multi LNB on one dish

[lost_one]

Hi,

I'm a complete newbie to DIY satellite but I think I understand the basics. I'm living in Germany and have a standard Sky set-up now. I want to receive 9E, 13E, 19.2E and maybe add more later via a Vu+ Duo or Clarketech ET-9000...which one for a newbie?

Should I keep the current minidish for 28.2E and then use another (1M) dish for the other sats/LNBs or put them all on one dish? I'm thinking about the Inverto multi-connect??

This is my first install/dish alignment, do you recommend an amateur attempt a multi LNB set-up? Should I invest in a meter such as Satlook Lite or try a basic cheapo sat finder? or bite the bullet and pay for installation.

I've looked on Dishpointer.com and it seems pretty straight forward but I'm an experienced avionics technician and know that usually isn't the case with these things!

Any dish recommendations would also be appreciated.

TIA

 

[archive10]

Hi there, welcome to the forum.

By all mean do try a multi-sat setup. Single-sats are quite straightforward. Multi-sats are only slightly more complex, depending on the number of LNBs you want.

Forget the minidish. Not good for multi-LNB. Get a proper dish. As you are looking 4+ LNBs, I would say get a toroidal (Wavefrontier) T55 (or T90 if you have the room). This gives you good reception across all LNBs, no fading at the extremes. If budget is tight get a so-called multifocus (non-"toroidal") - these work ok too with the sats you are looking at.

The downside with multi-LNB dishes are that they require more fine-tuning to get proper reception acrocss all LNBs. This can be tricky (but isn't necessarily) to get right. Follow the mfgs instructions (especially the part about getting the mount absolutely vertical), and you may get good results.

A good sat meter can help out here, go on ebay and get a digital meter. Will save you hours of frustration.

If your economics and the powers that be allow, do multiple dishes + DiSEqC switch. Much easier to set up. But somewhat not so pleasing to the eye...

St1

 

[Ghostleader]

The traditional way of doing it (Here in the U.K.) is a 80cm dish with the focus on 19E & have 13E & 28E as the offset LNB's. Doing it this way means your furthest away offset LNB (28E) is at a 9 degree offset which means that LNB will receive about the same signal levels as a LNB on 65cm dish & the other 6 degree offset LNB (13E) will see the same sort of power levels a 70cm dish would give to main focused LNB. The Inverto Multiconnect system has its pro's & con's (Like everything else in life) but would do what your wanting. I have 5W,1W,7E,13E,19E & 28E on the one 80cm dish with 28E at a 15 degree offset as I have 13E as the focus LNB.

 

[Robbo]

I agree, an 80cm dish or so, will get you your main sats pretty easily inc 28E if you can currently get it on a minidish in Germany????

If you do want to get more than that eventually, then A T90 would give you more. Never messed with a T90, but been playing with a T55 today, and they are very impressive for their size, 28E to 5W, without too much trouble on strong sats.

Reagrding whether a separate dish should be used for 28E, I would say, if a minidish already up and working fine, then carry on using t, as it may give you more scope to pick up more from the multi-LNB setup. 26E for example.

 

[lost_one]

Hi,

I'm a complete newbie to DIY satellite but I think I understand the basics. I'm living in Germany and have a standard Sky set-up now. I want to receive 9E, 13E, 19.2E and maybe add more later via a Vu+ Duo or Clarketech ET-9000...which one for a newbie?

Should I keep the current minidish for 28.2E and then use another (1M) dish for the other sats/LNBs or put them all on one dish? I'm thinking about the Inverto multi-connect??

This is my first install/dish alignment, do you recommend an amateur attempt a multi LNB set-up? Should I invest in a meter such as Satlook Lite or try a basic cheapo sat finder? or bite the bullet and pay for installation.

I've looked on Dishpointer.com and it seems pretty straight forward but I'm an experienced avionics technician and know that usually isn't the case with these things!

Any dish recommendations would also be appreciated.

TIA

 

[lost_one]

Thanks for the quick replies.

If I go with the Inverto multi-connect system, can I use Inverto black ultra 23mm quad LNBs or just single/twin?

The Orbital dishes don't seem to be available here in Germany, any recommendations for 1M dishes? Is there any brand of dish that's easy/difficult to mount and align?

