I got the C Band up and running! Some observations...

[William Eng]

I've actually given this a lot of thought- the weight of the dish, etc, wouldn't be supported by the roof at all. I'll take an example from the 90cm dish, where I bracketed a length of iron pipe to a big heavy vent pipe sticking out of the roof. It's worked great for several months. What I would do would be to get a longer length of schedule 40 pipe and actually cut a hole in the roof for it, and fasten it to the rafters and cieling joists in the attic. Distributing the stress that way shouldn't be any problem. There are pre-made rubbery plastic sealers designed to go over vent pipes to make the hole water tight, which I'll use, of course. So, the bottom line is that the roof itself won't take any weight at all, it'll all be taken by the structure of the house. It's a bit of a project, but if it's done right it'll give perfect clearance to the dish, and you won't even see it from the front of the house. If my neighbors saw two dishes up there they would think I was with the CIA or something. Now that's an idea

CN

If you spend this much effort, I hope that you are planning to stay in this house for awhile.

[cnagorka@gmail.com]

Well, this past weekend I got the mast up on the roof and moved the whole thing up there, only to be infuriated to find that it seems like the view to the western sats is blocked, compared to when it was on the deck! I think it's a tree up the street from me- if, when the leaves fall I suddenly get my signal back then I'll know.

I'll come up with a list of channels later on this week. But for the time being, here are a few more observations:

1. It seems like the Fortec can make do with less signal on C band than on Ku- you can have a tp with just 25 to 27% quality and it'll make it sense of it.

2. As I said before, and was warned about, the overlapping between sats is terrible- from 87W to 103W it's almost one big clump of signal- I'm going to have to use various lists already out there to eliminate duplications.

3. It's incredible how many HD, encrypted or otherwise unviewable channels there are on C band, compared to the ultimate number of tps. I'm especially surprised by how few network feeds there are. I mean, Ku band is full of them and C band has none (that I can see, anyway).

4. There are a few interesting things out there, like NHK World on Intel 9- who, by the way, are running notices that solar alignment could be interfering with satellite reception at this time of year. Also, I was pleased to find a BBC America radio feed on ISS 805.

I'll be back with more later.

CN

[Jim-S]

Check the arc of the sun, we are in equinox so the sun is about where the satellites are..........If your dish can see the sun you should be ok thru the arc.