Primestar Dish Set-up

[Mr Tony]

yes it would. No need for multiswitch then

 

[turbosat]

I didnt go back and read about the single-lnb but yes it should do the trick with no switch needed. (I know my direcpc lnb does)
charles

 

[ChuckBoozer]

yes it would. No need for multiswitch then

Looking at my feedhorn/LNB set-up, is it as easy as removing the "Dove Bar" cover and swapping out the LNB's, or will I need to rig up something a little different?

 

[gabshere]

i beleive the whole thing will remove (dove bare and feedhorn) when you take out the bolts . then the new lnb will bolt directly to the holder . I also found that these hughes/direcpc lnbs are a good match for the dish.

 

[Anole]

skew me !

Looking at the mounting tabs in both pictures....
it appears that the horn bolts down directly to the end of the dish's arm.
So, there would be no way to skew that beercan, unless the same slip-attachment is present.

In other pictures of Primestar lashups, I assumed the mounting had a U-clamp over the LNB neck (just a guess - I don't have one).
That would certainly let you adjust skew on a round dish.
You would not want to rotate (skew) the horn on a -wide dish- dish!

As a last resort, the mount for the entire dish could skew.
Does it?

This needs more discussion and thought.


edit:
Okay, the best answer I can come up with, is that the beercan and horn pictured above does have a slip connection between them, and the LNB can be rotated while the horn is bolted down solid to the dish's arm.

hrmmm... on round dishes , it would be sufficient to skew the LNB some way.
The horn could be rotated, and the dish should still work okay.
On the -quite wide- dishes , the horn could not rotate relative to the dish.
And, for the -wide dishes-, shouldn't the entire dish be skewed to maintain alignment with the satellites?
I don't think skewing just the LNB on a -wide- dish is the right thing to do.

re-edited:
to clarify my poor choice of wording between the nearly -round- dishes, and the quite -wide- ones...
...regardless of the proper terminology.

 

[linuxman]

Edited for clarity:
On an eliptical (wider than tall) P* dish, the entire dish should be skewed. Unfortunately Primestar did not make a skewable mount. The only way to skew the dish is with a "poor man's" H-H mount.

It is possible to skew the LNB only on the setup above. I have a P* 75e (eliptical) pointed at Hispasat with the LNB only skewed to -47 degrees. It picks it up with relatively good signal.

If it was me, I would stick with the original P* LNB. In my opinion, they are superior to the DirectPC LNBs for SQ and stability.

I am going to fabricate a couple of "poor man's" H-H mounts later this summer when all my other projects are finished.

 

[gabshere]

ok of all the primestar feedhorns i have here ( and none are the dove bar type) the feedhorn is skewable (a clue to it being skewable is will have a skew scale although it might be small) now the directpc lnb isnt skewable but what i do is remove the direcpc feedhorn and put the original in its place that way you have a skewable and single coax lnb its great...

If it was me, I would stick with the original P* LNB. In my opinion, they are superior to the DirectPC LNBs for SQ and stability.

i haven't found this to be the case yet but i plan to do some side by side testing to compare them soon.... i did the side by side for the QPH vs direcpc retrofitted primestar lnb and they faired close in results not that the QPH isn't a better lnb just in this case its wasn't properly fitted to get best results..

 

[linuxman]

I'm sorry, I may have mis-spoke or called them differently than others. The feedhorn on the eliptical P* dishes is not skewable. George may be correct about the ovals since he has them.

On the eliptical dishes, the feedhorn is not skewable, at least on the ones I have. The LNB is skewable. Using a 3x4 multi-switch to get both polarities on a single coax is a simple operation which feeds into a single port on the diseqc switch.

Sorry about the mix up.

Fred

 

[Anole]

terminology

If by oval, you mean the ones quite close to round...maybe egg-shaped...
just a little taller than wide...
then I was wrong to call them round, but that's the easy way to think of and describe them (for me).

But the elliptical dishes are WAY wide compared to their height, and there is no mistaking those.
I may have called them oval...
...and will go check and correct my posts for clarity...

Sorry to be inaccurate and unclear.

edited again:
If the above description is wrong, someone please tell me.
I've gone back to one or two of my posts above in this thread, and used -wide- and -round- to clarify my meaning.
I just hope I'm now on the same page as everybody else.

