Satellites Gallore 10ft Mesh Dish Review

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eldorado
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Satellites Gallore 10ft Mesh Dish Review

Post by eldorado » Mon Sep 22, 2014 12:46 am

Satellites Gallore 10ft Mesh Dish Review

Hi everybody!

I purchased a 10ft (300cm) mesh dish from Satellites Gallore (on ebay) over the summer and finally got around to installing it. I recently came across this forum and since SG is a sponsor here, I thought I would do an in depth review of the dish as there are probably more people interested in buying one.

First off, the transaction on ebay went off without a hitch. If there were any problems with non-delivery or
damaged goods, I knew I could get my money back.

I thought a dish this size would take several weeks to be delivered, but within 3 days I saw 2 big boxes sitting on my porch. The UPS guy missed me and simply left it on my porch. I was kind of angry at this as anyone could have taken the dish, but luckily no active satellite thieves in my neighbourhood!


My first impression was - ohhh no, this dish isn't as big as it should be. It looked pretty small in those 2 boxes. The smaller box was quite heavy (at least 50lbs) and contained the frame and the nuts and bolts. The outside of this box was slightly torn and damaged, but luckily, the contents were double-boxed and there was no damage inside. Furthermore, the parts inside were either packaged in smaller boxes or protected with bubble wrap.

The bigger box with the panels didn't appear to have suffered any wear and tear. I opened it and was surprised to find 8 mesh panels and 4 LNB rods inside - I thought it was a 4 or 6 panel dish but it turns out it was an 8 panel one. The fact that this dish contained 8 panels now explained why it "looked" so small in the box. I measured the length of the panels and they were 5ft each, so the dish size was correct.

Now that I had thoroughly examined all the dish parts, my impression started to become more and more positive. The panels were light-weight yet also strong and sturdy. The mesh covering the panels was very tight and the mesh hole size very small. The frame was heavy and solidly built. The dish arm and mount were made of thick steel and the main bolts to hold the dish on the pole were 3/4 of an inch tick. The LNB rods were also quite thick - around 1 inch in diameter. I knew right then and there that once this
sucker was mounted, nothing was bringing it down, not even 150mph winds!

Okay, now the installation. My first concern was a tree about 100ft away in my backyard could obstruct some satellites. I knew I would have to install this dish higher than usual in order to see past that tree. I finally decided to mount it against my deck. I got a 10 ft steel pole from the local hardware store and anchored it to the ground. I then clamped the pole in two places against the deck. Finally, I bolted another 5 ft pole to the 10ft base pole to give me a total height clearance of 15 ft above ground.

Now the easy part. I assembled the frame and mount on the ground and carefully mounted the whole assembly on the pole. I added one panel at a time until all 8 panels were bolted in place. Next, I bolted the LNB rods in place and assembled the scalar ring. My dish also came with a C/Ku LNBF which I mounted on the scalar ring.

Now the hard part. I set my elevation angle and aimed the dish due south. The declination screw I was unsure about, so I simply left it alone (around zero declination). No alignment instructions came with the dish - so I was on my own!

Since the dish was aimed due south, I tried to lock 91 west (Galaxy 17). Sure enough, my meter started beeping once I connected it. Signal quality was very low, so I adjusted the LNB skew and fine tuned the elevation and bam - massive signal gain!

Next I installed the 24 inch actuator that came with the dish and started hunting for adjacent sats. I immediately picked up 87W, 83W and 97W and 99W and even 101W, but beyond those, nothing. Not even a whiff of a signal. At that point, I started to play with the declination screw. Now I understood why declination adjustment is necessary. By adding declination and subtracting elevation, you maintain
signal strength on the zenith satellites(due south), but more importantly, you start to get signal on the horizon satellites!!! Bam, 103W, 105W and 107W popped in with max signal. Nothing beyond that though and going the other way, I couldn't lock 58W. No amount of declination/elevation adjustment would bring in more sats.

Okay, time for a different approach. I turned the whole dish on the pole a few degrees clockwise and I lost all the signals. I then turned the dish counter-clockwise and bam: 121W, 123W, 125W and 127W pop in!!! To my surprise, 58W and 55.5W on the other side were also booming!

A little bit of fine tuning with the elevation and declination and I got the sucker to track from 137W to 37.5W!!! It took me about 6 hours to fine tune the alignment, but it was worth it. Once the C band signals start coming in, the Ku band signals will also be there, although some further fine-tuning might be necessary.

I locked everything in place and went inside to see what I could scan. Overall, this dish can scan every DBS-S2 C-band signal over North America that is listed on lyngsat. As for Ku band, it scans everything as well, but the average quality of the signals is a bit lower.

I just finished installing it a few days ago and haven't had much time to hunt for feeds, but so far I am VERY HAPPY. This dish is a well constructed product for the money spent and performs as advertised. My only complaint is that the feedcover was a little tight for the scalar ring. I actually had to use a knife to cut the feed cover along the rim to make it fit properly.

I will provide more feedback about this dish as I get to use it, but if anyone has any specific questions, you can ask me here.

I would definitely recommend this product to anyone on this forum - you will not be disappointed.
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eldorado
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Re: Satellites Gallore 10ft Mesh Dish Review

Post by eldorado » Mon Sep 22, 2014 12:50 am

Here are some more pictures:
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Re: Satellites Gallore 10ft Mesh Dish Review

Post by Costactc » Mon Sep 22, 2014 4:25 pm

That's a fine looking dish eldorado.
10' mesh-24" vonweise actuator-psi x2 lnbf-X2 Premium III-Vu+Zero.
8' solid- esx 241 lnbf(c)-amiko l104 lnbf-24" vonweise actuator-GI HD-X2 Premium-Azbox Ultra.
4' solid- invacom twf-031 lnbf/gibertini c120 feedhorn-stab 1.2hh-TM 5402 M3.

