser, I believe) and have had a bit of a play about with it over last weekend. I've now got a four-lnb set up going as can be seen in the photos, the fourth positioned for 23.5E which is coming in good and strong. I've ordered some slim LNBs to see if I could get 13/16/19 to comfortably sit - it was sort of possible to do it in this set up albeit with some compromises among all three therefore not giving good results on some of the weaker signals from these birds. Apart from that, I'd say that by shifting the bracket rail a wee bit (and moving the 13E LNB in the process) that 9E should be able to come in on the far side (new Diseqc switch also ordered). If the three new LNBs fit where I want them, then a refocus on 16E might also be able to bring in 5E too. All down to a bit of experimenting, should things be too tight there's a 100cm dish lying in wait to ease things. For now everything is working well, the DVB-S2 signals from all brids are coming in strong - on Eutelsat 28A the C1 & C3 transponders still show their weakness but still hold up in moderate rain pretty well. There was a heavy hailstorm hear earlier today where on Eutelsat 28A only the signals on 11261 showed any signs of break up during it and didn't disappear - everything else including all the other three positions were still rock solid albeit with a small SNR drop, but no rain fade wipeout. Once Eutelsat 28A is taken out of general commission and its broadcasts moved over to the new Astra 2 birds reception here should be rock solid.

I did purchase a Triax multi-LNB bracket which fitted on to the LNB arm of the dish but I soon found out that at least for the 13/19/28 east combo, I'm just too far west for the bracket to accomodate all three on their own, even with it being turned upside down to improve the elevation tilt. The difference in elevation tilt where I am between Eutelsat Hot Bird and Astra 2A/E/F is approx 5 degrees, and the bracket can't tilt high enough up to get 28E with the centre of the bracket at around 15E. Probably a bid of drilling and clipping of the Triax bracket could work, but I'm happy with the universal bracket for now, maybe the Triax bracket is more useful if the dish was pointed near due-south (Eutelsat 7 West A is the closest due-south sat here) where the elevation difference between nearby satellites is a lot less.

I can't remember whoever said something like this could get quickly addictive - maybe addictive isn't the word but it's certainly a nice time killer!

Oh yeah,multi lnb set ups i find are very addictive,its all about what you can achieve ,good fun!

 

[sonnetpete]

Without doubt it's addictive, having four dishes with 16 LNB's between them myself! I've found that a bar where you can adjust the LNB height individually is the best, especially if you are trying for a wide arc on one dish. I think that's why I ended up with four dishes. (Currently 12.5W to 53E)

You'll find you must compromise, you'll never get brilliant signals on them all. Obviously you can use one LNB for two close satellites, I get good signals from 46E & 45E off one LNB and use one for 9E and 10E. I've tried to get 4W and 5W but my 5W LNB is way over one side of the Penta 85 and only getting reasonable SNR from 5W so until I figure out how to mount it more centrally on another dish I'm a bit stuck. I did discover that to mount two LNB's closely, you can hang one off the other using 40mm central heating pipe clamps (I think they are properly called Munson clamps). This aspect of the hobby is all about experiment and trying Heath Robinson devices, which appeals to me a lot....

 

[Fisty McB]

Well after a bit of experimenting, I've decided that having a Diseqc motorised dish is likely the best route to go down with the addition of an extra fixed dish for a multi-LNB setup for at least 13/19/28 East use. I'd got a patio-mount and a heavy flag paving stone with holes drilled into it along with some gravel and sharp sand to set it into the back garden - however some playing about with it suggests that where it currently is won't see the far west of the arc (beyond 30W) so I'm very tempted to move it, as I'm looking at possible feeds from 34.5W and probably further ahead as well even if they might not be as numerous as those on more eastern birds.

So at the moment, I haven't any photos to directly add, but I've fixed the Zone 2 dish back up with four LNBs presently on it (all east), 28, 19 (focus), 13 & 5. The 28E LNB is an Inverto Premium single LNB, while the other three are Amiko "slim" LNBs which especially are a good job peaking the offset alignment for Hot Bird. Now to ask questions elsewhere later today after some sleep...

 

[satelliteman]

Nice job there.

 

[sonnetpete]

Those Amiko Slim LNB's look very similar to the Opticum Red Rocket I purchased. I prefer the ALPS ones which have a slimmed down feedhorn but aren't as readily affected by rain fade. Other than the Inverto Multi Connect range (which require their own mounting bar I think, though someone will correct me I'm sure) the Megasat LNB I have has the narrowest feedhorn, though of course there's always a tradeoff in signal loss.

 

[Fisty McB]

Can't say that at least on the stronger satellites that the Amiko slim LNBs suffer from much rain fade performance compared to other LNBs. I'm fairly wary (thanks to this forum!) of how narrow feed LNBs do tend to suffer greater problems though with raindrops on the LNB cap.

 

[Lazarus]

Minimize raindrop adhesion by rubbing the LNB cap with furniture polish (Other repellants are available).