It Was Worth The Try.

[TJExcalibur]

After many days checking, measuring, scanning and repeating the process several times there is no way I am able to receive much on the C band precision. Today i fitted a Titanium LNB. It was better but not enough to get a lock on most satellites. The only decent one was 55 west with 27 + TV and loads of radio channels. Get the odd one in the region of 8 west to 14 east but unable to lock on with the meter or satellite receiver. No more time so I have decided to move on as I have lots of work to do around the house and garden. Yes I will lose money but will finish the painting etc, swoping a few bolts for ss and sell it on.

 

[archive10]

Are you saying that with a 1.8m precision dish, you cannot get any C-band reception apart from 27 TV channels on 55W?
Although I haven't got a 1.8 with C-band LNB, I should think you should be able to get a lot more than what you've got so far.
I do appreciate spending time on someting else. But perhaps you should park this project, and come back to it in a week or two?

 

[moonbase]

Are you saying that with a 1.8m precision dish, you cannot get any C-band reception apart from 27 TV channels on 55W?
Although I haven't got a 1.8 with C-band LNB, I should think you should be able to get a lot more than what you've got so far.
I do appreciate spending time on someting else. But perhaps you should park this project, and come back to it in a week or two?

st1,

As far as I know, it is the line of sight to the satellites that are causing the problems for TJ. He has a lot of trees in leaf across the arc. It's not the dish setup, it is the blocking of signals by trees.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Leaves are not the issue with the install.

As per ST1, put all on hold and I'll pop down at the end of the month to assist.
You are 80% there, just a bit of fine tuning.

 

[TJExcalibur]

Here are some photos from the scaler ring centre showing what the dish is pointing at.

 

[John]

Leaves are not the issue with the install.

As per ST1, put all on hold and I'll pop down at the end of the month to assist.
You are 80% there, just a bit of fine tuning.

After seeing those pics i would tend to agree. Any chance of just a single shot TJ of just the Precision showing ground up to top of dish without giving away anything that might be private in it's surroundings.

 

[aceb]

Something is amiss if you aren't getting 5W or 20E, a 1.8 Precision with a Tit-PLL is good enough for at least 20 sats on C-Band. The low angle stuff may suffer due to LoS but the higher sats close to the top of the arc should be solid. 5W is an easy catch using a 1.2 Precision.

 

[Captain Jack]

55W is linear. Are you using depolariser plate for other satellites? Almost all are circular polarised, except 46E, 38E, 37.5W, 55W and 58W.

 

[TJExcalibur]

Only getting 55w across the arc. Will put in the plate and do a re scan.

OK not any better. Maybe I am missing something but time to call it a day. Thanks for the help but when it gets beyond comprehension i find it best to do something more enjoyable.

 

[TJExcalibur]

After seeing those pics i would tend to agree. Any chance of just a single shot TJ of just the Precision showing ground up to top of dish without giving away anything that might be private in it's surroundings.

The only thing that is private is the Overseer sunbathing, best avoided. Photos at 55w.

 

[John]

The only thing that is private is the Overseer sunbathing, best avoided. Photos at 55w.

Firstly TJ, nice tidy install.
Secondly re: sunbathing - you really must let me be the judge of that

 

[moonbase]

Leaves are not the issue with the install.

I was basing my comment on the information in the other topic by TJ where he states he has a poor visibility arc due to trees. Having now seen the treeline and clear sky picture attached to this topic I agree, its not the leaves, there is some technical issue that hopefully is easily resolved.

TJ,

That's a nice install, neat and tidy and it looks fit for purpose. Hopefully you can get whatever issue there is resolved and get decent signal capture for the satellites that are visible.. Well done, you have made a good job of the setup.

 

[Terryl]

I checked on the size needed for 34W (Intelsat 35e) it comes up as the recommended size dish for "C" band is 2.9 meters for a location in London.(I don't know your exact location, but I think you are in the UK)(tell me if I'm off on that)

It could be that your dish is too small for good "C" reception on most of the birds carrying "C" band that you can see from your location.

