# Receiving C-Band Signals with a Ku-Band Dish?



## Mentat

Hey all. So I'm still hunting down parts and deciding how much I want to invest in my FTA set-up, and I'm wondering if anyone has tried receiving C-Band signals with their small aperture (is that the right term? For one of the little DBS-style antennas typically used for Ku-Band signals?) dish? According to the FTA Show guys in New Zealand, they managed to get a weak-ish signal, but with very few drop outs. And "Rick's Satellite" is selling a conical scalar (link added to show what I'm talking about. If people feel it strays too close to "Advertising" I'll remove it) to "add C-Band to your small dish."

Of course, the larger the dish, the better the signal, but I'm wondering if anyone has tried this in the ConUS, and if they had any success? From what I've been able to learn from browsing the forums here, religious and international programming is all over Ku-Band, but the fun stuff (wild feeds, things like that) are in the C-Band. I mean, theoretically, signal is signal, and a solid dish should bring that signal in, regardless of its frequency range (at least, until we get talking about waveguides, metallic meshes, things of that nature), so shouldn't reception be possible, though weak?

Right now, I don't have a place of my own, and when I find a job I'll probably be living in an apartment building, so a BUD doesn't look too likely to be in my near future. I'd love to know if getting even some C-Band with a small dish is viable (if not reliable), so I can at least have a chance to play with it before everything goes encrypted or proprietary or something.


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## P Smith

Did that and abandon the project.

1M [39"] DISH IS TOO SMALL TO ELIMINATE C-BAND SIGNAL FROM ADJUSTED [2 DEGREE] SATELLITES.


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## Mentat

P Smith said:


> Did that and abandon the project.
> 
> 1M [39"] DISH IS TOO SMALL TO ELIMINATE C-BAND SIGNAL FROM ADJUSTED [2 DEGREE] SATELLITES.


Is this due to topographical/geographical issues (like distance on Earth from satellite), dependent on the satellite, or just signal issues?


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## P Smith

Many C sats spacing 2 degree - check www.lyngsat.com

There was discussions at Rick's site ...
So, in short - if signal is strong, if no C sats nearby, if you struggled by HOA or live in apartment, you could try use 1+M dish for C band.


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## Richard King

It's been a few years, but when I was installing c-band dishes, the smallest that I could get away with was a 5' dish locked on one satellite. There's not a chance in the world that a typical 18" dish would ever work for C-band.


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## ClearSKY

c-band wave lengths are larger than that of ku band, hence the need for a larger dish.


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## P Smith

ClearSKY said:


> c-band wave lengths are larger than that of ku band, hence the need for a larger dish.


Almost correct, but the point is C-band sats are low powered then Ku. Plus other technicalities like necessity of scalar ring, etc.


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