C-Band FTA

[Frank6926]

Hi guys and gals and greetings from Owen Sound Ontario. I have resurected my Cband system and used it for a couple of weeks when it got hit by lightning. I have noticed a few members from my area Barrie, Kincardine and so on and I hope to find someone who can fix my receiver. It is a fairly new Motorola 450 i. the transformer circuit board was broken by the power surge and was fixed so that power was restored and is working. The front panel does not light up. No one in my town that I have talked to can do anything else. What I would like to do is fix it, buy a 4dtv unit or a side car and put them together. I live in an area with no cable TV so I have only to watch one rabbit ear chanell and I'm going mad. Any help would be appreciated. thanks Frank

[Danster]

Buy a kusat pro2600 for less than a $100 and park your big dish on one of the most popular bird up there with FTA mpeg2 programming...it seems like it's the T5 sat.

[lagernale]

I have a 10ft mesh dish(analogue), I would like to convert it to receive Free to air digital, what do I have to do, What type LMB do I need?

[Kieran]

All I added was a FTA receiver. I kept the dish/LNB/and used the analogue receiver to move the dish. Depending on the FTA receiver you purchase, you may need a splitter with one side having isolation but most modern FTA receivers already have a sat input/output. There is a ton of free programming still on C-band and an FTA receiver really adds some life back to your system.

[lagernale]

Thanks for the reply, I was thinking I would have to add, say a 15 degree KU LNB to my dish, because FTA receivers are only for KU band digital. Am I confused?, could you recommend a FTA receiver. My GI 450i with VCRS board still works fine.

[Kieran]

Originally Posted by lagernale

Thanks for the reply, I was thinking I would have to add, say a 15 degree KU LNB to my dish, because FTA receivers are only for KU band digital. Am I confused?, could you recommend a FTA receiver. My GI 450i with VCRS board still works fine.

There are lots on network feeds, news, etc on C band, maybe not as much as Ku, but certainly enough to keep you busy until you see a good deal on a dual band feed horn/LNBs, etc. for example on G4r C-band, there are full-time network feeds for ABC/NBC/CBS/WB in the clear from the Virgin Islands.

Your 450i will still work fine on C band. You will "slave" the FTA receiver into the 450i....ie. they will share the LNB and you can patch the video/audio output from the FTA to the 450i.
I have a Pansat 2500a FTA but it has been around for longtime, so there are much better receivers on the market today.

[Anshar]

Hi all. Related to this thread http://www.digitalhomecanada.com/for...ad.php?t=46287 I have another question.

Is there any way to receive a C-band signal on say a 39" dish? Can the C-band LNB be attached to the small dish? Can the signal be amplified? Has anyone ever tried this?

If it doesn't work, why not?

Thanks,

Anshar

[tdti1]

It will not work, C-band birds send out a lower watt than Ku-band birds, I would not go below a 10' dish for C-band but if size is an issue a 8.5' can be used in North America, you can pull in some feeds with a dish as small as a 5'-6' but I would not recommend that for anyone.

Many C-band satellites are 2 degrees apart and 8'5' is 2 degree complient, anything under that size will be affected by adjacent satellite interference.

[kymics]

Using small dishes to attempt to get C-band channels is referred to as "microbud". I think 1.2M is about the minimum to even attempt microbud and you still won't get much of anything, it's more just for playing around to see what's possible.

I do know of several people who are using prime focus 6' dishes to get C-band FTA channels off various satellites. Channels that carry the same frequency on adjacent satellites can cause interference that the smaller dish isn't able to sort out. I think the polarity is alternated though between each satellite, so in that sense, the next satellite that may have channel overlap will be 4 degrees away and therefore a 6' dish can deal with that at times.

Utlimately though as the previous post indicated, if you want C-band programming without any exceptions you need at least 8.5' or more.

[green6866]

Relatively New,

Read a little bit.

My guess is that the amplitude is too big; like catching a beachball with a baseball glove....

[Snoman]

You can get away with 6 footers just fine on most birds nowadays depending on location. Power output on modern C Band birds have increased over the older birds of the 80s and early 90s. According to Sky Report C band birds are now running 10 to 17 watts vs 5 to 11 of older birds. A solid 6 footer will work well enough as long as you arent in the fringes of the footprints. My first BUD was a 7.5 foot mesh. It worked just fine on almost every bird back in 98 except S3, S4 and C1 which were running at about 5 watts and these ones have long since retired from service.

[Hurricane]

Originally Posted by tdti1

Many C-band satellites are 2 degrees apart and 8'5' is 2 degree complient, anything under that size will be affected by adjacent satellite interference.

This is the biggest problem with using a small dish for C-band. Smaller dishes have a wider beam and beam width increases as frequency decreases. So with two dishes of identical size, one at C band and one at Ku band, the Ku band one will have a much narrower beam width than the C band one.

Originally Posted by kymics

I think the polarity is alternated though between each satellite, so in that sense, the next satellite that may have channel overlap will be 4 degrees away and therefore a 6' dish can deal with that at times.

Actually, most satellites have both polarities (either H and V or RHCP and LHCP) In most circumstances, for a Rx/Tx application, you will transmit on one polarity while receiving on the opposite polarity. There are times however when you receive and transmit on the same polarity.

There are some earth station antenna that have a 4 port feed allowing them to receive and transmit on both polarities simultaneously.

[jimisan]

Hi there,

just wondering if someone can point me in the right direction. I am trying to find RTP on our cband dish. i have a GI 2730 and a topfield 3000fi(the 2 are needed to work). rtp is/used to be at I5 on the GI and and Ch1 on the topfield. the screen comes up as 'no signal'. all the wires are connected properly. dish the channel move? I tried lyngsat, but haven't a clue of how to use that website. I don't know of any other channels(never watched any other). the dish moves fine. any ideas?

thanks
jimisan

[Danster]

If you are talking RTP internacional, then it's here http://www.lyngsat.com/amc4.html .

[tdti1]

You can take a look at the C-band feed on Intelsat 805.