I've seen a lot of sat meters for €10-30, is a meter without a spectrum analyzer and sat identification a waste of time?

I'm planning on getting familiar witht the Clarketech ET-9000 with my existing Sky+ system first. This is a complete newbie question, do I connect both LNB cables from the standard Sky minidish?

TIA

 

[Ghostleader]

I would be very surprised if you could not buy a Triax TD88 which size wise is closer to a 95cm dish that just a bog standard 90cm, So that would be ideal for what you want. The problem with the Multiconnect Bracket is the max spread of 22 Degree's on a 90cm dish so 90cm is your top end dish size wise. You can use quad's if you wish as the F-connector config on the Multiconnect LNB's is "inline" by design so you can get two quads as close together as two singles.

Thanks for the quick replies.

If I go with the Inverto multi-connect system, can I use Inverto black ultra 23mm quad LNBs or just single/twin?

The Orbital dishes don't seem to be available here in Germany, any recommendations for 1M dishes? Is there any brand of dish that's easy/difficult to mount and align?

I've seen a lot of sat meters for €10-30, is a meter without a spectrum analyzer and sat identification a waste of time?

I'm planning on getting familiar witht the Clarketech ET-9000 with my existing Sky+ system first. This is a complete newbie question, do I connect both LNB cables from the standard Sky minidish?

TIA

 

[lost_one]

I think I might scrap the Inverto multiconnect idea because a lot of people have reception trouble with the 23mm LNBs in the rain/snow. Any suggestions for other multi-feed brackets??

 

[Robbo]

You could also buy a dish that has a bracket especially made for it, eg a Triax or a Gibertini. You could then use a narrow LNB if you really had to when spacing doesn't permit normal sized LNBs. Same goes for the universal Multi-LNB brackets, you should easily be able to find one from one of the German suppliers.

 

[lost_one]

Does anyone have experience with the Gilbertini or Triax multi-LNB brackets?

No recommendations for sat meters?

 

[archive10]

Hi there,

If you're really just after many TV channels, get an installer to do the job. saves you hassle, time, no "archive" of brackets, cables and gizmos that may one day come in handy, no massive ebay bills etc etc. The pro installer has all the right tools and knowledge to get the thing going well and quickly, and can in principle be held responsible if result not working. Critical thing is to get somone who knows what they're doing, not just says they know what they're doing.

HOWEVER, If you're like many of us here, and feel the itch to fiddle with dish-mountings, speculate in which C/N ratios can be had using different LNBs with different transponders on 28.2E, and are good at explaining to the powers that be why you need to have several boxes filled with necessary equipment (and not the least why any house looks stylish with at least a couple of over-sized dishes on it), you should do-it-yourself! It's a fascinating hobby. "Because we can!" should really be the motto here.

The amount of knowledge that can be gained is staggering (e.g. how to buid your own dish from styrofoam or how to improve signal-to-noise-ratios using the right LNB+cabling), and the member of this forum are probably some of the best in the world to answer both the theoretical and practical questions. Nevertheless, you can also get very far just by fiddling a bit. So even using a sky zone-2 dish, and adding a couple of home-made brackets, you could pick up what you are looking for. Time and enthusiams are the key requirements here. Just pointing the dish at the sky and fiddling a bit may give you pictures, regardless of C/N ratios etc.

[sound of someone stepping off of a soap box]

Re sat-meters: If you really want to venture there, get something that you can program to a specific frequency, and actually analyses the signal, and can calculate carrier to noise-ratio (C/N) and something like MER (modulation error ratio). This help tuning the LNB positioning/skew and not just dish pointing (strongest signal). These will start at 80-90 GBP and quickly go up. The cheaper stuff (10-20 GBP) just give you a reading of the signal strength, this works about as well as your receiver if you can see it from the dish position.

I'd say: Get a multi-focus dish (either the round ones or a torroidal), a multi-LNB bracket if not included with dish, a couple of "normal-but-slim" LNBs, and a DiSEqC switch, cable and twist-on F-connectors, and you should be well equipped. Considering the sats you are looking for, you may want to buy slim-LNBs such as the invertos. If you get a torroidal, it has more room for LNBs, so you can fit them better. Then if you can't get the darned thing working just following the instructions and being careful with aligment and spirit-levels, then you can consider buying a sat-meter to aid you. But you may never need to.