Chris's C Band list

[electrolaw]

Chris,

Well, there are better explanations on other websites, but basically, DigiCipher II is a digital signal compression standard like DVB. The DCII standard was incorporated into General Instruments 4DTV receivers (DSR900, DSR920 DSR905 and one or two other ones that I can't remember). It's still used a lot on Digital Cable networks in North America. General Instruments was (I think) the only manufacturer of consumer receivers.

The receivers are no longer being manufactured, but you can get one on Ebay pretty cheap. Most people prefer the DSR922 because it handles more symbol rates than the DSR920, but I've never had any problems using my 920. There are issues with these receivers needing their board batteries replaced due to the fact that they are getting pretty old by now. Google "battery replacement 4DTV" and you can get a lot of information. I replaced my battery and thought it was pretty easy, but I'm used to soldering and taking all of the necessary precautions.

You can slave a 4DTV receiver to an FTA DVB receiver using the loop-out on the FTA or do the reverse and slave an FTA receiver to a 4DTV using splitters. It depends on which one you want to control the dish motor and polarity. I have my DSR920 slaved to my Ultra Viewsat and use the Ultra to move my 1.2m dish and set the polarity. if I want to see a DCII channel, I go to the appropriate sat with my Ultra, set the polarity, turn on my 4DTV and tune to the channel. Just to confuse things even more, the satellite scheme in the 4DTV receivers does not correspond exactly to what is up there now, so you have to correlate the current satellites to what the 4DTV receivers call them, like current AMC 18 is 4DTV W5. After awhile you get used to it.

There are still a lot of signals (both radio and video) in DCII format. Most of them are encrypted and there are at least two programmers who offer subscription programming to C-Band dish owners who have 4DTV receivers. The two I know about are National Programming Service (NPS) and Skyvision.

There are some FTA DCII channels that you do not have to subscribe to, but you still need a 4DTV receiver to get. This is the chart that I usually use to look for FTA DCII channels. http://www.skyvision.com/pages/infor.../4dtvguide.htm It's not completely up to date, but pretty close.

The music channels on Galaxy-14 are FTA, but in DCII format. There are other folks who are more knowledgable and can supply the details that I left out.

[cnagorka@gmail.com]

Okay, now I get it. I checked out some other sites before I posted that and they hadn't been updated in a long time, so I wasn't sure if what I was seeing was accurate or not.

Anyway...here are some photos of my set up, they're pretty self explanatory. In the picture of the two dishes on the roof, they're both looking at Galaxy 19. I included a picture of the C band mast setup in the attic to show that it isn't any big deal to set something up this way- I would prefer doing this to renting a power auger and mixing up bags of concrete! It took me about an hour to do the whole thing. Obviously, you couldn't set up a 10ft dish this way but for the 1.2m dish the house doesn't even know it's there. I also include a couple details for others on the scalar ring adjustment-note that it seems like the both Sadoun and I have ours adjusted to about the same point. There are also a couple pictures I took in Columbus at Sadoun's place showing how they had their C band dish set up; notice the spacer between the lnb holder and the arm to aim the lnb lower (I did the same thing with a sliver of wood cut on a bandsaw).

As far as running the two dishes from one receiver, I'm just going to make a little switch box with a DPDT switch inside, to go from C band to Ku and back; it would be just like physically switching the cables back and forth. For safety I can just turn off the lnb power, flip the switch, turn it back on and start watching. When the lnb power comes back on, it'll send that dish to where it wants to go. And since I'm probably not going use the C band that much, I can just use Intel 9 and ISS805 for C band, and leave everything else Ku. That way there's no confusion between C band and Ku on the same sat.

CN

[cnagorka@gmail.com]

A new record!

Just out of curiosity I put in the dielectric (spelling?) plate and tried scanning in NSS806, one of the circular C band sats over the Atlantic (40.5W)...I was astonished to get 28TPS!!! The old record was 27 on Galaxy 3-C. 21 channels appeared, with several being encrypted with "Scopus", which the receiver didn't recognize as being scrambled. The channels which are viewable are coming in great, though. It's all Central and South American, except for Bloomberg Brasil, which has one channel in English (but all the video titles are in Portugese).

CN

[German]

A new record!

