C-Band/Ka-Band Reception in the UK (Dish Project: LNBs, Dish, Alignment) - Post your results here...
- Thread starter empb
- Start date
Been looking at this thread a bit. Certainly not discouraging anyone interested in the hobby. It looks like the European continent hasn't really dived into c band so much.
Another site to look at is tvrosat.com. If you're really interested in c band reception, always trust the footprint charts. C band is more robust in snow storms and rain than ku.
Just be advised that you really cannot skimp on dish size. You will not really enjoy the benefits and will quickly say to yourself. I wish I would have gone bigger.
From my experience 2 meters is the very least size of a dish, and even then. Be happy you can get one satellite and a few transponders on it.
8 feet.....2.4m??.....should be your very least dish diameter. And I'm not talking about cheap Chinese junk. If in a kit. Careful and deliberate assembly to get it as accurate as possible.
In the US, 8 feet is the smallest dish anyone considers. In the days of analog satellite they may have been adequate. Digital satellite definitely needs bigger. You'll enjoy pulling your hair out working with a polar mount and setting up and aligning it if you're spoiled using Stab mounts on your baby dishes.
I have a 12 foot...4m?? dish that pulls in pretty much anything in the 133W-47.5W arc that I'm able to have clear view of the sky.
Another thing to realize also. Even with the dish I have. Declination angles will need to be adjusted in the fall and then again in the spring. Very slightly. To keep signals peaked.
Someone who is using a 2m dish and getting marginal signal would just have me shaking my head. Adding a ku lnbf in "sidecar" mounting is a big advantage also.
Another site to look at is tvrosat.com. If you're really interested in c band reception, always trust the footprint charts. C band is more robust in snow storms and rain than ku.
Just be advised that you really cannot skimp on dish size. You will not really enjoy the benefits and will quickly say to yourself. I wish I would have gone bigger.
From my experience 2 meters is the very least size of a dish, and even then. Be happy you can get one satellite and a few transponders on it.
8 feet.....2.4m??.....should be your very least dish diameter. And I'm not talking about cheap Chinese junk. If in a kit. Careful and deliberate assembly to get it as accurate as possible.
In the US, 8 feet is the smallest dish anyone considers. In the days of analog satellite they may have been adequate. Digital satellite definitely needs bigger. You'll enjoy pulling your hair out working with a polar mount and setting up and aligning it if you're spoiled using Stab mounts on your baby dishes.
I have a 12 foot...4m?? dish that pulls in pretty much anything in the 133W-47.5W arc that I'm able to have clear view of the sky.
Another thing to realize also. Even with the dish I have. Declination angles will need to be adjusted in the fall and then again in the spring. Very slightly. To keep signals peaked.
Someone who is using a 2m dish and getting marginal signal would just have me shaking my head. Adding a ku lnbf in "sidecar" mounting is a big advantage also.
OpenFox
VIP
- Messages
- 1,416
hello mate, can you catch the 55W C-Band ???
Thanks Moonbase, that's interesting. It looks like I should try and source at least a 1.8m/2.0m dish?
Thanks for the information. I can go as big as a 1.8m/2.0m and maybe at a stretch a 2.4m, but I'm not sure we could have such a large dish
in our back garden without our neighbours chirping.
I did read somewhere that a large dish can be disguised with clever and imaginative painting to look like a tree/foliage at first glance.
I have never seen this done, but might be our only hope. Trick our neighbours into seeing something that isn't really what it is...lol.
manic01
Super VIP
- Messages
- 2,514
Legally 1 metre is tops in England
I understand and I know you are right.
My hope would be that we could install it and then not have our neighbours report us.
It's risky, but even now I have 1.2m and it's been up for several years and not a peep from my neighbours.
I guess a lot of us have installations that exceed 1m and are at the mercy of someone complaining if they
chose to do so.
Fook the neighbours.
Install the dish on a mobile platform on castors that can be raised to move it around and lowered when it is to be immobilised on satellites.
As it is mobile, it is not classed as a fixed structure, the neighbours can bitch all day long to the council and they can do nowt about it.
Easy to do, I got one on a wooden pallet that I got for nowt from the local builders merchant.
Braced it up with a few lengths of decking and gravel board and bolted some castors and a raise/lower system on the underside.
'ere, cop for some pictures, if I remember correctly the total job cost me less than a bullseye.
I bought the castors and the raise/lower bolts from ebay and got a local welder to weld the nuts onto some off cuts of steel plate they had.
This bad boy takes a 2.2m dish without any worries.
Last edited:
Wow...Moonbase...just wow.Fook the neighbours.
