My old Pirmestar dish, how to integrate with FTA

[UGLandrum]

I have an old 75-E Channelmaster/Primestar eliptical w/ dual cables running out of the LNB. How can I adapt this dish to view a satellite that my motorized dish can't see? And also could I adapt my Dish 500 sat to it as well to view even more FTA. Is DBS dishes and KU band dishes the same thing? See I know for a fact my motorized dish can't see several sat's due to trees, don't have a clear veiw towards the east-southeast wear my motorized one is mounted.

[lostinthewoods]

I mounted a QPH-031 on mine by making an adapter out of a couple pieces of aluminum plate. Basically, removed the original lnb and attached a "bottom" plate to the original mounting. This had a semi-circular cutout in it. Placed the horn of the QPH in and sandwiched this with another plate on the top.

Been working great for at least two years.

Lost

[UGLandrum]

Unfortunatly there are no ID #'s on th lnb that are relevent to any searches for identification. It has Horizontal and Vertical polorization which leads me to wonder if I could use it in the same system as my single cable FTA dish. I just assume the lnb is a standard one from its day, and then what about my 500 dish? Could my system work with 3 different variations of dishes that operate on similar tech? Also when I salvaged the Primestar dish hooked up to it was "Channel Master Multiswitch for twin fixed LNB" I assume it is "two in one" LNB.

13 Vdc/Vertical 18 Vdc/Horizontal



Rx1 Rx2

What are these connections at the bottom for, multiple receivers?
Or did two coax's run to the box? The mother of the man who had this system hooked up, had tried to "fix" it not knowing enough, so it was not clear of the proper oriantation, but I do know it all works still. (The dish stinks though.) Can I use a basic finder with this style of LNBF? I thought I had to do the vertical and horizontal seperatly.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by lostinthewoods

I mounted a QPH-031 on mine by making an adapter out of a couple pieces of aluminum plate. Basically, removed the original lnb and attached a "bottom" plate to the original mounting. This had a semi-circular cutout in it. Placed the horn of the QPH in and sandwiched this with another plate on the top.

Been working great for at least two years.

Lost

Hi.. I'm a bit curious as to why an adapter was needed? The Primestar dishes I've used wouldn't require any adapter. I was able to mount a KUL1 into mine, and don't see any reason why my QPH-031 wouldn't have fit too.
I thought that perhaps the Primestar LNBF might be attached further or closer to the focal point, so that you needed the adapter to get the lnbf at the focal point, but I measured my old Primestar lnbf, and compared that to my KUL1 and QPH-031, and they are pretty much the same, except that I think the KUL1 had to be slid forward instead of back away from the dish, but I don't see why an adapter should be necessary.

Does this mean that there is a different style of lnbf holder on different Primestar dishes? I think I've had two different types of Primestar dishes, and both used what seemed to be the same lnbf, but there are probably other models.

Anyway, why was an adapter needed??

[UGLandrum]

Well I spoke further to the lady that let me have the old system. It seems her son had some sort of wierd satellite service provided by a local cable company, (it was their
cable line up, but available to more rural
customers) and had a dish 500 hooked up as well.
Heres and idea of the setup he had.
Cable Co/ sat (Old primestar) 2 coax two multiswitch-----coax to diplexer----one line in his room
Dish 500-----same diplexer (hooked to UHF/VHF side)
then some how had primestar box linked to his d/n box with apparatus
and had that one line hooked to that apparatus. Don't know what that apparatus was, it was nowhere to be found. (son moved out year ago)
very curious as to how it was done.
Can anyone give me any advice as to how to integrate my primestar with my Fortec FTA system? what kind of device do I need? can I use my multiswitch?
Oh and wejones, the lady said that the cable installers of thier sat sys. said that it was required for the h/v polorized lnb's.
i'll put a link on here of the only pics I have of the primestar i have, so check it out. its about 802.11 IEEE wireless integration os the dish, but thats the only pics I have of it. I considered useing the dish to form a network, only problem, can't see any buddys roofs from here. so I will have to go with grabbing more sat signals that my Fortec can't see.
Use a Surplus Primestar Dish as an IEEE 802.11 Wireless Networking Antenna
there is a close up of the mount. check it out.

[lostinthewoods]

Originally Posted by wejones

Hi.. I'm a bit curious as to why an adapter was needed? The Primestar dishes I've used wouldn't require any adapter. I was able to mount a KUL1 into mine, and don't see any reason why my QPH-031 wouldn't have fit too.
I thought that perhaps the Primestar LNBF might be attached further or closer to the focal point, so that you needed the adapter to get the lnbf at the focal point, but I measured my old Primestar lnbf, and compared that to my KUL1 and QPH-031, and they are pretty much the same, except that I think the KUL1 had to be slid forward instead of back away from the dish, but I don't see why an adapter should be necessary.

Does this mean that there is a different style of lnbf holder on different Primestar dishes? I think I've had two different types of Primestar dishes, and both used what seemed to be the same lnbf, but there are probably other models.

Anyway, why was an adapter needed??