Just out of curiosity I put in the dielectric (spelling?) plate and tried scanning in NSS806, one of the circular C band sats over the Atlantic (40.5W)...I was astonished to get 28TPS!!! The old record was 27 on Galaxy 3-C. 21 channels appeared, with several being encrypted with "Scopus", which the receiver didn't recognize as being scrambled. The channels which are viewable are coming in great, though. It's all Central and South American, except for Bloomberg Brasil, which has one channel in English (but all the video titles are in Portugese).

CN

cnagorka,
this is my first post in this form.I hope i will learn alot from everybody here.
I bought last weekend a 1.2m Fortec at Sadoun.
I am still in the process of mounting the dish on the roof.
But i was wondering how to install the dielectric plate on the ck1.
Are you able to discribe how you did it?A picture or two would be nice.

Thanks for the advice
German

[cnagorka@gmail.com]

German:

It's easy, just look for the little ridges cast into the body of the unit and slide the plate into them. That's it. Mine have black tape on one side, I don't think it matters which side it goes on.

Just out of curiosity, I took out the polarizer plate and I was still able to receive a few channels on NSS806, but most of them went away.

CN

[German]

German:

It's easy, just look for the little ridges cast into the body of the unit and slide the plate into them. That's it. Mine have black tape on one side, I don't think it matters which side it goes on.

Just out of curiosity, I took out the polarizer plate and I was still able to receive a few channels on NSS806, but most of them went away.

CN

Thanks cnagorka.
I will give it a try as soon as i get my Dish setup.

[vze59zgb]

Okay, now I get it. I checked out some other sites before I posted that and they hadn't been updated in a long time, so I wasn't sure if what I was seeing was accurate or not.

Anyway...here are some photos of my set up, they're pretty self explanatory. In the picture of the two dishes on the roof, they're both looking at Galaxy 19. I included a picture of the C band mast setup in the attic to show that it isn't any big deal to set something up this way- I would prefer doing this to renting a power auger and mixing up bags of concrete! It took me about an hour to do the whole thing. Obviously, you couldn't set up a 10ft dish this way but for the 1.2m dish the house doesn't even know it's there. I also include a couple details for others on the scalar ring adjustment-note that it seems like the both Sadoun and I have ours adjusted to about the same point. There are also a couple pictures I took in Columbus at Sadoun's place showing how they had their C band dish set up; notice the spacer between the lnb holder and the arm to aim the lnb lower (I did the same thing with a sliver of wood cut on a bandsaw).

As far as running the two dishes from one receiver, I'm just going to make a little switch box with a DPDT switch inside, to go from C band to Ku and back; it would be just like physically switching the cables back and forth. For safety I can just turn off the lnb power, flip the switch, turn it back on and start watching. When the lnb power comes back on, it'll send that dish to where it wants to go. And since I'm probably not going use the C band that much, I can just use Intel 9 and ISS805 for C band, and leave everything else Ku. That way there's no confusion between C band and Ku on the same sat.

CN

going to have the same set up as you 1 meter dish c band lmb.thanks vze59zgb
how far should the lmb go fit into the scalar i set it how you have it in the picture.

[sylwek]

Dear electrolaw, Thank you very much for your wonderful info of how to slave 4DTV receiver to FTA DVB receiver, which I was looking for a very long time. Now, I know it can be done. Currently, I have Motorola 922 - 4DTV receiver, and I would like to slave it to my Coolast 6000 - FTA DVB receiver. I would like to control my 10 foot aluminum dish through independent "V Box II" dish mover and Coolsat 6000 receiver. I have also BSC 621-2 Ku/C LNBF already installed on my dish.
In your description (included below) you mentioned that you have successfully slaved your 4DTV receiver to the "loop out" of your Viewsat Ultra receiver. I will greately appreciate if you can provide me more info how did you physically connected these two receicers? I understand you connected the coaxial cable from "Loop-out" on your Viewsat Ultra receiver to your C-band LNB input on your Motorola 920 receiver? Did you connect anything to your Ku-band LNB input on your Motorola 920 receiver? Did you used any switches for passive and active voltages for your receivers so they won't get dammaged when connected together? Did you used DiSQEC switch for your Viewsat Ultra between Ku and C band LNBF or did you had only one type of LNBF installed? Thank you in advance for any help in this matter. I will greatly appreciate any answers from other members and help in this matter.

