Newbie Here Rusty...ish dish - 'Save?' or 'not another one....start new, you fool!'

[doesitmatter]

I did not expect to be posting so soon but I saw a thread saying to see who else in your area had a dish for sighting advice and my 90 year old neighbour did!
I went round to have a look and she said I should take it, as she hasnt used it for years and isn't connected (the LNB and arm had broken off).

So I took it but is it too rusty to save the dish? Am I just throwing effort & cash at a pointless venture? And should I start over with something new?

This is my first sat system and the plan at some point was to motorise (but maybe not if this dish works), so it's a learning process for me! Sorry.

The dish measures is 80cm wide, 87cm high, so am I right in saying it's an 83.5cm dish?

Oh and mod, if I'm asking a stupid question, please delete this thread (not here to waste time) or pin as an example of a stupid question!

 

[rolfw]

That one's fit for the bin I'm afraid, it's an old design and you wouldn't be able to find the parts to repair it. Dish faces like that are quite good for suspending under bird feeders to catch the seeds though.

 

[doesitmatter]

Thanks @rolfw; I'll also let the other half know! She hates it when the bird seed gets everywhere!

Thanks very much, I shall continue researching and perhaps return when I have something worth asking!

 

[ozumo]

The dish measures is 80cm wide, 87cm high, so am I right in saying it's an 83.5cm dish?

It's an 80cm dish, with an offset design (i.e. it doesn't face directly towards the satellite but at an angle) the width is generally the correct way to measure it. It would have probably been retailed as a 90cm dish at the time it was sold.

 

[Analoguesat]

There are no stupid questions when you are new to a hobby - and we were all newcomers to this hobby once


A very long ago in the case of some of the old timers

 

[doesitmatter]

I scrapped the dish but kept the S bend, as it was in good condition.

Good god is there really is a lot of reading to do (especially around mounting strategies) and now I've been getting requests from family to set up a dish for them, despite not even putting up my own dish yet! (need a fibreglass one but the market seems a tad uncompetitive at the moment)

However, I just picked up a Silvercrest SL65 camping one for free, so I may try and see what I can get from it this weekend as my TV has a HD Sat tuner; if I can find a better way to mount than a g-clamp and the wind isn't too insane!

I have so much to be getting on with in my house (it needs work), I really didnt need another hobby but here we are! And many of you kind souls have made it for me by being so informative in other posts! You can probably track my learning through the likes I'm giving! ha!

 

[Channel Hopper]

I scrapped the dish but kept the S bend, as it was in good condition.

Good god is there really is a lot of reading to do (especially around mounting strategies) and now I've been getting requests from family to set up a dish for them, despite not even putting up my own dish yet! (need a fibreglass one but the market seems a tad uncompetitive at the moment)

However, I just picked up a Silvercrest SL65 camping one for free, so I may try and see what I can get from it this weekend as my TV has a HD Sat tuner; if I can find a better way to mount than a g-clamp and the wind isn't too insane!

I have so much to be getting on with in my house (it needs work), I really didnt need another hobby but here we are! And many of you kind souls have made it for me by being so informative in other posts! You can probably track my learning through the likes I'm giving! ha!

The S bend part will be useful moving forwards and are almost indestructible.

You will find far better receivers than the included SL65 out there for not a lot of money.

 

[Adam792]

I scrapped the dish but kept the S bend, as it was in good condition.

Good god is there really is a lot of reading to do (especially around mounting strategies) and now I've been getting requests from family to set up a dish for them, despite not even putting up my own dish yet! (need a fibreglass one but the market seems a tad uncompetitive at the moment)

However, I just picked up a Silvercrest SL65 camping one for free, so I may try and see what I can get from it this weekend as my TV has a HD Sat tuner; if I can find a better way to mount than a g-clamp and the wind isn't too insane!

I have so much to be getting on with in my house (it needs work), I really didnt need another hobby but here we are! And many of you kind souls have made it for me by being so informative in other posts! You can probably track my learning through the likes I'm giving! ha!

