New to the hobby

[SpiffWilkie]

I've been looking into FTA for a while now and finally decided to take the plunge. Cable's just to expensive and I don't really care for most of what's on pay satellite. Besides, I like tinkering with stuff. So, I have a Coolsat 6000 and a digiwave 39" dish. I sort of bought the dish on a whim and now wish that I hadn't but I guess I'm stuck with it. Here come the questions. I originally wanted to get a motorized setup. Is that still possible with this dish? Can I just use the cable that is left over from an old dish network install?
I'm sure I'll have some more questions soon but these are the main things I'm concerned with now.

Thanks!

 

[Lak7]

The existing cable should be fine, check that it's marked RG-6.
Dish should be fine, with or with out motor, you can add it now or later.
If / when you order it, be sure too tell them exactly what dish you already have.
What LNB did you buy?

 

[Zero]

Welcome to the hobby
Start with a fixed dish setup and once you are familiar with aiming & tweaking you can add motor. If the cable is marked RG6, it's perfect. Hope the cable is not damaged anywhere.

 

[phlatwound]

I'm not familiar with the Digiwave dish but maybe others around here are, post some pictures and I bet you'll get an answer to whether you can motorize it or not. From what I have seen of the projects/miracles that have been devised by the members here I'm betting it's possible.

As far as the using the old DN cable, if it's RG-6 I don't see why you couldn't use it.

Welcome to a great forum and hobby!

 

[Sadoun]

Welcome!

Adding a motor will allow you to get more channels from several satellites.

For your 39" (which I assume has a U-bolt bracket to attach to a pole) I would recommend the DG280 or DG380 HH-Motors.

 

[satcom1]

​

​

Panel(Sector
Divided)​

1​

Offset Angle ​

24.62°​

Aperture
Diameter ​

Short Axis ​

90CM​

Long Axis ​

99CM​

Ku-Band Gain@
12.5GHz​

40.32dB​

F/D Ratio​

0.6​

Focus Length​

54CM​

Material​

Steel​

Finish​

Polyester
Powder Coating​

Mounting Type​

Pole&Wall​

Elevation
Alignment​

0°~90°​

Azimuth
Alignment​

Fixed/0°~360°​

Operational Winds​

Able to receive​

25m/sec​

Able to re-set​

40m/sec​

Not broken &
fly away​

60m/sec​

Ambient
Temperature​

-40°c+60°c​

Relative
Humidity​

0~100%​

Cool dish you did well, with this purchase. Zero has the right idea, see above.

 

[TRG]

I'm not familiar with the Digiwave dish but maybe others around here are, post some pictures and I bet you'll get an answer to whether you can motorize it or not.

http://http://www.digiwavetechnolog...ser_op=view_page&PAGE_id=85&MMN_position=87:4

A motor install looks like it would be pretty standard.

 

[SpiffWilkie]

Well, I'm looking forward to getting the dish set up (still in transit). I do believe I need more cable though. The dish installer used two different types of cable and one has RG-6 written on it, but for the life of me, I can't figure out what type of cable the other one is (The RG-6 went from the dish to the receiver and the other cable ran from the receiver and under the house to another room).
Do Lowes and Home Depot types carry it?
Any recommendations for a good satellite to point at until I can get a motorized setup going?

 

[rv1pop]

next to dish!

The cable from the receiver to the TV (usually tv channel 3 or 4) is not nearly so important as from the dish to the receiver. IMHO I would set up what you have with the TV next to the receiver. Once that works, check the other cable out, I would guess it will be OK. Both hardware stores stock RG6.

EDIT::: read that-- tv and receiver next to dish. Then check out the cables. It sounds like can use the cable from dish to house - make that RG6 to the receiver if possible (if in same place as old you got it made.) RG59 to tvs from receiver should be OK
POP

 

[Corrado]

The only people that regret the size of their dishes are the people that buy small ones.

 

[SpiffWilkie]

Well, I got my dish in today. 39" looks a lot bigger than it sounds. My friend thought I had ordered patio furniture when she saw me get it out of the box. The dish as a whole doesn't looked to be warped or bent, however it does have some very small indentations that can really only be seen in certain light. Is that going to make a large difference in reception?

Regarding a multi-satellite setup. How many would I be able to get realistically with this dish if I just had multiple lnbs? It seems that a motor might be cheaper and give me more options, but what are the pros/cons of each type of setup?

Thanks.

 

[CharredPC]

Welcome to SatelliteGuys!

The dish as a whole doesn't looked to be warped or bent, however it does have some very small indentations that can really only be seen in certain light. Is that going to make a large difference in reception?

I wouldn't think tiny dings that small (if I'm imagining it correctly) would make that big of a difference. Not to mention that a 39" (I'm jealous, see above comment about dish envy) should pull most things in beautifully.

Regarding a multi-satellite setup. How many would I be able to get realistically with this dish if I just had multiple lnbs? It seems that a motor might be cheaper and give me more options, but what are the pros/cons of each type of setup?

I've done both. There's an ancient thread around here somewhere where (Iceberg would know, pretty sure he's king of this) people tried shoving as many LNB's on a dish as possible. I think the most was seven or more! Realistically, you can easily get two or three, but it really depends on what satellites you're trying to hit.

You'll hear this a lot, but my advice is to try out the stationary dish with a single lnb and work your way up. My setup has a motor and I love it (when I have time and it's working) but if I hadn't had the experience with a stationary dish, I'd be totally lost and very frustrated.

