Star Choice Oval dish, can it be converted?

[Fishbum]

Buddy of mine game me a Star Choice Oval dish. I know those lnbs wont work for sats 110,119 or 82,91 and I would have to change the lnb bracket and the lnbs... would that work? or is this dish only meant for its provider Star Choice sats?

[StanW]

​The dish will work fine for fta, as you indicated the lnbs have to be changed.

[homer_™]

The focal arm has to have 2" cut off also.

[KIDWCKED]

You also might need a bigger elpitical for those 4..

[Fishbum]

Thanks, I'd likely use it for only two sats 110,119 or 82,91
so 2" cut off the arm... thanks for the tip! I'll find a new lnb bracket for it..
any particular lnb bracket that would work better?

[homer_™]

This one would get you three of the four. 119, 110, space, 91
http://www.megafta.com/images/LNB_quadholder.jpg

[hayman]

why not install a 2nd dish. setting up 110,119,91 on one dish is tough enough

[Fishbum]

I'd likely only use this dish for 110,119 and try to get 129 with a custom bracket beside the 119 lnb..

[Fishbum]

I had another dish given to me and I got it working on 110,119,129.. I put a flooring door metal that I cut and drilled holes to attach under the 110,119 lnb and added an lnb beside the 119 lnb to pick up the 129 sat..
a little trick I learned, the 129 signal hits the opposite of the dish and you can pick it up with an lnb beside the 119 lnb.. seems weird but it works, getting 72% quality on 129 sat. on my SV8000 receiver with this when I tested this dish on a block in my back yard. Going to try to see if I can get it to work on the Star choice.. however the Star Choice oval dish is more narrow, hope it works... here is a pick of the other dish I did this to..
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd250/Fishbum26/Untitled.jpg

[Fishbum]

Here is the Star Choice dish I want to convert.. so cut off 2" off the arm add a new bracket...
you think this will also work with my 129 lnb with this dish?

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd250/Fishbum26/2012-08-06123726.jpg

[DualTest]

I have used that dish to get 110W, 119W and 129W. You will need to cut 2 inches off it, like homer71 said. And it can be scewed so a DIY bracklet like the one in the first pic will do, with maybe a little tweeking. The reason that the signal comes in with 129 on the right (looking at the it from the front of the dish) and 119 in the middle and 110W on the left is that the signal hits the dish and bounces to the LNB. Kind of like a billiard shot. In multiple LNB setups the placement is always opposite to the position in the sky.

[KIDWCKED]

Nice switch in post 9..Why not try a 33inch eliptical dish and bracket for all 5??That would be the cats ace..

[panmanzaa]

i had 1 of starchoice set up with ,dish lnb, with nothing cut off &it works good.

[homer_™]

Here is the Star Choice dish I want to convert.. so cut off 2" off the arm add a new bracket...
you think this will also work with my 129 lnb with this dish?



http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd250/Fishbum26/2012-08-06123726.jpg

That's correct, it's an 18"X32" elliptical. But that's a 47 degree span it's probably do able but it may be rough on 129 & 82

[Fishbum]

It's an EMP Centauri 4x1 Switch... it's the only Diseqc switch I'll use for installing sat systems...
This dish was given to me, the price was right, just making best due with it and having some fun converting it.. 33" would be nice though.


Nice switch in post 9..Why not try a 33inch eliptical dish and bracket for all 5??That would be the cats ace..

[Fishbum]

Thanks good to know, Yes it has the scew adjustment on the back I'll have to set it. Intersting I just noticed the dish is made of a plastic material! not metal! The arm and mount are metal but the dish is a hard plastic, it will never rust I guess.


I have used that dish to get 110W, 119W and 129W. You will need to cut 2 inches off it, like homer71 said. And it can be scewed so a DIY bracklet like the one in the first pic will do, with maybe a little tweeking. The reason that the signal comes in with 129 on the right (looking at the it from the front of the dish) and 119 in the middle and 110W on the left is that the signal hits the dish and bounces to the LNB. Kind of like a billiard shot. In multiple LNB setups the placement is always opposite to the position in the sky.

