What Happened to Bibbler?

[reho33]

Hey Bibbler, if your C band project is complete, let us know how you made out. We're curious.

[rainman]

yeah and send pictures.

[Bibbler]

Sorry I have been away so long...... Let me give you a little of what has been going on (more of what hasn't)!

Not much Well, between work and the weather, I haven't accomplished too much, HOWEVER, better days are coming!

The outage I have been on for the past 13 weeks is over Thursday so I hope to have short 8 hour days (maybe even weekends off!!!) after that. The weather has finally broken and so we are ready!

Last Saturday, we fabricated the adapter for the C Band dish. It was really quite simple, .... we made it from the square tubing that came with the dish kit (it was supposed to be parts of the stationary stand).... As a matter of fact, in the directions for the motor they even kinda show you where to drills the holes to mount the tubing to the ring that attaches to the dish.....

As it stands at this moment, the adapter and ring are bolted to the motor and we are ready to mount the assembly on the pole. We plan to do this Friday night or Saturday. Judging from what I see, I foresee no problems getting the dish up and aligned.

One thing I was unaware of was that the motor is powered like an old C band jack, it doesn't get it's power from the coax but rather hook up wire that goes back to the Vbox. I need to find some 4 lane cable (2 for power and 2 for "counting").... I can't find this stuff anywhere (I did round up an old 10' piece we had laying around from the 1992 C Band days so I can at least get it going out at the dish) and I'm starting to think I might have to make something up (Sadoun, do you carry anything for this application???????)

The other thing I want to do is (I will do this tomorrow) fill the 2 1/2 pipe with concrete. I was a bit shocked at the weight of just the motor, adapter, and ring... and all of this (with the dish mounted to it) will just hang off the pipe.... I'm a bit concerned a very hard wind could crimp the (fairly thin walled) pipe I have up there... No use taking any chances....

Anyway, Sorry I have been away and sorry this has been so long . I Promise LOTS of pics when we get it up this weekend.... Looking forward to less time at work and more time to "relax" aligning this thing!!!!

Al

[pmb1010]

I've seen "new, old stock" of the cable you need on that popular auction site that rhymes with "Cbay"...

[reho33]

Cool Bibbler. Just wanted to know. Most of your "strong" stuff will be between 87 W and 103W. Thats where I found a lot of DVB C-Band channels.
DCII is a different story.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by reho33

Cool Bibbler. Just wanted to know. Most of your "strong" stuff will be between 87 W and 103W. Thats where I found a lot of DVB C-Band channels.
DCII is a different story.

? What do you mean by "strong"? If you mean signal strength, I think it depends on footprint. My strongest signals are from G10r and a couple other out west sats. As far as where the good C-band FTA is, the out west sats also have a lot of good stuff, particularly if you have the capability for different modes. Unfortunately, I think Bibbler can't see too far to the west due to his hill.

[reho33]

Bill, what I meant was that there are the highest concentration of C-Band DVB channels available from 87 w to about 103 w. I know that there are alot of other channels on G10R, etc but you need DCII to decipher most of them at that point. In my situation I found that 87 w to 103 w will give me the best "window" of channels on DVB that I wish to view. Looking at the Lyngsat charts, I found that east of 87 and west of 103 there is simply not much on C-band for DVB format. I have too many trees it my location to get much past 123. I noticed that there are some channels at 129 and up further west but the angles from my location are simply too low and not achievable. I am not discounting the Atlantic " birds" like 40.5. Since you are in Maine, do you have any difficulties trying to get low angle birds from your location?

[NOLO]

Originally Posted by Bibbler

Sorry I have been away so long...... Let me give you a little of what .......

Al

Howdy! I do not know if you read my latest posts, I am finally lined up with the Arc and, as you said, I now have a spared LNB
It was fun, regardless of some of the frustration.

BTW, your picture talks, the way you looked at the camera gives the impression that you are analizing something and thinking: "Let me see, How can I fix this?" LOL
Take care, success on your new dish. God bless, Noel.

[elgemcdlf]

40.5 is loaded if you are set for circular and not looking for English There are a few English language channels on it but it is mainly a Spanish language sat. Never really looked at where the concentration of DVB C Band was but on initial thought you are probably correct. While there are channels outside that section of arc the concentration of channels watched probably are in that section.

[reho33]

This is going to factor in really big because of actuator limitations. I always thought that a person had to "decide" whether or not they wanted to favor west or favor east. That would place your actuator position. I have heard that there is such a thing as an H-H actuator? Is that true? When my C-Band dish goes in, I will favor west as I really want to look those sats west of my true south (74 w) .

[elgemcdlf]

Originally Posted by reho33

This is going to factor in really big because of actuator limitations. I always thought that a person had to "decide" whether or not they wanted to favor west or favor east. That would place your actuator position. I have heard that there is such a thing as an H-H actuator? Is that true? When my C-Band dish goes in, I will favor west as I really want to look those sats west of my true south (74 w) .

I think actuator stroke has more to do with it than anything. I can get my full arc (30 - 139) with no problem (at the dish) with a 24" actuator. You can also play with adjustment of the actuator to "favor" one side more than the other. I can not see any farther East than 55 with that dish sue to trees but it will move that far. I have heard of 36" actuators which if there were any sats out past 139 up to 148 would be of use to me. My actuator is centered based on my south sat.