As far as pros and cons, it's simple-

#1. Without motor: You can view maybe 20-30 degrees of the sky with multiple LNB's. The further from center you get, the lower signal you'll have. If you're sure everything you want to look at is right there, this would be an ideal setup. You'd normally use a switch to utilize the different LNB's. Channel change would be near-instant.

#2. With motor: You can view the entire sky, or whatever your line of sight gives you. If you ever want to check out or add another satellite, you can do so from within your own home. You can use a single LNB and move it where you like. Channel change could take up to a minute or two when switching satellites, as you have to wait for the motor to move into position.

It sounds like you already have the equipment for #1, so why not check that out first? Also, that way you can see how into this hobby you are before dumping more money on a motor

 

[brentb636]

The only CONs to a motorized setup is 1) channel switching time, when the dish has to move, and 2) the time you spend futzing around with the motorized dish alignment ( constantly tweaking ). CON #2 is also a PRO, for people who like tinkering with things. With a motorized dish, you might be getting programming from 20 satellites. With a multi lnbf dish, you might be limited to 5 satellites, all adjacent to each other in the sky. There are EVEN people who have multi lnbf dishes, motorized. I'm not crazy enough to think I'd enjoy aligning THAT critter for maximum efficiency.

I do have 2 motorized dishes, though, so I'm obviously biased in that direction. I wish I had your 39" baby .

 

[Lak7]

Seems you never have just one dish, so go motorized now and then may be a fixed with just your favorites.

 

[avg1joe]

Do you speak a foreign language? Do you have kids in the house? Are you interested in religious programming? Are you a sports fan? If you haven't already, read threads about AC-3 audio so you'll know why you can't hear some channels and what to do about it.

I'd recommend trying the equipment you have now. Practice aiming for and scanning in the channels on 97W (galaxy 25) to give you an idea of some of the diverse channels available. Once you've found even the weak transponders on there, move the dish and try to find galaxy 18 at 123W. There are a lot of good channels on each of these satellites and if you had a fixed dish my guess is it would be aimed at one of these two.

Chances are you'll have caught the fever by the time you're done with this and will want to find everything else that's out there.

 

[SpiffWilkie]

O.k. I got the dish assembled. Now, I consider myself pretty handy when it comes to putting things together, but the "instructions" that came with this dish are the worst things ever! It looked like 5 or 6 pages of diagrams all put on top of each other. Between trying to decipher that crap and looking at pictures online, I was finally able to get it all together. For the time being, I think that I am going to mount it to a large board and just set the dish on my back patio with some bricks on the board to weigh it down. After I get comfortable with aiming and setting up stuff in with the receiver, I'll find a more permanent home for it. I think I'll end up going for a motorized setup eventually because one of the main reasons for getting the dish is to have access to BYUTV but it's not on the main birds (my first time using that word in a satellite context ) that I want be pointed at most of the time.

 

[whiplash123]

The dish as a whole doesn't looked to be warped or bent, however it does have some very small indentations that can really only be seen in certain light. Is that going to make a large difference in reception?

I purchased a Digiwave 36" that also had small dents and it prevented me from getting any signal or quality and with help from Lak7 and Anole it turned out to be my problem.

PDF file on warped discs:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/921645-post7.html

 

[SpiffWilkie]

I got the dish set up and outside but didn't have time to aim it correctly. I just sort of eyeballed it and of course got no signal. The level is between 61-64, is that normal for a coolsat 6000? I understand that that has no meaning as far as satellite signal, but I wanted to make sure that was in a normal range. I'll dig out a compass tomorrow and give hitting a bird another shot.
One more thing, if the lnb isn't oriented properly, will the quality go up or do I need to get the angle on that spot on before I get any signal showing on the receiver?

Thanks.

 

[SpiffWilkie]

Sorry to add another newbie topic but...

I'm trying to get anything from this setup! I got a satellite meter today and hooked it up. I aimed the dish, followed the instructions for the meter where I set it at about 5, moved the dish until it hit 10, dialed it back to 5, etc.
I seemed to get a good signal with that so I unhooked it, hooked the receiver back directly to the lnb and went inside to fiddle with that stuff.
I can't get anything!

I *think* I'm on AMC3. At least that's what I was aiming for. I'm using a coolsat 6000 and I went in and went to the manual scan settings and set the frequency to 11736, symbol rate to 8333 (I'm assuming that's what the second number was on the transponder list on here), the polarization is at V. I have no quality still (well 1 -9%). The lnb is set to single 10750 (lnb is model DG780).
I'm going out to twist it and turn it now. Apart from that is there anything else I need to do (besides reaiming the dish)? Are there other settings I need to set or change?

Thanks!

 

[Mr Tony]

I got the dish set up and outside but didn't have time to aim it correctly. I just sort of eyeballed it and of course got no signal. The level is between 61-64, is that normal for a coolsat 6000? I understand that that has no meaning as far as satellite signal, but I wanted to make sure that was in a normal range. I'll dig out a compass tomorrow and give hitting a bird another shot.
One more thing, if the lnb isn't oriented properly, will the quality go up or do I need to get the angle on that spot on before I get any signal showing on the receiver?

Thanks.

the quality or signal?

quality shows 64...that is the threshold for 99% of the channels up there...mainly the picture will pixelate. When you hit a signal the bars turn green