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Earth Station Fisty - February 2016
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<blockquote data-quote="Fisty McB" data-source="post: 970179" data-attributes="member: 389824"><p><strong>APRIL 2016 UPDATE - 14 LNBs, 1 FISTY</strong></p><p></p><p>Just over two months later and a few things have changed. I've decided to name the dishes rather blandly, with the 1.2 metre motorised dish "Dish A", though the other dishes are all "B" to reflect the tuner on the VU+ receiver they all feed into. On to Dish B1 which is the 98cm dish with seven LNBs...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]92910[/ATTACH] </p><p>...the 9 East LNB has been changed from an Alps single to a new Inverto Eco single. Although it doesn't stop the Swiss-French channels from completely cutting out in the rain, the threshold for this to happen is now higher than it used to be with the Alps with the 9A satellite in place as opposed to 9B now. On 13 East, the only transponder giving problems is 12476H - the 8PSK modulation with 3/4 FEC is quite sensitive to raindrops on the feedhorn though 10911V which has the same parameters (only FTA channel is Stars TV) is perfectly fine. It's a shame that the former easily cuts out as it carries a number of interesting channels in HD, so a hood for both 9E & 13E will be looked at to keep the raindrops off. No other changes elsewhere here. Now on to Dish B2, the 78cm one look at the far eastern end of the arc...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]92911[/ATTACH] </p><p>...the dish was recently raised around 20cm to give a little more elbow room for 46E which seems to have done the trick. However getting the LNB back to focus on 42E especially those on Turksat 3A was turning into being a right pain in the arse so for now the LNB has been moved to view 39E instead. While there isn't a huge amount FTA there that isn't available on 45E or 13E (and none of it in English - The Media Office UAE channel is too weak) it at least provides for that position OK. So now on to Dish B3 aka the Sky Mk3 Zone 2 dish where there are significant changes...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]92912[/ATTACH] </p><p>...the dish has been moved. It's previous position was not able to get the whole dish to see over the oil tank guard so I decided to relocate it just above Dish B1 where it has clear sight. As a bonus, two additional LNBs have been added...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]92913[/ATTACH] </p><p>...22W and 30W have now been added to the mix. The moving of Dish B3 has helped increase SNR ratings on 5W & 15W by around 1db though it still isn't enough for the VU+ to lock on to 12690H on 5W. 22W has been specifically set up for the Reuters Live feed which comes in well on this offset LNB except in heavy downpours. 30W can't pick up some of the weaker transponders, but nothing critical unless I start getting a fetish for Spanish speaking tarot readers! Not noted in the photograph is that like 45E on the 46E LNB on B2, 14W can be picked up quite well on the 15W LNB.</p><p></p><p>And as a bonus...</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]92914[/ATTACH] </p><p>...I had a local aerial rigger come this morning to take down an old Sky Mk4 Zone 2 dish from the side wall left by the previous occupants that I wasn't able to reach up to and not able to use, as well as remove an old bracket for a Sky dish that was there prior to that dish itself! In an effort to recycle, the really old bracket I determined was not reusable without some serious work that wasn't worth investing quite a bit of spray paint & time in so it's gone in the skip (the pole was rusting so badly that I think some birds were breaking bits off to build nests with!) but the bracket of the latter dish and the dish itself is worth saving. A little bit of inspection showed that whoever installed the dish originally did a half-arsed job as the LNB used, a Zinwell quad) didn't even have its LNB connector rain hood pulled down! The result was one LNB connector that was clean broke, and the other three could not be loosened at all, I think the screw connections had "rust-bonded", so all I could do was thrown it in the skip as well.</p><p></p><p>In the meantime I broke off the plastic LNB bracket (I've a couple spare from the LNBs used on Dish B3 for 22W & 30W), took off old insulation tape and chucked out the unusable WF65 shotgun coax and gave the dish a good wash with warm, soapy water to help remove green mould and bird shite off it. What can't be easily seen here is that not surprisingly many of the nuts and bolts are rusty - I haven't tried taking them off yet but along with a couple of Zinwell J1S LNBs, I've ordered some replacement bolts & brackets to fix the dish up again. I'm not sure what colour to paint it yet - the weather forecast for the next few days doesn't predict fine dry weather, indeed the last 48 hours have seen sleet & snow showers come & go here (unusually late in the year for those not familiar with the weather in Tyrone) in between periods of mild sunshine. One thing I noticed recently was that an overhead "drone" video of the village done earlier this month is up on YouTube and the only dish of mine that can be easily made out from its height was not surprisingly the big Dish A with its bright yellow face, so the camouflage of the "B" dishes is working from that distance at least. </p><p></p><p>I'd say at this stage the fate of the potential "B4" dish is that it'll be aligned on to 42E to replace the tricky offset on Dish B2 that is now on 39E - however I'm not sure if even a Sky Mk4 Zone 2 dish will have enough rain fade margin to accommodate signals from the Turksat 3A's west beam (the TRT HD transponder in particular) satisfactorily. I guess there's only one way to find out, and it might result with the car tyre coming back out for temporary work! Potential LNB offsets from a dish focused on 42E are 36E (this is likely to be borderline) and maybe 50E if anything interesting ever shows up there! There's two spare ports on the Centuari 16/1 switch, so some expansion is