1.2m Channel Master UK project

[Captain Jack]

I, for one, am very glad it went to a good home. 1W is a good spot for it as 1m dish can be a bit of a hit and miss on this location... at least in the south west Engerland.

 

[timo_w2s]

I promise to look after it. ;)

I probably could have lived with the existing 90cm dish here for 1W but semi-heavy rain would wipe out the channels I was interested in although using a Black Ultra did help keep them locked for a little longer. Soon I won't need to worry about the weather. But I've always wanted to own a decent sized Channel Master dish, because, well it's a Channel Master, and so far it's been fun setting up the dish in a similar way to what I've read so much about on this forum.

It'll be interesting to see how Thor 7 behaves at the end of this year. It's only going have 11 KU transponders and the main market is Central and Eastern Europe so I assume it won't be used much for Canal Digital although the footprint does cover the Nordic area too, presumably more for backup and any general service that wants to cover both areas. (It's kind of ironic I'm setting up this dish now just before Thor 7 launches and I've been telling British ex-pats for the past few years not to do too much before 2F/2E/2G come along)

 

[Captain Jack]

Thor 7 seems to be missing the British isles altogether. Hope it's not going to be another SES-5....

 

[timo_w2s]

Thor 7 seems to be missing the British isles altogether. Hope it's not going to be another SES-5....

Yeah, I hope not. I can only find the footprint map up to the 50dBW limit which is still quite powerful so who knows that it does after that but I'm guessing if the current tend is followed with new satellites it'll get narrower towards the edges, unlike say Thor 5 which still has a reasonably wide Nordic beam.

 

[timo_w2s]

The dish is now on the pole and is temporarily looking at 5E to see if I can get any sniff of SES5. Unfortunately I haven't got a spare Black Ultra to test so was using a Opticum LNB at the moment which some other users on here have recommended. It's such an easy dish to install, adjust, and fine tune. It makes you realise what a arse some of the cheap dishes are to get spot on...

All Astra 4A transponders come in very strong, as expected and about 5-10% better than my 90cm setup with a Black Ultra. Some signals hitting close to 90% quality which I rarely see (apart from a few 2F/2E UK spot transponders).

But I was seeing something from SES5 whereas on my 90cm I have nothing at all. Since they are all encrypted services I could only look at channel lists but I was really just interested to see if they would be receivable.

SES5, CM120, Opticum LNB, 18:30 clear skies
11265H locked at 63%, strongest transponder
11265V occasional bouncing to 45% but no lock
11305H locked at 62%, occasional loss of lock
11305V occasional bouncing to 45% but no lock
11345H occasional locking at 61%
11345V occasional bouncing to 16% but no lock
11385V nothing

I'm sure if I had a DrHD F15 here I would have had more luck as my original TM6900 is quite deaf.

Not sure if the fence is obstructing the view of the dish a bit (see picture), but I think it's OK. Not too worried though as the real home for this dish will be further west at 1W.

Now I just need to decide if I'm going to dismantle the 90cm and take the Black Ultra LNBs off that or buy some more Black Ultras to play with... But I will be back with comparison results with a BU LNB before I realign permanently to 1W.

 

[Captain Jack]

Nice to see you have a lock on SES-5 ... At least on something. I found I had stronger signal in the mornings than evenings there but max I've seen was 3dB. And I would need something close to 8dB to get s lock.

Wonder if you'll get a better signal with a BU.

How stable is the dish on that pole?

 

[timo_w2s]

I'll keep an eye on the signals tomorrow morning.

The dish is pretty stable. That pole isn't going anywhere. ;)

 

[timo_w2s]

No lock on any SES5 transponders all morning, but there is more cloud in the sky today. Will see if signals come back this afternoon.

I might swing the dish over to 7W for a while, am I likely to see anything at all on a 1.2m? Never bothered to look there before.

 

[Captain Jack]

You'll easily get most signals on Eutelsat 7.3W and most verticals on Nilesat 102.

 

[timo_w2s]

I'll have a look at 7W tomorrow. Not really had any luck with SES5 today, just a brief flicker again around 18:30 on 11265H, but it was more cloudy today.

