Set up the Ultimate C/KU-band Satellite system. Part 1

It is pretty easy to find a used C-band dish in someone’s back yard for free to haul away. Usually the LNB on the dish is old and if they still have the receiver and give it to you it won’t do a lot more than maybe pick up a handful of channels. They think the system is worthless but it can get way more channels than they think it can, it just needs some updates and someone willing to tinker with it.

The first step is to find a dish. Usually the easiest way is to take some tools and anything you might need to get the dish and post out of the ground with you and go driving around. Look for an old dish in someone’s backyard and go up and tell them you will haul it away for free. Usually they will be happy to be rid of it and give it to you and sometimes even the old receivers are still around and you can get them as well. Try and get as much wire as possible so you won’t have to buy new wire. Take the stuff all home and set the post up in your yard where you get a good view of the sky. Aiming the dish is not that hard, aim the polar mount that the dish moves back and forth on at the north star. Sight along a corner of the mount and get it lined up dead on the north star. The dish should be right on and it is just a matter of using the motor to drive it from one sat to another.

If you have an old Dish Network receiver and lnb from the little dish you can duct tape the lnb onto the feedhorn of the dish and go to the signal strength screen on the receiver. Move the dish back and forth and you should be able to hit all of the Echostar receivers. You won’t have a valid subscription so it will not actually pick anything up though, just the signal strength meter is all that matters.

Now that you have a working dish that can move across the sky you need to get the equipment to make use of it. I used a Twinhan 102G PCI card on my computer but you can use any of the FTA receivers or any other DVB-S PCI card. I also purchased the S-DS41C 4-Way DiSEqC Switch with Weatherproof case, BSC621-2 C/KU Band LNBF, and Moteck V-BOX II DiSEqC POSITIONER. I got them from sadoun but you can get them from any place convenient.

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