Toroidal T55 and FTA

[jcarva]

I have a Toroidal T55 which I plan to use with a fortec Star Lifetime Ultra receiver.

First of all is the T55 dish big enough for FTA?

Second, the LNBFs need to be linear AND standard OR just linear?

Third, just "linear" gives me a greater freq range for the Pacfic and Atlantic satellites so, am I limited to only using standard linear with Toroidal?

[mhoward]

I use a universal LNB and pick up several atlantic satellites (HISPANISAT, PAS9, T11) with no problem.

[boz]

The T55 is probably too small for most FTA applications. I just ordered a T90 for this reason. It my understanding that the T55 is pretty much only useful in the US with the commercial DBS providers. It seems most users of the T55 use it to get Dish and Expressvu off the same antenna.

FTA is pretty much limited to Linear. If you get a reversed circular LNB and hook it up to that FortecStar, you could get a few of the unscrambled DN channels, but this is as fun as watching grass grow.

I hope to use the T90 to pick up a large swath of satellites. I used to be a C/Ku BUD owner, but I moved and am now limited by covenant to a single (or a couple) < 1 meter dishes. I just hope there is enough programming left up there to justify this, or I just spent a bunch of cash for nothing. I guess I could always use it for Dish or DirecTV.