Have got a C/Ku band receiver... what now?

Tom Mountford

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Hi all - forgive me if I appear vague, I work in telly and am reasonably technical but have little knowledge of satellites, so here's the situation -

I have acquired two ex-broadcast Scientific Atlanta 9661 receivers. The display on the front shows me they will receive C/Ku/L-band transmissions. I have bought some F-connectors and a 100 metres of satellite lead... what do I need next?

I have 360 degrees of open sky from a flat roof and room for a 2.4 metre dish, is this overkill or about right? I want the maximum amount of channels possible as I am intending to receive news/programme feeds.

Would a dish this size remove the need for a motorised system with a smaller dish?

Scientific Atlanta sell either a C or Ku band LNB for the receiver - but would a generic 0.3 or 0.6 db (don't know which) 'universal' LNB be able to do the job of both and supply a signal to both receivers - i.e. one unit set to C, the other set to Ku but both using the same LNB?

Any help on this (or any further info on the 9661 model) would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Tom
 

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Tom Mountford said:
Hi all - forgive me if I appear vague, I work in telly and am reasonably technical but have little knowledge of satellites, so here's the situation -

I have acquired two ex-broadcast Scientific Atlanta 9661 receivers. The display on the front shows me they will receive C/Ku/L-band transmissions. I have bought some F-connectors and a 100 metres of satellite lead... what do I need next?

I have 360 degrees of open sky from a flat roof and room for a 2.4 metre dish, is this overkill or about right? I want the maximum amount of channels possible as I am intending to receive news/programme feeds.

Would a dish this size remove the need for a motorised system with a smaller dish?

Scientific Atlanta sell either a C or Ku band LNB for the receiver - but would a generic 0.3 or 0.6 db (don't know which) 'universal' LNB be able to do the job of both and supply a signal to both receivers - i.e. one unit set to C, the other set to Ku but both using the same LNB?

Any help on this (or any further info on the 9661 model) would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Tom
Not a feed hunter myself, but here are a few hints to get you going.

The single most important piece of info we need to know to help you fully, is your location. This is an international-flavour board! :)

A 2.4M dish would be fantastic in the UK, but whatever you have, it would need to be motorised. A dish can only point at one satellite at a time. An 80cm motorised dish would get more channels than a 2.4M unmotorised.

You are going to be very limited with only an analogue receiver. If you were also to add a digital receiver, you would have thousands more channels and feeds.

A 'Universal' LNB is Ku band.

More bands, more LNB's!

One good digital receiver and your analogue receiver, coupled to say a 1.2 or 1.8M motorised dish with a combined C/Ku LNB setup would get you plenty to keep you going. A VERY substantial mount would be required for this on an open roof.

Your dish would basically be pointing south, give AND take maybe 60 degrees.

:)
 

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Tom Mountford said:
Hi all - forgive me if I appear vague, I work in telly and am reasonably technical but have little knowledge of satellites, so here's the situation -

I have acquired two ex-broadcast Scientific Atlanta 9661 receivers. The display on the front shows me they will receive C/Ku/L-band transmissions. I have bought some F-connectors and a 100 metres of satellite lead... what do I need next?

I have 360 degrees of open sky from a flat roof and room for a 2.4 metre dish, is this overkill or about right? I want the maximum amount of channels possible as I am intending to receive news/programme feeds.

Would a dish this size remove the need for a motorised system with a smaller dish?

Scientific Atlanta sell either a C or Ku band LNB for the receiver - but would a generic 0.3 or 0.6 db (don't know which) 'universal' LNB be able to do the job of both and supply a signal to both receivers - i.e. one unit set to C, the other set to Ku but both using the same LNB?

Any help on this (or any further info on the 9661 model) would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Tom
I don't think the SA receivers are particularly suitable for feedhunting. Powervu receivers are really only designed to be used for receiving one bouquet of channels (Turner, AFRTS etc.)
Most of them also have a limited number of user-defined channels to play with, so if you want to receive and store FTA feeds etc. your options are rather limited.
Not sure about the 9661, but if it was designed for use as a head-end receiver it may have only limited use compared to a domestic digital STB.

