I need an LNB

[kentishman]

Hi everyone, new here so bear with me if I sound thick but the last 24 hours have been a bit of a learning curve

I got home last night to find a pressie waiting for me. A mate of mine is downsizing to somewhere where he cant install a satellite dish and rather than chuck out his equipment that has been gathering dust for ages he's donated it to me I've thrown it all together today to get it going but through a process of swapping bits I've discovered the LNB only works on one polarity so a new one is required. Off I went to look for something suitable and I seem to have entered a mine field of information and advise about the dish. It's a 1m Gibertini which appears to come well recommended but has an unusual f/d ratio of 0.66 so the LNB has to have a slightly different feedhorn arrangement to illuminate the dish correctly. Has anyone measured how much is lost by using a typical LNB designed for 0.6 f/d ratio? I could just buy a 2 quid special off an auction site but it seems a bit of a disservice to the dish not to use it to its full potential and as I've spent nothing so far I wont feel guilty!

From what I've gathered so far (and it's been forums overload this morning!) the options are one of two LNBfs or a C120 feedhorn and LNB.
The two LNBfs are either an MTI Blueline 0.3 single or Inverto Black Ultra Single, any thoughts on these two?
Gibertini do a matched C120 feedhorn but a couple of people have suggested using a Channel Master as it peforms slightly better, not yet sure about the LNB choice if I go this route.
I'm equally open to any new suggestions of what to use with this dish too.

Standing in the garden today I reckon I can do 62E to 61W so I'd like to get the very best option for the dish to get the most from it. I do have a techy and RF background and I dabbled with satellite way back in the day using an Amstrad 100(?) and an old white steel sky dish bolted onto a curved bit of metal under our flat window. I used to watch the American feeds coming in on 27.5W as my old telly did 525 lines so as you can see, it's been a while since I dabbled lol but the bug has bitten already and I've only been playing since this morning

Rik

 

[Robbo]

I'd be tempted to just put any standard LNBF on it, and see what you can get. If there's something that you wanted, but it's marginal, then have a mess about with different LNBs. Though the Inverto black ultra would be a good start.

There is not a lot of difference whichever standard LNBF is used on the dish, the major factor is dish size.

 

[kentishman]

There is not a lot of difference whichever standard LNBF is used on the dish, the major factor is dish size.

Thanks for the reply Robbo, bottom line is dish size then, not that I'm looking to invest in anything bigger but I notice there's quite a price hike as soon as you go above 1.1m. Is all this f/d ratio stuff nothing much to worry about after all, I've found lots of people using this dish but only a vocal minority discussing suitable LNBs for the dish so I wondered if it was a known issue amongst the more experienced users?

I'm always wary of deals that offer too much for too little, 0.1dB LNB for a fiver seems a little too good to be true so I'll take a look at the two I mentioned, I've not found any side by side tests or an outright winner between them. If anyone else has an opinion I'm keen to hear it. I dont mind spending money on decent gear but do want to squeeze every last uV out of it if I can, it's in my blood

I got it moving this morning albeit manually rotating the LNB for polarity and have good signals from 45E - 43W, there doesn't seem to be much any further out west so am enjoying Kiss TV but both 53 and 62E should yield something so I reckon I need to carry on tweaking the angles ever so slightly.

 

[Robbo]

The difference between standard LNB's only really becomes apparent when trying get a satellite that is very weak with the dish you are using. I tried quite a few on my dish (Inverto silvertech, Smart Titanium, Bigsat, Fortec star, Sky quad, mti, Inverto Black ultra), all worked to varying degrees on 7W and 26E, but for other satellites they were all fine. The best that I tried was the Inverto Black ultra.

 

[satelliteman]

Is all this f/d ratio stuff nothing much to worry about after all, I've found lots of people using this dish but only a vocal minority discussing suitable LNBs for the dish so I wondered if it was a known issue amongst the more experienced users?

I'm always wary of deals that offer too much for too little, 0.1dB LNB for a fiver seems a little too good to be true so I'll take a look at the two I mentioned, I've not found any side by side tests or an outright winner between them. If anyone else has an opinion I'm keen to hear it. I dont mind spending money on decent gear but do want to squeeze every last uV out of it if I can, it's in my blood

I got it moving this morning albeit manually rotating the LNB for polarity and have good signals from 45E - 43W, there doesn't seem to be much any further out west so am enjoying Kiss TV but both 53 and 62E should yield something so I reckon I need to carry on tweaking the angles ever so slightly.

Have a SNH-031 Invacom working on my Gibertini 1m; performs well for weak satellites. Have no problem with 7W vert polar.
Worth considering a feedhorn/c120 if owning a 120 or 150cm version Gibertini