Hotbird

With the Meteosat analogue transmissions ending, and following a discussion on the
Living with Technology Mailing list, I decided to modify my dish to receive the Hotbird satellite.

Meteosat set-up The meteosat set-up

Meteosat antenna 3 rods from the dish support a stainless steel band which clamps the "horn" feed. An N type connector is connected to the actual antenna, which is...

The actual antenna! ...no more than a machined "bolt". Of course, the dimensions of this are critical. The "can" that this bolt is fixed into, and the 1 metre dish, only serve to focus the signal on this "bolt"

View of rear of dish showing downconverter View of rear of dish showing slots which allow elevation adjustment, and the down-converter (fastened to the lower dish support arm). The down-converter converted the 1.69GHz signal to 137MHz

Mounting band The mounting band without the "can"

LNB fitted! In order to mount the universal LNB, I obtained a 40mm (LNB) to 60mm adaptor and applied some ingenuity. The hardest job was drilling 4 holes in the 120mm diameter stainless steel mounting band.

Setting the elevation In order to set the elevation I "knocked up" a right-angled triangle made from 3 pieces of wood. The lower angle was set to the 27 degrees suggested as the correct elevation for Hotbird from my location. Rather than measure the angle with a protractor, I used some basic mathematics to calculate the length of the "opposite" and "adjacent" dimensions. I thought this would provide better accuracy. This elevation was then adjusted with the aid of the spirit level.

Wired up The LNB wired up with new cable. The Meteosat arrangement required 50 ohm coax. The LNB uses 75 ohm coax. You may notice that I took the opportunity to clean the dish surface, but it probably makes very little difference to the amount of signal received at the LNB.

	The meteosat set-up
	3 rods from the dish support a stainless steel band which clamps the "horn" feed. An N type connector is connected to the actual antenna, which is...
	...no more than a machined "bolt". Of course, the dimensions of this are critical. The "can" that this bolt is fixed into, and the 1 metre dish, only serve to focus the signal on this "bolt"
	View of rear of dish showing slots which allow elevation adjustment, and the down-converter (fastened to the lower dish support arm). The down-converter converted the 1.69GHz signal to 137MHz
	The mounting band without the "can"
	In order to mount the universal LNB, I obtained a 40mm (LNB) to 60mm adaptor and applied some ingenuity. The hardest job was drilling 4 holes in the 120mm diameter stainless steel mounting band.
	In order to set the elevation I "knocked up" a right-angled triangle made from 3 pieces of wood. The lower angle was set to the 27 degrees suggested as the correct elevation for Hotbird from my location. Rather than measure the angle with a protractor, I used some basic mathematics to calculate the length of the "opposite" and "adjacent" dimensions. I thought this would provide better accuracy. This elevation was then adjusted with the aid of the spirit level.
	The LNB wired up with new cable. The Meteosat arrangement required 50 ohm coax. The LNB uses 75 ohm coax. You may notice that I took the opportunity to clean the dish surface, but it probably makes very little difference to the amount of signal received at the LNB.