My first setup

T

TheToad

Regular Member
My Satellite Setup
1.5m motorised dish on tripod + C120 LNB -
Primarily used for Amos, Sirius and hotbird - hooked up to minidish for freesat
My Location
Leicester, England
Not strictly my first because I had my first setup in Poland last year to receive Ukrainian TV.

This is a 1.5m dish purchased on ebay connected with a monoblock LNB (Astra/Hotbird) but currently pointed at Amos. The LNB mounts had been previously modified so I'm not convinved the LNB is in the ideal focus position but I get a 60% quality signal from Amos.

The motor is old and maybe siezed up. I haven't yet worked out what i need to get that working. It appears to have a 4-core cable hanging off it.

View attachment 28709

The 2nd dish is a 90cm which I used in Poland to get Ukrainian TV for my wife. Not currently connected - maybe on freecycle once I've got the motor working.

This is all connected to a Technomate TN-8000 HD80 MCCI which seems impossible to get information on. I also have a Dragon module (PCMCIA) Rev 2.06 but as yet I've not found info on how to make use of this. I'm hoping it can plug nto the PCMCIA slot on my laptop and be programmed that way without cards.

Other unused equipment: Skysat Digital 800 FTA decoder & Samsung Cyfrowy Polsat box with expired card.
Location: Melton Mowbray, UK.

That's all folks. We got a baby on the way so that's pretty much the end of my spending on this which is kinda bitter-sweet.

Tony
 

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Interesting!

But Amos is tricky ............ just half a dozen Channels possible with a more common 1.1m dish, so what sort of results do you get with your 1.5m?

Also, the four core is for a 36v Actuator (as you no doubt know, DiSEqC H-H Motors for dishes up to 1 or )at a push) 1.2m use the same Coax as the LNB uses).

To get it working you'd need something like a V-Box to provide the positional data and, most importantly, the "oomph".
 
Hi,
With the 1.5m we have 35 Ukrainian channels and various other foreign channels and they seems to have a good quality signal around 60%. However, I did notice that if I so much as look at the dish the signal can drop to 13%. Once I've drilled a hole in the wall for the cable I'll be relocating the dish further up the garden so it wont get touched. I'm also considering if I need a higher gain LNB. Alternatively, would an extra tiny dish work behind the LNB to reflect a little more signal the same way I do with wi-fi signals?

As for the motor, the whole assembly came with the dish and the previous owner told me that it used to work fine, before he left it out in the rain for years. I know nothing about the motors so any information would be useful. I was hoping to drive it from the decoder I have but suspect there needs to be something in between to provide the power and instructions decoded from the box.

If the motor is a no-go or will be too expensive then I'll have to look at colocating multiple LNBs as they do in Ukraine but I 'll try to keep Amos in focus if I can.

Our main aim is Ukrainian TV but if I can get all the Polish channels too, that will be a bonus.

regards
Tony
 
Hi,

Your post sent me back to Amos, which I don't look at very often. FYI, I can pick up 16 FTA channels, all about 75% quality. This is only two or three points above where the drop out point is on my Vantage, so the reception is just on the good side of marginal. I can get occasional bursts of the transponder which carries RealEstateTV and I think with a little tinkering I could improve it. However, I've just managed to get some Nilesat horizontals back, so don't want to mess things up again!! By the way, an extra 'tiny' dish wouldn't work! I think you need to spend some time making sure the dish is set up as near to perfect as you can. My best bit of advice? Make sure your pole is absolutely plumb. Then go back and check it......twice!! I had problems until I got a proper pole on T&K's and even then it's taken me a while to get it right. Good Luck.

Pete
 
Thanks for that Pete, some good advice there. The pole came with the dish and looks pretty near perfectly upright on the supplied slab of concrete. The the minute, rocking the concrete slab is my only way of changing the angle because the bolts are all rusted solid. I'll be careful to make sur the slab is level when I reposition the dish further up the garden in the few weeks. For now, it's not broke, so apart from it partially blocking the door to the greenhouse, I don't want to touch it.
 