 

[archive10]

Good to see the dish up, and good to hear of positive results.
It's not a CM180, but you can still squeeze a lot of performance out of one these babies.
(I have now been running on the ersatz CM120 for UKTV channels for three weeks now, and I am amazed that it works so well! Yes it's Black Ultra and sunny times, but I am really squinting at the CM180 and thinking - maybe I should point that at something else??)
(And before anyone get excited, the CM120 results are particular to my eastern location in Denmark, but is nevertheless significantly better after 2E/2F effectively replaced 2D.)
Ironic that 1W is dead easy here even with a garbage can lid and a modified coat-hanger (almost), whereas 2E/2F is a challenge; and the reverse is true in the UK!

 

[Captain Jack]

Seems like we all want things that aren't easy to receive. Makes the game more fun.

 

[timo_w2s]

Finally got the dish finished, aligned to 1W and wires tucked away.

I had it temporarily on 7W for a couple of weeks and was able to get a fair few transponders, including MBC and Fox but there wasn't much room for rain fade. Interestingly I compared a Black Ultra single and a Black Ultra twin and the single out performed the twin by several % on many transponders (both LNBs had red text labels, although somewhat sun bleached!).

Now at its permanent home of 1W I've got a nice strong signal on all transponders, some showing a good 10% higher than on the 90cm so hoping this should help in bad weather. The old 90cm is now looking at 5E with 9E and 13E offset LNBs.

Thanks to CJ for supplying the CM120 dish and everyone else who offered advice and observations.

 

[Captain Jack]

Nice and tidy! How stable is the dish on that pole? I am always wary of big heavy dishes wobbling at the sight of breeze...

 

[timo_w2s]

Nice and tidy! How stable is the dish on that pole? I am always wary of big heavy dishes wobbling at the sight of breeze...

It'll take more than a slight breeze to wobble this one. It's pretty sturdy. As you know the pole is heavy and half of it is now sitting in concrete...

 

[Tony Daly]

It'll take more than a slight breeze to wobble this one. It's pretty sturdy. As you know the pole is heavy and half of it is now sitting in concrete...

That's a nice sheltered spot you've got there as long as those trees stay up

 

[timo_w2s]

Well, fast forward a just over a year later and the dish is gone... I've spent a few days removing the dish in preparation for a house move (something I hadn't forseen when I spent so long concreting the damn thing in last summer!). It was tough going digging it out and I came to the conclusion that pole was never going to move in any wind we have here in the UK!!! I was starting to wish I hadn't poured three bagfuls of concrete mix down the hole... In the end I gave up trying to get the last 30cm of the pole out and cut it off with an angle grinder. There is still plenty of pole left to concrete into the ground at the new location once we've moved house - that'll be for another thread.








I'm leaving the Sky mini dish in the photo above for the new home owners but the rest of my dish farm is going with me (the CM120 plus a couple of 60cm dishes and a 90cm not pictured).

 

[RimaNTSS]

"Before" looks much better than "After".

 

[archive10]

It was tough going digging it out and I came to the conclusion that pole was never going to move in any wind we have here in the UK!!! I was starting to wish I hadn't poured three bagfuls of concrete mix down the hole... In the end I gave up trying to get the last 30cm of the pole out and cut it off with an angle grinder.

Angle grinders are very useful tools, no?

Amazing how life's circumstances change ... there your were, excavating and exhibiting a subtle fascination for your backyard stratology - and now are you are leaving it behind.
But thankfully, you're taking the dishes!

Looking very much forward to more mounting sagas...

 

[timo_w2s]

Angle grinders are very useful tools, no?

Amazing how life's circumstances change ... there your were, excavating and exhibiting a subtle fascination for your backyard stratology - and now are you are leaving it behind.
But thankfully, you're taking the dishes!

Looking very much forward to more mounting sagas...

Yeah OK, I admit I went an bought an angle grinder for this removal job. It was only £35 in the local DIY shop and I will probably use it again...

I'm hoping the installation at the new location won't be quite as much of a "saga" as the last one now that I know what I'm doing. ;)