paulvr
Member
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2007
- Messages
- 31
- Reaction score
- 6
- Points
- 8
- Location
- Nijmegen
- My Satellite Setup
-
Dr.HD and Topfield
300 cm Unimesh C-Band on AJAK H2H mount
180 cm prime focus Ku-Band on AJAK H2H mount
- My Location
- Netherlands
Dear Friends,
A very long time I have enjoyed analog C-Band reception with a range of good quality dishes like Winegard, Hero and Unimesh, looking for the most fringe of signals and getting them using extreme bandwith limiters and audio equipment. Not only receiving the famous 4166,5 and 4188,5 MHz global beam Intelsat feeds, but also beacons, scpc signals, phone conversations and so on.
When digital took over I was sort of at a loss. One needed much more forceful signals to get a picture, in short, for me the fun was pretty much gone.
Some time ago I fell for an ad from the American firm named DMS International. They advertised a C/Ku Digital LNBF type BSC621-2 for what sounded like a reasonable price so I ordered one.
What I got was nothing less than shabby. Being used to high quality heavy duty Chapparal, California Amplifier and Seavey feeds I was shocked to find scalar rings that seemed to have been made fom tuna can material, also much smaller rings in diametre than the normal ones used for a 3 metre dish.
Reception results were horrid. It appeared impossible to effectively switch from horizontal to vertical signals, the sensitivity of the LNB's should have been way better than what I had (Gardiner 25K and Swedish Microwave 0,8 dbf) but in fact this thing was much worse.
I politely wrote to see if perhaps I had gotten a faulty set but got some rather arrogant reply about me being the only one complaining amidst thousands of satisfied customers, in fact me being the only one at all.
Later, much later I read something on the internet written by the same person acknowledging that there were huge problems and announcing a better version but considering the very poor quality of the scalar rings I just left it at that.
Now, not being knowledgable about nowadays digital C-Band market I do have three questions:
1. As digital receivers know no skewing positions, does this mean that one is always forced to have an old fashioned analog receiver around for changing and skweing the polarizer, especially as I receive both linear and circular polarized signals?
2. As I said, my C-Band LNB is a Gardiner of 25 K and my Ku Band a Swedish microwave of 0.8 dbf. For C-Band I see advertisements going down to 14 K but on ebay someone is constantly offering 10 K for a reasonable price. Dopes anyone know if the 10 K indeed is trustworthy?
3. In all advertizing I keep reading about a necessary stability for digital reception. As I have never experienced with my present equipment any loss of signal while viewing very weak signals (if they go away it's because of heavy clouds or so) I'd like to know what's the big deal about the stability that for instance makes Norsat LNB's so much more expensive?
To simplify things I have meanwhile replaced my C/Ku feed by a single C-Band feed (Chapparal) for the time being. But of course if there are such things as C or C/Ku LNBF that truly does what the aforementioned DMS International product lacks I would be interested. Or do you think that I'd best stick with my Chaparral feed (with teflon slab inside for circular) and just opt for a better C-band LNB?
Thanks a million for any answers!
Paul.
A very long time I have enjoyed analog C-Band reception with a range of good quality dishes like Winegard, Hero and Unimesh, looking for the most fringe of signals and getting them using extreme bandwith limiters and audio equipment. Not only receiving the famous 4166,5 and 4188,5 MHz global beam Intelsat feeds, but also beacons, scpc signals, phone conversations and so on.
When digital took over I was sort of at a loss. One needed much more forceful signals to get a picture, in short, for me the fun was pretty much gone.
Some time ago I fell for an ad from the American firm named DMS International. They advertised a C/Ku Digital LNBF type BSC621-2 for what sounded like a reasonable price so I ordered one.
What I got was nothing less than shabby. Being used to high quality heavy duty Chapparal, California Amplifier and Seavey feeds I was shocked to find scalar rings that seemed to have been made fom tuna can material, also much smaller rings in diametre than the normal ones used for a 3 metre dish.
Reception results were horrid. It appeared impossible to effectively switch from horizontal to vertical signals, the sensitivity of the LNB's should have been way better than what I had (Gardiner 25K and Swedish Microwave 0,8 dbf) but in fact this thing was much worse.
I politely wrote to see if perhaps I had gotten a faulty set but got some rather arrogant reply about me being the only one complaining amidst thousands of satisfied customers, in fact me being the only one at all.
Later, much later I read something on the internet written by the same person acknowledging that there were huge problems and announcing a better version but considering the very poor quality of the scalar rings I just left it at that.
Now, not being knowledgable about nowadays digital C-Band market I do have three questions:
1. As digital receivers know no skewing positions, does this mean that one is always forced to have an old fashioned analog receiver around for changing and skweing the polarizer, especially as I receive both linear and circular polarized signals?
2. As I said, my C-Band LNB is a Gardiner of 25 K and my Ku Band a Swedish microwave of 0.8 dbf. For C-Band I see advertisements going down to 14 K but on ebay someone is constantly offering 10 K for a reasonable price. Dopes anyone know if the 10 K indeed is trustworthy?
3. In all advertizing I keep reading about a necessary stability for digital reception. As I have never experienced with my present equipment any loss of signal while viewing very weak signals (if they go away it's because of heavy clouds or so) I'd like to know what's the big deal about the stability that for instance makes Norsat LNB's so much more expensive?
To simplify things I have meanwhile replaced my C/Ku feed by a single C-Band feed (Chapparal) for the time being. But of course if there are such things as C or C/Ku LNBF that truly does what the aforementioned DMS International product lacks I would be interested. Or do you think that I'd best stick with my Chaparral feed (with teflon slab inside for circular) and just opt for a better C-band LNB?
Thanks a million for any answers!
Paul.