Llew
 

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With a dish of 2.4m or bigger, you should really be looking at two axis movement, and therefore a specialist positioning system becomes the main requirement. This will allow capture of the inclined orbit satellites.

Cost of a suitable receiver would be negligible compared to the positioning system
The Topfield PVR (TF5500) has two axis capability (using DiSEqC protocol) and twin tuner, so it may be just what you need
 

Tom Mountford

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Thanks for the help thus far, I am in Norwich, Norfolk (that's in the UK by the way, as there seems to be no shortage of them in the US too) I figured these might not be much good for scanning frequencies - it is a manual up/down key to slowly tune and set frequencies and they only store 32 channels, they look the business screwed into the racks though! BTW - They are indeed from a cable TV head-end, the labels on the back suggest they came from Coventry Cable Television.

You raised a point about digital - just how many broadcasters are still using analogue feeds as opposed to digital? With a big dish what C/Ku stuff could I hope to pick up here in little ole' Norwich?

All the best,
Tom
 

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Hi Tom
I'm a bit further south than you in mid Suffolk. I'm running a 1.2m dish on a Moteck DG2100 motor with a Technomate 5000DA receiver. I can access satellites from 53east to 58west, restricted by trees/buildings outside those limits. Hundreds of Ku band digital and analogue FTA channels received plus numerous feeds also. In the UK the rules are you "should" get planning permission for a dish that is over 90cms, but I have good neighbours so have not been reported to the council. the H-H motor, as per Maplin, will take up to a 1m dish, others will take up to 1.2m as per mine. Over that size you have to use a different type of motor, other members will advise on this. There are also receivers that use cards and cams to enable encripted channels, not my scene either, other members should be able to help with this. The larger the dish the better margin you will have with weak transmissions and also will help to keep a signal in adverse weather conditions (rain). In addition the larger the dishes are more expensive and if you are in an open position you have to be carefull of wind moving the dish.
If you get a magazine called "What Sat" you will find numerous adverts from sat gear suppliers, or you could just start up with that set up from Maplin. I understand that they are opening a shop at Ipswich soon, so I might take a trip down there one day in the new year. Some of the sponsors of this forum might have gear for sale also.
Cheers AF.
 

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I think I'm lucky with respect planning permission, we're on 'private land' where our landlord seem to make the rules as to what we can do, we had a large BT Business Broadband dish on the roof prior to getting wired access which no one had no problem with - a roofline to the north obscures the dish from prying eyes and a lot of wind, to the south is open countryside with no obstructions as far as the eye can see... so you'll understand why I'm so keen to make the most of it :-)
 

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Llew - I got onto Scientific Atlanta and they were kind enough to send me info on the '9661 International Satellite Receiver'. The brochure I got was dated 1996. From what I can tell it seems to be a basic analogue receiver for installation in permanent network circuits. There's a 'bus' connection on the back and I've found the leads and software may still be available... which might open up a few more options with regards storing channels. The literature make it sould like it can tune to anything on any satellite... and stay tuned to it the rest of its working life!
 

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Tom Mountford said:
Llew - I got onto Scientific Atlanta and they were kind enough to send me info on the '9661 International Satellite Receiver'. The brochure I got was dated 1996. From what I can tell it seems to be a basic analogue receiver for installation in permanent network circuits. There's a 'bus' connection on the back and I've found the leads and software may still be available... which might open up a few more options with regards storing channels. The literature make it sould like it can tune to anything on any satellite... and stay tuned to it the rest of its working life!
Hi Tom
As AF and CH advise, installing a decent size dish will be your first priority ( how lucky can you get - no problems with the planners!) together with a digital STB.
There isn't much left up there on analogue, but a digital receiver with two IF sockets will allow you to connect up the 9661 to receive these transmissions.

