Cband for FTA

[gib48189]

Greetings,

I have a 12' Paraclipse in the yard that has not moved for 4-5 years. (Been using DTV).

I've gotten a bit interested in bringing it back to life after reading some of the threads here. It is set-up with a C and KU Polarotor assembley, both bands worked fine when I retired it. If I want to use this for FTA, do I need to use a digital LNB or will the analog LNB's work? I know I will need to dust off my Chapparal Montery, I hope I can find the remote! I'll probally need to take the feed horn cover off and displace quite a few birds and wasps nests. What fun.

Anyway, just curious what would need to be done to breathe some life back into my 12' yard decoration.

[spyder]

Welcome back to the 'real satellite' world.

There's really no such thing as a 'digital' or 'analog' lnb. Don't buy into the marketting ploys.

That being said there are great differences in lnbs however. The key factor in receiving digital signals is the stability of the lnb. I've found that to be a little more true on C band signals. Most older, non pro grade lnbs had a stability of +/- 1Mhz and usually higher in the 1.5Mhz range. I recomend +/- 500khz as a starting point. Many DVB signals have low symbol rates and that's where the stabilty numbers come into play. The lower the stability numbers, the better it will keep the signal locked as it won't tend to drift off frequency. The lower the numbers the better, but that also equates into higher prices. (always a bad side to quality). I use Norsat +/- 250khz models myself.

One other thing about the Paraclypse dishes is I know at one time they used a larger opening mesh than some other manufacturers. Check the mesh on the dish, and if you can slip a pencil into the holes it's probably not going to work very well for KU signals. It would be fine for C however. If you have the smaller holes, around 1/8" or smaller then you are in good shape.

The main thing I stress when attempting to set up a DVB big dish system is diah allignment and fine tuning. The dish has to be almost perfect in its tracking and adjustment for reliable digital reception. Many systems will receive top quality analog signals but fall completely flat when they are aimed at digital signals. Didital requires much more accuracy. One site I always recomend is Geo-Orbit. Lots of great information on dish operation and fine tuning setup. http://www.geo-orbit.org/sizepgs/tuningp2.html

Good luck.

[tdti1]

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