I'll try to keep things going on this thread, of how this install is going.
Equipment:
180cm Fortec Prime Focus Dish
H180 motor
BSC621 C/Ku LNBF
DSC920 Analog/DCII receiver
Lifetime Ultra
I setup a temporary mount, put up 8 feet of 2.5" EMT pipe (3 into the ground, 5 above) with a 1/3 bag of quick concrete. I knew this was temporary, so I did not pin the pipe. Mistake 1 - it rotates in the concrete. Maybe not a bad thing.
The biggest hassle I had was mounting the motor to the dish. Bibbler cut up the square tubing that came with the stand and used that. I did same, but I would NOT do this again. The issue with it is the motor sits to close to the dish, and the brackets hit the dish flanges. I had to bend (a lot) to get the motor to sit right. I didn't like that, I'm not sure if I have warped the surface of the dish by doing this. The right way is to get angle bracket material, maybe 2" by 1" which would allow the motor to move away from the back of the dish. My plan is to re-fabricate this mount.
Now I have the dish on the pole, and am using a GI 650i receiver I have to move it around. I'm used to USALS. This is a big learning experience to set up a polar mount. After a few hours of hunting, looking for signals, I find the ABC signal on 87w on channel 20. But, I'm expecting Doc Scott on this... hmmm. Well I come to find that the GI receiver doesn't seem to play well with the BSC621, as I change the type from Normal to Reversed in the settings, and no Doc Scott. Never came in. Now I'm wondering if the LNBF is bad, as I did have my other BSC-621-2 hooked up to this dish a week ago, with the 920 and I DID see University network channel.
I kept at it, adjusting, fiddling to find and locate analog channels (they are far and few between, making this a challenge) but I did manage to locate EWTN, TBN over on the west side of the arc. Haveing the ability to rotate the pole in the ground (rather then the dish brackets on the pole) is a good thing here. It was easier to adjust.
Next day I brought out the 920 and hooked it in. NOW i'm seeing doc scott. I did manage to DigiCipherLock on a bunch of channels (no subscription) but it's working. The fixed skew on the LNB is going to be a hassle, as one of the sats west needed additonal 20 deg of skew, and that throws off the others. Thus, the advantage of a co-rotor setup.
I tried to find Ku test pattern analog channel on 85w channel 6, but I could not find it.
Now to try the Ku digital side with Fortec box. One thing I notice right away... Turning the Fortec box on and off (connected to the Ku port on 621) makes the picture BETTER on
C band! Looks like the 920 box is not putting out enough voltage or whatever for V/H. Another issue to work out.
I did move the dish over G10R, found the C band channel 19 that Spike used to be on, it has VCII and color bars. Put the Fortec on the Ku side, and after very very minor tweak, there's some KKTU and whatver DVB coming thru.
So thats it for now. More to come later.