New life for old BSB dish in Finland

[timo_w2s]

Inspired by the BSB thread and 2cvbloke's posts in the Analogue systems forum, I've been testing my old BSB dish over the past few days on a temporary setup (an old LNB taped to dish arm with insulating tape and dish stuck on a pole held up by a flower pot).

The beauty of this dishes is it fits in a small suitcase nicely, brought the dish with me to Finland last week wrapped in a jumper.

Pictures are of the dish aligned to 4.8E picking up all channels well, even the weaker European beam in rain, something my offset LNB on the 19.2E 80cm can't do.

I also managed to pick up most of 1W, a lot of 13E and 19.2E, and the north beams of 28.2E in Helsinki, Finland.

Now I just need to make a proper LNB mount and fix the dish somewhere...

 

[Lazarus]

Excellent - how on earth does your Cleaner cope?

 

[Llew]

Very good timo. Proves there's life in the old dish yet (and the LNB )

 

[timo_w2s]

how on earth does your Cleaner cope?

I cope just fine thanks. ;)

 

[archive10]

What make is the dish? It looks like an SMC or plastic dish...
Is that just me over-squinting, or does it actually say Channel Master on the back of the dish??

 

[timo_w2s]

What make is the dish? It looks like an SMC or plastic dish...
Is that just me over-squinting, or does it actually say Channel Master on the back of the dish??

You've got good eyes, yes it's a Channel Master! Even at only 35cm they are well built quality solid dishes.

 

[Analoguesat]

Very good - lovely to see an old dish put back into use

 

[archive10]

You've got good eyes, yes it's a Channel Master!

Woohoo. (Although maybe it's a sign of getting a bit to nerdy in this hobby! )

Even at only 35cm

35cm... amazing what you can use to receive a relatively weark signal beamed from 40000 km away in space...

they are well built quality solid dishes.

Yes this is why I have an affinity for SMC dishes. Even my (steel) WaveFrontier that went up this summer is *already* rusting at the edges... (gotta give it a lick of something before it gets out of hand). At least the triax is aluminum...

BTW: Just ogled you balcony setup... what if you close the windows - do you still receive stuff?

 

[timo_w2s]

BTW: Just ogled you balcony setup... what if you close the windows - do you still receive stuff?

When I first tested a dish through the glass I made a thread about it here:
http://www.satellites.co.uk/forums/...827-odd-satellite-reception-behind-glass.html

Basically I get most of the horizontal channels without much difference in reception but it pretty much kills all vertical channels.

 

[archive10]

(referenced thread contains) Excellent answer to my question.
Thanks!

 

[colinp]

I nearly fell on the floor when I read the thread starter.I thought it was a squarial

 

[timo_w2s]

Project finished and the BSB dish is now fixed in its new home looking at Astra 4A at 4.8°E. :-righton

I used a metal shelf bracket and a jubilee clip to secure the LNB in place after experimenting on various positions for optimum signal. I also switched the LNB from the old Smart Titanium that I used in the original test to a white Sharp LNB I had lying about as it gave me an extra couple of percentage points on signal quality. (Those Sharp LNBs perform for me almost or as good as the Inverto Black Ultras)

Now I get between 70-85% quality on all transponders which is a huge increase over the offset LNB I was using before on the 80cm dish looking at 19.2°E (14.4° offset!). Right now it's peeing it down with strong winds but the signal is still rock solid. Very happy with the result and glad I could make use of an old friend for about 5€ in bits from the DIY store. It's just a shame the dish is 80m in the air so no one else can admire it (except maybe the odd plane). ;)

(Warning: If you look hard enough you might spot me in one of the photos. And no, I'm not naked.)

 

[Lazarus]

Ah, you'll be doing the cleaning we mentioned earlier, then,

 

[Ghostleader]

Top man, its brill to see something that was discarded by more than 90% of people used in the present.