The jump to C band...total weight of system?

[cnagorka@gmail.com]

Hello all:

It's coming close to a year since I got the Ku band system set up, and it's been absolutely terrific. Now I'm getting the itch to go to C band, but as with so many people it's a question of where to put the dish. If I do this it'll be with a 6' dish. Right now, I have the DG-280 HH motor w/Fortec 90cm dish mounted to a piece of EMT, which is in turn bracketed to a vent pipe coming up through the roof decking. It's pretty solid and lots of windstorms and rough weather hasn't touched it. My question is, what is (approximately) the total weight of everything I would need for the 6' setup, i.e. the dish, actuator, polar mount, etc. Would my vent pipe arrangement work if I beefed it up? I assume not, since everyone usually uses poles in concrete or tripods.

I have a nice, big open roof, but I wouldn't think it would be a good idea to use a tripod of any sort mounted to a structure made of wood; expansion and contraction would screw up the alignment (I would think).

One last thing, I'm somewhat confused about the C band LBNFs, do they actually have a motor inside them to change polarity, hence three cables (actuator power, LNB power and a separate one for the coax/signal)? Naturally I would want to do C/Ku band together with the good old Mercury II.

CN

[rainman]

you can use a bsc 621 lnbf for c and ku with only the coax cable and the actuator wires. as for mounting would recommend setting on a pole mounted in concrete close to the ground to save it from the wind.

[BYX]

No matter what make sure you install your C band dish with schedule 40 pipe minimum, mounted on the ground and better if bracketed to a wall.
I tell you this from experience.
I had my 6 footer on an EMT pipe very well mounted on the wall, with anchors, and wall mounting brackets meant for communications antennas.
Last month of June a windgust of 65 MPH broke my mast like a straw and the mounting brakets stayed intact and the antenna got damaged.

[Vitruvius]

Yes, for a 6 foot dish you would need some substantial reinforcing to hold the pipe. This is why 3 feet of concrete footing in the ground works so well. A while back someone had the question about poking the pipe through his roof and anchoring to a slab on grade. This is possible if you have a long enough pole/ steel tube. There is roof flashing to make sure it works.
The best is concrete in the ground.

[cnagorka@gmail.com]

Okay...I ordered the BSC621 and the scalar ring adaptor/lnbf holder for offset dishes (but received the other C/Ku lnbf they offer, I guess it doesn't matter because the specs and price are the same) and thought, what the heck, I'll throw this on my 90cm dish and see what happens. According to lyngsat, I should be able to get a couple C band tps- if I even got one, I would be happy and move on to a bigger dish.

BUT:

When I put it on my dish, I got nothing, absolutely nothing, out of either C OR Ku-band. I did expect the Ku band to work. So: since these things come with no instructions of any sort, where the heck do you start!?!?! There are no scale degrees on the lnbf, so I have no idea what its orientation is! Then, how far forward or backward do you put it in the holder (which doesn't fit very tightly at all)? I looked at the pictures on the Sadoun site and it shows the lnbf with the Ku-band unit facing more or less up, which is counterintuitive- I would think it would face down to keep it out of the rain a little bit. So, give me a clue guys, I obviously don't have one right now.

CN

[rainman]

if it has a arrow on it that would be at the 12 o'clock position if not the flat part would be at the 8 o'clock position when looking at it from the front of the dish.

[pmb1010]

dont forget it has built in diseqc switch.
Set it to "2" for Ku band - if you have that jumper installed and are connecting to the end port connector.

c band is going to be very very difficult on that small a dish, if at all.

[cnagorka@gmail.com]

Yeah I know I'm not supposed to get anything this way but I'm just curious- according to the lyngsat maps there are a couple sats with hot spots (in the 42 dbW range EIRP) right over my area! According to the charts a 90cm dish is supposed to work. Even if it doesn't, if I get the Ku band working with this new lbnf I will have learned something.

BTW: just out of curiosity, with the dilectric plate installed, you can get circular polarity on C band, but does it make the Ku band circular as well? I assume not.

CN

[Vitruvius]

CN, Yes, I have the BSC621-2 LNB installed. There is a difference to be aware of between the -2 model and the -1 model. I think it is the -1 model that should work with a Motorola 922 receiver but not the other one.

I had mine installed for C-band only... and for some weird reason I was not getting any signal. I finally hooked up the Ku cable to a diseqc switch that the C-band was attached to, and finally I got C-band signal and it was great.

Some people have had problems with the diseqc switch that is built into the LNB... I may have that problem.

I hope this helps...

[cnagorka@gmail.com]

Hello Guys:

First: I found the tiny little arrow on the back of the unit, so I've got the orientation right.

Second: remember, they didn't send me the BSC621, I have the GeoSat CK-1, and they sent an extra DiSeq switch in the box with it- I'm not using it, I have a Sonicview Diseq switch which I've been using with the Invacom Quad lnb, to switch between linear and circular, and it works flawlessly. I hooked up LNB 1 to the Ku and LNB 2 to the C band.

Long story short, I'm still getting absolutely nothing. I would be happy to just get the Ku band back. (I know the dish is aimed perfectly because I can swap the old Invacom back on and bingo, back in business.) Now: I see that this lnfb says "Ku band: LO freq.9.76/10.6 GHz". Does that mean that I have to use the "Universal" setting on the reciever, as opposed to the "10750" setting? (This is the Mercury II I'm talking about.) If so, do I let the reciever do "automatic" 22khz band switching?

I'm trying to rule everything out...at what point do I conclude I've got a bad unit?

TIA,
CN