[Fishbum]

Good to know.. I was worried actually if I cut off to much of the arm there would be no going back..
I might try the new lnb mount with out any cutting.. if need be I can always cut of an inch or two after if need be..
On this starchoice dish that you tried it on did you have 1 lnb or more than one?? If just one lnb/one sat, might just work with out cutting the arm shorter... with multiple lnbs might be different and I might have to shorten it 2" like suggested here..


i had 1 of starchoice set up with ,dish lnb, with nothing cut off &it works good.

[dishuser]

not cutting arm changes elevation...not bad with 1 lnb
cut the arm

[DualTest]

Thanks good to know, Yes it has the scew adjustment on the back I'll have to set it. Intersting I just noticed the dish is made of a plastic material! not metal! The arm and mount are metal but the dish is a hard plastic, it will never rust I guess.

Yep the plastic ended up snapping where the arm is screwed into the dish, after the wind knocked down my fence last year. But I managed to to fix it with a large metal washer. I have the 2 outer LNB's mounted with cable ties. The only thing missing is duct tape lol but it works.

[Fishbum]

This evening I cut off 2". Mounted the lnbs, put new coax wire leads in, was about to test it out side and it started to rain, thunder and lightning! Thought I wait for a better evening don't want to get zapped! mind you the dish is plastic, I don't know why they dont make all the dishes out of plastic? never rust, won't get hit by lightning, lighter to handle, more cost effective I'm sure then metal...

[Terryl]

The metal dishes can be made much much faster and cheaper the the fiberglass dishes.

All you do is 3 stampings, powder coat it and you have a dish, the fiberglass ones need a mold, then you have to wait till they cure, then you have to trim them, drill holes for the mount, then you have to paint the front with a special metallic paint so it reflects the signal from the satellites.

So the metal dishes are much cheaper to make.

[Fishbum]

I guess so.. makes sense...

[chad1976]

eazy as 123 lol

[fagin]

I have 2 of these dishes although only 1 mounted.At present I have my y bracket and lnb's off my bell dish on this dish.With this setup I can watch 119 and 110 but my switch dosen't work so I climb on the roof and change connections when I want to switch Sats.Question......If i put the y bkt and lnb's back on my bell dish.What do I need to buy to get 110/119 only on my star choice dish. i.e.Lnb's bkts switches.I only use 1 receiver.

[gwrowe]

The way the dish is made it doesn't capture the full sig. and q. of the sat's, I just finished trying to set one of these up and it was a right pain in the butt, could only get like 78% Q and sig. so we changed it out to the proper eliptical now the Q and S are 20 -30 % higher on all the TP's. There is a place on the Internet where someone has modified it and he gives you the Info on how to do so. Personally, I say forget it and get the proper one!!!

[Fishbum]

Buy another Y bkt and couple lnbs.... and your self a good switch, emp Centauri 4x1.. $15 on Ebay....
I have'nt tested it yet but I cut off 2" and mounted a y bkt with two lnbs same types as from your bell dish..
Once I have tested it I will post my results...



I have 2 of these dishes although only 1 mounted.At present I have my y bracket and lnb's off my bell dish on this dish.With this setup I can watch 119 and 110 but my switch dosen't work so I climb on the roof and change connections when I want to switch Sats.Question......If i put the y bkt and lnb's back on my bell dish.What do I need to buy to get 110/119 only on my star choice dish. i.e.Lnb's bkts switches.I only use 1 receiver.

[fagin]

Yes it would be good to hear back on it.Thanx

[Fishbum]

Well I did the test.. used Dish Pro lnbs for all three sats.. used my dual sat meter to max out the quality on each sat.. then connected the switch and ran a line to my SV8000 inside...
sat 110, all working transponders come in around 80%
sat 119, all working transponders come in around 70%-72% with a few coming in from 65%-68%
sat 129, all working transponders come in around 70% (with my home made bracket for 129 lnb I had to play with the lnb position to hone in 70%)

I randomly went through all the channels and they all worked and all had strong enough quality to work.
Conclusion, this dish is suffient to service 110,119,129.
On my other dishes I'm getting 100% and 98% on 110,119 sats.. I understand what "Gwrowe" comment above is saying that this dish does not capture the full quality signal of the sats... 20%-30% less than other dishes on sat 110,119... Yes I agree with that comment after my test. However, it has no effect in the final out come, the channels all still work..
Conclusion, this dish is more than adaqute for sats 110,119,129.

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd250/Fishbum26/2012-08-11170913.jpg

[StanW]

Great to hear that you got it working and thanks for getting back to us .