My other dish is not set up to steer yet but does have a 18" actuator on it which will be plenty since it's only use will be circular C Band. The 3rd dish which is still laying in the yard will be used to view from 55 down as far as I can get it to go linear C Band. I have the 90cm for Ku DVB and use the main 8.5 for 4DTV Ku.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by reho33

Bill, what I meant was that there are the highest concentration of C-Band DVB channels available from 87 w to about 103 w. I know that there are alot of other channels on G10R, etc but you need DCII to decipher most of them at that point. In my situation I found that 87 w to 103 w will give me the best "window" of channels on DVB that I wish to view. Looking at the Lyngsat charts, I found that east of 87 and west of 103 there is simply not much on C-band for DVB format. I have too many trees it my location to get much past 123. I noticed that there are some channels at 129 and up further west but the angles from my location are simply too low and not achievable. I am not discounting the Atlantic " birds" like 40.5. Since you are in Maine, do you have any difficulties trying to get low angle birds from your location?

OK, I see (re strong). I guess re number of channels, you're right. Re the channels being interesting to watch, I guess it's a matter of personal preference. To me it's about 50/50.

Re how low an angle, I have trees all around me here. When I first moved here, I found a spot in a swath they cleared for power lines, that gave me a relatively good view to the west. I could see to to 135 in the west (C4 then, AMC10 now), although the reception was poor in the winter and non-existant in the winter (looking between tree limbs), and I could see to about 30 in the east before the trees got me. I think that the general rule of thumb is that things start falling off rapidly when the sat is less than 10 deg above the horizon. C4 was about 9 deg for me back then.

Now, however, the trees have all grown up, and I've lost AMC10 even in the winter and get AMC11 and G15 only poorly in the summer, and I can't get very far east at all due to trees. I even lost my due south sat until I cut down 2 pine trees. I think I can get to about 50 now until I hit a maple tree..... and I don't cut down maple trees.... (SYRUP). If it were just oaks and pines, they'd be a brush pile for the snowshoe hares now. However for 2 years in a row, the 2 maple trees blocking the east haven't given me much sap, so the bunnies might be getting a new home if they come up dry next year too.

However, re reception of low sats, the sats that are in the 14-18 degrees above the horizon are some of my strongest sats, mainly because their footprints seem to favor the northeast. So, bottom line is that if the sat is above 10 deg, it's all footprint (and trees), not elevation.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by elgemcdlf

I think actuator stroke has more to do with it than anything. I can get my full arc (30 - 139) with no problem (at the dish) with a 24" actuator. You can also play with adjustment of the actuator to "favor" one side more than the other. I can not see any farther East than 55 with that dish sue to trees but it will move that far. I have heard of 36" actuators which if there were any sats out past 139 up to 148 would be of use to me. My actuator is centered based on my south sat.
......

What you describe above, is very unusual, and is usually impossible unless you've made some modifications to the dish. When I used to live in Md, I could see out to about 137 in the west, which is easy for actuators, however the problem with actuators is that 2 things happen when you go past your due south sat to the east (if you are in the east, or to the west if you are in the west). I had an actuator that had lots of stroke, but what happens when an actuator goes much past it's due south, is that the back of the dish starts hitting the actuator. Ie there is a point where the actuator becomes tangential to the surface of the dish where it attaches to the dish, and if you try pushing it further, you have to deform the dish to go further. You can extend the limits in this direction by welding or bolting extensions that make the actuator attach out away from the dish by 8 or 10 inches, and this will keep the actuator from jamming into the back of the dish, but most people don't go to the trouble of doing this. I fabricated a bolt-on extension that only gave me a couple additional inches, but when I moved to Maine, I just got a H-H mount instead of an actuator. But now I have trouble getting back from the west, so there are times I wish I had an actuator again.
There is another problems with actuators going past their due south when extended, and that is, that getting to the east (in our case) is no problem, but getting back is difficult, because actuators push much better than they pull, and the further extended you get, the mechanical advantage is very poor, since you're pulling at a high angle relative to the direction that the dish needs to go. The force gets so high on actuators that they often let go, and the dish flops to the ground to the east. That never happened to me, but I have had difficulties getting the dish back at times. There is also the problem that once you go past due south, the free play in the system means that you get out of sync coming back. Ie you have to pull back past the sat you're going to, and then push back to it.
Anyway, to get the 30-139 coverage you mention is easy with a H-H, but I'm really amazed that you can do that with an actuator, regardless of the stroke length, unless you've modified the dish by extending the point where the actuator connects to the dish out away from the dish. Or does your dish come with such an extension from the factory? What kind of dish is it?

[reho33]

Bill I think that I am getting a 7.5 ft mesh dish from a friend soon and will have to to the same as Bibbler. This means digging the hole, pouring concrete, etc. The only reason that I asked is because I just wanted to know what to expect from an actuator versus an H-H motor. I realize that I cannot use an H-H motor on this kind of dish ( I don't even think the Motec 180 would work) because of the "loading" and the sheer weight involved. I really want to keep the installation simple to start and then as I like what I see, try for more stuff. Simple means the BSC-621 LNBF so that I don't need a polorotor for the LNB and using an old Houston Tracker for the dish moving. Then as time goes on, I might get a 4DTV and use "real" LNB's and horns with a polorotor. Right now the goal is to do an exploration of C-band without huge investment.

[lumpkin666]

They do make H-H mounts for large dishes. Obviously an SG2100 isn't going to cut it, but there are large c-band H-H mounts. My 36" Actuator arm actually takes me all the way west (to the point that the dish is basically straight up and down on it's side), and goes almost all the way east (never actually took it to the east limits since I have tree obstructions)

Does the dish you're getting not already have an lnb on it? If it already has an lnb with a polorotor on it, then the cheapest solution is to keep it. Although a few more steps in tuning would be involved (i.e. you'll have to change the horizontal and verticle with your Houston Tracker), there would be no further investment. Also, it will be much easier to setup - just leave current setup on the dish and enjoy. Having the ability to control the skew from your receiver makes finetuning SO very nice (I still don't think I have my bsc621 skewed correctly!)