Large Dish Installations

djdarraghj

Couple of questions.

1. Whats the largest dish you have seen in Ireland for domestic use?
2. Is there anyone on this board who has showtime or Nilesat in Ireland.
3. Is there any company that do large dish installations that you know of. It seems to be very hard to get information on this! With a larger dish could you get satellite even further west and east? At the moment I can get 43w to 58e on my 1.1 triax. Also how sticky are they on granting planning permission for the erections of large dishes over 2m.

All answers appreciated.

bombibom

djdarraghj wrote: »

Couple of questions.

1. Whats the largest dish you have seen in Ireland for domestic use?
2. Is there anyone on this board who has showtime or Nilesat in Ireland.
3. Is there any company that do large dish installations that you know of. It seems to be very hard to get information on this! With a larger dish could you get satellite even further west and east? At the moment I can get 43w to 58e on my 1.1 triax. Also how sticky are they on granting planning permission for the erections of large dishes over 2m.

All answers appreciated.

1.The largest I've installed for a friend of mine in Cork was 1.20m offset.You could get up to 1.50m offset and up to 2.20m prime focus in this country
2.I've got no showtime but it's not a problem even in the south of Ireland with 1.20m good quality dish+quality LNB
3.Any Sky installer should be able to install a large dish.If you are in the south of Ireland I can give you a hand.

byte

http://www.lyngsat-maps.com/maps/nile102.html

Hmm, I have my doubts that 1.2m dish would be big enough to get reception of Nilesat.

bombibom

byte wrote: »

http://www.lyngsat-maps.com/maps/nile102.html

Hmm, I have my doubts that 1.2m dish would be big enough to get reception of Nilesat.

Acording to kingofsat.net should be possible.I'm rechecking at the moment.

Greenman

bombibom wrote: »

1.The largest I've installed for a friend of mine in Cork was 1.20m offset.You could get up to 1.50m offset and up to 2.20m prime focus in this country
2.I've got no showtime but it's not a problem even in the south of Ireland with 1.20m good quality dish+quality LNB
3.Any Sky installer should be able to install a large dish.If you are in the south of Ireland I can give you a hand.

Which dish and LNB did you use?

Is it on the ground or on the side of a wall?

Thanks JD Belgium.

Ronan|Raven

You will not pull in Showtime on a 1.2m dish in this fair land of ours (imo )

Greenman

Ronan|Raven wrote: »

You will not pull in Showtime on a 1.2m dish in this fair land of ours (imo )

Have you done it Ronan?

Ronan|Raven

Nope, a 1.8m dish is needed in a lot of england where the footprint is a lot more favourable. I would imagine a 2m minimum for parts of here.

Greenman

Ronan|Raven wrote: »

Nope, a 1.8m dish is needed in a lot of england where the footprint is a lot more favourable. I would imagine a 2m minimum for parts of here.

Bought a CM 1.2m with polar mount a few days ago and will report back from this fair land.

Ronan did you ever hear of an LNB called BEST 0.1db ?

Ronan|Raven

Afraid not, but I assume it is another mass produced rebadged LNB! A lot of them seem to be that way lately.

Let us know how you get on with the CM.

Greenman

Ronan|Raven wrote: »

Afraid not, but I assume it is another mass produced rebadged LNB! A lot of them seem to be that way lately.

Well Ronan get this, I was getting 19-20% quality on the MBC package on Arabsat last sunday morning. I fitted the BEST 0.1db quality rose to 29% and now its up to 34-36% depending on the time of day.

In the old days with a bit of rain MBC was gone so just waiting for some bad weather but I feel we are over the drop out threshold.

For €15 it was well worth it.

Got the CM 1.2m dish, AZ/EL mount, matching feedhorn,Invacom 0.3db to match with C120 fittings all for €292 from ALLSATCOM dot COM,a very friendly outfit that sell mainly to the broadcast world. Its 200 kms from the house travelled down with my car trailer to collect, very happy as these are great dish, just need to get it up and running.

Swapped the AZ/EL mount for a CM polar mount with actuator with a pal locally.

Will post pics when the job is done.

Ronan|Raven

That was a great result with the LNB,good price on the gear as well, on those nice roads it is no distance

Compton

It doesn't work on a quality 1.8 dish. I'd recommend a 2.4 but couldn't guarantee it.

watty

The Limit is about 10 degrees above horizon no matter how big the dish is, though if the signal good and site suitable 5 degrees is possible on very big dish.

Beyond about 50W the visible Ku Satellites only have US beams, can't be got generally this side of Atlantic.

58e is pretty low for MidWest of Ireland. Nothing further than 42E on my 1.1m near Limerick.


