# Primestar



## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

I was thinking about getting a P* dish off of Ebay along with a FTA STB to play around with. I did a general search for 'Primestar' and found numerous people selling P* recievers. Can P* IRDs be used for anything useful, most all of them I saw were $35 or less. TIA!


----------



## bryan27 (Apr 1, 2002)

P* receivers are useless. There is only 1 channel that used the standard that P* used (FamilyNet), and no one has bothered to make an upgrade for the P* receivers inorder to receive just 1 channel.


----------



## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

Thanks Bryan! Any recommendations for an FTA STB?

I was thinking about this one
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1343846894

But Im gaing to wait a while to see if I can find any for less $$$.


----------



## Mike (Apr 10, 2002)

FTA = Free-To-Air. What is STB? Is that Set top box? 

What are you trying to get with a PrimeStar dish? C-band, Ku-band, DSS LNB's on the dish? Analog Ku works fantastic. C-band doesn't work very well though with a lnbf. Too small of a dish. DSS would work fine though, but haven't tried it. Just wondering, thanks!


----------



## bryan27 (Apr 1, 2002)

Steve, I would recomend the Pansat 2100A. Though it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of a higher priced model it is very economical. Mine was $125 from KUSat.

For instance on the 2100A you have to put in the frequency and symbol rate (which can be found on Lyngsat) the more expensive models will search the KU Band frequencies and Symbol Rates for you. 

The 2100A also has text (if a channel is sending out a program guide you can get it). The memory is 1,000 video and 1,000 audio channels (though I have nowhere near achieved that). It has diseqc 2.0 (sp?) so you can combine 4 dishes (or sources) with a satellite switch. For instance my setup has a 2.0 switch. Slot A is Telstar 5, Slot B is AMC-5(Vertical), Slot C is AMC-5(Horzontal), Slot D is empty. My PrimeStar dish is the one with the Horizontal and Vertical outputs so AMC-5 takes two slots.

Other cool features is the Channel List where you can quickly go through the channels with the channel in a small PIP rather than surf through the channels (which is slower). And an Info button that will show the channel statics including a signal strength meter rather than going through the menus to find the info.


----------



## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

Mike, I wanna get it mainly for ku-band, you said accessing c-band birds doesnt work very well, but does it work at all, I realize there a huge differences in dish sizes, but is there even a possability? C-band access would be just a fringe beneift for me though, since ku is what I want to experiment with. Thanks again Bryan, $125 is a great price. Plus I wouldnt mind having to put in the frequency and symbol rate.


----------



## Mike (Apr 10, 2002)

C-band won't work for digital. I get very very faint pictures on G11 and T5 for analog. I can't tell what it really is most of the time. The spacing of the birds makes a dish this small incapable of getting c-band. Videocyphers (descramblers) that I have from my 10 ft days don't work at all. It doesn't recognize a signal to unscramble.


----------



## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

Too bad  One more question, if I actually do get a P* dish and Pansat STB how would I go about finding the ku birds. In other worlds if I wanted to point the dish at 93 to get Telestar6 how would I know where to point the dish. Is there a website that tells elevation, skew, ect settings?


----------



## bryan27 (Apr 1, 2002)

Steve, there are several sites that will give you the AZ/EL. KUSat, Lyngsat, etc... some sites have programs you can download (I don't remember where they are). Skew isn't all that important at first. Once you get aimed to the satellite you want, just start turing the LNB back and forth till you get the highest signal. 

For some strange reason my P* dish is a few degrees lower than what the programs say, so if you don't hit the satellite on what the programs say start turning the elevation lower. The FTA receivers don't make any "beep beep" sound on the signal strength screen so you will either need someone inside yelling at you, or if you are like me and can't trust anyone to relay the highest possible signal you'll need to take a little TV and the receiver to the dish.


----------

