Getting C-Band Satellite

watty

C-Band has soem FTA channels you can't get on normal Ku band as the beams are much, much wider, over 1/3 the planet.

I might be possible to get some USA channels

You need a very big dish.

A friend has a 3.4m dish. I hope to help him assemble it and mount.

We will use an old Drake analog receiver to control the LNB (which aslo is very different) and dish actuators (it has elevation too).

The LNB IF will then feed either PC Card or Nokia digital receiver

This would be nice for C-Band:

http://www.ok1dfc.com/EME/10m%20projekt/10m%20project.htm

Zaphod

watty wrote:

A friend has a 3.4m dish. I hope to help him assemble it and mount.

Any more info on the dish - mesh/solid, no of sections, mount type etc? A few pics would be great!

watty

It is mesh triangles and alloy ribs that bolt onto a frame thingy. It is a flat bpack at the moment. He brought from SA about 6 years ago.

The LNB/ Polariser / Horn is monsterous

The Actuator jacks huge (Up down and east west).

He has a smaller one about 1.7m he wanted to use for Ku but I reckon it is C-band judging by size of mesh. I gave him a 90cm mesh Ku to comare and use.

Allegedly the Drake (a top of the range analog in its day) has all the outputs to control LNB polarisor and both actuators.

I have a lesser Drake of similar vintage I was given and option to collect an actuator from another friend. Would I get anything usefull on C-Band with the 1.7m if I cadged it off him? I'd need to buy a C-Band LNB. My PC card seems to have C-Band support for LNB IF signal, Everything else could be controlled by the lesser Drake?

We take pictures as we set it up.

He has an 8 acre field so can mount at ground level and have a good clear arc from E / SE to W/SW

Never seen a digital box to control all this stuff. I bet they cost more than 100 Euro!

L1011

'Standard' 36V actuator motor controls? Fair few digital boxes have them, still a minority of those out there mind. Theres two reviewed in TELE-SATELLITE this month IIRC, one of which is a wanky yankee receiver with C-bands support.

watty

You need polarisor control too.
Also this setup can, with correct SW in receiver, track an inclined orbit satelite. I think some boxes only control East/West.

I put a sub for Tele-Sat on my Christmas list, much better than Wot Sat in Easons. I don't think I be getting it from Santa though.

Zaphod

watty wrote:

The Actuator jacks huge (Up down and east west).

Watty, do you know if this is a polar mount with a second jack for elevation adjustment, or a true dual-axis mount, like this?

watty wrote:

I have a lesser Drake of similar vintage I was given and option to collect an actuator from another friend. Would I get anything usefull on C-Band with the 1.7m if I cadged it off him? I'd need to buy a C-Band LNB. My PC card seems to have C-Band support for LNB IF signal, Everything else could be controlled by the lesser Drake?

1.7m should be plenty big enough to drag in the stronger C spot beams. Link to German reports of C-band reception with 1.2M offset dishes FYI.
http://216.239.39.104/translate_c?&u=http://board.satbook.de/wbb/thread.php%3Fthreadid%3D1072%26sid%3De0004969c7f8038c11ca0430257548e2
You can pick up C-band feeds cheaply on Ebay. I can PM a seller I've dealt with if you like. You could control polarity of mech polarizer with Drake, but bit awkward using it in conjunction with sat card when going from H to V channel for example. A voltage switched LNBF would be an alternative.

watty wrote:

Never seen a digital box to control all this stuff. I bet they cost more than 100 Euro!

There are no digital receivers with proper dual axis control to my knowledge. The Technomates DAPCI models can be used for inclined orbit tracking by way of the 36V positioner and a VBox II to convert Diseqc commands to 36V.

Unless you go for v. expensive RCI stuff >$2000 and they are only positioners.
http://www.researchconcepts.com/

watty

Really I have no idea which type...

There is a lot of stuff in boxes. I suspect in boxes even years in SA before the 6 year ago it was shiped here.

The bits I opened (petals) did not look to have ever been assembled. I got impression he had never unpacked it all himself and was unsure exactly what he has.

