From: rkobenter@VMSMAIL.GOV.BC.CA Organization: BC Systems Corporation Subject: How to do a Ku upgrade..instructions for a Newbie! To: Multiple recipients of list HOMESAT Content-Length: 9347 X-Lines: 188 Status: RO X-Status: UPGRADING TO A DUAL C-Ku FEEDHORN Background: Satellite TV (TVRO a.k.a. BUD) is a lot like your Stereo set. Most people are familiar with the AM receiver, in the case of TVRO this is akin to 'C' band. Like AM, C band has a wider reception range. Ku band on the other hand is a lot like FM. You have to be more aware of the reception range. Just as you'd want FM on your stereo you should consider adding Ku to your TVRO system. Whats on Ku? Backhauls and more. If you are interested in detailed listinsg of whats on Ku start by FTPing the latest SSVC from oak.oakland.edu in the directory: /pub/msdos/satelite the file is ZIPed and the name of the file increments from issue to issue: SSVC3n3.zip is the most current edition. If you live within the Canadian border area or Northern US the added attraction to Ku is the variety of full-time Anik Ku services which for the most part are ITC signals. Some of the English signals you can expect to find are PBS-like services: AlbertaAccess, KnowledgeNetwork, Saskatchewan and the excellent TVOntario. In addition the Canadian version of MUCH MUSIC. If you are after French programming then you can find the RadioQuebec TV and the private-(commercial)-Network TQS. In addition the french version of TVO called LaChaine, this is a PBS-like quality network. What is needed to upgrade? Your current system probably has a C band only feedhorn. You'll have to replace this with a dual feedhorn. The dual feed will enable you to add the Ku LNB. A number of vendors are available , two of the more common are the CorotorII+ and the ADL-RP1. Which one you choose is a question of how much money you wish to spend and what results you expect to get. Check to see if you live in an area capable of International reception. If you do then there are other factors to consider. Is the feed capable of a dialectric insert? A good discussion of these factors can be found in rec.video.satellite or consult the TVRO FAQ. If you are serious about International sats I have been told to look at the ADL or the International version of the CoRotor. What about the LNB ratings? The lower the better. This will ensure that you will get reception quality that you expect. I upgraded from a 60 degree C band LNB to a 25 degree LNB. The improvement was significant using my old Feedhorn! Switching to the new Feed improved matters greatly! On the Ku side. look for a value lower than 1.0 dB. typical values are .6 and .7. However .5's and .8's are also available. In my case I went with a .8 dB based on cost and the results where excellent! What about cost? Doing it yourself will save you money and believe me the time factor is not that bad. I knew little except what came on the accompanying feedhorn documentation and within 2 hours I was up and running, I could probably do it in half the time now! In the USA, a feed horn such as a corotorII+ sells for around $140. Some dealers (such as Global Comm) sell packages with a 20 deg. C and a .6 or .7 Ku for around $250 US. In Canada I have seen some dealers sell an ADL package with a 25 and a .7 for $389 CDN. In my case I decided to replace the wiring to the dish since you will need a coax for the Ku. Make sure that you use RG6 (or better) and that you have good connectors! How to start... 1) I suggest you read the feedhorn instructions, better safe then sorry! 2) get to know the f/D ratio. This basically is used when you set the 'throat' of the feed inside the ring. The exact location is important since it has a direct bearing on you picture quality! The formula is simple to work out. The CorotorII+ suggests that a mathematical result less than .30 means that you should set the throat of the feed in to the notch labeled .36. I spoke with my dealer and his recommendation was to adjust this for best results. I suggest you start by setting your actuator/dish to a satellite where you know there is a Ku signal. SInce you probably have your actuator pogrammed for G7, G4 or Anik E1. Select one of these birds. If you know where K2 is then select that one. Not all satellites have full time Ku services! OK, the preliminary stuff is to follow the instructions and mount the C and Ku LNBs as specified. My instruction guide said to mount the Feedhorn ring to the four poles from the dish. I then wired up the servo and the Coaxes. I had my spare TV outside to watch as I stood on the ladder with the feed in my hand. Earlier I mentioned the f/D ratio. This is important but probably more important is the focal point (direction). The CoRotorII+ comes