Blimey, I remember having that kit about 15 years ago. Had to visit most of the branches of Lidl around Staffordshire until we found one with them in stock.

The little dish works surprisingly well on the stronger sats (28.2°E, 19.2°E, 4.8°E Euro, 13°E, 30°W, and probably still 5°W if you're far enough south!). The receiver is DVB-S only though so you won't get a lot of stuff. Could be good to position the dish though before using another receiver, a lot of modern TVs have their own built-in DVB-S2 tuner.

 

[Captain Jack]

I had that 80cm dish in the original post back in the 90s to receive 1W! Oh, the memories... (of sparklies mostly)

 

[Lazarus]

Just on my way out to finally tip my rusty, trusty, Orbital 80cm that I started in this hobby with eons ago.

 

[doesitmatter]

I thought I'd update this thread, as I learnt something useful today, which other newbies might learn from and experienced sorts will laugh at. So win, win; learning and laughter makes the world go round!

Experimentation is really helpful. In my camping kit (a few posts up), I got a satellite finder which you connect between the dish and the receiver, which in my case was the TV. What this thing does is beep louder, as well as fill bars on an LCD screen when you get a good signal with a satellite. When you get that indication that you have a good signal, you then need to work out which satellite you're pointing at! Which on my camper dish was easy as it has a little map and compass you can attach. You can use a satellite finder app too, especially when paired with the Dishpointer website.

If you're a newbie, it's well worth seeing if someone is giving these campervan kits away (I've seen a few free ones on facebook marketplace) and playing around with it if you can. Otherwise, have no fear, it really is as easy as connecting up a dish in the correct place, positioning it (well fixed) and searching for stations.

Sadly, my 24mb video file is too large to fit here but I found more than 800 channels (x2 satellites) within half an hour of just positing a dish on a chair in my garden and running a cable from the TV, through my lounge and kitchen.
Astra 28.2 was harder to find for some reason but I got almost 300 channels and more than 500 on Intelsat 18 I think it was...that was an accidental connection but lots of German Sky tv!

Since then, as the two satellites were so close, I have changed my plan because I was going to motorise but you can get a bracket to hold more LNBs (the thing which points at the sat), which means I can have up to four LNBs on one satellite (though I'm far south in Brighton and am lead to believe we have good connectivity).
Instead of a motorised dish, I am going to get that bracket and motorise it down the line (which hopefully someone will confirm I can do )

If you cant get a campervan dish, it might be worth seeing if there's a free/cheap Sky one, as that will still help you understand it all.

Anyway, I hope some of this helps newbies get past the mass of information and just experiment. It really grew my confidence.

 

[Captain Jack]

You've been reading @Analoguesat's posts, haven't you?

 

[doesitmatter]

I have been reading all your posts!!!! But yes, yes I have been reading Analogues posts!

 

[Topper]

Sadly, my 24mb video file is too large to fit here but I found more than 800 channels (x2 satellites) within half an hour of just positing a dish on a chair in my garden and running a cable from the TV, through my lounge and kitchen.
Astra 28.2 was harder to find for some reason but I got almost 300 channels and more than 500 on Intelsat 18 I think it was...that was an accidental connection but lots of German Sky tv!

If you put it on Youtube or similar you could post it here by posting the link using the media button

 

[rolfw]

Astra 28.2 was harder to find for some reason but I got almost 300 channels and more than 500 on Intelsat 18 I think it was...that was an accidental connection but lots of German Sky tv!

Sounds like you're having fun, it's how most of us started, my start was using a small dish and portable TV on a flat roof to get BSB before it merged with Sky. However, you mention Intelsat 18, this is well below the horizon for you, if you were getting German channels.it will have been the Astra 1 group at 19.2 East.

A multi LNB dish is similar in difficulty to install against a motorised dish set up well and not too much difference in cost. Advantages are speed of satellite switching, disadvantages, limited number of satellites available and reception diminishes on offset LNBs.

Good luck on your quest, look forward to seeing your progress.