We both can do welding and he has the gear (inc cool automatic filter mask) so mounting may be interesting but not impossible.

You should see the welding and concrete he has done for the 60 ft telescopic very heavy duty radio mast he has (also brought from SA, that was in use before!).

So really I have no idea how the bits go together. But definately both actuators belong to the big 3.4M dish. There is some kind of polar mount possibly, I saw something in shedbut not sure if just a big mount or polar.

The 3.4M stuff and Drake is supposed to be a COMPLETE analog "do everything" C-Band system.

The 1.7m dish is just petals, back frame for ribs and and the ribs, all packed flat, never used. I'd need to make a mount and get LNBF.

He wasn't sure even what size the two dishes are. I measured one petal of small dish. The big petals are at least twice as long.

It will be interesting getting it going.

I have no money at moment, but would be interested in price of LNBF with 14/18 adaptor for polarisor or whatever for the 1.7m dish.

I could try putting it on shed roof I suppose.. And hurredly remove it when wind rises?

Really I have no idea where to put it.

I'm trying to setup a 22Mbit link to his house using a 3rd friend's house to get round the intervening hill. I suppose I could "remote" the 1.7m dish in his 8 acre field and watch streamed content over the 22Mbps WiFi?

Zaphod

watty wrote:

The 3.4M stuff and Drake is supposed to be a COMPLETE analog "do everything" C-Band system.

Like Ku band, there isn't much available on analog on C anymore, apart from the ones on Arabsat which are very high power and often have english language stuff on them. Although a fair percentage of these would now be duplicated on digital.

watty wrote:

I have no money at moment, but would be interested in price of LNBF with 14/18 adaptor for polarisor or whatever for the 1.7m dish.

I've picked up new Chaparral feedhorn for as little as €5 on ebay. Just search for 'feedhorn' on ebay.com. A lot of the American sellers will sell to Ireland, even if not listed as such, if you contact them beforehand and explain that you'll cover postage costs.

The vast majority of C-band channels are circularly polarised, apart from Arabsat, so make sure any feed has a teflon dielectric. If you're stuck, I have a half metre or so strip of teflon off of a crane gear, but it's pain to cut.

watty wrote:

I could try putting it on shed roof I suppose.. And hurredly remove it when wind rises?

No possibilty of LOS on the ground?


I've just been updating a list I make of sats between 84W and 64E receivable in Ireland (some require a large dish though). Mostly FTA TV channels, along with a few radio, data and encrypted channels on selected TPs, along with the corresponding footprints using the World of Satellites program and a bit of editing with Excel. About 3.5MB PDF file with 110 pages if you want it emailed. Alt. if someone has a website to host it?

watty

Email it and I can host it

see this page
http://members.boards.ie/watty/eirepeaters.htm

It has the Irish Callsign and the rest of the email address.


My web sites:
http://members.boards.ie/watty/index.html only 2MByte left

http://homepage.eircom.net/~watty/ maybe 40M to 80M free. Forget how much space they gave me.

http://www.qsl.net/ei9feb/index.html very slow server runs out of bandwidth sometimes you can't connect. Forget how much space

http://www.tamkits.net my only paid for web site. Maybe 99M free or 49M free.


My backgarden has 6ft wall to south and North.

Shed in SW corner with nearly flat roof and 8ft haigh West wall.

Most of house is East side (Semi-detached, i'm the north half, next door is south half.

A Ku minidish can get Sky near west of garden perched on top of a step ladder

The three existing dishs mounted on poles along north face of shed at back west corner of Garden.
I do get 42E and 50W, motorised dish 4ft above the shed roof.

watty

I'm looking into a new website dedicated to Satellite, Terristrial and Cable&MMDS TV/Radio.

I have a lot of material inc web pages already built.

byte

Oooh, that sounds interesting!

If you need webspace, I can offer some also, as I probably won't use all my allocated space (5000MB).

Zaphod

http://file.uploadr.com/41dc
Filename is book4d.pdf

watty

Got it.