possible. To be fair the title of this post did kind of give that away! <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite62" alt=":-wow" title="Wow :-wow" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":-wow" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Fisty McB, post: 970179, member: 389824"] [B]APRIL 2016 UPDATE - 14 LNBs, 1 FISTY[/B] Just over two months later and a few things have changed. I've decided to name the dishes rather blandly, with the 1.2 metre motorised dish "Dish A", though the other dishes are all "B" to reflect the tuner on the VU+ receiver they all feed into. On to Dish B1 which is the 98cm dish with seven LNBs... [ATTACH=full]92910[/ATTACH] ...the 9 East LNB has been changed from an Alps single to a new Inverto Eco single. Although it doesn't stop the Swiss-French channels from completely cutting out in the rain, the threshold for this to happen is now higher than it used to be with the Alps with the 9A satellite in place as opposed to 9B now. On 13 East, the only transponder giving problems is 12476H - the 8PSK modulation with 3/4 FEC is quite sensitive to raindrops on the feedhorn though 10911V which has the same parameters (only FTA channel is Stars TV) is perfectly fine. It's a shame that the former easily cuts out as it carries a number of interesting channels in HD, so a hood for both 9E & 13E will be looked at to keep the raindrops off. No other changes elsewhere here. Now on to Dish B2, the 78cm one look at the far eastern end of the arc... [ATTACH=full]92911[/ATTACH] ...the dish was recently raised around 20cm to give a little more elbow room for 46E which seems to have done the trick. However getting the LNB back to focus on 42E especially those on Turksat 3A was turning into being a right pain in the arse so for now the LNB has been moved to view 39E instead. While there isn't a huge amount FTA there that isn't available on 45E or 13E (and none of it in English - The Media Office UAE channel is too weak) it at least provides for that position OK. So now on to Dish B3 aka the Sky Mk3 Zone 2 dish where there are significant changes... [ATTACH=full]92912[/ATTACH] ...the dish has been moved. It's previous position was not able to get the whole dish to see over the oil tank guard so I decided to relocate it just above Dish B1 where it has clear sight. As a bonus, two additional LNBs have been added... [ATTACH=full]92913[/ATTACH] ...22W and 30W have now been added to the mix. The moving of Dish B3 has helped increase SNR ratings on 5W & 15W by around 1db though it still isn't enough for the VU+ to lock on to 12690H on 5W. 22W has been specifically set up for the Reuters Live feed which comes in well on this offset LNB except in heavy downpours. 30W can't pick up some of the weaker transponders, but nothing critical unless I start getting a fetish for Spanish speaking tarot readers! Not noted in the photograph is that like 45E on the 46E LNB on B2, 14W can be picked up quite well on the 15W LNB. And as a bonus... [ATTACH=full]92914[/ATTACH] ...I had a local aerial rigger come this morning to take down an old Sky Mk4 Zone 2 dish from the side wall left by the previous occupants that I wasn't able to reach up to and not able to use, as well as remove an old bracket for a Sky dish that was there prior to that dish itself! In an effort to recycle, the really old bracket I determined was not reusable without some serious work that wasn't worth investing quite a bit of spray paint & time in so it's gone in the skip (the pole was rusting so badly that I think some birds were breaking bits off to build nests with!) but the bracket of the latter dish and the dish itself is worth saving. A little bit of inspection showed that whoever installed the dish originally did a half-arsed job as the LNB used, a Zinwell quad) didn't even have its LNB connector rain hood pulled down! The result was one LNB connector that was clean broke, and the other three could not be loosened at all, I think the screw connections had "rust-bonded", so all I could do was thrown it in the skip as well. In the meantime I broke off the plastic LNB bracket (I've a couple spare from the LNBs used on Dish B3 for 22W & 30W), took off old insulation tape and chucked out the unusable WF65 shotgun coax and gave the dish a good wash with warm, soapy water to help remove green mould and bird shite off it. What can't be easily seen here is that not surprisingly many of the nuts and bolts are rusty - I haven't tried taking them off yet but along with a couple of Zinwell J1S LNBs, I've ordered some replacement bolts & brackets to fix the dish up again. I'm not sure what colour to paint it yet - the weather forecast for the next few days doesn't predict fine dry weather, indeed the last 48 hours have seen sleet & snow showers come & go here (unusually late in the year for those not familiar with the weather in Tyrone) in between periods of mild sunshine. One thing I noticed recently was that an overhead "drone" video of the village done earlier this month is up on YouTube and the only dish of mine that can be easily made out from its height was not surprisingly the big Dish A with its bright yellow face, so the camouflage of the "B" dishes is working from that distance at least. I'd say at this stage the fate of the potential "B4" dish is that it'll be aligned on to 42E to replace the tricky offset on Dish B2 that is now on 39E - however I'm not sure if even a Sky Mk4 Zone 2 dish will have enough rain fade margin to accommodate signals from the Turksat 3A's west beam (the TRT HD transponder in particular) satisfactorily. I guess there's only one way to find out, and it might result with the car tyre coming back out for temporary work! Potential LNB offsets from a dish focused on 42E are 36E (this is likely to be borderline) and maybe 50E if anything interesting ever shows up there! There's two spare ports on the Centuari 16/1 switch, so some expansion is possible. To be fair the title of this post did kind of give that away! :-wow [/QUOTE]
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Earth Station Fisty - February 2016
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