I am bringing an old 1.8 metre prime focus spun aluminium alloy dish out of storage and want to use it to access the QO-100 satellite. Initially for RX and TX of SSB stuff here in the Midlands UK. But I want to future proof the whole installation with a view to adding wide band ATV as an option. I may have quite a few questions I'm afraid, , but already joining this forum has been a huge help. I intend to initially buy a Pluto SDR, and have it in a weatherproof box by the dish, with it's own power supplies and feed the Windows 7 64 bit dedicated PC in the shack via a hard wired LAN. Is there any potential issue with doing this to reduce co-ax feeder lengths? For TX I am thinking of one of the Bulgarian 20W amps with a pre amp between it and the Pluto with a Bias T Am I right in thinking that I can pay a premium for an LNB already configured for a GPS locked reference signal?
Now this was a quality dish in its day , but it's now old... The LNB was used for general satellite stuff some years ago at my old house. I am initially looking for thoughts and recommendations for which LNB to buy that's currently available. Ideally I would like to lock the LNB to GPS. I have Trimble Thunderbolt but it's 10MHz. I also have a Ublox NEO-M8T-0-10 GPS unit which will output user defined frequencies, GPS locked.
I am not averse to buying a Leo Bodnar GPS however. I also want to mount the POTY antenna for TX on the same dish, at the same time. Rather than try and explain the current LNB mounting verbally I felt it much better to upload a zip file of some photos to my server for viewing. I have a small machine shop as I am in the motor race game, so I could make some simple constructions for mounting the new LNB / POTY.
Looking forward to any advice as I want to put the 4 inch tube in for the dish and get it mounted before the wife changes her mind As I said, I am in the UK as regards buying an LNB. Thanks for reading and for any replies. 2E0ILY
The photos are at http://www.chriswilson.tv/satellite/satellite.zip