Ka-Band Satellites

[RustySpoons]

Can be done cheaper, sometimes it's just a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Trawl fleabay on a regular basis for Ka lnb's and one day you could get lucky. The little white coloured Band A-18GHz 'Hughes@ DRO lnb's don't need any mods but you do need the correct WR42 scalar feed to suit which type of dish you will be using it on ie: PF or Offset.
For an alternative to the now unobtainable Inverto Ka/Ku lnbf (Band D on Ka) Iv'e followed s-band's, Grahams lead on modding ex-satellite broadband Gilat ODU's by removing the Rx board, grafting on a suitable WR42 feed, re-house & waterproof it and away you go. The one that i have modded for use on 16/7/4.9° East satellites actually performs better than my Inverto Ka/Ku but are Ka only and one polarity only - which ain't to much of a problem at the moment as all the broadcast Tv action is on Hor polarity. Again, these can be picked up off the bay from anywhere between £20 to £50 - depends how lucky you get .

Great advice there, I'll keep an eye out, I'm not shy to modify an LNB

 

[sat-tv-fan]

Ah this was the one I meant KA- und KU Band LNB IDLK-SINL20-KAKUO-OPP von Empfangsbereich KA-Band 21200 - 22200 MHZ und KU-Band 10700 - 12750 MHz Satshop24

Unfortunately only 1 band though

 

[sat-tv-fan]

Great advice there, I'll keep an eye out, I'm not shy to modify an LNB

If anyone can get and modify one for me the I'll gladly pay a reasonable sum !

 

[dreamsat]

31,5 East Astra 5B

21447 LHCP 67000
21457 RHCP 67000

Transponders are Circular
my first Scan is linear and the second Scan is circular with dielectrical Plate

regards dreamsat

 

[John]

Astra 4.9 East. Usual football feed.
Modified Gilat band D satellite broadband ODU rx board under test.
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[John]

7 East Ka.
Two feeds up, 21.716 H & 21.727 H

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[RustySpoons]

7 East Ka.
Two feeds up, 21.716 H & 21.727 H

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John do you have any success with C and Ka on your "Smaller" Dishes?

 

[John]

John do you have any success with C and Ka on your "Smaller" Dishes?

there separate systems Rusty, my 2.2 Elite PF is just for Cband only. For Ka i use a dedicated 1.25 Gibby with an lnb changer fitted with various Ka band lnb's that get swapped about when experimenting. For Ku i use a CM 1.2.
A quick grab off the Gibby dish cam showing the 18GHz Norsat at focus. Either side is an Inverto Ka/Ku and a couple of Gilat Satellite broadband rx boards that have been re-housed and tweaked.
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[RustySpoons]

there separate systems Rusty, my 2.2 Elite PF is just for Cband only. For Ka i use a dedicated 1.25 Gibby with an lnb changer fitted with various Ka band lnb's that get swapped about when experimenting. For Ku i use a CM 1.2.
A quick grab off the Gibby dish cam showing the 18GHz Norsat at focus. Either side is an Inverto Ka/Ku and a couple of Gilat Satellite broadband rx boards that have been re-housed and tweaked.
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Oh my what a lovely set up!
Put my CM 1.2 up this weekend, currently has a Ku on it, not sure if it's worth getting a couple of LNB/LNBF's to mess around with on C/Ka.
I might stand a chance with Ka, not sure there is much C that I will be able to receive on that dish 50e-30w, the Gibby 1m will do 65-65 but only 1m, now if I can sneak something bigger up there one day.

 

[John]

@ 16 East. Ka. These entries now using 21540.9 H
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[John]

Extra help required here,
A beacon looking signal that seems to be at 21 deg East, does not seem to be external interference, seems to be on a sat downlink and slowly fluctuates from below noise floor up to good levels and very slowly drops back to noise floor. Analyser grab shown at about max level received here in central UK-1.25 Gibby- Band D Gilat rx board. Freq: 21.525, Pol H on rx lnb but unknown.
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[s-band]

Extra help required here,
A beacon looking signal that seems to be at 21 deg East, does not seem to be external interference, seems to be on a sat downlink and slowly fluctuates from below noise floor up to good levels and very slowly drops back to noise floor. Analyser grab shown at about max level received here in central UK-1.25 Gibby- Band D Gilat rx board. Freq: 21.525, Pol H on rx lnb but unknown.

It's possible it is from Hylas 4 testing. I think its beacon is at 20.2005GHz circular arianespace va 242 march 2018 It is quite weak, only 18dB C/N in 1kHz.
I used Astra 3B carrier on 20.199V and SBIRS GEO 2 as a markers at 23.5E & 21E respectively but SBIRS is inclined so you will have to chase it.
Satellites Community - 20.6°E SBIRS-Geo 2 (incl.)
I suppose you could be seeing something undiscovered from SBIRS. Can you peak it with inclination?

 

[John]

Yep peaked it on AZ & EL and it does seem to be on the arc and not an inclined sat.
I'm parked up on it now for a while to observe - it's currently below noise and not visable to me.

 

[Llew]

Yep peaked it on AZ & EL and it does seem to be on the arc and not an inclined sat.
I'm parked up on it now for a while to observe - it's currently below noise and not visable to me.

Nothing showing for me on 21E John.

Get 21540 OK on 16E.

Triax TD88, XMW LNB + Saorsat Inverto feed. For any chance of seeing that beacon on 21E, I may need to use the Gibby 1.2. Not changing LNBs on that dish until the wind subsides

 

[Llew]

Get 21540 OK on 16E.

Hang on, that's Equinoxe TV. @John Flysat says Eden TV has left. Is it back now?

 

[John]

Hang on, that's Equinoxe TV. @John Flysat says Eden TV has left. Is it back now?

Yah boss.
The signal on 21.525 has been gone for a while now Llew, i'm wondering like Graham said that it might have been Hylas-4 testing one of it's steerable beams ?.

 

[Llew]

OK, thanks. Worth looking in occasionally, may pop up again.

 

[s-band]

@John Re: 21.3E Hylas 4
This beacon, on 20200.5MHz now appears to be vertical polarisation and a bit stronger at about 25dB S/N. I wonder if I made a mistake, think in it was circular, when I first found it.

There is also a carrier on 19700.0V at a similar strength to the beacon. I can't check above 20.7 at the moment.

 

[John]

@John Re: 21.3E Hylas 4
This beacon, on 20200.5MHz now appears to be vertical polarisation and a bit stronger at about 25dB S/N. I wonder if I made a mistake, think in it was circular, when I first found it.

There is also a carrier on 19700.0V at a similar strength to the beacon. I can't check above 20.7 at the moment.

Ah-ha, that might be the reason i couldn't see anything on circular. I quickly knocked up a Soarsat & feed to have a go with.
I'll swap over to my Norsat or Hughes units tomorrow time permitting and have a look on linear..
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[s-band]

Ah-ha, that might be the reason i couldn't see anything on circular. I quickly knocked up a Soarsat & feed to have a go with.
I'll swap over to my Norsat or Hughes units tomorrow time permitting and have a look on linear..
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It will only make 3dB difference. I use linear most of the time even for circular ones. Your analyser should see it. At 25dB S/N in 1k that's 5dB in 100k and 15dB in 10k BW.

Blundering around in that region I found Milstar 5 at 5 deg above the arc with wide band spread spectrum in band C, just above SBIRS Geo 2 at the time.