Yours,

Sylvester F.

Chris,

I'm in Northern California.

You are right about the bleed-over. What we really need is the old type of Corotor where you can adjust the skew. Search this on YouTube: Waveguide Polariser AV-COMM Test It's in German, but this guy has come up with a solution for the skew problem on a small dish.

I also did one other experiment with my 1.2m dish. I slaved my DSR920 4DTV receiver to the loop-out of my Viewsat Ultra and went to G1-3 and got the 4DTV guide to lock. I then went to W-5 and locked (with plenty of signal quality) W-5 603 (FTA American Life Network) and all of the premium movie channels. I could subscribe to these channels now if I wanted to. I then got all of the free 4DTV channels to lock on GB with good signal quality. I haven't tried any of the other 4DTV satellites, but I would think that results would be similar.

I just realized that the free music channels you are going after on Galaxy 14 are DGII. You will have to have a 4DTV receiver to get them. Also, I forgot to add that there are a lot of free 4DTV DGII music channels on AMC 18 that I was listening to the other day on my DSR920.

If you want another dimension to the 1.2m experiment, you might want to get a 4DTV receiver (either DSR920 or DSR922) and see what you can get.

[electrolaw]

Dear electrolaw, Thank you very much for your wonderful info of how to slave 4DTV receiver to FTA DVB receiver, which I was looking for a very long time. Now, I know it can be done. Currently, I have Motorola 922 - 4DTV receiver, and I would like to slave it to my Coolast 6000 - FTA DVB receiver. I would like to control my 10 foot aluminum dish through independent "V Box II" dish mover and Coolsat 6000 receiver. I have also BSC 621-2 Ku/C LNBF already installed on my dish.
In your description (included below) you mentioned that you have successfully slaved your 4DTV receiver to the "loop out" of your Viewsat Ultra receiver. I will greately appreciate if you can provide me more info how did you physically connected these two receicers? I understand you connected the coaxial cable from "Loop-out" on your Viewsat Ultra receiver to your C-band LNB input on your Motorola 920 receiver? Did you connect anything to your Ku-band LNB input on your Motorola 920 receiver? Did you used any switches for passive and active voltages for your receivers so they won't get dammaged when connected together? Did you used DiSQEC switch for your Viewsat Ultra between Ku and C band LNBF or did you had only one type of LNBF installed? Thank you in advance for any help in this matter. I will greatly appreciate any answers from other members and help in this matter.

Yours,

Sylvester F.

Ok, well there are several ways to do it. The 4DTV receivers have two separate inputs, one for KU and one for a C-Band LNB inputs. I have two FTA receivers that are connected to two different dishes, one strictly for C-band and one strictly for KU band. I run one coax from the loop-out of my Ku band FTA receiver to the DSR920 input for KU LNB and another coax from the loop-out of my FTA C-band receiver to the DSR920 C-Band input. It is also important to use an inline DC blocker on each input going into the 4DTV to make sure that there are no unwanted voltages going into either receiver. I'm sure that Sadoun has them for sale, if not Radio Shack has them or at least used to carry them or look on Ebay.

Alternatively, you can use two splitters and get the same result. Sadoun, etc. sells some splitters that have one side with DC pass and one side without. The input from the appropriate LNB goes into one side of the splitter. The other side has an output that blocks DC and that side goes to the appropriate 4DTV input. The other output that passes DC goes to the FTA receiver. This allows the FTA receiver to control the dish motor and power the LNB while the 4DTV just gets the LNB signal.

If you only have one receiver for both C-Band and Ku-band, I guess you could use a Diseq switch to switch back and forth between Ku and C-Band LNBF's and an A/B switch at the receiver to switch back and forth between the LNB inputs to the 4DTV, while still making certain that you still use the appropriate inline DC blocker to each 4DTV input. With my set-up, I don't really need a Diseq switch at all.

I would add that there really is not much left to watch on 4DTV KU-band anyway. About the only time that I use the KU-band side of my 4DTV receiver is when there is an analog KU-band college football feed that I want to watch. Therefore, if you just used the C-Band input of the 4DTV, you wouldn't be missing much.

