Added Elevation control to the 1.8m dish

[Vipersan]

hi -
thanks for the reply --
before i assembled the petals on mine i -- i made a flat platform with 3 by 2 inch batons and 3/4 in plywood -- and built it face down on that -- with all the bolts on the petals finger tight -- then tightened the bolts a little at a time round and round in a sequence until they were all done up -- so as not to pull it out of shape --

i noticed that all the petal bolts are almost a perfect fit for the holes leaving no slack for adjustment of the petals -- i,m pretty confident that i,ve got it near right
from the very good k/u results i got from it once i had the feed and l.n.b sorted .

i think i will send off for a BSC421 as i would like to test the alcoa to its limits on C band and if it proves to be good - it would be nice to make a polar mount and motorise it .
A project for next year - i think
as i,v just turned 60 i,m intending to reduce my work to part time from the end of this year --

cheers nelson.b.

Hi Nelson ..
Sounds to me that your Alcoa will be pretty much optimised already ;)
As for the BSC421..
I doubt you will be disappointed ..
..it pulls in fringe channels that the pauxis misses ...
..at least thats what I found.
Just a pity that it costs as much to ship as it does to buy..
the scalar plate it comes with is good ...but for truely excellent results you may want to fit your 3 ring 'deep' valley plate from your corrotor..
Im conviced there are less than 6 transponders unreceivable now at 55 ..west ...and these western H/Vbirds are where most of the action and fun is ..

If for example you find you can get the Brazillian or possibly Mexican transponder
4099 H
tp 26 XHTVL Canal 9 DVB-S2 2272-3/4
QPSK

Hemi

XHTVL Canal 9 MPEG-4 4131 4129 Sp

XHTVL Canal 9

...Then you know you are truely getting the max ..
Sadly this and a few others are still eluding me..
rgds
VS

 

[Vipersan]

Hi Friends ..
Been back from the hospital for about an hour ..following my 6 month checkup..
..It was such a cold , crisp ,clear night ..that I couldn't resist a try to get at least one of those elusive transponders ..which are on my hit list ..
Imagine my surprise when I managed to log one of them in ..
Here are some caps of six channels ..5 broadcast and 1 feed from Intelsat 805 55W

3771 V
tp 11 RRsat Global Communications Network DVB-S 13333-5/6

Thai TV Global Network 1 2001 3001 Th

VTV 4 2 2002 3002 Vi

FTV HD MPEG-4/HD 3 2003 3003

Supreme Master TV 4 2004 3004 E

Rodnoy Telekanal 5 2005 3005 R

(feeds)

Probably wont last long ..but at least they are now safely logged into my channel list..
rgds 2 all
VS

 

[Vipersan]

..good job I grabbed the caps when I did ..
20 minutes later ..and the pictures have now fragmented and are barely watchable ..
I suspect they will vanish comletely within the hour..
logged the clear viewing window @ 7:15PM to 7:40PM
rgds
VS

 

[Channel Hopper]

Hi Nelson ..
Shakedown is terminology recently used by CH ...which I interpreted as ...
..a full check for alignment of the petals done with stretched string etc ...
just to make sure the dish is performing at maximum effeciency ..
A BIG job requiring its removal from the mount if any discrepencies are present.

Not quite.

A shakedown (on a prime focus dish) is undoing all bolts that hold the petals together by one or two turns, including those that hold the petals to the backplate, turning the elevation control until the dish is pointing straight up, and giving it a full violent shake.
Each petal will (or should) use its own weight to settle down to a common angle held by all. All bolts are then tightened whilst still in the vertical position, and then the dish returned back to its normal elevation.
If the stringing is still in place, the petal alignment can be verified in both positions, if it changes then the backplate is not up to the job of holding everything steady.

 

[Vipersan]

Many thanks for the clarification CH ..
Still a job for the summer tho'
According to the weather update ...there is every chance a dish pointing straight up will be turned into a large bowl of white powder & crystals within the next few days ..
Perhaps If I get a gallon of syrup ready and a big spoon I could invite the neighbours round for a giant slushie..
;)
rgds
VS

 

[Channel Hopper]

A lot of people will be losing signal over the next few hours.

Not looking good for my workload either.

 

[Vipersan]

3 more new channels appeared recently on NSS 806 at 40.5°W

3883 L
tp 23A Televida (Colombia)

3962 R
tp 14A Life Design TV

4029 R
tp 14 RCN TV DVB-S2
MPEG-4/HD

So 3 new caps added ;)
rgds
VS

 

[Vipersan]

..and again ..from NSS 806 at 40.5°W

4169 R
tp 18

TV Canção Nova
DVB-S2 18390

..looks like Rede have intoduced a multi feed HD mux at this frequency..

2 caps from the same mux ..showing the HD and one of the SD feeds

rgds
VS

 

[Vipersan]

Hi Friends ..Just a quick update..
The BBC have taken to transmitting an Arabic Video feed on what was previously an all radio transponder -
Intelsat 10-02 - Thor 5/6 @ 1° West
4025 R
DVB-S/MPEG-2 7324 2/3

rgds
VS

 

[Lazarus]

BBC, eh?

More Arabic and American stuff than English these days.

 

[Vipersan]

BBC, eh?

More Arabic and American stuff than English these days.

It certainly appears that way Gordon ..
Looks like the BBC in particular are branching out at the licence payers expense ...
assuming its all funded from the same purse..
;)
rgds

 

[Huevos]

It certainly appears that way Gordon ..
Looks like the BBC in particular are branching out at the licence payers expense ...
assuming its all funded from the same purse..
;)
rgds

"Outside the UK, the BBC World Service has provided services by direct broadcasting and re-transmission contracts by sound radio since the inauguration of the BBC Empire Service in December 1932, and more recently by television and online. Though sharing some of the facilities of the domestic services, particularly for news and current affairs output, the World Service has a separate Managing Director, and its operating costs have historically been funded mainly by direct grants from the UK government. These grants were determined independently of the domestic licence fee. A recent spending review has announced plans for the funding for the world service to be drawn from the domestic licence fee.

The Corporation's 'guaranteed' income from the licence fee and the World Service grants are supplemented by profits from commercial operations through a wholly owned subsidiary, BBC Worldwide Ltd."

_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC

 

[Vipersan]

Hi Friends ..
just got in from work ..and a quick check of lyngsat revealed one of the channels on
Intelsat 805 at 55.5°W

Repretel mux
4111 H
tp 26
DVB-S2 4000-3/5
8PSK


Canal 6 (Costa Rica) MPEG-4

was currently free to air ..
..of course...I had to swing the dish over for a snapshot to add to my collection ..
here's the result..
;)
rgds
VS

 

[Lazarus]

Nice catch, VS.

 

[Vipersan]

Hi friends ..
Still haven't fully optimised the dish setup since fitting the new dish tripod ...
cold weather and poor health being the reasons..
..so with the setup as-is a few channels are stronger ...and some have dissappeared entirely for now ..for example Mexico Travel on 55West.
However ..I did manage to log in a new mux/transponder on Intelsat 9 @ 58W ...which had previously eluded me.

4157 V
tp 23 Grupo Bandeirantes DVB-S 6250-5/6

There is also a channel called SexPrivé Brasileirinhas ...which is self descriptive ;)
Sadly encrypted ..with something called 'Director' ....which is one I've never heard of before..

rgds
VS