Revisiting an old hobby :-)

S

Starteck2002

Member
My Satellite Setup
1mtr motorised dish, full HD setup. Lots of computers -
My Location
Darlington
Hi All,

Many moons ago i was into analogue satellite using an Echostar xxx with modified custom firmware, 1.5m primefocus dish and a 90cm offset dish. I also had a modified amstrad videocrypt decoder for videocrypt 2, a filmnet decoder for the d2mac stuff on 1w and so on....

Anyway, silly old me has decided to rekindle the hobby and went out and purchased a 1m offset dish with H-H mount/motor and a Fortec Star Passion+ HD reciever. Dish arrived today and i've built it up ready to go on the wall, hopefully reciever will arrive in the morning. As you can tell, my old setup was analog only so i may as well be a newbie now that the digital age is upon us.

Anyway, i seem to recall, back in the day... when aligning my dish i used to set the receiver on a channel that was on 1w, align the dish so i got that channel on the tv, then swing the dish through an arc, checking other channels on the same frequency.

I am presuming things are not so easy now with digital?
 
Hi, welcome to the Forum.

The same principles apply for aligning your dish, i.e. using 1W as your reference satellite, except that it won't be so easy as with an analogue signal - you will either need your receiver tuned to a digital channel on 1W to be able to confirm that you are indeed on the right satellite, or use a meter of some sort in line with your LNB cable to see or hear a signal.
 
When you get your Passion + receiver there will be only transponder info for 1W stored in its memory, no channel lists, but other than that your ideas sound.
 
Well looks like the fun will begin tomorrow. I've been looking around the web for the past few days trying to get lists of all the FTA stuff (particularly HD) - not yet found a site that says "if you live in the UK and have a 90cm motorised dish, this is what you should get" ;-)

Will probably be changing that receiver at some point too as i don't think it's going to give me all the hacking goodness i used to enjoy in the days of old - i am pretty sure that an old 286, a 'card' with a long cable fixed to a serial port and some DOS software just aint gonna cut it these days LOL.
 
Hi, Go to Dishpointer.com, about half way down, there is a link to a list of sats and the dish size needed. A rough guide only though.

With a 90cm here, I would get somthing like: 30W,24.5W, 22.5W, 15W,12.5W,8W,7W,5W,4W,1W,4.8E,9E,10E,13E,16E,19.2E,21.6E,23.5E,26E,28E,33E,36E,39E,42E,45E,51E.

not all Tps off all sats though.

Have you still got the 1.5m PF?
 
Starteck2002 said:
Will probably be changing that receiver at some point too as i don't think it's going to give me all the hacking goodness i used to enjoy in the days of old - i am pretty sure that an old 286, a 'card' with a long cable fixed to a serial port and some DOS software just aint gonna cut it these days LOL.
Click to expand...

Keep the Passion and get a Diablo2 CAM and CAS3 programmer. Or may I suggest checking out the Dreambox HD family. Need to be time-rich though :-rofl2
 
Not got the PF dish anymore (even if i did, nowhere to put it now). I already have a Dreambox 600.... i may see if i can get an 'S' tuner for it. Not HD but at least it will still have a use ;-)

Reciever has arrived - no manual in the box so off to find one...
 
Starteck2002 said:
I already have a Dreambox 600C
Click to expand...
Please be careful on this as discussion of c a b l e is STRICTLY prohibited here.
 
Yes, realised this when i hit the 'post' button. Fee free to edit my post. I presume talk of Cams is ok (not that i know anyting about them)? Also, just found there is no manual on the fortec site :-(
 
Found the manual ;-)

_http://64.78.51.244/download/Passion+_Manual_in_English_Version-080421.pdf
 
Discussion of CAMS per se is OK just as long as you remember where it might lead to! Especially with the dreaded N word...
 
Ok, noted :-)

On a downside - ferntec reciever that arrived this morning is going back - dead as a doornail :-(
 
Starteck2002 said:
Ok, noted :-)

On a downside - ferntec reciever that arrived this morning is going back - dead as a doornail :-(
Click to expand...

Not a good re-introduction to the hobby
 
Probably my own fault for spending less than £100 on a reciever :-( Just waiting on RMA details so it can go back. Already looking at alternatives now as this has put me off somewhat.
 
Lots of good receivers under £100. Fast blind scan, videocrypt, and CI slots are things to look for if you are forward thinking. In an SD receiver the Vantage x221 S CI USB covers all those bases.

Code: 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/DVB-S-Receiver-Vantage-221S-USB/dp/B0014YTBQ0/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1272369838&sr=8-7
 
Starteck2002 said:
Ok, noted :-)

On a downside - ferntec reciever that arrived this morning is going back - dead as a doornail :-(
Click to expand...

There is an on/off switch on the back panel, which fixes most DOA faults.
 

Attachments

  • FortecStar.webp
    FortecStar.webp
    71 KB · Views: 30
Not on the Passion there ain't :-Nooo

Needs to be plugged in though (just joking Starteck2002)
 
Ah, OK, that picture also seems to be missing an HDMI port, so ignore my suggestion.
 
I'm back ;-)

Dish on the wall, receiver all up and running - proved to be a lot of fun (not). Can get 1w, 28.2e ok, hotbird at 13e i can get but it's not very good signal - not found the others inbetween yet. Quite dissapointed at just what is out there these days though - or am i missing something? ;-)
 
Back
Top