Uses For A Multichoice C Band Dish

[tourleadersi]

I am one of the many who watched the last days of Supersport with more than a tear in my eye. Its gone, and the world just feels that little less right for it.

Life moves on, and now I have to ask the question... 'What do I do with the satelite dish on the roof?' As it is c-band, can I get someone to line it up with UBC? I am a technological troglodyte, so was wondering if anyone had any suggestions. The kit has served me well, but what to do with it now? Can it be adapted to receive k-band? Could I then use it for Astro?

Sadly it is the mesh type, so using it as a wok when the family are over is out of the question.

[PattayaParent]

Can you tune it to receive alien communications?

[tourleadersi]

Can you tune it to receive alien communications?

Nah, I use my mobile phone for that and call my wife.

[Phil Conners]

Just have the LNB replaced with a KU band LNB and have it readjusted for the UBC satellite, then it should give you an excellent picture on UBC.

[PattayaParent]

^that may as well be an alien communication Phil.

What's an LNB?

[gotlost]

Satellite dishes by themselves are a dime a dozen. What you pay for is the decoder,LNB and technical installation.Best bet use as a flower pot or sell to scrap man.

[Pushit]

Line the dish with aluminium foil and use as a solar cooker?

[Phil Conners]

A 12' C band dish would have been around 10,000 when bought so it's not something you'd normally use as a flower pot. Since it's already installed it is a matter of moving it a few degrees. The whole thing, adjustment and new LNB should cost you less than 1,000 baht. Try having a new KU dish installed, adjusted and cabled for that price.

The LNB is the "feed horn" that sits in front of the dish and collects the signal. It's different between KU and C bands.

Edited June 11, 2010 by Phil Conners

[ignis]

Turned into Multichoice yesterday to see if there was anything just out of interest

BBC was on perfect picture 'Who want to be a millionaire' 3 or 4 others were also there all with strong signal + some with sound but no picture... yet last weekend they had gone..

Maybe it is coming back ?

[joncl]

maybe it is free to view

[tourleadersi]

A 12' C band dish would have been around 10,000 when bought so it's not something you'd normally use as a flower pot. Since it's already installed it is a matter of moving it a few degrees. The whole thing, adjustment and new LNB should cost you less than 1,000 baht. Try having a new KU dish installed, adjusted and cabled for that price.

The LNB is the "feed horn" that sits in front of the dish and collects the signal. It's different between KU and C bands.

Thanks for taking the time to help me out everyone. You can imagine my annoyance at the moment as we recently moved house, and took the multichoice dish down and brought it over to our new place. As I knew that Multichoice was on the way out, I asked a local satelite guy if I could switch it to K band and use it as a kick ass dich for UBC and he told me no way. Instead he flogged me a dead dog which has a shocking reception which breaks up every 30 seconds, pixelates and freezes. What a complete merchant banker.

Does anyone have a reliable BKK based satelite 'fixer'? My guy from On Nut area is reluctant to travel over this way. I am now living in the Rama 3, Sathu Pradit area. The guy around the corner here was the one that raped my wallet. I will need a new LNB, and the dish to be installed. Appreciate any advice given once again.

Edited June 12, 2010 by tourleadersi

[soap]

Turned into Multichoice yesterday to see if there was anything just out of interest

BBC was on perfect picture 'Who want to be a millionaire' 3 or 4 others were also there all with strong signal + some with sound but no picture... yet last weekend they had gone..

Maybe it is coming back ?

I watched the South Africa v Mexico game in English on Super Sport 3 Multi Choice last night

hope this is FTA for the rest of the world cup

[joncl]

I asked a local satelite guy if I could switch it to K band and use it as a kick ass dich for UBC and he told me no way.

What a crock of poo poo that is, as your dish with a prime focus KU LNB will work perfect on Thaicom 5 Ku / Truevisions and other networks on there, period!

Edited June 12, 2010 by joncl

[Pib]

I asked a local satelite guy if I could switch it to K band and use it as a kick ass dich for UBC and he told me no way.

What a crock of poo poo that is, as your dish with a prime focus KU LNB will work perfect on Thaicom 5 Ku / Truevisions and other networks on there, period!

Well, that local satellite guy needs to go back to selling noodles. He was probably trying to rape your wallet.

Since you've got a C Band dish it can be (or is) mounted with a C band and/or KU band LNB. I'm not familiar with Multichoice but since you got a C Band dish to receive the signal I'm assuming Multichoice was using C Band...and you already have a C Band and/or KU band LNB on the dish. Now you can also mount a separate KU Band LNB on a C Band dish, and get equal (probably better) reception than using a solid 75cm dish like all the red TrueVisions dishes you see around. If you were going to buy a new C Band 2 output LNB, it costs around 500 Baht, a KU band LNB costs around 300 Baht, and a combination C band and KU band LNB costs around 900 Baht. I expect your current set top box(es) are just fancy C Band boxes which can also decrypt certain signals; but if you need another box to power your C Band and/or KU band LNBs, plenty Free-To-Air boxes are sold in the 600-1000 Baht range. Then just have your current dish pointed toward Thaicom 5 or another satellite. See the following web link for the list of channels you would pickup, rain or shine: Thaicom 5 at 78.5°E - LyngSat

[dsfbrit]

Pib, Thaicom 5 at 78.5 E Lyngsat has a C-Band beam according to your reference (thanks for that). So why cannot I just adjust my big dish to this location and use the C-Band LNB??? I have seen lots of diagrams of the areas the C-Band beam covers and I cannot decide if it covers Pattaya or not???