I tried for "C" band on a 1 meter dish, then a 1.8, gave up and went with a 3 meter, have no problems now.

 

[Terryl]

Oh one more thing, back in my 7 GHz days testing for TV up-link to the transmitters I found that some microwave signals did not like the color green, I found this out when one of the secretary's at work walked between a test setup wearing a green dress.(green leaves can cause signal loss)

The test data print outs looked funny, random drop outs in the signal strength, I thought it was due to people walking in front of the receive dish, (very low power tests) but found that not to be true, until she walked in front of the dish, the signal dropped out.(receiver muted due to too low a signal)

Others were walking in front of the dish(it was online with the walkway to the break room) and did not cause a dropout, only her, she was wearing a green dress, the next day she was wearing a pink one, she did not cause a drop out then.

So back to your problems, it could be that your choice of colors on the dish (green??) may be affecting the signals in some way, try some flat gray primer, see if I am wrong.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Oh one more thing, back in my 7 GHz days testing for TV up-link to the transmitters I found that some microwave signals did not like the color green, I found this out when one of the secretary's at work walked between a test setup wearing a green dress.(green leaves can cause signal loss)

The test data print outs looked funny, random drop outs in the signal strength, I thought it was due to people walking in front of the receive dish, (very low power tests) but found that not to be true, until she walked in front of the dish, the signal dropped out.(receiver muted due to too low a signal)

Others were walking in front of the dish(it was online with the walkway to the break room) and did not cause a dropout, only her, she was wearing a green dress, the next day she was wearing a pink one, she did not cause a drop out then.

So back to your problems, it could be that your choice of colors on the dish (green??) may be affecting the signals in some way, try some flat gray primer, see if I am wrong.

Interesting. Do you have any data or corroborating stuff ?

She might have worn foil underwear on those green days of course.

 

[scopus]

I painted my old Precision 1.8 green, never noticed any signal loss.
One thing with it being a darker colour it really absorbed the suns heat and it got very hot a sunny day. White keeps the dish much cooler..

 

[Channel Hopper]

I painted my old Precision 1.8 green, never noticed any signal loss.
One thing with it being a darker colour it really absorbed the suns heat and it got very hot a sunny day. White keeps the dish much cooler..

If the dish is metal it can expand and change the focal parameters away from a parabola. if distorted previously then it might cause trouble with focal pointing.

But not at 5GHz frequencies unless a magnitude above 1.8m

 

[Terryl]

Interesting. Do you have any data or corroborating stuff ?

She might have worn foil underwear on those green days of course.

Nope, no data, that was over 30 years ago, data files would be long gone as that company is out of business.

No way to prove it now unless I could get access to a dish farm and some signal generators.

And yes flat white is the best but makes them stand out on houses, flat gray was the choice for most dish makers.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Nope, no data, that was over 30 years ago, data files would be long gone as that company is out of business.

No way to prove it now unless I could get access to a dish farm and some signal generators.

And yes flat white is the best but makes them stand out on houses, flat gray was the choice for most dish makers.

Fibreglass / SMC suffers less than the equivalent metal versions, but for some reason almost all compound antennas are constructed with white material. Perhaps the manufacturers know they can sell more feedhorn caps.

 

[Pipedream]

After many days checking, measuring, scanning and repeating the process several times there is no way I am able to receive much on the C band precision. Today i fitted a Titanium LNB. It was better but not enough to get a lock on most satellites. The only decent one was 55 west with 27 + TV and loads of radio channels. Get the odd one in the region of 8 west to 14 east but unable to lock on with the meter or satellite receiver. No more time so I have decided to move on as I have lots of work to do around the house and garden. Yes I will lose money but will finish the painting etc, swoping a few bolts for ss and sell it on.

Just set up a 1.5 ERTI on C band on 40.5 west getting 36 TV channels + radio, a few AFN channels on 34.5 west and some others on 5 and 8 west.