Llew
 

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If your 9661 has a DB-25 expansion port you can use hyperterminal on your PC to operate the receiver remotely and possibly store program settings etc.
Be aware that the pin configuration may be non-standard (SA go their own way on this) if you don't have SA connectors.
My SA9234 allows me to upload receiver details and perform basic operations but that's about it (haven't got a full command set ).
It also has a wideband data port but you need special software for this which is not easy to obtain.

Llew
 

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I may be drifting away from the original question a bit, but I've been reading up and have found the main difference between the digital systems seems to be in the MPEG compression - 4:2:0 for domestic channels and 4:2:2 for most feeds - so presumably no matter what the dish/LNB combination if it is a 4:2:0-based domestic receiver it's not going to be able to interpret pro feeds? Am I wrong?

It might confuse the hell out of some people why I would choose to have a monitor showing colour bars or an empty studio for hours on end rather than watching 'proper' channels but nonetheless that's what I'm after :-) I haven't been able to find a DX-ing/feeds area on the site, anyone know where one may lie?

Thanks!
Tom
 

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Hi Tom

One of the mods "SATDUDE" posts regularly with updates on transponders and "Live Feeds Today", you could look at his threads.
Cheers AF
 

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Tom Mountford said:
I may be drifting away from the original question a bit, but I've been reading up and have found the main difference between the digital systems seems to be in the MPEG compression - 4:2:0 for domestic channels and 4:2:2 for most feeds - so presumably no matter what the dish/LNB combination if it is a 4:2:0-based domestic receiver it's not going to be able to interpret pro feeds? Am I wrong?

It might confuse the hell out of some people why I would choose to have a monitor showing colour bars or an empty studio for hours on end rather than watching 'proper' channels but nonetheless that's what I'm after :-) I haven't been able to find a DX-ing/feeds area on the site, anyone know where one may lie?

Thanks!
Tom
Not that I want to send you away...

_http://feedfrequencies.com/board/index.phphttp://feedfrequencies.com/board/index.php
 

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Tom Mountford said:
I may be drifting away from the original question a bit, but I've been reading up and have found the main difference between the digital systems seems to be in the MPEG compression - 4:2:0 for domestic channels and 4:2:2 for most feeds - so presumably no matter what the dish/LNB combination if it is a 4:2:0-based domestic receiver it's not going to be able to interpret pro feeds? Am I wrong?

It might confuse the hell out of some people why I would choose to have a monitor showing colour bars or an empty studio for hours on end rather than watching 'proper' channels but nonetheless that's what I'm after :-) I haven't been able to find a DX-ing/feeds area on the site, anyone know where one may lie?

Thanks!
Tom
A Pc receiver card such as the Technisat Skystar 2 can resolve MPEG 4:2:2
with the right software. Cost about £55.
A good receiver for feedhunting would be one with a 'blind scan' facility such as Fortecstar or Coship. These will scan and store almost everything on a satellite currently transmitting. Won't clear 4:2:2 though.

Llew
 

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Tom Mountford

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Hi all, I'm back! I've just got a fantastic deal on a lightly used, one lady-owner (possibly a Vicar?) Scientific Atlanta 9225 PowerVu digital receiver... now I just need a dish and I should be scanning the skies before Christmas... fingers crossed! Any questions I'll know where to come!

Tom
 

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Tom Mountford said:
Hi all, I'm back! I've just got a fantastic deal on a lightly used, one lady-owner (possibly a Vicar?) Scientific Atlanta 9225 PowerVu digital receiver... now I just need a dish and I should be scanning the skies before Christmas... fingers crossed! Any questions I'll know where to come!

Tom
Tom, your receiver cannot be used with a motorised dish, if that's what you intend. It has no positioner or Disecq switching facility.I recommend purchasing as well either a standalone positioner or a conventional motorised receiver if your dish is larger than 1M to drive it. You will of course require an actuator jack for the dish.

Llew
 
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