What is the new arm length that you settled on ?

[fagin]

Good Question !

[Fishbum]

I cut off 2" off the original arm and put on a y lnb bracket and added a metal piece to the bottom to add the 129 lnb..
I'll post a picture of the bracket I made up for the 129 lnb..

[Fishbum]

A seller on e-bay selling this custom lnb bracket with the 129 lnb position beside the 119 lnb to be used on a 20" round dish to get in the 129 sat.. hxxp://www.ebay.com/itm/Best-LNB-BRACKET-Dish-500-5-satellites-on1dish-FTA-LNBF-/120960977506?pt=US_Antennas_Dishes&hash=item1c29d60a62
You can get 55% quality on sat 129 on a 20" round dish.. I have this set up on several installs and works great for all the 129 HD channels.... On an oval dish you get 70%-75% quality on 129 sat with this bracket.
I only purchased one bracket, what I do is I use it for a template!
I took an old wide heavy gauge aluminum carpet strip transition metal and cut it to length and over laid it onto the e-bay lnb bracket and put the two into a vise and I used it as a template to drill the holes for 110,119,129 placement.
You can use any piece of metal really... but the carpet strip transition metal works good I find cause its firm enough to hold the 129 lnb but yet its bendable a little bit if you need to adjust the 129 lnb after to fine tune the quality in after.
On the bottom side I counter sink the 110 and 119 screw holes with an over sized drill bit... attaching it to the under side of the y bracket you use the same screws from the 110,119 lnb.. the counter sinking helps to off set the thickness
of the metal so the screw can go in far enough to grab. Some times the screws don't catch and won't pull the metal bracket tight up against the lnb bracket.. so I remove the y bracket off the arm.. remove the lnbs from the y bracket.. and put it up side down so the female hole where the
screw end is on the bottom.. and I place a tooth pick piece or two into the hole or even a small piece of metal wire.. then I put the lnbs back in the y bracket and screw in the metal bracket with the screws.. and now the screw ends have some thing to grab/wedge in and able to tightly fasten the bracket into place, then re mount it onto the arm.
Note.. the sample metal piece I used in the picture is not the same piece of metal I used on the y bracket
on this dish, I did'nt have to counter sink that one, the screws grabed good the first time..


http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd250/Fishbum26/2012-08-11182031-1.jpg

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd250/Fishbum26/2012-08-11182041-1.jpg

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd250/Fishbum26/2012-08-11182119.jpg

[12icer]

Each dish, (even two alike) has a focal point, Before you cut off 2 inches on YOUR dish it is best to determine the exact focal point of the dish you have by free hand positoning the lnbs for your sats. this will give you an average focal length to work from before you cut the arm. it is also possible to make your crossarm mount adjustable by slotting the holes in the arm to move them in and out about an inch or so. doing the same for mounting holes for the lnbs make it easy to get what you want. when FTA was standalone I had a big primestar with 91 97 110, and 119 with maxed out q's on all but the 97, and had all of the channels on it with a good linear and 60 to 70 + q BUT I am located around 88/33 so it was pretty easy from here. East or west 10 degrees can make a BIG difference.

[fagin]

After re-reading all the posts.I decided to measure my dishes the measurements talked about seemed small.My star choice dishes are 36x26.5 inches.Would I still follow the ideas given to get 110/119.i.e.A y bkt and 2 dish pro lnbs and 2-2.5 inches off the arm.

[Fishbum]

Thank's thats good info.. but a bit to technical for me... I just use the lnb brackets that I have or come with the dishes..
as long as the final result that the dish works... rest of it is mute for me..... things can get overly technicall and complicated.. I try to avoid that and keep it as simple as I can with the same end result..


Each dish, (even two alike) has a focal point, Before you cut off 2 inches on YOUR dish it is best to determine the exact focal point of the dish you have by free hand positoning the lnbs for your sats. this will give you an average focal length to work from before you cut the arm. it is also possible to make your crossarm mount adjustable by slotting the holes in the arm to move them in and out about an inch or so. doing the same for mounting holes for the lnbs make it easy to get what you want. when FTA was standalone I had a big primestar with 91 97 110, and 119 with maxed out q's on all but the 97, and had all of the channels on it with a good linear and 60 to 70 + q BUT I am located around 88/33 so it was pretty easy from here. East or west 10 degrees can make a BIG difference.