Thanks for your thoughts in advance.

Edited June 23, 2010 by dsfbrit

[Prasert]

Move you dish a little bit to the south and a little bit up. You can use www.dishpointer.com to see the exact alignment for your location. Once you have found the Thaicom5 satellite, slightly turn the LNB to get better reception.

Thaicom5 covers entire Thailand, so you will have reception.

[dsfbrit]

Thanks Prasert - yes I set up the dish before to get Multichoice, so I am quite quick at climbing up a ladder to rotate the dish. My question is - 'everyone' talks about needing a KU-band LNB. I removed the KU-band LNB when I set it up for Multichoice. I only have a C-band LNB and wondered if that is sufficient as the web page above shows there is a C-Band transmission as well - or am I misunderstanding the information???

I could refit the KU-band LNB if I have to - but I wont unless I have to....

[Pib]

Yes, C band dishes and C band LNBs will work with satellites transmitting C band frequencies. You can pickup Thaicom 2/5 all over Thailand....around 40-50% of the channels it transmits are Thai channels.

You just need to point your dish 60 degrees up and 240 degrees azimuth. You'll probably need a cheap compass and an angle indicator to get the dish in the ball park park before you do your tweaking via small dish movements up and down...and left and right. You also need to setup you settop box to receive the ThaiCom 2/5...hopefully there is a Thaicom satellite setting already in your box's satellite selection menu.

You only need a KU LNB if there is some channel(s) on NSS6 (which is all KU band frequencies), the KU band portion of Thaicom 2/5, basically all satellites which transmits KU band frequencies and can be picked up by your dish.

As FYI, just today I swapped-out my C band LNB (two outputs) for a "combo" C band LNB (two outputs) and a KU Band LNB (1 output with LO of 11300...specifically for the True Visions channels transmitted via Thaicom 2/5). Basically, it's a combo/integrated C/KU band LNB with the KU 11300 LNB mounted/integrated directly top of the C bank LNB portion. You can also get these combo LNBs with a Universal KU LNB. They cost about 900 Baht. This combo LNB is about a 1/3 longer than a standard C band only LNB so you would need the large LNB cover to accommodate the combo LNB...fortunately, my DynaSat dish came with the large LNB cover/hat. I know I could have mounted a separated KU 11300 LNB to the side of the C band LNB but I wanted get maximum KU band gain by having it mounted directly in the center of the dish....by mounting a separate KU band LNB "specifically for Thaicom 2/5" in an offset position, I would have probably lost most of the additional gain offered by the C band dish...any LNB on a C band dish works best when it in the center and not offset...when you have to offset a LNB you lose a few db minimun....but, it's standard pratice to mounted additonal C/KU band LNBs on a C band dish, especially if you have "fixed" dish, aimed dead-on at one particular satellite.

A C band dish is suppose to give about a 6-9 db KU band gain over a KU band 75cm solid dish like dish TrueVisions gives you. I now have the TrueVisions solid/red/75cm dish disconnected and my TrueVisions signal is coming from the mentioned KU band LNB mounted on my C Band dish. I have gotten a definite 3 db gain to my settop boxes due to the larger dish...I expect my 5.5 ft C band dish probably gave me around a 6 db gain, but I had to run longer cables to make the hook up work since the two dishes were not mounted close to each other. Hopefully, this KU band setup will help my TrueVisions signal hang in there a little better during rain storms. In fact, just a few minutes ago, it started raining big time here in western Bangkok, and my TrueVisions signal hung in there better...I did lose it for about 30 seconds then the signal came back and it continued to rain "hard" for about the next 10 minutes...normally I would have lost the TrueVisions signals for much longer than 30 seconds.

I'm pretty sure my work today paid off in improving my KU band signal and I think the new C band LNB portion of the combo LNB gave me a little more gain....most of my time was spent on preparing/laying in some additional RG-6 wiring cabling/hookup to the dish in preparation to add a multiswitch and additional C band boxes.

Another good thing is I didn't fall off the house today and kill myself while making these C band dish LNB and wiring changes/upgrades.

Edited June 23, 2010 by Pib

[dsfbrit]

Thanks PIB for such a comprehensive answer. My dish used to rotate, so the angles occur automatically when I move it manually. I fitted a long bolt and nuts in place of the actuator - which never seemed to work!!! So I just need to get up a ladder and adjust it by screwing the nuts up or down. The thread is very fine, so the adjustments are tiny.

