Will 18 inch dish work for FTA?

[joephstrab]

MARCH 2016


Question im 9 stories high acording to sattelite pro finder galaxy 19 AMC
are left to right of my location no trees this high up

I see you use an 18 inch satttelite dish to recieve signals

if i use an FTA reciver FTA lnbf feed horn with 18 inch diect tv sattelite
can this work inConnecticut...area?

previous attempt failed why? i used poor satelite dish cheap reciever that was analog..

willing to try again also its 2016 whasatelites are still avaible for
FTA users....

please acknowledge

You may get some of the very strong signals with a 24" dish but as soon as it clouds over or the signal isnt the best, say "bye bye" to the signal.

I have been able to get the very strong signals with a 18" dish and a linear LNB but they were near my true south satellites (the satellites near your longitude). Also, linear LNB's need to be skewed properly. Circular polarity needs no skewing

30" is really the minimum for reliable reception. Sure a 24" is great for tinkering but not the best for reliable reception

 

[KE4EST]

to SatelliteGuys joephstrab!
There is still lots of stuff up there that is FTA, however you will not get much of anything with an 18" dish.
You will get a strong transponder or two, but will not be worth the effort. Fun to experiment with, but not for serious TV watching.
You will need at least a 76cm(30 inch) dish to do any good and even then you will not get everything and some stuff will pixelate heavy.
Not for the newbie, but if you want to experiment you can order you a linear LNBF and fashion you a bracket to make it work on your 18" dish if you already have one.
If starting from new I would order a 90cm(36inch) dish and you will get 95-99% of the stuff on Ku with no problem.

 

[Lehman bud farm]

I agree that you will not get much of anything with an 18" dish FTA and would need a larger dish to receiver anything worthwhile. KU with a 36 inch dish is ok but if your looking for C-band you will need a much larger dish to receive many of the signals properly.
Experimenting with a 36 inch dish for ku only will give you many rewards IMO.

 

[danristheman]

Bigger is better when it comes to satellite dishes. Strong powerful signal = smaller dish, weak signal = bigger dish. Ke4est, Lehman are both right but take your time with this hobby so you can get used to setting up a dish.

 

[FaT Air]

Converting a dish isn't a 'first step' for FTA IMHO. Maybe after some experience is garnered it could be done for 'experimentation' purposes tho-.
I converted an18 inch pizza dish and was NOT impressed with it's performance. My Channel Master 30 inch dishes outperformed the crap out of the 18. Don't think they are available any more in NEW condition but from what I've read the Winegard 30 inch seems a good performer if you're 'space limited'. Otherwise go with a 90 or 100cm dish.
What's available? look over the Domestic Ku PDF HERE or take a look at sathint.

 

[ancient]

If you are in an apartment then by law you have the right to put up a dish of up to 1 meter in diameter, but if you go any larger than that your landlord could make you remove it. So I would go as close to 1 meter as you can find at a reasonable price. You may get okay performance with a smaller dish on bright sunny days but when it's pouring rain you will want that extra signal.

Also keep in mind that the original LNB from the DirecTV dish will not work with Ku band, so you will need to replace that also.

 

[spongella]

I heard that in the latest QST there is an article about converting a small satellite dish into a 2 meter antenna.

 

[. Raine]

With an 18" dish, the CCTV channels on 95W are about the only thing FTA you can receive reliably here in CT and that's assuming the dish is spot on in it's alignment and has a decent PLL LNB. As others said, a bigger dish would receive more and be highly recommended.


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