Wavefrontier T90

[borderfox]

Given that I've just checked out the sponsors site and they don't sell the dish I need to get the job done (Wavefrontier T90), is it ok if I ask folks here wheres the best value to be had on the wWw for this dish?

[satpaul]

The only place I know who sell these items has the same name as the French Channels on Hotbird use google you will find it

[Fil]

german e of bay

[borderfox]

Thanks guys. Ordered off a german outfit. Massive difference in price between uk and de on these for some reason?

[Yoda]

You will not be disappointed with this dish, best purchase I ever made.
Just remember to fit the sub reflector up the right way, some idiot mounted it upside down... ill mention no names but he has replied to this thread and his name resembles a star wars character...

Yoda

[borderfox]

lol. Will do.

Hope your right about the dish.

[poleman]

@ Yoda

after strugling to align force 90cm model for months now, just saw your post and realised the upside down reflector error u made is why mine is not doing what it could doooooh!!!!


yours as always poleman


p.s thanks for the hint

[Mrtobbe]

Take a look here h**p://satlex.us/en/wavefrontier_calc.html

[ct252]

hope u enjoy the dish mate i have the 55cm version as landlord wont allow me the 90cm which cheesed me off a bit but no complaints from it a lovely piece of equipment would probably say the best and closest to motorised you,ll get and quicker to go between satellites than a motor lol :)

[Yoda]

@ Yoda

after strugling to align force 90cm model for months now, just saw your post and realised the upside down reflector error u made is why mine is not doing what it could doooooh!!!!


yours as always poleman


p.s thanks for the hint

No problem mate, it took me well over 3 weeks to notice. The silly thing is that it could all be avoided by a little sticker saying this way up.

Yoda

[borderfox]

At Poleman/Yoda - spent last night putting this monster together. Can you have a look at these two pics and tell me if everything looks the right way round;
pic 1 (http://imageupload.com/~imageupl/show.php/68475_21012008025.jpg.html)
pic 2 (http://imageupload.com/~imageupl/show.php/68474_22012008026.jpg.html)

As always with these things, the booklet could have been a little bit more helpful. Have to get hold of a ladder now - hoping existing mount is already 60mm...

Didn't really appreciate how big this lid was 'til seeing it once assembled.:eek:

[poleman]

the lnb rail is wrong way round, another thing is the weight of the monster
put mine together then had part dismantle to get it up 20 ft on gable end of house

yours as always poleman

[satwyn]

one going on e *ay looks nice and clean

[satwyn]

try this 230215196808

[Yoda]

At Poleman/Yoda - spent last night putting this monster together. Can you have a look at these two pics and tell me if everything looks the right way round;
pic 1 (http://imageupload.com/~imageupl/show.php/68475_21012008025.jpg.html)
pic 2 (http://imageupload.com/~imageupl/show.php/68474_22012008026.jpg.html)

As always with these things, the booklet could have been a little bit more helpful. Have to get hold of a ladder now - hoping existing mount is already 60mm...

Didn't really appreciate how big this lid was 'til seeing it once assembled.:eek:


All looks great mate, except as stated the rail is incorrect. Have fun with your new toy...

Yoda

[borderfox]

Thanks for that lads.

Got my hands on a ladder and as suspected, the current mount I have is 50mm. Its a new house and I don't want to be putting four more holes in the gable end. I was thinking of wrapping something around the current mount to fill the 10mm void? The mount itself although 50mm - is of good quality.
Is the above feasible? If so, what could i use to wrap round it?

[cooler]

I wonder, could there not be a massive lnb, in the shape of that deflector with switch build in???

[Likvid]

Look at the new Visiosat BIG Bisat dish.

A excellent dish that came out this week and much higher quality than the T90.

[cooler]

Interesting, in the next year or two the motors might be a thing of past.

[Likvid]

How come the T90 is not popular in the UK? anything to do with dish regulations?

[poleman]

no m8 it is now within dish regs, maybe its expensive and looks complicated to setup, enough of a deterant for most folk

yours as always poleman

[BrownBoots]

FWIW I bought a Force Frontier 90 nearly 3 years ago to replace an 80cm mesh dish up on the side of the house. When I saw it for the first time I realised there was no way that monster was going 10ft up in the air. It would have needed scaffolding to do the job and I'm sure the neighbour would not have been pleased at the sight of it from the bedroom window. Instead I sorted out a spot in the back garden, set a pair of 3x2 slabs on some concrete in the border and put the dish on those. I'd advise anyone else thinking about one of these dishes to try to do the same. That way at least the lnbs are easy to get at when you fancy a change-around.

[borderfox]

Theres a slight possibility I might be able to ground mount it - is there any chart to show how far away it would need to be from a 6ft panel fence in order to clear it?

