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SATELLITE DISH FOR PREMIERE'S XDS PRO4P

R

RadioAMFM

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Inactive User
My mom once told me there are no dumb questions, so here we go....

We're interested in running a show from Premiere. They are using the XDS Pro4P receiver. The only satellite dish we have available is a 2.4 Meter Ku-Band solid dish.

Will it work, or will we have to get a C-band dish?

If I'm not mistaken, Premiere's programming is beamed from AMC8.

Thanks.
 
Premier is indeed on AMC-8. However, they are on the L band, not the C band. L band is between 1GHz and 2GHz, and AMC-8 services are around 1450 MHz if memory serves.

While I have heard of people who have used dishes under 3 meters to receive AMC-8, I wouldn't recommend it. It will probably work fine in fair weather, but the signal attenuation you get under a heavy rain shower or such could take your show off the air.
 
Premiere, as well as ABC, Westwood One, CBS etc are all on C band (3.6 to 4 GHZ) on AMC 8. The L band signal is the IF out of the LNB going into the receiver. I have seen a Starguide receiver work on an old 8 foot dish but would not expect dependable operation for broadcast use. Most networks spec at lesat a 2.8 meter 2 degree compliant dish as minimum, but recommend a 3.2 or 3.8 meter dish. Your 2.4 meter dish is a bit small, it MAY work depending on where you are located, especially if you are in the middle of the country in the center of the footprint. Put up the 3.8 meter dish with a good quality PLL LNB and you will be good to go, plus you will minimize you down time during the sun fade days in the sping and fall. Last week during the sun outage our signal was only down a couple of minutes on the Premier XDS-PRO.
 
Premiere, as well as ABC, Westwood One, CBS etc are all on C band (3.6 to 4 GHZ) on AMC 8. The L band signal is the IF out of the LNB going into the receiver.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the correction.
 
So aside from the fact that we have a small dish, I guess we could technically use the same dish for Ku-Band or for C-Band programming. But C-Band typically requires a larger dish.

An then the LNB would have to be a C-Band LNB, but the dish itself (if big enough) would work for both Ku-Band or C-Band. Is that correct?
 
First, be sure and get a low noise LNB. You can get 8' dishes from places like Dawnco fairly cheaply, but how well they will work and how reliable they will be depends on your location, local weather, etc. The satellite is pretty far west. If you are west of the Mississippi you may not have a problem with the smaller dish. East of the Mississippi you may find the smaller dish may not have enough gain since you are looking almost at the horizon. Another problem with these smaller mesh dishes is snow and ice. Very difficult to get ice and snow off the rough screen, solid dishes are less of a problem. Finally, if you are near an airport, or a busy airplane route, you may need an "AWACS" filter. Usually military radars are the problem, since they operate adjacent to the C-band, however, there are other devices used for airport approach that can also cause interference. The filter hangs on the satellite ahead of the LNB. Available from Microwave Filter Co.
 
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