 

[linuxman]

Have edited and clarified my post #46 above.

Fred

 

[gabshere]

lol guys

i wasn't trying to interject wrongness into the thread but its easy to comment cause looks like there are so many different primestars... in fact i probably have miss called/labled oval-eliptical-round-dishes lol i will try to later start a thread and post the different primestar dishes and lnb's that i have to each.

i have 6 primestar dishes and not one has the same # but several look alike...out of all that i have and there are probably several more none that i have seen skew. but the lnb's skew. the direcpc dish that i have seen ( i don't have one ) it skews but the lnb doesn't.

so getting back ... i don't want to make it sound like i was saying anyone was wrong ( if that was taken ,i apologize ) i think we are all correct with what we have to compare it to. and i do like discussion that compares and examines all angles of the conversation.

 

[ChuckBoozer]

Hell, now I'm confused!!!

My dish (pictured) does not skew, but the LNB does. Is this considered the "oval" or "egg" dish?

 

[gabshere]

eliptical (wider than tall) would be the correct term

 

[stogie5150]

I have three elliptical P* mounts that skew. I think that they were the mounts that the HITS system used though because those were the mounts I got from my former buddy at Charter cable. But there are mounts that skew for the elliptical dishes.

 

[ChuckBoozer]

Well, I was able to steal a little time this evening and make a go for Galaxy 25. After a good bit of tweaking, I was able to lock in on signal levels in the low-mid 50's with consistent signal quality numbers in the low-mid 70's.

I did a scan and pulled up what looked like most of the available channels (around 100 TV and 108 radio) and the picture quality looks great with no drop-outs or pixelization!

Are these numbers considered acceptable, or should I continue to try and tweak the dish?

PS - I feel just like a kid at Christmas!

 

[Tron]

Congratulations! As for the quality numbers, they will vary greatly from transponder to transponder. What kind of receiver do you have, and what is the cut-off point (where quality drops too low to lock a signal)? On a Pansat, those numbers sound about right, but each receiver manufacturer has different quality scales.

 

[ChuckBoozer]

Congratulations! As for the quality numbers, they will vary greatly from transponder to transponder. What kind of receiver do you have, and what is the cut-off point (where quality drops too low to lock a signal)? On a Pansat, those numbers sound about right, but each receiver manufacturer has different quality scales.

I'm using the SatPros DSR-500S - just picked it up as part of the great deal that Satellite AV was offering a couple weeks back.

 

[gabshere]

I feel just like a kid at Christmas!

makes all that work pay off Congratulations! that was the hard part, once you found a satellite its a downhill battle from there if you haven't tweaked / peaked the dish to this sat then yes do so ....and a word of caution.... now you know its very adictive

 

[ChuckBoozer]

makes all that work pay off Congratulations! that was the hard part, once you found a satellite its a downhill battle from there if you haven't tweaked / peaked the dish to this sat then yes do so ....and a word of caution.... now you know its very adictive

You're absolutely right - I can see how this can become very addictive!

I did in fact peak the signal - dragged my 13" TV and receiver out behind my house to my dish and made adjustments for about 20-30 minutes until I peaked at the numbers described.

 

[CbandLover]

I did in fact peak the signal - dragged my 13" TV and receiver out behind my house to my dish and made adjustments for about 20-30 minutes until I peaked at the numbers described.[/QUOTE]

I have not been around this site in awhile, but must say it is nice to see people keeping the ole Primestars alive. : ) Nice work so far on your new hobby, Boozer.
I remember those days of dragging the tv out to the dish. Any of the veterans around here will say that is really the best way to do it. I also see that some have posted their Primestar installations for you. I would like to offer my pics of last summer's installation.
http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=73726&highlight=primestar

I know you are just getting started, but like someone said, you will get hooked quick, and when you do, you will want a motor to move that thing. When that time comes, I would like to recommend the Stab 100, as it is very beefy and stable, and the dish mount will slide right over it with minor modification.
Not to get ahead of you. But it is something I am sure you will get to--this hobby is awesome, especially for feeds, obviously. : )