I have one of those signal finders - I find taking a small TV outside as well and adjusting until I get a good picture is pretty simple.

Thanks again - and I am pleased to hear you did not fall off the house!!!

[surayu]

a couple of ideas:

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-hack-satellite-dish-into-wifi-signal-booster-257436/

Edit: Link being cut off by the full editor?

Edited June 23, 2010 by surayu

[astral]

A giant wok.

Seriously realign and use for other satellites.

[onnut]

I am one of the many who watched the last days of Supersport with more than a tear in my eye. Its gone, and the world just feels that little less right for it.

Life moves on, and now I have to ask the question... 'What do I do with the satelite dish on the roof?' As it is c-band, can I get someone to line it up with UBC? I am a technological troglodyte, so was wondering if anyone had any suggestions. The kit has served me well, but what to do with it now? Can it be adapted to receive k-band? Could I then use it for Astro?

Sadly it is the mesh type, so using it as a wok when the family are over is out of the question.

Supersports is back. I have it installed and it's working great.

Edited June 24, 2010 by onnut

[Pib]

Thanks PIB for such a comprehensive answer. My dish used to rotate, so the angles occur automatically when I move it manually. I fitted a long bolt and nuts in place of the actuator - which never seemed to work!!! So I just need to get up a ladder and adjust it by screwing the nuts up or down. The thread is very fine, so the adjustments are tiny.

I have one of those signal finders - I find taking a small TV outside as well and adjusting until I get a good picture is pretty simple.

Thanks again - and I am pleased to hear you did not fall off the house!!!

Sounds like your modification definitely allows some easy and fine dish tuning/pointing. I've seen a lot of movable dishes around my moobaan that always seen to be pointing to the same spot in the sky and/or the actuator appears missing/disconnected. I think a lot of people buy movable dishes thinking they will be scanning the skies to watch a million channels, but then end up pretty much watching channels from one particular satellite or don't like the wait for the dish to complete its realignment/move to start watching TV again. And let's face it, when it comes to watching satellite TV in Thailand the great, great, great majority of dishes are pointed to the Thaicom 2/5 satellites. Must be a lot of Thai's living in Thailand.

I used one of those signal finders for the first time the other day and it worked great for obtaining maximum signal, but I found that you can get a few more percentages in your Signal Quality indication on your TV/C Band receiver by using the receiver to tweak out the Signal Quality reading where the little signal finder couldn't discern that very, very fine tuning. Also, just like my directions that came with this $5 signal finder, be sure to not have the signal finder "behind or in front of" the dish when tuning as it can give false/high readings on the signal finder. I used a 6 ft piece of RG-6 from the LNB to the signal meter and then hooked back into the line going to the house, which allow the signal meter to be positioned a few feet to the side of the dish. But the signal finder definitely gave me a bullseye for dish pointing on its own and then I got a double bullseye by using the Signal "Quality" reading on the receiver box to eek out a few more percentage points in signal "quality" by barely moving the dish. I used my cell phone to call the wife down in the living room and she read out the receiver signal strength and signal quality readings as I did the final tweaking for the double bullseye. While making the final very fine adjustments the signal strength on the receiver or on the signal finder didn't increase, but the signal quality level did increase slightly (eeked out another 3-5% in signal quality)...the wife or I couldn't see any difference in picture quality from this 3-5% signal quality increase, but I figure it's better to have a little more signal quality versus a little less.

Cheers.

Edited June 24, 2010 by Pib

[dsfbrit]

I am so tired from watching all the football I have not had the energy to get up the ladder - next week maybe... Good Luck...

[musiclover]

I am one of the many who watched the last days of Supersport with more than a tear in my eye. Its gone, and the world just feels that little less right for it.

Life moves on, and now I have to ask the question... 'What do I do with the satelite dish on the roof?' As it is c-band, can I get someone to line it up with UBC? I am a technological troglodyte, so was wondering if anyone had any suggestions. The kit has served me well, but what to do with it now? Can it be adapted to receive k-band? Could I then use it for Astro?

Sadly it is the mesh type, so using it as a wok when the family are over is out of the question.

Supersports is back. I have it installed and it's working great.

Are you sure about this? You mean Multichoice is now available back on CBand? If so this is big news!

[onnut]

I am sure. I was watching Supersports today and tomorrow I will be watching all of the rugby live on it. Same dish but needed a new box and card.

[joncl]

I am sure he is sure too.

[soap]

I am sure he is sure too.

C an you give details how to get SS back please

[joncl]

As Onnut said "Same dish but needed a new box and card. " There are many different types of set top boxes but give the same result.

[dsfbrit]

I am totally knackered from watching the football, so maybe I am being a little slow. Did I read here that I can get Multichoice again I just need to buy a new receiver and use my old C-Band dish at 68.5 E like before??? Is this a 'wind-up'???? I am hallucinating through drinking too much caffeine?

I AM MISSING MULTICHOICE... there I said it!!!