A 3.7m or larger mesh dish is not unusual for C-Band. The sats have wider beams, so ones not available on Ku are available. But still limited to about 65E to 70W arc.

Check www.lyngsat.com for footprints.

Greenman

Here are the pics of my CM 1.2m plus polar mount. Got it all sorted on saturday last. The goal was NIlesat for the wife, verticals are perfect all the time, horizontals are fine till we have rain then a few vanish, at night they get very strong, from 40% quality in the day to 65% quality at night.

It swings from 15 west to 50 east.

All in all I'm very happy and would do nothing different.

The mast was homemade by a pal at work. Its a 75mm diameter tube.

Any comments welcome.

Ronan|Raven

Looks great Greenman, and may I say a fine collection of dishes on the house you must have a very understanding wife! Glad to see you are getting the channels you wanted off Nilesat. Good work.

Greenman

Ronan|Raven wrote: »

Looks great Greenman, and may I say a fine collection of dishes on the house you must have a very understanding wife!

Those dishes are for her, I'm happy enough with Astra 28.2 .

Greenman

For old times sake this was the old days.

byte

I want a farm like Greenman's! A dish farm, that is!

Fat_Fingers

Hahaha.. if you have neighbors they must love you!

Greenman

Fat_Fingers wrote: »

Hahaha.. if you have neighbors they must love you!

I live in a give and take neighbourhood, my direct neighbours are down to earth people and they are happy to have me as their neighbour.

Very happy to live in Vlaanderen.

snaps

Now ive just realised how you get Nilesat so easily.......Your in Belgium and not this far west/north in Ireland!!!!!!!!!!!!

Greenman

snaps wrote: »

Now ive just realised how you get Nilesat so easily.......Your in Belgium and not this far west/north in Ireland!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whats your setup?

Frisian

I'm about 80km east of Greenmans qth, and I never bothered with Nilesat because of that Lyngsat map, indicating no hope of receiving 7°w in central europe with a 90cm dish until recently. I read in a dx-forum that people were picking it up with 80cm in the south of germany so I gave it a try. To my surprise it came in almost instantly when I was turning my Moteck from 5° to 7°. I'm receiving the MBC tp 11938v with a 90cm Gibertini and a Smart Titanium LNB on my Smart MX40 even in light drizzle.
I know its more difficult in the northwest of europe but next time I'm up there I definitly will give it a try on 1.5m. 'Cause this footprint on Lyngsat is far from accurate.

Greenman

Frisian wrote: »

I know its more difficult in the northwest of europe but next time I'm up there I definitly will give it a try on 1.5m. 'Cause this footprint on Lyngsat is far from accurate.

Maybe thats for copyright purposes, I hope.

Do you look at 26 east at all ? MBC is there too, if you try let us know reception.

I'm between Antwerp and Liege along the E313.

snaps

Well im situated 9.12W and around 53.2N. I have a 1.1M Gilbetini dish with a smart .2lnb. I Get great reception off 26east (MBC/Dubai one are my most watched channels along with canal+ scandanavia off 1west). There is next to no signal from 7west here in Ireland.
Im very surprised with the Thor 5 footprint now as a couple of saturdays ago during a horrendous rain/hail storm i lost signal on nearly all satellites apart from 1 west canal+ transponders (Not nordic beam).
Ive 2 dishes up my 1.1m (Motorised), Its floor mounted to avoid all the wind and rain we get here in the west of Ireland. Also i have a little rain guard (Made out of a pop bottle) over the lnb to keep the rain off it. Ive then a 75cm fixed dish with a dual output .2lnb for 28east.

Greenman

snaps wrote: »

Well im situated 9.12W and around 53.2N. I have a 1.1M Gilbetini dish with a smart .2lnb. I Get great reception off 26east (MBC/Dubai one are my most watched channels along with canal+ scandanavia off 1west). There is next to no signal from 7west here in Ireland.
Im very surprised with the Thor 5 footprint now as a couple of saturdays ago during a horrendous rain/hail storm i lost signal on nearly all satellites apart from 1 west canal+ transponders (Not nordic beam).
Ive 2 dishes up my 1.1m (Motorised), Its floor mounted to avoid all the wind and rain we get here in the west of Ireland. Also i have a little rain guard (Made out of a pop bottle) over the lnb to keep the rain off it. Ive then a 75cm fixed dish with a dual output .2lnb for 28east.

Sounds very interesting, any chance on throwing up a few pics especially the ingenious rain guard.

Thanks.

snaps

Frisian wrote: »

my Smart MX40

Mate what are these recievers like, Im looking to lay my hands on some cheap recievers for mainly FTA reception but also perhaps the option for a CI (Like a diablo). Ive seen these recievers on the website i usualy get my gear from in Germany at a very decent price.

