Slowly growing the dish farm...

closetosoton

More dishes than Sense.
Joined
Sep 30, 2004
Messages
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Age
50
My Satellite Setup
Wavefield T55, 20 LNB's and a whole load of analogue boxes!
My Location
Close to Southampton
So here i am a wet sunday afternoon in the garage knocking up my latest addition to my new digital satellite set up: a couple more dishes... (free standing - see attachment)

Then I begin to wonder, what the hell am I doing? I tried to rationalise what I want out of a system exactly. I've had an analogue twin dish system (5W & 13E) for quite some time now, and been aware that digital setups offer hundreds of channels rather than my dozen analogue ones - so it was only a matter of time. But really what do I want? The answer is still unlcear, I don't like doing things by halves, so I want as many channels as possible - lots of dishes or a motorised system?

At present I'm running an old panasonic TU-SD200 receiver with two 60cm analogue circular dishes. Have also go a Nokia SRT1700 Mk2 spare for when the panny gives up the ghost.

In the past month I've gotten hold of the following:
1 x Samsumg DSR 9500
1 x Diseqc 4way switch
1 x 1.1M Triax dish + polar mount + free standing stand mount
1 x 12" 36 actuator
1 x sat finder
2 x 60cm analogue dishes
1 x 43cm sky minidish
1 x triax 0.6dB lnb
1 x humax 0.3dB lnb

All for a sum total of about £150, not bad I reckon, eBay and second hand sources apart from the lnbs which are new and the dishes which came free
from kind folk at work.

So still the question remains where am I heading? I've been more aware recently that with the investment of time an effort one can possibly watch more than just FTA channels, but it seems to be a continual fight to be able to do so, getting daily updates from the web, flashing this, uploading that, and since as a general rule I try not to watch too much TV I really begin to wonder what I'm doing with this hobby.

I said to myself at the begining I'd go FTA only - I speak enough foreign languages to expand my viewing choices and now I wonder just how much gets spent on CAMs/cards/dreamboxes by satellite enthusiasts to be able to keep up with the various CA mechanisms £50 here, £70 there, it probably adds up to part of a subscription from one provider or another.

Along my path to FTA I got distracted and bought the sammy 9500 which of course can be patched for extra viewing pleasures, but given my infrequent viewing pattern I think I won't bother with a single CAM and may run it with pucker firmware. Boring I hear you cry! Each to their own I guess.

So do I go with the motor or not? MMmm, well when I turn the kit on I would like to be able to channel hop quickly sorting channels by language and type, not necessarily by satellite, so I'm not sure. But now I've gone and bought the 1.1M dish and 12" 36V actuator, so I suppose I should try it. I have a clear view of the south from 90E to 90W and live in the south of UK so should be able to pull a fair few birds in - but whether I want to or not remains to be answered??? To finish my setup I need to blow £50 on a v-box. I just can't decide.

After all a 4 dish system is never going to be the way to a long term happy wife's household exterior/garden look, not to mention the neighbours possible
views....

So there you have it, shortly I'll have fixed dishes at 5W,13E,19.2E,28.2E and maybe I'll put the triax up at 1W. I'll see how it goes.

Oh and while I sit here compiling 'mamouth post of the month', I'd like to say - great forum guys, keep up the good work!

Cheers.. CTS

PS - on a different note I thought about chopping a 60cm dish up, lopping top & bottom off and making my own toroidal clone together with the 1.1M triax, watch this space!
 
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