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Thread: Motorized Ku setup recommendations?

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    Default Motorized Ku setup recommendations?

    Howdy! So I recently started messing around with my dishes again, they're all pretty old I used to have a multi dish setup.

    Looking to simplify things a bit, and setup a motorized my ku band setup first.

    I was looking at this dish\/ since I heard it's quite good then probably tile mount it, and get some DISEqC motor?


    I know the Optus sats have that weird LNB skew, so I'll probably just keep the small dishes I have now statically pointed at each Optus sat.

    Just wondering what people would recommend in terms of a dish and DISEqC motor, I kept hearing really good things about that 80cm Azure Shine back the in the day.
    Is that still the best sorta Ku Dish you can get, and what's a good DISEqC motor these days?



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    Yes, Azure Shine dishes are still top quality.

    If you already have, and intend to keep, separate dishes for Optus sats, I honestly don't see spending $ on setting up a motorised dish for Ku only for what's left, worth it... but, that's up to you of course.

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    Do you mean to say it's not worth it? I don't mind spending the money crunched some numbers it's probably only a $200 hit, if I could motorize the skew control then I could just use the one Azure Shine dish, I know there was issues with Optus skew vs other dish skew with motorized stuff.
    Not sure if anybody has figured out a good method of doing that these days though, I had some jerry rigged crap back in the day that kinda worked.

    Do you have any recommendations on a good DISEqC motor? and LNB?
    Last edited by nullb; 27-02-18 at 07:03 PM.

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    Yep.. if it was me, I wouldn't bother, unless you are keen to chase feeds, etc.

    HH motors... Motek have models available for larger dishes, but I've used Powertech HH motors with very few issues.

    I say very few, as any solid dish has considerable wind loading, so the larger the dish, the greater the wind load and I had one particular dish that would jump a gear every now & then as it was very exposed to strong winds.

    The solution was to mount a wind deflection shield beside the dish in the prominent wind direction.

    LNB:... Sharp or Strong are the two I recommend.

    There are skew motors around... even some of the fully-auto caravan dishes have fully-automated azimuth/elevation/skew adjustment.

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    Thanks for the recommendations I'll look at finding a skew motor can't find much about them but I'll keep looking, guess I could always duel mount an LNB.

    I enjoy feed chasing, back in the day I had it all automated so it would email me if it found something uncommon, it's a lot of fun

    I might just end up going with 4 dishes pointed at each major sat, but the trouble with that is the limited roof space and people complaining about it
    Already getting bit of flack for setting up my 3m motorized c-band again lol

    If I can pull of a nice single motorized one I'll be really happy though
    Last edited by nullb; 27-02-18 at 07:44 PM.

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    If you're keeping dedicated dishes on the Optus sats, the other sats should all have similar skew to each other.

    As you're aware... it's the Optus sats that are a bit different with skew.

    The H-H motor tilts the whole dish assembly (including the LNB) as it tracks the arc, so the skew is compensated to match the azimuth and elevation of the sat you're pointing the dish at. (eg: works the same as a prime focus dish, but it's physically more noticeable with a dish that isn't round).

    It's usually only an issue when you try to include Optus sats.

    In that instance, I set H-H LNB skew for the weakest sat transponder and even though the Optus sats skew is out by comparison, Optus sat signals are usually sufficiently powerful and BER is still reasonable to work OK.

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    Yeah that might be a good solution to the problem, however the ABC feeds on Optus come in pretty weak so that's my concern. I guess I could always do two motorized one for Optus and one for the others.

    But I think if I get a skew motor and h to h I could manually adjust and make one dish work, obviously wont be automated but I could fine tune without having to step onto the roof every time I want to check out another sat.

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    Coming through clear with a static dish though, too bad there's nothing being fed tonight.
    Last edited by nullb; 28-02-18 at 04:07 PM.

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    Your thread prompted me to revisit my satellite setup - Motek type motor and small Ku band dish - all good from 122.2E to 166E.

    No skew adjustment for any satellite.
    If Australia is a democracy why, then, is voting compulsory?

    "What has changed between the arrival of the First Fleet and today?"
    "Wearing leg irons is now not required."

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    I used the Motek for over 10 years. No problem.I compromised the skew and get IS 19 and optus c2 . The signal strength is a bit lower but watchable on both
    satelites.I even ge 95 east.

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    Interesting that's good to know, thanks for the insight fellas. I'd pick up a Motek but it doesn't look like they make them any more, hopefully the Powertech is the same?

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    Quote Originally Posted by nullb View Post
    Interesting that's good to know, thanks for the insight fellas. I'd pick up a Motek but it doesn't look like they make them any more, hopefully the Powertech is the same?
    Moteck H/H actuators are still manufactured () and

    They are also available in Australia (from Melbourne Satellites ).

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    I'm not sure they are, that store only has the Powertech and Geotrack ones on the page you linked.

    I assumed the guys here are talking about the Moteck SG2100, actuator postioner. Which I can't seem to find in stock anywhere any more

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    Hold the phone, here it is

    So that would be better than the Powertech presumably? I don't mind spending the extra $30 if it's going to last me 10 years like it did for gulliver

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    Equal.

    I've seen both Motek and Powertech motors last a long time... AND fail early.

    The single most common failure of both, is stripped gears, caused by larger, heavier dishes in high wind areas.

    I think expecting 10 years out of either of them is unrealistic.

    Build quality these days is not what it used to be.

    If you get 5 years out of either one, that would be a more realistic expectation.

    Anything beyond that would be a bonus.

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    Makes sense thanks for the advice.

    At the moment I'm sitting at Sharp LNB, 80cm Azure Shine with a Powertech or Motek motor. Might get an LNB servo motor as well to do extra fine tuning.
    Then I'll run it off either my TBS card or Vu+

    Should be a pretty solid Ku setup I think, hopefully if this all works out I can get rid of my 3 random solid dishes and just have the one motorized

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    if fussy about skew issues you could use a dual lnbf holder and have 1 optimized for Optus skew

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    I'm considering that as well I could always weld or get an extender onto the Shine, but I don't want to compromise the dish.

    I have a feeling if I get a LNB motor for fine tuning that could work out really well though, since it would allow me to optimize things on a per satellite basis

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    If you have correct skew on optus when you move the dish to IS 19 the polarity will be so far off you will have the same stuff in both polaritys..
    Try the dual holder method

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    I've got it all installed and the motor works! However having some trouble locking signals, when you guys set yours up to you put it in the zero position and have it pointed at north? (Ofc fixing the elevation and latitude to your location)

    Getting fed up with it I might just go back to my set of static dishes heh (I give up easy ), I heard somebody say you can point it at your most north bound satellite first and let it figure itself out from there?

    Any advice lads, getting a bit dark now will try again tomorrow
    Last edited by nullb; 25-04-18 at 09:18 PM.

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