prime focus dish

sgar

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Hi, i was given 2 x 1M. prime focus dishes from a mate, but i was wondering if these dishes are better or worse that a offset ones.
i have currently an 80cm offset dish and 3 lnb's but id like the reception of some of the channels to be a bit better, becouse , on this side of the world , when it rains hard, it all disappears.
my question is, does anyone know if i could fit more than 1 lnb (i do not want to go motorized)on a prime focus dish and if i could just use the 1m round plate and a bracket for the lnb to have it as an offset dish?
thanks for the help
 

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Using an LNB offset on a prime focus dish can be done but is not recommended

The focal point is in the centre for obvious reasons, anything off this point has a much reduced signal and the hardware will be directly in the way of the incoming signal, reducing the efficiency of the dish by a few percent

As you have three dishes now it might be worth considering putting all of them up on dedeicated satellites, with the final switching system near the receiver. You will then get the maximum signal available from each satellite.

If you can take pictures of what has been donated I can probably suggest the best feed design for the dish
 

sgar

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Channel Hopper thanks for the reply.

Ok the thing is that i dont really want to have 3 dishes on, so i dont think i'll ever use both the prime focus ones, but at least one of them i will try to put it up. What i really wanted to do is take the 80 cm offset dish down, stick one of the 2 1m one up, and try to adapt the 80 cm 's lnb bracket (the long L arm that goes from the back of the dish to the front of it, sorry i dont know the name of it)) to the 1m dish and have it as an offset one, then stick the 3 lnb back on. in theory if this procedure could be done, i suppose the larger size dish would give me a better signal compared to a 80cm dish. My doubt is if its actually possible to have such configuartion as the 1m dish is more curvy than the 80cm one, so i dont know if that is going to make things difficult.

In other words i just want to use the larger size dish but make it act and look as if it was an offset dish. Also i live in Sweden and here we do get a lot of snow , so thas another reason why having a prime focus dish puts me off.

Thanks again for all your help.
Cheers
 

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No - not recommended

The 1m will give improved reception compared to the 80 but this will trail off once tou have more loaded infront of it

As you say the prime focus design (whilst I prefer these - better engineering, true parabola etc) isnt the best for snowy regions unless you fit a heater to the back of it

Sell them off and get a 1.2 offset ?
 
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