[sylwek]

Ok, well there are several ways to do it. The 4DTV receivers have two separate inputs, one for KU and one for a C-Band LNB inputs. I have two FTA receivers that are connected to two different dishes, one strictly for C-band and one strictly for KU band. I run one coax from the loop-out of my Ku band FTA receiver to the DSR920 input for KU LNB and another coax from the loop-out of my FTA C-band receiver to the DSR920 C-Band input. It is also important to use an inline DC blocker on each input going into the 4DTV to make sure that there are no unwanted voltages going into either receiver. I'm sure that Sadoun has them for sale, if not Radio Shack has them or at least used to carry them or look on Ebay.

Alternatively, you can use two splitters and get the same result. Sadoun, etc. sells some splitters that have one side with DC pass and one side without. The input from the appropriate LNB goes into one side of the splitter. The other side has an output that blocks DC and that side goes to the appropriate 4DTV input. The other output that passes DC goes to the FTA receiver. This allows the FTA receiver to control the dish motor and power the LNB while the 4DTV just gets the LNB signal.

If you only have one receiver for both C-Band and Ku-band, I guess you could use a Diseq switch to switch back and forth between Ku and C-Band LNBF's and an A/B switch at the receiver to switch back and forth between the LNB inputs to the 4DTV, while still making certain that you still use the appropriate inline DC blocker to each 4DTV input. With my set-up, I don't really need a Diseq switch at all.

I would add that there really is not much left to watch on 4DTV KU-band anyway. About the only time that I use the KU-band side of my 4DTV receiver is when there is an analog KU-band college football feed that I want to watch. Therefore, if you just used the C-Band input of the 4DTV, you wouldn't be missing much.

Dear electrolaw,

Thank you very much for all your help with my two satellite receivers. I truly appreciated what you told me in this matter. For the last 3 days, I was researching your instructions and eventually managed to slave my Mororola 922 with my Coolsat 5000 FTA receiver. Now both receivers work together. Currently, my Coolsat 5000 controls big 10-foot dish movement, and also provides signal to my slave receiver which is Motorola 922. How did I connected them?
From my Coolsat 5000 “loop-out” at the back I attached my new 2x1 Diseq input. From its two outputs, I connected one to my Motorola 922 C-Band LNB input and my second Diseq output to the Ku-Band LNB of the 4DTV receiver.
Also on each input of my 4DTV receiver I installed inline DC blocker as you recommended. Without DC blocker my dish mover didn't work at all, and the whole system was freezing and was not responsive to any changes which I try to make with my Coolsat 5000 receiver. I noticed that in other to watch some free programs on my 4DTV my Coolsat 5000 must be turned ON and if is set to horizontally polarized transporter then all horizontally polarized channels are also available on 4DTV receiver, but no vertically polarized channels are available on 4DTV receiver at that time. To have them back I have to set up my FTA receiver to any channels which are vertically polarized and then Motorola 922 will pick up all vertically polarized channels. I should mention that in our area there is no one who is using 4DTV receivers anymore, and could help me with some questions I had. I was told that this is obsolete equipment and I am only wasting my time. I get this receiver from a gentleman who sold me other satellite equipment and he didn’t want to keep it anymore.
I should say that: there are still lots of work to do with my current system. Now, I planning to find channels which I can pick up clear with my Motorola 922 receiver. So far, I found some on satellite G1 and they are: # 5, 11, 12 and 17. Also, on G4 I can pick up channels 16 and 17 without any problems. However, I didn’t have more time to search for more - today. It took me some time to find my DC blockers.
Do you thing you might have some info about other satellites channels which I can currently pick up for free? Please let me know when free. Make a short list or so.
Also do you know how to turn off “Dish Limits Option” on my Motorola 922 receiver. Each time I try to enter a different satellite then a big message on my TV shows: “ This satellite is out of limits”. Press Go back. Then another screen shows me Limits: Dish position 5000 (1. East limit 5000) (2. West limit 5000) but when I try to change its values it won’t let me to change unless I enter 5000 for both. So each time I try to enter or change to a new satellite, I have re-start from the beginning. I have to re-program them all over again. Thank you again for your time for reading my response and all help. Have a great weekend.
Yours,
sylvek