Yet another mini-BUD experiment

[nhulst]

As I have this week off from work, I figured this would be a good time to try something a little bit off-the-wall. I ordered a BSC621 LNBF (not the -2 version) and the conical scalar ring attachment. The LNBF came today, while the scalar ring will be coming tomorrow. I'm hoping to get to spend a fair bit of time on it tomorrow and I'll do my best to post some more results and pictures. For now, my thoughts after about two hours of playing around:

• A huge thank you goes out to all the SatelliteGuys members who have posted their results and their field engineering techniques!
• As the others have said, anything to do with the 621 should be treated as experimental. The use of a 90 cm dish in attempting to receive C-Band (GeoSatPro 90 cm in my case) is beyond experimental and you shouldn't set your expectations too high
• Start with a peaked dish and have a working Ku LNBF in hand
• Since my true south is 91 and there's a nice strong Ku signal there (ABC), I started from that before switching to C-Band
• I also started without the 22 kHz switch in the signal path, although I soon found it worked just fine
• The biggest challenge today was the difficulty in keeping the 621 pointed accurately without a properly fitting mounting ring (included in the conical scalar kit which isn't here yet)
• I am seeing significantly less SQ from the 621 than I am seeing even from my dying Invacom
• With no scalar ring, I couldn't blind-scan anything on C on 91. With the 621's included flat scalar, test-fitted at a very poor position due to mechanical limits, I was able to lock the DMX music TP.

Wish me luck--I'll need it

 

[Kraven]

Good luck mate. If I were to try this again I would:

1- Make sure the dish is accessible (going up and down the ladder at my age is a pain)
2- Use a signal meter (girlfriend in front of the TV looking at the signal meter is as useless as tits on a bull)
3- Try later in the evening (for some reason, my best reception was after 7pm)
4- Be Patient (it aint one of my virtues)

IIRC, w/ a BCS 621 and 90cm dish, I got the leasea and GDMX feeds and some music channels off 99w. FX East came in at 60% but was gone by morning.

Cheers, K

 

[joeroscoe1957]

I use a homemade 4 1/2" diameter funnel/cone , 2"deep . covered with foil tape (painted white) on the end of my c band lnb , to first search for signals , Much more forgiving than the conical scalar ring , that I fit on last for "time consuming" fine tuning . I can't even find c band signals on my small dishes , without that homemade funnel/cone (feed horn) . The strongest / easiest to find signals are on sat. 99w (I do it just as Kraven stated , only I have a small tv outside) . Getting the LNB skew right , while playing with the dish elevation , is sometimes the hardest part for me . Hope this helps . Have Fun .

 

[nhulst]

Unfortunately, it was basically a dud. Despite having a proper LNBF mount and another alternative scalar ring, I was never able to do any better than I did with last night's experiment (worse, actually.) Having run out of time to work on it for now, the new LNBF is going to go back on the shelf for a while. The only other thing that I think I'd try next time I get the chance is to find a C-band sat/TP that doesn't have any overlapping signals on the 4-degree offset satellites. Beyond that, nothing to do but bide my time until I can put in a bigger dish ;-)

 

[nhulst]

Joe, didn't see your post as I was typing mine. I'll take that advice next time I dig out this LNBF to play. Thanks!

 

[kodaz]

Good luck mate. If I were to try this again I would:

1- Make sure the dish is accessible (going up and down the ladder at my age is a pain)
2- Use a signal meter (girlfriend in front of the TV looking at the signal meter is as useless as tits on a bull)
3- Try later in the evening (for some reason, my best reception was after 7pm)
4- Be Patient (it aint one of my virtues)

IIRC, w/ a BCS 621 and 90cm dish, I got the leasea and GDMX feeds and some music channels off 99w. FX East came in at 60% but was gone by morning.

Cheers, K

The bare , stark, reality of statement number 2 is of existential importance. even a coolsat with beep is far superior.

The Wife-o-meter has a response time of aprox 30 minutes or the same as most law enforcement reaction times.

Honey , are u there? ..... are u there?...
No, i am in the kitchen....
Would u please go back to the tv and tell me what is the Q?
2 minutes more please.....


I so love boxes with BEEPPPP

 

[Corrado]

I found the focal point when using a BSC621 between C and Ku is off by several degrees my using a 90cm dish. I used the conical scalar that I have on my 6' offset C band dishes for a test, they even came with the LNBF holders for about $12 shipped.

I was able to get the Lesea channels on 99W and GEB on 101W with the LNBF pulled back as far as it would fit without falling out of the scalar.