Too Many Trees.

[TJExcalibur]

KU band was a bodge held in place in the scaler ring with a bit of rag, but it worked to give me an idea of alignment, as suggested by Channel Hopper. just got a freebie cheap Chines C band lnb and it has picked up something at 55 west without me moving the dish from where I left it.
Have a Titanium C1-PLL lnb coming as suggested by others so I will give that a try before giving up.

 

[John]

TJ,

What LNB are you using for Ku band?
From my personal experience I have found the Invacom C120 quad LNB to be the best performer on a Precision prime focus dish.

For C band using a Precision prime focus dish on circularly polarised signals I found that a Titanium LNB perfomed better than a Zinwell LNB. However, once the Zinwell was used without the dielectric plate and in conjunction with a polariser barrel it outperformed the Titanium. I have yet to test the Titanium LNB without dielectric plate in conjunction with a polariser barrel.

Looking at your photos of foliage, the landscape does not look too bleak for signals? However, the photos do not give the best idea of distance and scale so it might be worse than it looks.

Whatever signals you are getting now should be improved upon once we get to the Autumn and leaf fall. I would give it a few months before you decide if it is not worthwhile with the setup before selling.

.. Any chance of a Google Earth plan view TJ giving an indication of where South is and where you intended to locate the dish

 

[TJExcalibur]

Alignment is pointing to 0.8 west

 

[John]

Alignment is pointing to 0.8 west

Ooooo bugger TJ. Have you had a scan with the Sat-Tracker app from your desired dish position from East to West to see which satellites manage to be above the tree lines

 

[Channel Hopper]

KU band was a bodge held in place in the scaler ring with a bit of rag, but it worked to give me an idea of alignment, as suggested by Channel Hopper. just got a freebie cheap Chines C band lnb and it has picked up something at 55 west without me moving the dish from where I left it.
Have a Titanium C1-PLL lnb coming as suggested by others so I will give that a try before giving up.

You already have the best Zinwell LNB from the bulk buy a year or so ago, I brought it to you with the dish, boxed and tested here for about an hour.
The only reason I'm not using it is it is not a wr137 flange type so I can't use a mechanical depolariser/feed.
(And I'm not inverting another Prodelin 3.8m to keep the water out)

 

[TJExcalibur]

Maybe so but when having tried everything else its better to try and solve the problem by taking advice from others who know more than I do. I have checked and checked again to 100%. Upright pole, scaler ring distance 70cm, dead centre, lnb settings 40-42, elevation 31.8, different coax cable, C and KU band xml on Dr HD meter. If i get a few sats with whichever lnb I will settle for the one that works best. Failing that I will request help in exchange for a mug of coffee and a chunk of delicious rock cake made by the Overseer.

 

[moonbase]

TJ,

I am not clear on what problems you are having? Is it just the signal blocking by the trees or are you unsure if you have got your arc aligned OK?

If you can see 46E it might be a good satellite to carry out some tests on. It has both Ku band and C band signals and the C band signals are linear polarity. You can use your Zinwell LNB without the dielectric plate for C band and this would probably show the LNB at its best. Personally, I would peak the dish for Az/El on 46E using Ku band and then swap over to C band and test your various LNB's

 

[TJExcalibur]

Just come in from the rain and could only get TV Unialo on 40.5 west. Even that was flaky. Tweaked the lnb and elevation but no improvement. The app on my tablet shows some sats a tiny bit above the trees. No chance on 46 east, massive oak tree in the way.

 

[moonbase]

Just come in from the rain and could only get TV Unialo on 40.5 west. Even that was flaky. Tweaked the lnb and elevation but no improvement. The app on my tablet shows some sats a tiny bit above the trees. No chance on 46 east, massive oak tree in the way.

It sounds like 40.5 W is definitely blocked by the trees. If I recall correctly I got around 40 transponders with a 1.5m Precision dish. However, things should improve in the Autumn when the trees are devoid of foliage.

Is the current dish location the only option? I seem to remember you posting on the forum that you had a dish on a flat roof extension at one point? Is it not an option to locate the 1.8m dish on the flat roof area to elevate it from ground level and try to get a bit more clearance of the trees?

 

[TJExcalibur]

I have a 90cm Master Focus just above the flat roof on the gable end. Now to high up for me and with ballast for the 1.8 to heavy.