[BrownBoots]

My dish is roughly 12-15 yds from a 5ft panel on the opposite side of the garden. I think the sats are at about 20-25 deg. elevation - depends where in the world you are - but without digging out the old school trigonometry tables I couldn't say what the limits are.

[borderfox]

@BrownBoots - how have you it anchored?

I could give this a shot at my leisure without taking existing dish out of equation/disrupting viewing. Having second thoughts now about wall mounting given that I will have to replace wall mount and even then, the site is fairly exposed. Size of dish not really appreciated until seen!

[Yoda]

FWIW I bought a Force Frontier 90 nearly 3 years ago to replace an 80cm mesh dish up on the side of the house. When I saw it for the first time I realised there was no way that monster was going 10ft up in the air. It would have needed scaffolding to do the job and I'm sure the neighbour would not have been pleased at the sight of it from the bedroom window. Instead I sorted out a spot in the back garden, set a pair of 3x2 slabs on some concrete in the border and put the dish on those. I'd advise anyone else thinking about one of these dishes to try to do the same. That way at least the lnbs are easy to get at when you fancy a change-around.

I did pretty much the same mate, when I saw the size assembled I knew it had to be a ground mount.

Had it 2 years and had great results so far.

Yoda

[Likvid]

Can you receive Thor and Sirius on this in England?

[satpaul]

You will get the strong Transponders with this Dish have fitted the 55cm one and was impressed

[borderfox]

For the reflector to be right way up, is the side with the hole at the bottom or the top?

Disregard my question - checked out a few pics and see its the bottom. BTW, whats the purpose of those holes?

[Yoda]

Can you receive Thor and Sirius on this in England?

Yes mate, I have 28.2E 19.2E 16E 13E 5E 1W all fine and im going to add some more sats in the summer.

Yoda

[borderfox]

Folks,

How do I go about setting up a stable tripod here (http://www.uploadgeek.com/uploads456/0/29012008034.jpg)?

I can see this install is going to leave me without hair :eek:

[Yoda]

Mate,
I did mine in the summer, using 4 small paving slabs, I concreted them into a hole about 1ft deep then used some patience and a very good spirit level to get it straight. You have some degree of flexibility with the ground mound being adjustable.
I then read that the best option was to pull in 16E as a master sat (in the middle of the rail and centered on this sat) when you have this try to pull in 28.2 etc. Then add all the rest.

Hope this helps

Yoda

[Captain Jack]

What is the equivalent dish size for this one? Does it perform the same as a normal 90cm dish pointed at 1 sat?

[wallycharlo]

Anyone know a good installation guide for this dish? cheers

ok, i found the official instructions ... just wondering in anyone knows a good sticky or something somewhere ...

[Likvid]

What is the equivalent dish size for this one? Does it perform the same as a normal 90cm dish pointed at 1 sat?

No, it performs more like a 75cm dish and 55cm at the edges.

[borderfox]

Well, I have got this far:

Image 1 (http://www.uploadgeek.com/uploads456/0/06022008040.jpg)
Image 2 (http://www.uploadgeek.com/uploads456/0/06022008039.jpg)


The mount is 100% plumb. Have set 16* East as Centre - and trying without success to tune it in. Supposed to be using an elevation of 24.62* but its hard to know what this is as theres no elevation guide bar - just that bolt (albeit i understand that they're using this for greater strength).

For tuning in purposes, have dreambox attached and set to 10957 H/2821 -2/3 - with satfinder. At best, have had SNR at 51% with fluctuating BER (does this mean its getting some sort of signal) and no AGC (what actually is AGC?).

Have the rest of you used 'angle finders' to set the elevation?


Any input on how best to tune in appreciated.

[satwyn]

automatic gain control

[borderfox]

automatic gain control
Thanks. I suppose for the purpose of tuning in - this doesnt matter right?

Took off the pin at the back and just moving dish freely now - but not getting anywhere. Its just fluctuating between 55-59% regardless of where its faced.

Is there anything to be gained from trying to tune in either Hotbird or Astra2 first (given that they're stronger) despite the fact that neither of them is setup on the T90 as central sat ie. they are offset??

To what extent can i rely on the Dreambox (&Gemini's 'Satfind' feature) for tuning-in purposes?

one very frustrating day. Whats ****ing me off even more is that i could very well spend all of my free time next week and still not get a result with this - unless theres a smarter way of doing it??

[Yoda]

Mate, I would try and get hotbird with a very strong transponder, Im not sure the dreambox is the best tol for the job I found that sat find took a while to a see a signal and I had similar issues.
What I did is download the dreambox settings for hotbird then tune to say BBC World and try and get a picture.
You can then work your way to 16E and see how u get on.

Good luck.

[borderfox]

Small steps but getting there. Have Hotbird setup as base. Just tried 16*E - just scanned it in as it was getting dark. Had a signal strength of 74% (on DM7020). Havent tweaked it so maybe theres room for further improvement. Will be interesting to see tomorrow if I stand any chance of pulling in THOR (then again, if not could well be possible in a couple of weeks with the newly launched Thor 5.

