My SAT-playground

[RimaNTSS]

Hi! Discovered one nice mirror for sale. It is 2 meters offset aluminum dish with turning mechanism. Only problem that seller is not willing to cooperate and stays firm on the price of 200 bucks. Of course I can wait some time and if nobody is buying for that price than I try to bargain again. And one more thing, If I buy this dish I first should get rid of some of smaller dishes already in my stock. Finally, anyway, I simply do not have enough time to spend on sat-fun this year due to another urgent priorities.

 

[RimaNTSS]

Update on 2m offset aluminum: owner started to cooperate and already agree to give discount of 10%. So final price is equivalent of 100 pounds. What do you think, it that good deal or I should wait some time for better price decrease?
There is another issue: Kathrein PF 130cm dish (picture attached). Owner asks for 50 EUR. If I get it for 20 EUR, would that be a good catch? Are those Kathrein PF antennas good at all? Seems that dish comes with actuator and LNB.

 

[Captain Jack]

Whichever way you look at it, you are getting these dishes very cheaply. You'd be hard pressed to find a 2m dish for £100 around here...

Get both

 

[RimaNTSS]

Antenna's real size was 1,2m but that was anyway too big to be placed in sedan car. So, took all small stuff and will think about dish tomorrow. Everything looks not in bad shape, some dust and spider-nets present. Kathrein receiver with positioner inside. My new toy!

 

[Captain Jack]

The polar mount alone is worth it...

Have you considered investing in a roof-rack? I also have a sedan/saloon, so dishes larger than a Triax TD110cm do not fit inside. Bought a couple of roof railings for £5 and transported my Twiggy (Fibo) on top of that.

 

[RimaNTSS]

For really big stuff I have got trailer. Will manage antenna-pick up operation tomorrow.
I just briefly opened LNB cover, got trilled little bit from view inside! Just wandering what if all that is working!

 

[wod]

Should be fine if the dish isn't warped and you might have the mod the lnb feed for an adjustable one like invacom.

The dish looks to be spun similar to precision antennas.

 

[Captain Jack]

That LNB only covers 10.95 - 11.7 GHz - looks like an old type Astra 1A - 1C band LNB. Won't be very useful these days.

 

[RimaNTSS]

There are actually 2 blocks inside of LNB. Maybe they are covering all spectrum of frequencies? What I certainly would like to try is electro-mechanical polarizer, which is also inside of that mega-LNB.

 

[Captain Jack]

Interesting. You would need some sort of a 22KHz switch to alternate between inputs then, unless one is already built in.

 

[RimaNTSS]

unless one is already built in.

That is job of electro-mechanical polarizer to switch between inputs. And Kathrein positioner has possibility to operate that polariser. That is just my theory. Reality could be somewhere close.

 

[RimaNTSS]

Got mirror itself also at home. It ir relatively light, cuz made from aluminum. Edge of dish is sheathed in some places, but surface seems to be fine. I did think that those letters on the dish are painted, but in reality they are glued, so, perhaps I will take them away at all and will wash every square cm of this Kathrein old lady.

 

[RimaNTSS]

Hi! There are couple of new MABO 1,8m prime-focus antennas available (100 bucks each). I and friend of mine are probably going to take them. Dishes made of thick aluminum and have original polar-mounts. Maybe somebody have experience with Polish MABO antennas in particular with those I mentioned? Quick advice is appreciated.

 

[RimaNTSS]

No luck with MABO.... instead of 1,8m seller brought 1,5m. of course I did not take them. So, no MABO for me :-Nooo He had those antennas in storage for about 15 years and always thought they where 1,8m. Funny. But I have got another toy - 120cm plastic antenna (in pretty good shape, black dots already washed away). It came with 4 LNBs, Thomson tuner and Diseqc 1/4. Coasted me about 30 bucks.

 

[RimaNTSS]

And forgot to show multifeed on 80cm antenna for my parents. This is DIY from cheap galvanized stuff from DEPO shop, costs not more than 3 EUR. This will be for 19,2*E-13*E-4,8*E.

 

[RimaNTSS]

Finished wiring, so antenna tuned and ready to travel to another place. That will stay on 7th floor in the place where not very handy to tune, hope to have it working immediately after installing.

 

[RimaNTSS]

Spent some time today cleaning and washing that 120cm (actual size almost 125cm) SaTan. Decided to have it fixed to 90*E. It is shame I will not have it motorized (at least now), polar mechanism is sooo nice and balanced, moves H-H just by one finger. Wire from LNB will go through one of 3 LNB support pipes, very smart solution by Kahrein. Will try to adapt LNB cover for new LNB, original LNB was for analog and I do not think could be used nowadays. I like this antenna already.

 

[RimaNTSS]

Hi!
Finished refurbishing plastic 1,2m offset antenna. Got it washed, majority of nuts&bolts changed, metal parts painted. Pointed it to 75*E, 51-71% depending on transponder. Will try to add some LNBs, like 85*E, 66*E and maybe 60*E.

 

[Captain Jack]

Your balcony is going to fall off with so many dishes on there! Seriously, though, I am dead jealous of your set up - very cool stuff.

 

[RimaNTSS]

Good morning!
Yesterday finished working on polar-muont mechanism from square-shaped plastic 150x150cm offset antenna I've got couple of month ago. My original plan was to sandblast all the metal parts but instead spent couple of hours working with metal brush till metal was naked and shiny. Than painted everything twice, changed majority of nuts and bolts to INOX ones and greased with copper paste. The mechanism itself seems to be heavy-duty with no play in joinings, I think it could easily hold 2 meter or even bigger dish. Outer size of 3cm pipe circle is about 90cm. Only problem I face now is nonavailability of free space for installation, but I have some plans to change this bad situation.