Newbie Here New member from s.africa

[John]

Following on from your question, I looked at other Amos satellites, and found Amos-7, and Eutelsat 8w.

8w seems to have a lot of FTA sports channels and am thinking this would be a good place to dip my feet in etc.

How do you work out what type of dish you need to track etc ?

I am guessing KU band is better, and have found this ad.

The price is about 600GBP. Is that fair etc, and would it be mission impossible as a first install? Wife fairly happy to put a dish
next to the pool, or roof next to the pool.

Thx for any advice. Hope not to have broken any forum rules.

Mots ..... images are too small to see info properly & when expanded just go pixalated

 

[moonbase]

@Man on the steps

Those dishes are worth the money for sure, especially considering they come with the NPRM. They are good quality dishes re the Rx/Tx capability and will both be C-Band capable and Ku-Band capable. I could not see in the advert if they are motorised or not, I assume not?

They are difinitely worth following up with a call or email. Is the dish manufacturer known?

 

[John]

Bigger pic of gumtree adView attachment 127149

... if i'm not mistaken it looks like the Global C-band beam is the only one that gets to your location & the 2.4 Offset antenna should cope. They are quality Tx/Rx antennas and are big and heavy - you will need some seriously strong and secure mounting positions and ditto for the antenna support / tracking hardware - could run into as much money as the actual dish

 

[Man on the steps]

Here are bigger pictures:
Sorry for the small ones.

 

[Man on the steps]

I am pretty sure the dishes are fixed etc. The place I have in mind for them is pretty well sheltered, so I am not terribly worried by wind etc.

I will ask re the manufacturer.

 

[Man on the steps]

Feed image

 

[moonbase]

Feed image

? - nothing attached

 

[Man on the steps]

Image

 

[Man on the steps]

Image .. The Fox sports channel looks especially interesting.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Now reduced

2.4m KU/C Band Satellite dish Transmit quality TX/RX Vsat antenna. PRI | Port Elizabeth | Gumtree South Africa

We have 2x 2.4m KU/C Band Transmit quality VSAT antennas with non penetrating roof mounts included....

www.gumtree.co.za

They are Prodelin 2 piece C-band antennas, series 1251.

Image attached is not the actual dish as they are in storage.

 

[moonbase]

Now reduced

A quick online exchange rate check has them at £525 GBP each including the NPRM's. Amazing value for high quality satellite dish. If the OP is serious about his project these will do the job for Ku-Band and some C-Band. As the seller has now reduced the price, a bit of negotiation on price for the purchase of the pair of them might get them even cheaper.

I still have reservations about some of the 68.5 East feeds in C-Band due to the low signal level used by the uplink crews. However, that is not across the board and might be confined to a particular type of sport.

 

[Channel Hopper]

The 1251 is not a Ku band approved antenna despite them being sold with both C and K band performance. I recall there being a feed stabiliser arm being recommended when supplying different feed arms, though I'm not 100% sure if this was to actually give better rigidity of the focus, take the weight off the reflector with a heavy ODU , or a combination of both.

Regardless, the antennas as advertised come with a Cband only support system, which would require replacing, or modifying to fit a Ku band front end.

The dishes have also been in storage for at least three years, plus an undefined number of years on station before they were dismantled (the Stratos branding was dropped at least seven years ago). They should be checked carefully for distortion, reflector damage and all parts necessary to reassemble.

 

[moonbase]

The 1251 is not a Ku band approved antenna despite them being sold with both C and K band performance. I recall there being a feed stabiliser arm being recommended when supplying different feed arms, though I'm not 100% sure if this was to actually give better rigidity of the focus, take the weight off the reflector with a heavy ODU , or a combination of both.

Regardless, the antennas as advertised come with a Cband only support system, which would require replacing, or modifying to fit a Ku band front end.

The dishes have also been in storage for at least three years, plus an undefined number of years on station before they were dismantled (the Stratos branding was dropped at least seven years ago). They should be checked carefully for distortion, reflector damage and all parts necessary to reassemble.

I assume if the OP is serious about his project that he would inspect the dishes and associated equipment if considering a purchase. In addition, the seller may be able to offer advice on suitability to need and may have other equipment of use. Even if the OP were only to buy one dish then at least he has C-Band capability to get started with.

It can be a daunting project for a newbie to get started, particularly with large dishes and two frequency bands. I for one wish him well and am happy to offer any advice that may be useful.

 

[Man on the steps]

Thanks for your very helpful advice.

I am having slight reservations re the dishes, due to the communication between us :

It really appears the person who posted the initial advert, cannot be the same person replying to my questions. Which makes u wonder etc.

Heres the chat :

 

[Man on the steps]

So maybe its a language problem etc. But, if I buy, its reasonable to expect zero help once sale has taken place.

 

[moonbase]

@Man on the steps


If the dishes are not located too far away you could ask if it possible to go and view the dishes. The person did not answer that point in their reply. They would need to provide an address for collection of the goods so you could say you wish to come over to view the dishes and equipment and pay a deposit to secure one/two of them if they are suitable.

If the seller is not prepared to let a prospective purchaser come and view the dishes then they will struggle to sell them.
Is there a phone number or an email address associated with the advert that you could try to see if you get a better response?

You could look for quite a while for an alternative dish so these might be worthwhile pursuing even if its is a bit of an obstacle course. Grit your teeth, head down and into the gale....

 

[Man on the steps]

Thx.

I understand etc, but would really not know what to look for, apart from obvious cracks etc.

The comms are totally puzzling. It's like the seller doesn't want to sell.

 

[moonbase]

Thx.

I understand etc, but would really not know what to look for, apart from obvious cracks etc.

The comms are totally puzzling. It's like the seller doesn't want to sell.

If you get to view the dishes take some photos of the rear side, the front side and sideways on. If they have a ribbed structure on the rear side then there is less chance of any distortion as the ribbing will reinforce the parabolic frame. Take photos of the rest of the equipment and then upload all of the pictures to this topic on the forum.

C-Band is not so dependent on absolute perfection of the dish parabolic profile and with a 2.4m dish you have plenty of dish area to allow for a few small imperfections.

Get them viewed if possible, take some pics, upload pics to forum and we can move forward from there.

 

[Man on the steps]

Thanks. I have asked to come to see them on the gumtree chat thread. Let's see etc.

 

[moonbase]

On the gumtree advert picture there is a hefty chunk of metal at the end of the feed support arms. If it is for Rx, it looks to be some type of C-Band Orthomode with a feed arrangement and possibly a polariser or waveguide. Or, it might be part of the Tx arrangement?

Grab that with the dish, it is probably the matched original for the dish and very useful and probably not so easy to replace. As it is pictured on the dish I am assuming it is part of the dish items included in the sale.

Finally, looking at the advert, there is a phone number for the seller, it might be worthwhile phoning them to see if there is any better communication?