The Different Choices of Motorizing a Satellite Dish

Satellite systems for many of us have become a way to watch analogue, digital and High Definition TV. You most likely have a small dish because that's all that's needed to catch channels from the provider in your country. The reason for this is the footprint is centered at its targeted location. The thing is that if you tried turning the dish you might be able to scan in channels from different satellite positions. The sky is full of satellites and free channels that most of the time don't require huge dishes. The most popular satellites in Europe are Astra 19E and Hotbird 13E which sends out many FTA channels in different languages, like Italian, Spanish and Arabic.

There are different motor types, like DiSEqC, 36v Horizon to Horizon and actuators. DiSEqC motors are the most common and these work perfect for dishes up to 100 cm. With this kind of motor it uses your satellite receivers power that runs 12v/17v. Receivers have limited power available for the motor as it combines it with the LNB (Low Noise Block). This means they are slow and not as powerful as 36v H to H motors. Still its a convenient upgrade because it uses the existing coax cable that already goes to the LNB. 36v actuators and H to H motors can handle higher wind loads and move larger dishes and these use their own dedicated source of power via a receivers built-in 36v positioner. Most newer receivers don't have this positioner built-in but don't worry, in this situation you could use a thing called a V-Box. The advantage of the V-Box is satellite positions are programmed inside it, rather than inside the receivers software. So all the motors are designed to do the same thing, to track the geostationary satellite arc within 180 degrees radius. It is not possible to see beyond this range as all the remaining satellites are under the horizon, like from your location no visible. Its a good idea to figure out where to place a dish so trees and buildings are not obstructing view to the satellites you want to watch.

If you have everything aligned correctly the dish will rotate to the satellites location as you hop channel. As you can imagine, this will open up for a much broader choice of TV viewing. Visit Lyngsat to find out which dish diameter you need in your location for any selected satellite. The larger size dish you have, the more channels you would be able to receive. There is also the option of subscribing to packages from other satellites and providers. You will find out many channels have English audio tracks. There are a variety to choose from such as Documentary, Nature and Movie channels. For example if you are located in Finland you don't have to choose Viasat or Canal Digital.

On satellites there exists multiple bands that each operate in different frequencies. C-Band is low frequency and generally requires large dishes. Ku-Band which is the most used and operates in higher frequencies. Both of these bands have Left and Right (Circular), Vertical and Horizontal (Linear) polarization. LNB's are either Circular or Linear. Its possible to combine both of these LNB's on a dish if you install them next to each other. If you choose to do this you should use a 2/1 DiSEqC switch. To sum it all up: There are endless combination's of dishes, motors and receivers but don't give up its not as complicated as you may think. The sky contains loads of satellites and channels that anyone can catch with the equipment that's available on the market.

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