Hi Tony.

Nice collection.

Consider getting yourself a new actuator 18"/24" and a Vbox to drive the dish. Would be a shame to leave it as a fixed mount.
 
I'd love to get some new kit and improve the setup but we've got a baby on the way and need to get the in-laws over to visit for a few months so all our funds are diverted to that cause for a year or 18. I'd start writing some shareware to raise some extra capital but from my experience nobody wants to pay for software :)
 
We've also noticed that the signal drops significantly at night, is this normal? From my amateur radio days I'd expect this from Earth to Earth communications but surely a less ionised ionosphere should be better for satellite rather than worse? Either that or the cold is hitting my old LNB and cheap cable pretty hard.
 
geostationary satellites are a supprising distance from earth (35,786 km) , and the 10-12GHz signals can get weakened at night - it's not that much, but if the signal is a bit on the weak side anyway it can be enough to send it over the edge.
 
HI All,
I just ordered a VBox and hope to fit it when the rain stop drenching my corner of the world. I'll also be resiting the dish a bit further from the house. If the actuator is still working then I hope to post some video! If it's seized then I guess I'll have to get another.

I have 4 cores on the cable hanging out of the actuator, how do I work out which is for what purpose?

Tony
 
TheToad said:
HI All,
I just ordered a VBox and hope to fit it when the rain stop drenching my corner of the world. I'll also be resiting the dish a bit further from the house. If the actuator is still working then I hope to post some video! If it's seized then I guess I'll have to get another.

I have 4 cores on the cable hanging out of the actuator, how do I work out which is for what purpose?

Tony
Click to expand...





Looks like your be needing to install a complete run of 4 core. For reed type there should be two wires for the motor supply and two for the reed switch. The latter provides positional info feedback for the Vbox. There will be instructions with the Vbox as with a replacement actuator if needed but connecting from Vbox to actuator should be fairly straight forward.
 
Well, it's all set up and working a treat! My wife is very happy that she has all the channels she woudl get back home and more! Due to being in a dip and a house being right in the way we've not yet got Astra 2D but I'll try again a bit later, surely with a 1.5m dish if I just get a bit of signal with such a strong bird it would work? We'll see.

Once I've got the programmer for this old dragon cam I'll start the next learning curve and educate myself on encrytion for educational purposes ;)

T
 
Nice result.

Are you getting no 28e reception at all?
 
I tried again last night and hey presto this time it worked! The signal on some transpondesr seems to dip to 13% so I think that house is really in the way. I'm about 10 meter away and the house stands maybe 12m higher than my dish. If I move the dish then I'll be too close to my own house and I'll lose Amos reception which is the most important one for us. Idealy I need to put a flat roof on the shed and put the dish there but I suspect the neighbours will complain about such an eyesore poking over their fence.
 
Can't you acquire an old "Sky" Minidish for 28E alone and fit it in an unobtrusive place that does have line of sight?

Quite a few folk retain a fixed dish for 28E regardless of what other goodies they may have.
 
I do have a fixed dish I guess I could resurrect for that bird alone if I need to move the dish further up the garden, that's a good idea.
Thanks :)
 
Nice dish but you have the wrong type of lnb on it you need a prime focus feed horn with a c120 lnb with the focal point set right or the dish will not act a 1.5m the lnb you hae on it is for a offset dish.
 
Hi Antenna1,
Thanks for the advice, I suspected I had the worg LNB. I do have another but it's a very cheap one and doesn't get a great signal. For now I'm getting enough signal with the wrong one so the wife wont let me spend, at least until after the baby is born.
I'll keep an eye out for a cheap feed horn but I doub't she'll let me spend just now :)
cheers
T
 
one of them invacom adjustable feed horns and a c120 inverto lnb etc would be a good buy when you are able to spend
 
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