Cheers for your post above Yoda - as you put me on the right road going with Hotbird as the reference Sat. In reality, the only thing that was lacking was patience on my part! - but I couldn't imagine installing this monster whilst halfway up a ladder. Ground mounting is the dogs bollocks. At least its possible to work on the beast whilst on firm ground.

[Likvid]

Always start to tweak the outer most Eastern and Western satellite you want to receive and then work your way inwards.

The problem most do is tweak the dish for the central satellite which is wrong.

[Edgar]

Hi Borderfox,
According to your images the elevation of the Wavefrontier ist far too high.
Turn the elevation down.
Regards
Edgar

[borderfox]

Always start to tweak the outer most Eastern and Western satellite you want to receive and then work your way inwards.

The problem most do is tweak the dish for the central satellite which is wrong.
I'm glad you mentioned that Likvid as it had not occured to me



Hi Borderfox,
According to your images the elevation of the Wavefrontier ist far too high.
Turn the elevation down.
Regards
Edgar
Those pics are from last week Edgar. At the time I had not set elevation (had it unfastened) and was hopelessly shuffling it up/down left/right trying to get reference sat signal.

Incidently, for anyone else considering ground mounting one of these puppies heres one problem i ran into. Although I had concreted the post in well (and deep - probably a meter), the post itself twisted once I put the dish on and started to tune in. Luckily, I hadn't concreted up the full way so to correct problem, I drilled a hole in the mount and stuck a half metre length of steel rod through it - concreting in the overlap on each side. That way, when the wind gets hold of the dish, the whole thing isnt going to turn.

[borderfox]

Been tuning in Thor today and best I can get is 82% Signal Strength & AGC. Getting a sub 1000 fluctuating BER.
Thats based on mid-afternoon. Although, I did manage to scan in the bulk of the quality Telenor channels, i'm not sure what they will be like later on this evening/tonight. A couple of years since I viewed channels on this sat before but from what i remember it used to always drop off in the evenings..

[Fabrice1973]

Look at the new Visiosat BIG Bisat dish.

A excellent dish that came out this week and much higher quality than the T90.

Wavefrontier is cheaper, larger and can support more LNBs.
Would really like to read a comparison of both dishes results.

[borderfox]

Have the following tuned in sucessfully;

1*W (although weak signal)
13*E (reference Sat)
16*E
19*E (only getting about 80% signal strength)

I've failed to pick up a signal for 28*E. Now I know its well offset and is going to be weaker but is it possible that having tuned the rest in that I could have NO signal at all for 28? Reason I ask is that if this is an impossibility, I have to entertain the idea that maybe i've messed up royally and 28*E signal path is hitting an obstruction - and hence no signal??

[Fabrice1973]

Hey Borderfox,

Have read quickly your problems with the T90.

What I think you should do is determine what will be the extreme east & west sats first.

I don't know if I can mention the site here (the one where my pic is hosted) but I guess you did calculate the correct position for every LNB from that site or from a XLS file from a Dutch guy.

What I do is setting the extreme side (and toughest sat to catch from my place) LNB first (As I live in Belgium, I try to catch Amos on 4W).

I set that LNB at its correct position (according to the calculation) and then try to find the best signal by moving the dish slightly up/down/east/west.

Once you have the best signal possible for that LNB, you have to test the other extreme side LNB at 3 or 4 degrees max from its calculated position.

If you have signal on both extremes then it is as easy as 1,2,3 or ABC to get signal on the other sats (as long as you can catch them from your position with a 90cm dish).

http://satlex.de/gallery/middle_images/belgium/fabrice_waveeasttowest.jpg

This is a pic of mine in its old configuration.

I'm not a pro but whenever I change the sats pointed, it takes me 2 hours with a receiver and TV next to me.

Hope it makes sense and will help you.

[Fabrice1973]

I've failed to pick up a signal for 28*E. Now I know its well offset and is going to be weaker but is it possible that having tuned the rest in that I could have NO signal at all for 28? Reason I ask is that if this is an impossibility, I have to entertain the idea that maybe i've messed up royally and 28*E signal path is hitting an obstruction - and hence no signal??

If you can't catch 28E from England then there is a big problem in your installation.

[borderfox]

If you can't catch 28E from England then there is a big problem in your installation. Thats what i'm afraid of. I'm hoping skew will sort it out - but then i should be getting some form of signal shouldnt i...? Then again, when tuning in 28 before on a motorised system, it was always a bit higher than the rest wasnt it?

The mount is definitely plumb. My main fear is that its just catching the wall of the house....

[satwyn]

clear line of sight would be your first priority if you can't see your target satellite then no amount of tweaking will give you positive results you may need to reposition your dish