Inverto MultiConnect System

[Huevos]

you can see the Black Ultra has significant improvements on the signals.

The Black Ultra is pretty good across the board but where it clearly stands out compared to its rivals is between 10.7 and 11GHz.

 

[timo_w2s]

The Black Ultra is pretty good across the board but where it clearly stands out compared to its rivals is between 10.7 and 11GHz.

Shame I can't test that but I think I'd be pushing it trying to get Astra 2D on a 80cm dish behind glass in Helsinki. ;)

Anyway, I've attached a couple of photos with the new Black Ultra fitted to the MultiConnect system pointing at 28.2°E replacing an existing LNB as seen in a post earlier in this thread.

I've also added another MultiConnect bar to the existing one to allow me to an another LNB a bit further round to 5°E. I'm pushing the dish to it's limits but it picks up the stronger Sirius signals (even some vertical transponders!).

 

[Huevos]

Something very strange about your skew there, especially on Astra 1. Also your picture shows a design oversight: it's impossible to adjust the skew of any of the LNBs without having to move them along the bar and up and down at the same time.

 

[timo_w2s]

Something very strange about your skew there, especially on Astra 1. Also your picture shows a design oversight: it's impossible to adjust the skew of any of the LNBs without having to move them along the bar and up and down at the same time.

Astra 1 is probably a bit out due to me fiddling with the new Ultra Black and not fine tuning it back but yes, adjusting the skew is difficult on this setup. I must say though I haven't noticed a great deal of signal change with the skew, not sure if it is because I'm only getting horizontal signals anyway due to the (polarised?) glass in front of the dish so the vertical signals aren't interfering quite like they would be in a normal setup.

 

[patmos]

Astra 1 is probably a bit out due to me fiddling with the new Ultra Black and not fine tuning it back but yes, adjusting the skew is difficult on this setup. I must say though I haven't noticed a great deal of signal change with the skew, not sure if it is because I'm only getting horizontal signals anyway due to the (polarised?) glass in front of the dish so the vertical signals aren't interfering quite like they would be in a normal setup.

By adjusting the skew of the first (centre) LNB won't it set all other LNBs skew? I think the degree (skew) of the bar is the skew for the whole satellite arc.

 

[timo_w2s]

By adjusting the skew of the first (centre) LNB won't it set all other LNBs skew? I think the degree (skew) of the bar is the skew for the whole satellite arc.

I think you are right. The problem is my homemade Black Ultra bracket at the end of the arc doesn't have any "up/down" fine tuning adjustments so the only thing I can do is move the whole bar, I hadn't bothered to sort out the other LNBs after moving the bar as I was just interested in getting maximum signal out of the Black Ultra for some tests at the time.

Having said all that, I'm not noticing much difference in the skew settings on these LNBs. I can twist it a few degrees either way on say Astra 1 (centre LN and not see any changes in signal quality on my TM6900. Maybe this is because I'm only getting horizontal signals through the glass so there is less interferences from the lack of nearby vertical signals on the other polarity?

 

[Huevos]

By adjusting the skew of the first (centre) LNB won't it set all other LNBs skew? I think the degree (skew) of the bar is the skew for the whole satellite arc.

That's not correct. The bar is straight... not an arc, the satellites are in an arc.

 

[patmos]

That's not correct. The bar is straight... not an arc, the satellites are in an arc.

No Huevos.The bracket is tilted as you rotate your first LNB to get the maximum signal. This is the skew for that particular satellite. All satellites (LN added left or right will follow that same skew. There may be slight adjustments as all satellites are not precise on the arc.There are some inclined orbits. What I mean by arc is that all satellites like planets in the sky follow a certain arc above the equator. That's the reason for skew, i think. The bar is straight but it is at an angle to the horizontal.

 

[Huevos]

No Huevos.The bracket is tilted as you rotate your first LNB to get the maximum signal. This is the skew for that particular satellite. All satellites (LN added left or right will follow that same skew. There may be slight adjustments as all satellites are not precise on the arc.There are some inclined orbits. What I mean by arc is that all satellites like planets in the sky follow a certain arc above the equator. That's the reason for skew, i think. The bar is straight but it is at an angle to the horizontal.