with a little template which sits on top of the Servo motor. As you position the 'throat' of the feedhorn inside the ring pay attention to the polar axis. It should be perpendicular to the 90 degree line on your dish. In other words right down the middle (top to bottom) of your dish. If you aren't sure you could put a piece of tape at both sides (that is if you can get to the top of your dish, i couldn't) but for the most part this is only important if you can not observe a monitor as you insert the feed. Being able to watch the picture sure helps! My experiences where at first mixed which explains why the whole operation took me two hours! If I had followed the instructions I'd have been down in one hour! Why? because as I inserted the feedhorns' throat into the ring I found the best reception of my Ku signal was not as expect at .36 f/D but rather near the edge of the throat at what I guess would be .44 f/D. Obviously I was doing something wrong, but as a newbie how would I know? What about Inclination/Declination and little black sparklies? Well, I switched back to the recommended .36 f/D which meant next to an unviewable picture and switched to C band. Guess what, a smoking picture just great. Hmm, why a great C and a lousy Ku picture? Well I remember having read in rec.video.satellite that 'Ku'band was far more particular about the tracking of your dish (that C band is). Well I was confident that the 'East-West' tracking on my dish was pretty good. So this left me with thoughts about that most unknown of TVRO jargon, the infamous Declination/ Inclination bolt on the dish. Basically the attached to the bottom lip (or thereabouts) of my dish. This (as I understood it) defines the look-angle of my dish. If you are tracked for the 69-139 deg. 'ARC' then the inclination of the sats is on or about 0.1. The declination/inclination of your dish has to be pretty much band on for Ku. As I have since learned this value will also result in little black sparklies on C band if you are not correct. All this time I blamed the black sparklies on my 60 degree LNB, even after moving to a 25 deg C band LNB I had a lot fewer of these but there still where one or two on less powerful sats. Well well well, two revolutions of the bolt and I saw a picture unlike any my dish had produced before, all of this on C band! I then scanned the east-west arc with my Actuator to verify that all was tracked. One thing that changed, my Programmable Actuator had to have the satellites reprogrammed since they all had moved a few locations. So now with the f/D ratio (feedhorn throat in ring) at .36 (as recommended) I switched to Ku band and wow, great signal on Anik E1! But how to find signals on Ku? Get the SSVC, the IF freqs are listed. If you are fortunate to have a programmable receiver (such as the EUROSAT, which I have), then life can be much easier! Select three freqs with a high probability of signals. I suggest K2 (for NBC Skywatch) , G4 (the Asian network) and Anik E1 (1224 = TVO). If you have a different receiver ask GaryB (or others, RobertS) to post the cross-IRD frequency guide which GaryB recently posted to r.v.s. This will help! If you have an older receiver such as an Electrohome E1 'C' band receiver. Flip the video invert switch for Ku and tune around C band transponder 14 and then look on Anik E1. Do something similar of the K2 sat if you can not see Anik E1. You will have to fine tune and adjust the Polrity/skew for best picture. The only signal I could not get within my arc is S2, due to obstruction in my line of site. I actually can tune in the Leitched TV Ashai feed of CNN. The audio is there to be heard ! (Consult the SSVC for info). Thats it! Yes, that is about it. Make sure you have tightened all necessary adjustments. If you are not happy with the f/D ratio, adjust this by sliding the feedhorn throat in and out till you obtain the results you desire!. Now what about Ku program listings? This seems to be tricky to come across. So far I have not found a Sat guide with good Ku coverage. TVO and LaChaine have a next-days schedule at the close of the broadcast day. In fact last night the TVA/CFTM on E2/05 'C' had a slate up with the next days programming (new!). I will contact TVO and others and try to get some info which I will post to rec.video.satellite so keep an eye there for info. You can also contact you program guide and ask that they start carrying more Ku coverage! So thats it , nice and simple. You may want to retrack your dish but you should not have to. Good luck and enjoy the added world of Ku! Speaking only for myself no guarantee implied or suggested. The views here are not those of the posting org. (c) All rights reserved Robert Kobenter August 29.1994 robert@softwords.bc.ca