On the dish that I have, the lnb incorporated a built in top yoke that bolted to the mount. The bottom semi circle on the mount was to small to fit the yoke of the QPH into. When I enlarged that part sufficiently to get the yoke of the QPH to fit, I was cutting into the mounting holes of the original mount. Thus the adapter.

Lost

[wejones]

Originally Posted by lostinthewoods

On the dish that I have, the lnb incorporated a built in top yoke that bolted to the mount. The bottom semi circle on the mount was to small to fit the yoke of the QPH into. When I enlarged that part sufficiently to get the yoke of the QPH to fit, I was cutting into the mounting holes of the original mount. Thus the adapter.

Lost

Thanks. Yeah that's completely different from the Primestar dishes I've had, both of which had lnbfs that had pretty standard diameter tubes where they attached to the lnbf yoke.

[boroda1]

Originally Posted by lostinthewoods

On the dish that I have, the lnb incorporated a built in top yoke that bolted to the mount. The bottom semi circle on the mount was to small to fit the yoke of the QPH into.

Lost

That semi-circle fits LNBf with 20mm throat, so if you take the plastic cover off, some LNBf may be attached:

But I ended up with an adapter too:

[UGLandrum]

No one has truly answered my question, as was the original topic of this thread. Please read the first post of this thread if any of you know anything about this stuff, pleases post a reply. Thanks- Will

P.S.
Keep in mind I have a original Channel Master multiswitch that was intended for use with the lnbf. (its a Horizontal and vertical polorization)
I will try to get pics of it on here but, my digital cam is a battery sucker, and I havent firured out how to put them on my computer yet.
If photos will help you, let me know.

[wejones]

Originally Posted by UGLandrum

No one has truly answered my question, as was the original topic of this thread. Please read the first post of this thread if any of you know anything about this stuff, pleases post a reply. Thanks- Will

P.S.
Keep in mind I have a original Channel Master multiswitch that was intended for use with the lnbf. (its a Horizontal and vertical polorization)
I will try to get pics of it on here but, my digital cam is a battery sucker, and I havent firured out how to put them on my computer yet.
If photos will help you, let me know.

It might help if you indicate what satellite/channel you're hoping to view with the Primestar dish. I'm not familiar with the specific primestar dish/lnbf you have, but the ones I've used are standard 10750 LO lnbfs which should be OK for most FTA channels. However the Primestar LNBFs I've used were not voltage switchable for polarity, ie they had 2 coax connections, one for H and one for V. That might be why there was this multi-switch in your sytem, but I'm not sure. I think I would have used a 22khz or diseqC switch. But if you're trying to get just a single channel, or a single polarity, you may not need any switch, just connect the coax to the appropriate polarity port.

You also didn't mention what receiver you're using, but I assume it's a DVB receiver of some kind.

But yes, you should be able to use the Primestar dish, I'm using one myself, although I've put on a different lnbf. THe original lnbf should work, as I described above, although since it's probably 15 years old or so, it probably isn't as low a noise figure as more modern lnbfs, but the one I had did work OK. Not real sensitive, but it worked. I think it was a quality brand too, like Japan Radio or something like that.



I don't know much about multi-switches

[UGLandrum]

Thanks for your replies, sorry I havent even checked these forums in about a week. Effort to help me in my questions is very helpful and appreciated! I'll be using my standard FTA receiver with my other dish, I was just querious as to if I could add an additional dish to the system useing the primestar dish. Those dish's were salvaged by some retailer and refurbished them to sell to cable companies offering their service to rural areas. Would it be possible to get a device that can allow me to hook up the horizontal and vetical pols on one side and one cable leading to the box, so the device can switch between the 2 polorizations?


thanks- Will

[UGLandrum]

Nevermind about integrating the primestar dish with my FTA, I'm quite happy with it as is. I decided to go another route with the dish... IEEE 802.11b wireless Wan! If anyone knows of a good forum that has topics like this let me know, I have yet to find one. I made a "transiever" for the primestar dish, almost identical to the one pictured at the supplied link.
(Except it has a coffee can lid on it to keep bugs and water out, works well. Did not hinder the signal in my tests!) Also if I solder a longer wavelength of flat wire on the conductor I could get up to 32dB gain!!!
LIGHTNING FAST CONNECTION!
Use a Surplus Primestar Dish as an IEEE 802.11 Wireless Networking Antenna

[1captain]

[quote=wejones;53546]

But yes, you should be able to use the Primestar dish, I'm using one myself, although I've put on a different lnbf. THe original lnbf should work, as I described above, although since it's probably 15 years old or so, it probably isn't as low a noise figure as more modern lnbfs, but the one I had did work OK. Not real sensitive, but it worked. I think it was a quality brand too, like Japan Radio or something like that.

Bill did about same thing here with a prime star dish, but would like to know on your lnb change did you keep same mount an scalar, that bolts to the mount on the lnb arm?

[UGLandrum]

I did keep the original mount on the arm and also the lnb I beleive was replaced when that cable company used it not more than 6 years ago.
My transiever is made from a large soup can, coffe can lid, old lnb chassis mount coax male connector w/ flat wire already protruding out the inside.
Very simple yet very effective! Design with or without reflector dish works for many different RF applications! One thing, its become very hazy and scuffed (the paint), could I paint it with Krylon plastic paint?