Help please with advice for my Barn conversion

[BilliumB]

Hello – I’m new to this game but have been reading the posts and would welcome your advice.

I’m currently doing a barn conversion and have decided to wire 5 different rooms for satellite (Freesat/Sky) and Freeview while it’s easy to get the wires in and to ‘future proof’ it. I’m planning on a Quattro LNB and a log periodic UHF antenna feeding into a Multiswitch in the loft, with 2 cables from the loft to each room (to a Quadplexer Plate – would allow FM/DAB to be added later), plus a 3rd cable to the sitting room to enable a satellite receiver there to be used to feed the rest of the barn if needed in the future. The cable runs will be about 15m from LNB to Multiswitch and between 8m – 17m from the Multiswitch to each of the Quadplexer Plates. The barn is located in Worcestershire (Lat 52.0487 Lon -2.2938) and has an unobstructed line of sight view out towards 28.2 degrees East of South.

And so now to my questions:

As a barn conversion, I want to use the smallest and most unobtrusive dish and wall mounting possible – do you have any recommendations?

I am planning on using either DT100 cable from the Electric Centre where I’ve been buying electrical stuff or PF100 from Screwfix – would either of these be suitable, or do I need a lower loss cable to enable the smallest dish possible?

Also is it best to use the same cable from the LNB to Multiswitch, or do I need to get hold of some multi-core cable for this element?

Now to fitting and aligning the dish. I currently do not have mains power at the barn and furthermore do not own a satellite receiver. Do I need to invest in some sort of battery powered satellite meter to identify the right satellite and to make sure that I’m getting the very best signal from what might be a ‘marginal’ dish?

If I buy a meter (for instance, I was looking at a second hand Laguna Mk4 on ebay which I thought I could sell again when I’ve done this job and a couple of others I’m working on) what meter would you recommend that I get (hopefully second hand)?

How do I work a meter on the Quattro LMB, given that I’ve not got power at the barn yet and so couldn’t use the output of the multiswitch to feed into a meter?

In addition to recommendations for the unobtrusive dish/mounting kit, for cable, do you have any further recommendations on which Quattro LNB, and Multiswitch I should go with (bearing in mind that I also want to try and keep the cost down)?

Thanks ever so much for any help that you can give me.

Bill

 

[pgh13]

Hi Bill,

For keeping costs down you can get an 8 output LNB on Fleabay for less than 20 quid (do you need 2 cables to every room?) and a standard S_y dish is not large - you could always spray paint brown blotches to camouflage it some.

Don't forget the Cat5 cable to each viewing point so's you can network from your media PC!

 

[satelliteman]

As a barn conversion, I want to use the smallest and most unobtrusive dish and wall mounting possible – do you have any recommendations?

Yes an Octo LNb will serve upto 8 feeds but if you plan to use a switch then the smallest dish would be a 60cm.

I am planning on using either DT100 cable from the Electric Centre where I’ve been buying electrical stuff or PF100 from Screwfix – would either of these be suitable, or do I need a lower loss cable to enable the smallest dish possible?

Try and use benchmarked cabling such as Wf100, Tx100 etc. I beleive Pf100 is ok.

Also is it best to use the same cable from the LNB to Multiswitch, or do I need to get hold of some multi-core cable for this element?

You can run seperate 100 type cables from the antenna to the switch or if funds are available, you can run 5 core (not cheap cable that).

Now to fitting and aligning the dish. I currently do not have mains power at the barn and furthermore do not own a satellite receiver. Do I need to invest in some sort of battery powered satellite meter to identify the right satellite and to make sure that I’m getting the very best signal from what might be a ‘marginal’ dish?

Good idea to invest in a meter for correct dish alignment here.

How do I work a meter on the Quattro LMB, given that I’ve not got power at the barn yet and so couldn’t use the output of the multiswitch to feed into a meter?

Depends on what meter you have. A standalone meter with battery will power the LNb for alignment. Note the ports on a quattro are fixed so the meter needs to be on the correct band.


SM

 

[Robbo]

Yes, PF100 is OK, its CAI approved just like wf100.

A Lacuna MK4, whilst OK for aligning the dish, would be of little use when setting up a multiswitch, as it doesn;t give absolute readings in dBuV.

 

[satelliteman]

Good point, a signal power reading (dBuV) along with other signal measurements are essential when setting up multiswitches, although we are only talking a small cable runs here. Not having owned a Lacuna, can you select the 'IF' bands independently?

 

[Robbo]

Yes you can, for 28E, almost every transponder is progammed in, for other satellites there is usually an example from each hi,lo, vert,horiz combination. Apart from that, it is possible to put in whatever you like using the software.

 

[BilliumB]

Thanks for the replies (I would have got back to you all earlier, but have not been able to get onto the site).

You say that I need a 60cm dish to use with a quattro and multiswitch - is this due to losses in the switch (are these very significant), or is a quattro less sensitive than other sorts of LNB, os is a sky type dish simply too small for any reliable system?

I was wondering if using low loss cable (I suppose with a larger centre core) would enable me to use a smaller dish. Am I wasting my time thinking along these lines?

I had assumed that setting up a multiswitch would be a simple matter of connecting the cables to the correct ports - am I mistaken. I can see that if the signal level of the S/N ratio is too poor, then I'll have problems with any system (that was why I was wondering whether a meter of some sort would be useful in ensuring I had a perfectly aligned dish in the first place).

I think in summary, that your advice is use a 60cm dish with PF100 cable and everything should be OK, but use a smaller dish and I'll have problems - is this correct?

Thanks

Bill

 

[Analoguesat]

We have been having technical problems......

 

[soOpersOniC]

You should definately install better cable, WF100 is probably most common. You need to calculate losses when you design a system or youll become unstuck with possibly the wrong components for the job. wf100 will loose you approx 20db per 100m at Terrestrial freqency and about 30db per 100m at satellite frequency.

Then you need to factor that all in with the gain of your multiswitch, and any other losses in the chain. But firstly you need to know what youve got to start with using a meter, so that you know what parts to use.

It's well worth having the right equipment on site and not making expensive mistakes.