UK channels from Northern Sweden!

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lloowen

Member
My Satellite Setup
1.8m prime focus dish
MTI AP8-TW 0.6dB lnb
Pace sky reciever
My Location
63° 19' 00N 13° 49' 60E Sweden
Hello all! This is my very first post on this forum.

I'm a UK citizen living at 62 degrees latitude in Sweden or 200Km east of Trondheim.
I would like to reach the Astra 2d satellite and from what I've read a 180cm dish should suffice for where I live.
Looks like I might be able to get my hands on an old dinosaur of a dish for nothing and it is 180cm in size.
I have attached a couple of photos. One of the photos I have highlighted an area that looks like it has a slight warp, not sure it was getting dark. The other photo shows the front end. I,m suspicious of how short the arms are that support the lnb. I thought these arms should protrude out much further from the dish. I'm wandering if it is a home made job.
By the way the lnb does not work and I'm positive the motor driven mechanism is totally rusted up. Also the rim of the dish is a bit buckled here and there.
Does this look like a dish that could pick up astra 2d? Am I wasting my time? I have not got a clue with satellite dishes, my first impression from it's condition is that it won't work.
I intend to use a sky box and I have a choice of models. Which one should I choose, considering my circumstances?
Amstrad
Thomson
Grundig
Pace
Panasonic
What sort of lnb should I get for such a dish?

Grateful for any help and advice.
 

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Whilst it not ideal its a starting point.If you are willing to put some time into it you can probably take out the worst of the dings.

Go for it - at the end of the day if you can get it for nothing then you have nothing to lose apart from some time. If it doesnt work then you can invest some Euros in a new dish instead.

As for Sky boxes avoid Grundigs and Amstrads - both are notorious for power supply failures. Grunnys have been out of production for several years now.
 
The curve does look quite deep... you can calculate the focal length of the dish for the true position of the lnb...

(Diameter x Diameter) /(16 x depth of curve) = focal distance (from the face of the dish to just inside the neck of the feed horn)
and the f/d ratio = focal length/ Diameter to best match the f/d ratio of a feed horn or lnbf’s feed horn.
 
I estimated the depth to be somewhere between 40cm -45cm. Using the formula seems to indicate that the arms that support the lnb are the right length.

Depth Focal Length
40 50.63
41 49.39
42 48.21
43 47.09
44 46.02
45 45
46 44.02
47 43.09
48 42.19
49 41.33
50 40.5
 
That deep curve should give quite a tight beam width.

To straighten it you can use formers made with sand/cement/PVA in a bag formed on a good area (one inside and out) and once hardened, use it on the bent area with a soft leather hammer - works better on thinner dishes though- that looks pretty solid.
 
That deep curve should give quite a tight beam width.
Click to expand...

Is that a good thing?

By the way thanks for the tip on how to get rid of warps. I've got to get this dish up and working. A new 1.8m dish cost approx 7000SEK or £583!!!
 
lloowen said:
Is that a good thing?
Click to expand...

A tighter beam width might help a little bit with focus on 2d if you use a 2d transponder to line up.

EDIT... A major issue is the F/D Ratio. You might find that most off the shelf LNBfs won't see the whole dish so it might not be so easy if you try some of them even if you get them on the focus point they'll just see a 1m dish etc....

A C120 with adjustable feed horn might be needed to get the full 1.8 out of it ... or .. a bit of surgery on an LNBf to open out the built in feedhorn.
 
Re: digiboxes, the Pace prove to perform better for fringe reception areas.
 
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