Can you edit channel lists via a laptop/Serial port?
English menus?

Regards
Snaps

LNB cover to keep off rain. Very simple and effective
1.1M motorised dish and fixed 75cm
homemade water proofing cover for priority switch box. (Motor feeds 2 technomates) Both technomates in different rooms have ability to drive motor

Greenman

snaps wrote: »

LNB cover to keep off rain. Very simple and effective

Like the cover but whats the point re rain? but might consider it for snow as one of my LNBs was covered by snow this morning.

Nice pics.

Thanks.

M5

snaps wrote: »

(Motor feeds 2 technomates) Both technomates in different rooms have ability to drive motor

Howd you manage that exactly? I have 3 receivers off one 84CM dish but only one controls the motor

snaps

Greenman wrote: »

Like the cover but whats the point re rain? but might consider it for snow as one of my LNBs was covered by snow this morning.

Keeping any kinda percepitaion off the LNB cap helps keeping a weaker signal coming in during rain etc. Snow is a killer for satellite reception. Snow really soaks up the signal. Ive found when it rains (Not heavy) with my lnb cover on mbc on 26east keeps coming in.

M5 wrote: »

Howd you manage that exactly? I have 3 receivers off one 84CM dish but only one controls the motor

Obviously you cant have all recievers on at same time unless you are watching the same satellite (Polorisation). A priority switch does what it says, connects 2 recievers before the motor (Instead of having 1 reciever connected to the motor and the other reciever connected to a second output on the lnb).
So both recievers are able to drive the motor. comes in handy when your tucked up in bed and dont want to turn on main reciever downstairs to switch satellites.

Greenman

snaps wrote: »

. comes in handy when your tucked up in bed and dont want to turn on main reciever downstairs to switch satellites.

Did you ever those 2.4 ghz video senders thingies? we've got 3 sets running in the house.

M5

snaps wrote: »

Keeping any kinda percepitaion off the LNB cap helps keeping a weaker signal coming in during rain etc. Snow is a killer for satellite reception. Snow really soaks up the signal. Ive found when it rains (Not heavy) with my lnb cover on mbc on 26east keeps coming in.



Obviously you cant have all recievers on at same time unless you are watching the same satellite (Polorisation). A priority switch does what it says, connects 2 recievers before the motor (Instead of having 1 reciever connected to the motor and the other reciever connected to a second output on the lnb).
So both recievers are able to drive the motor. comes in handy when your tucked up in bed and dont want to turn on main reciever downstairs to switch satellites.

any chance you can post the make and model (or a link), would like to pick up something like that myself! cheers

Zaphod

Some nice pics in this thread. Might be an idea to have a sticky so that everyone can show their own setups, similar to the ones on satellites.co.uk and other forums.

Greenman

Zaphod wrote: »

Some nice pics in this thread. Might be an idea to have a sticky so that everyone can show their own setups, similar to the ones on satellites.co.uk and other forums.

I'd second that, I love looking at other peoples sat pics.

So how about it Mr Mod?

snaps

Greenman wrote: »

Did you ever those 2.4 ghz video senders thingies? we've got 3 sets running in the house.

Yes i have some already that feeds 3 other rooms in the house from my main technomate downstairs. Because i live on an estate peoples microwaves and wifi plays havoc with them and sometimes they are unwatchable

Greenman

snaps wrote: »

Yes i have some already that feeds 3 other rooms in the house from my main technomate downstairs. Because i live on an estate peoples microwaves and wifi plays havoc with them and sometimes they are unwatchable

Know what you mean.

We use little baby FM transmitters connected to various sat receivers. So we are all in our heaven. As I type the wood stove is keeping us nice and warm in Belgium and I'm listening to The Mooney show. Wife is on M6 TV and the young lad on Youtube.

Some might say sad but I'm happy.

byte

If somebody wants to start a thread about installations, by all means go ahead. I'll sticky it later.

Frisian

Sorry for answering so late, was busy.

Greenman wrote: »

Maybe thats for copyright purposes, I hope.

Do you look at 26 east at all ? MBC is there too, if you try let us know reception.

I'm between Antwerp and Liege along the E313.

Oh yes, of course. 26°e is coming in no problem, very weak signal (no lock) on the MBC tp, though.
Btw. I'm 15km east of Roermond atm.

Mate what are these recievers like, Im looking to lay my hands on some cheap recievers for mainly FTA reception but also perhaps the option for a CI (Like a diablo). Ive seen these recievers on the website i usualy get my gear from in Germany at a very decent price.

Can you edit channel lists via a laptop/Serial port?
English menus?