Install the dish on a mobile platform on castors that can be raised to move it around and lowered when it is to be immobilised on satellites.
As it is mobile, it is not classed as a fixed structure, the neighbours can bitch all day long to the council and they can do nowt about it.
Easy to do, I got one on a wooden pallet that I got for nowt from the local builders merchant.
Braced it up with a few lengths of decking and gravel board and bolted some castors and a raise/lower system on the underside.
'ere, cop for some pictures, if I remember correctly the total job cost me less than a bullseye.
I bought the castors and the raise/lower bolts from ebay and got a local welder to weld the nuts onto some off cuts of steel plate they had.
This bad boy takes a 2.2m dish without any worries.
Your ingenuity is inspiring mate. Well done.
Honestly, you have me brimming with ideas now...lol
Thank you for your kind words but I can't take any credit for the idea of the mobile platform.
It had been done before by masters of their craft who leave me standing at this game.
All I did was cobble up a paupers version using parts I had at hand, supplemented by a few cheap purchases (ironwork and castors).
'ere, cop for a couple of pictures of a 2.0m dish on the platform, setup for C-Band.
This bad boy rips the bitch outta that ESPN on 40.5W
Last edited:
bunkoknotty
Registered
- Messages
- 25
What is the reasoning for only a 1m reflector in England???
manic01
Super VIP
- Messages
- 2,514
Council law
Hi Kippysat
Im using a 2.4m solid dish for 40.5W, the ESPN channels even with the 2.4m can be tricky. I have to agree with others here I think 1.5 would be too small. I initially started playing with an old IRTE 1.5m antenna for C band and really had no success with what I wanted to get hence the low cost solid 2.4m which has been good for the price I paid.
Not sure what's out there in the UK these days mesh dish wise, not so obvious to the neighbours and come in kit form usually...
Just an add on comment, for quite a while the only way I could get ESPN was to put the dielectric plate in the "wrong" pair of slots in the LNBF and reverse the polarity in the RX. Since the FEC change a few months ago its back in the "correct" pair of slots and of course correct polarity setting in the RX.
Why this was the case for me I have no idea, but if you are experimenting with that TP may be worth a try.
Why this was the case for me I have no idea, but if you are experimenting with that TP may be worth a try.
Thanks Amdade.
I'm after the ESPN and FOX suite of sports channels. That's may main motivation for doing this.
So it does look like I would have to get a 2.4m dish. I would definitely place it in our back garden on a purpose built
concrete platform/structure.
I would also definitely paint it front and back to look like a tree/foliage to disguise it. Someone who uses this forum
has already said he has done this and could help me with that.
I want to do this because this hobby fascinates me and I love a technical challenge.
@kippysat
Where are you in the UK, that has a bearing on how well you can receive 40.5W?
I am in Surrey, just inside the M25 and get 40.5W no problem with the 2.0m dish when I use it.
Also, please note that the build quality of the dish and the accuracy of its surface can play an important part in signal level reception.
I am not sure how readily available a 2.4m dish would be if that is what you are hoping to go for. The options I can think of are:
1. Channel Master 2.4m - very heavy dish, other forum members also on the sniff for one of these. Couple of sales in the last few years at less than a monkey.
2. Fortec Star 2.4m - also known as the tin dish, multi piece petal dish, cheap, useless for Ku-Band, OK for C-Band. Worth a deuce, possibly a little more.
3. Elite Antennas/Precision Antennas 2.4m - single piece spun aluminium, a very good dish if you can find one but not cheap. I sold one a while ago for in excess of a bag of sand.
4. Chinese mesh 2.4m - cheap as fúck, hassle is importing them. If importing, get it wooden crated to prevent damage, cardboard packed options are often damaged in transit.
My advice would be to consider a 2.0m or 2.2m dish as an option as well as a 2.4m, especially if you are doon Saaarf where signals are often a little easier to lock.
The other thing to consider is that there is a learning curve moving up to these sizes from a nano sized dish such as a 90cm. They are not as easy to handle and definitely require robust heavy duty stands and mounts.
Good luck...
What does gone under the RX threshold mean?
It cant lock the signal.
If it needs 7.9db to lock it and the receiver is getting 7.0db it aint gonna lock it as it is under the threshold of 7.9db
Different modulation types and different FEC all have different thresholds.
Classical example, ESPN on 40.5W at FEC of 3/4 has 7.9db as threshold, change the FEC to 5/6 and it has 9.4db threshold
If you were locking it at 8.8db when it was 3/4 and you still got 8.8db when it is 5/6, you are bitched, no lock.