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Re: Satellites Gallore 10ft Mesh Dish Review

Post by tvroadmin » Tue Sep 23, 2014 8:16 pm

Good setup Eldorado.

It looks like you don't have much space in your backyard and so anchoring it to your deck was your only option. From your pics I can see that the dish is half-way up to the 2nd floor and out of the way so it doesn't interfere with the use and enjoyment of your deck.

I have seen similar installations of C band antennas in urban areas like yours - either attached to a deck, or more commonly, anchored to the side of the house and raised above the roof.
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Re: Satellites Gallore 10ft Mesh Dish Review

Post by fatso » Thu Sep 25, 2014 8:03 pm

What kind of feed do you have under the cover?
12ft Mesh Dish
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Re: Satellites Gallore 10ft Mesh Dish Review

Post by eldorado » Fri Sep 26, 2014 7:35 pm

fatso wrote:What kind of feed do you have under the cover?
A single C/ku LNB with built-in switch!

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Re: Satellites Gallore 10ft Mesh Dish Review

Post by eldorado » Fri Sep 26, 2014 7:48 pm

Well guys I've been doing some feed hunting this past week and the results have been excellent. C band feeds were easy to pull in. I managed to scan in all the NFL feeds that were posted here and I even found a late night feed that wasn't posted here on 97west 4100-h-29860.

Ku band reception was a little more tricky. First off, I couldn't lock the PBS on 125west so I fine tuned the declination and now I get 75% quality on 12180 (PBS HD). Once I did that, practically all teh regular Ku channels started to scan in. Tons of stuff!

To my surprise, I was able to push the dish all the way to 30west and scanned in everything from Hispasat. Unfortunately, my 24 inch actuator can't go past that point, so I couldn't scan anything past 30west. For those thinking of getting a 10ft or 12ft mesh dish like this, make sure you get a 30 inch or 36 inch actuator - it will let you go further along the western arc. I could have probably hit 15west with a longer actuator!

Next week I will try scanning in DVB-S2 MLB and NFL games on ku band. They are suppose to be the hardest to scan in because the signals are very weak. Guys on another forum are using 1.2m and 1.5m dedicated ku band dishes and still have problems! Will let you know how it goes!

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Re: Satellites Gallore 10ft Mesh Dish Review

Post by Costactc » Sat Sep 27, 2014 10:06 am

eldorado wrote:Well guys I've been doing some feed hunting this past week and the results have been excellent. C band feeds were easy to pull in. I managed to scan in all the NFL feeds that were posted here and I even found a late night feed that wasn't posted here on 97west 4100-h-29860.

Ku band reception was a little more tricky. First off, I couldn't lock the PBS on 125west so I fine tuned the declination and now I get 75% quality on 12180 (PBS HD). Once I did that, practically all teh regular Ku channels started to scan in. Tons of stuff!

To my surprise, I was able to push the dish all the way to 30west and scanned in everything from Hispasat. Unfortunately, my 24 inch actuator can't go past that point, so I couldn't scan anything past 30west. For those thinking of getting a 10ft or 12ft mesh dish like this, make sure you get a 30 inch or 36 inch actuator - it will let you go further along the western arc. I could have probably hit 15west with a longer actuator!

Next week I will try scanning in DVB-S2 MLB and NFL games on ku band. They are suppose to be the hardest to scan in because the signals are very weak. Guys on another forum are using 1.2m and 1.5m dedicated ku band dishes and still have problems! Will let you know how it goes!
Ku band always suffers from c/ku lnbf, I keep my bands seperate. With my 24" VonWeise jack I can do 11-127w.
10' mesh-24" vonweise actuator-psi x2 lnbf-X2 Premium III-Vu+Zero.
8' solid- esx 241 lnbf(c)-amiko l104 lnbf-24" vonweise actuator-GI HD-X2 Premium-Azbox Ultra.
4' solid- invacom twf-031 lnbf/gibertini c120 feedhorn-stab 1.2hh-TM 5402 M3.

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Re: Satellites Gallore 10ft Mesh Dish Review

Post by fatso » Sat Sep 27, 2014 9:34 pm

Optima wrote:Ku band always suffers from c/ku lnbf, I keep my band seperate
Very true indeed. The circular waveguide dimensions for C band are not optimum for Ku band, so the Ku signals probable experiences nearly 50% (or more) attenuation.

I get a good chuckle out of people who think the ku band radiation passes through mesh holes and think this is the cause of their poor reception. On the contrary, proper feed design and accurate reflector geometry are critical for ku reception.

One option us old timers use is a Chaparral LNBF that brings the Ku antenna(with corner reflector) out front and thus no attenuation due to wrong waveguide dimensions. Still, this has the effect of interfering with C band radiation, but only slightly. This is a good method but it does require a controller for the Chaparral motor. Was used a lot back in the day.
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Re: Satellites Gallore 10ft Mesh Dish Review

Post by eldorado » Sun Oct 05, 2014 8:00 pm

Costactc wrote:Ku band always suffers from c/ku lnbf, I keep my bands seperate. With my 24" VonWeise jack I can do 11-127w.
I think you are right. Even though I can receive a lot of Ku stuff, the signals on some are very weak.

I just scanned in some soccer games in 91west on Ku and getting about 30% quality. They are watchable, but no doubt I should be getting a lot more signal with a 10 ft dish. The C band stuff on that same satellite is booming with 80-90% quality.

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