80-90cm dish in the west london area (closed)

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jeallen01

jeallen01

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My Satellite Setup
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Somewhere in England (possibly?)!
Anyone in the general "West London" area have a basic half-decent 80-90cm offset dish they want to "pass on" (at a reasonable price, of course!) ?
Reason: I just can't seem to get the old Raven Gemini 90 to work properly with even a "simple" 3-LNB setup for 13E, 19E & 28E!! - don't know why because it used not to be an issue for me, and I've got 2 other 90cm dishes working fine with 3 LNBs each on sats with weaker signals :-doh

Would also be happy to do a swap, with cash adjustment either way if appropriate, in case someone else wants to try this (used to be legendary!) Gemini dish :)
 
Just out of my curiosity, what is Raven Gemini 90 dish? Can you post some pictures of it?
 
Will try to find some pics (essentially it looks like a "supersized "Zone 2" sky dish).
Edited: Think my "problem" is that the dish is a little "flatter" than a normal 80-90cm dish, and so the gain is a little lower and so finding the "sweet spots" for LNB's on either side of the centre one is rather more difficult.
 
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jeallen01 said:
Will try to find some pics
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Just cuz name "Raven" sound familiar to me, and it is name of famous brand, usually very good quality. So, I do not think you can simply change it to same size dish and get better reception results. Unless it is another Raven.
 
RimaNTSS said:
Just cuz name "Raven" sound familiar to me, and it is name of famous brand, usually very good quality. So, I do not think you can simply change it to same size dish and get better reception results. Unless it is another Raven.
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Was also sold under the Channel Master & Andrews brand names.
 
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Found this 80cm Gibertini on ebay (£10 + couple of gallons of diesel!) - thoughts?
(It's aluminium, so a lot lighter than the steel Gemini, which might help me)
 
If it is Channel Master 90cm you have than I do not see any reason to change it to 80sm made of tin antenna. Channel Master (Raven) is the best option ever made. I wold not change CM dish to any other , moreover if it is smaller in size.
 
RimaNTSS said:
If it is Channel Master 90cm you have than I do not see any reason to change it to 80sm made of tin antenna. Channel Master (Raven) is the best option ever made. I wold not change CM dish to any other , moreover if it is smaller in size.
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Normally I would certainly agree with you, but, as I said in Post #1, I have a "problem" with the Gemini and don't see how to solve it.
PS: the 80cm Gilbertini is aluminium, not steel, and I actually quite fancy a "go" with something "new":)
 
You are right, CM dishes are not very friendly to multifeeds. But it is still one of the best dishes ever made. And "something new" even it is aluminum, will never be better than CM.
 
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RimaNTSS said:
You are right, CM dishes are not very friendly to multifeeds. But it is still one of the best dishes ever made. And "something new" even it is aluminum, will never be better than CM.
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The Gemini was "supposed" to be very multifeed-friendly, and, for me, it once was - not ATM though:(
 
Too bad you do not have pictures of you Gemini, it would be much easier to know what s the object of the discussions.
 
RimaNTSS said:
Too bad you do not have pictures of you Gemini, it would be much easier to know what s the object of the discussions.
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Hopefully tomorrow.
PS: the main issue is that I did actually get 28E, 19E and 13E (although the latter signal was not good) but was actually trying to get 28E, 19E AND 10E - but could not get a "sniff" of 10E, and the signal from from a non-central LNB from 13E on another (90cm) dish is a lot better than that from the Gemini.
 
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Changing of Channel Mater antenna to any other dish reminds me one saying (sense can be lost during translation): Donkey who stayed in the shed for 5 minutes will never work on the sun.
That would mean for me: after I've used Channel Master I would never go to "something new", especially if it is made of tin or aluminum.
That is IMHO.

jeallen01 said:
and the signal from from a non-central LNB from 13E on another (90cm) dish is a lot better than that from the Gemini.
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that might be an issue not of the particular antenna but issue of adjusting.
 
That is no way CM 0.9m can be warped, and it will always work as 0.9m dish. It is impossible that there is dish made of tin can perform better. By saying that, it can only be issue of adjusting. If you can not get 10*E to work than it is also possible that central LNB not adjusted properly or whole dish is not pointed properly. Start everything from scratch and, most likely you will get positive results.
 
RimaNTSS said:
... Start everything from scratch and, most likely you will get positive results.
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Did that several times - want to come over here and have a go?
(sorry, don't have enough Airmiles to cover the flights:-rofl2)
 
jeallen01 said:
want to come over here and have a go?
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Will be in London in couple of weeks but surely will not have time to tune antennas :(
If you do not mind, we can try to do it by you but wit some online help? And, basically, that is forum all about.
We start from pictures of your antenna. If it is Channel Master 0.9m than I really do not understand why you have said it is multifeed friendly. After we know exactly what is the model of the dish we go deeper to it's parameters as an offset angle and the position of the focal point. Afterwards you try to place LNBF in such a way when it's phase center co-located with antenna's focal point. After you have central LNBF perfectly positioned you go to adjust antenna exactly to satellite you are looking for. For this exercise you will need measuring tape and digital protractor.
 
@RimaNTSS
Hope you enjoy your visit to London - and would not expect you to have time to tune a dish:-rofl2

As for this dish, it might have been sold under the Channel Master name at some time, but, IIRC, it was originally a Raven product and was most definitely multifeed-friendly, and sold as such - in the "early days", I (just) managed 5W to 28E with some extensions to the LNB bar.

Only just got out of bed, but will get some photos later
 
jeallen01 said:
"Adjusted" the LNB for 10E "to death" but with no success:rolleyes:
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10E is tricky enough with a directly aligned dish. Shirley trying it with an offset LNB is doomed to failure?
 
Lazarus said:
10E is tricky enough with a directly aligned dish. Shirley trying it with an offset LNB is doomed to failure?
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Thanks for the likely confirmation of what I was begining to suspect - couldn't even get it on the Gemini when I tried with the LNB on the centre line. So maybe I was trying to do the "impossible" with an off-centre LNB on that dish.:rolleyes:.
Still interested in acquiring another decent 80-90cm dish though because the Gemini is a little too big for where I have it located (and no space to mount it elsewhere).
 
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