Obviously the bar tilts but it is straight. Taking my location for example, I require 0º skew for Thor and -41º for Turksat. Please explain how a bar with a line of parallel skewed LNBs should be tilted to get the varying skews required for each satellite without individual adjustment.

 

[patmos]

Obviously the bar tilts but it is straight. Taking my location for example, I require 0º skew for Thor and -41º for Turksat. Please explain how a bar with a line of parallel skewed LNBs should be tilted to get the varying skews required for each satellite without individual adjustment.

May be I'm wrong . I understand it like this: when you are facing Thor( same lat as your location), The bar is straight (0 skew), this is good for this sat only. Then you have Turksat 31º E ( skew 41º ) far away. This LNB is not in the centre of the dish. The dish has not moved to 31º E but the LNB is offset with respect to the centre one and cannot have 0 skew as Thor LNB. So as a LNB is moved along the bar, irrespective of the angle the bar ,the skew is changed.
My dish is centred on w3a at 7º E . I adjusted this first one and fine tune skew( the bar moved alongside). Then I put two LNBs at 10ºE and 16º E . The third I put at the defunct w2m at 4º E . No skew was needed.
If I'm wrong somebody please help.

 

[peapod1]

Patmos
I would love to know the answer to this one.
In my multiconnect set-up, I have Astra 2 as the prime with A1 and HB both off to one side. The bar is set at an angle of roughly 3 deg from horizontal, to account for the fact that A1 and HB are higher in the arc, but otherwise the lnb's hang vertical. Should A1 and HB be skewed around their vertical axis with just Astra2 lnb set vertical?

 

[rolfw]

Astra 2 should be skewed the most, with hotbird the least, in fact not too far off the vertical, best to do it whilst watch the signal quality display on your satellite receiver.

 

[Huevos]

May be I'm wrong . I understand it like this: when you are facing Thor( same lat as your location), The bar is straight (0 skew), this is good for this sat only.

The bar is straight but that is not related to the satellite positions. The bar is just a support and if you are covering a sizeable part of the arc the LNBs will need to be adjustable above and below the bar. If you take as an example 38.5ºN, 0.8ºW the elevation for Thor is 45.4º. Go 21.8º to the east and you are at 21ºE that requires 39.9º elevation. Go an equal amount more (another 21º east) and you arrive at 42ºE which requires 27.3º elevation. i.e. a reduction of 5.5º elevation for the first half of the arc, and a reduction of 12.6º elevation for the second half of the arc. From this I'm sure you can see having the LNBs rigidly attached to a straight bar is just not going to work unless you are only covering a very small part of the arc or just 2 satellites.

 

[patmos]

The bar is straight but that is not related to the satellite positions. The bar is just a support and if you are covering a sizeable part of the arc the LNBs will need to be adjustable above and below the bar. If you take as an example 38.5ºN, 0.8ºW the elevation for Thor is 45.4º. Go 21.8º to the east and you are at 21ºE that requires 39.9º elevation. Go an equal amount more (another 21º east) and you arrive at 42ºE which requires 27.3º elevation. i.e. a reduction of 5.5º elevation for the first half of the arc, and a reduction of 12.6º elevation for the second half of the arc. From this I'm sure you can see having the LNBs rigidly attached to a straight bar is just not going to work unless you are only covering a very small part of the arc or just 2 satellites.

If you are talking from your own real life experience, I appreciate it . I'm learning something new. I've never put LNB as far as in your example. When LNB are very close it is not always possible to adjust much skew. As i pointed earlier adjustment ( mainly the UP/DOWN) may be required.For me skew was not an issue, it just followed the tendency of the first LNB.

 

[hexah]

If you are talking from your own real life experience, I appreciate it .

Huevos is right!

:-cheers

If you get a piece of paper and make 10 dots in an arc then use a ruler to draw a straight line through the third and the seventh dot you can see the problem.

The dots are the satellites and the line is the LNB support bar.

The Inverto Multi-Connect LNBs can be adjusted up and down at the back to account for these elevation differences as well as being rotateable for skew differences.

It does a good job for its intended purpose - the bar is marked for use with 60cm or 80cm dishes.

:-googly