There are quite a lot different smart boxes available.
A Sat fella in Tubbercurry used to sell the Rapido II but ca. 3 out of 10 had a faulty power supply, so beware.
Mine (or the Missus's rather) is the MX40 (under €70), and tbh I never used the serial port (RS232) since this receiver has a USB port. You can transfer all data e.g. settings from your PC to the box via a USB stick or an external hard drive, onto which you can record aswell, or watch your digital pix from.
The MX40 has an empty card slot, for whom you can buy a reader for ca.30€.
No CI slots, though.
Mine is running with an alternative firmware.


Btw. Amos comes in here, too.


Loads of people here are now buying the MX92 HD with USB and CI @€;149.
Might be worth a thought.

snaps

M5 wrote: »

any chance you can post the make and model (or a link), would like to pick up something like that myself! cheers

I assume you mean the switch? Its made by global, dont know where i got it from, think it was the UK. I brought it many years ago before recievers had loop throughs built in as i had 2 nokias linked up to a fixed dish.

Global smart priority swich its called.

snaps

Frisian wrote: »

Sorry for answering so late, was busy.


Oh yes, of course. 26°e is coming in no problem, very weak signal (no lock) on the MBC tp, though.

Loads of people here are now buying the MX92 HD with USB and CI @€;149.
Might be worth a thought.

Strange how 26e mbc is stronger here?

Look at you showing off with AMOS! One bird i wish i could recieve here.

So smart recievers are worth a look then? Yes been looking at the HD model as well for a few people, the USB PVR is very apealing for the price. Some decent offers around for this make.

Wonder if a Diablo cam would work in that Smart HD model?

M5

snaps wrote: »

I assume you mean the switch? Its made by global, dont know where i got it from, think it was the UK. I brought it many years ago before recievers had loop throughs built in as i had 2 nokias linked up to a fixed dish.

Global smart priority swich its called.

on my way to www.google.com cheers!

stevethesatguy

I have an ASC SIGNAL 1.8m dish on the way,,I will see what i get and report back here. as it stands i get 58w to 42e on my motorised 1.1m Triax ,,,the house block the rest of the eastern sky,,,I am going to mount the 1.8m dish further from the house and hopefully i will get some hard to find sats

snaps

stevethesatguy wrote: »

I have an ASC SIGNAL 1.8m dish on the way,,I will see what i get and report back here. as it stands i get 58w to 42e on my motorised 1.1m Triax ,,,the house block the rest of the eastern sky,,,I am going to mount the 1.8m dish further from the house and hopefully i will get some hard to find sats

Will be interesting to see if you get a sniff of either 4 or 7 west with that?

M5

7 maybe, 4 doubt it, Nile sat would be very interesting indeed!!!!! A 1.8/2.0 M dish would be ordered quite quickly!!!!

http://www.lyngsat-maps.com/maps/amos2_eur.html

http://www.lyngsat-maps.com/maps/nile101.html

stevethesatguy

Should have a delivery by Wednesday next week,,give me 2 days to play with it and I should be able to post results by 7th Feb

Greenman

Greenman wrote: »

Here are the pics of my CM 1.2m plus polar mount. Got it all sorted on saturday last. The goal was NIlesat for the wife, verticals are perfect all the time, horizontals are fine till we have rain then a few vanish, at night they get very strong, from 40% quality in the day to 65% quality at night.

It swings from 15 west to 50 east.

All in all I'm very happy and would do nothing different.

The mast was homemade by a pal at work. Its a 75mm diameter tube.

Any comments welcome.

Hello,
Done some changing about as we are going to get some building work done where the old setup was. I'm putting another CM 1.2m behind the first one fixed on Nilesat. Thnking about one of those 90cm multi LNB dish from Wavefrontier, just thinking plus thinking of modding a Triax TD 110 to take a few LNBs.

snaps

That is one hell of a setup!
how does the 2 L brackets supporting the other 2 dishes grip the main pole? Im surprised they dont slip around?

Nice touch the bird box behind the dishes!

Whats the mast for at the back of the house?

Greenman

snaps wrote: »

That is one hell of a setup!
how does the 2 L brackets supporting the other 2 dishes grip the main pole? Im surprised they dont slip around?

I just bolted them to the pole which is a 3 inch pole, the U brackets are serrated and they are good and tight so we'll see how they hold.

snaps wrote: »

Whats the mast for at the back of the house?

That mast is for Ham Radio, its a mast that I inherited when I bought the house in 96. These masts were all over Flemish Belgium pre sat TV when the people wanted to watch German and Dutch TV. Most were taken down when cable TV came to Vlanderen in the 80's.

More pics will follow.;)