Playing with old technology - BSB Squarial and mini dish

[Analoguesat]

I have a shameful secret too - ive got an old Ammy SRX400 in a cupboard

[Likvid]

There were thousands of BSB dishes all over Sweden after BSB collapsed.

It was pretty funny seeing the BSB logo on the dishes.

It was used to receive Tele-X at 5 East and was perfect for this satellite.

[nanochickin]

Blimey who opened u this thread again

Found this earlier if anybody is interested. Clips of stuff thatw ere on the screens in the late 80s early 90s, including Skys Pro trailer before they launched

Nostalgic satellite video clips, Astra 1a, 1b, BSB, Filmnet, MTV....



Nano

[Likvid]

Still i haven't found any video clips from the early years of Filmnet etc.

They had a really nice opening scene in 1985/86 when it was transmitted in FTA, yes FTA.

[Kay B]

I tried to use an old Squarial made by Nokia once used for reception of TV-Sat 2 (19° West, left hand circular polarization) to receive linear polarized satellites. It was possible to receive some French channels from 5° West, but with noise.

When pointing the Squarial Astra 19° East (only digital channels are broadcast in the frequency range the Squarial can handle) the signal level is quite high, but the signal quality is not.

I suppose the main problem isn't the circular polarization of the Squarial versus the linear polarization of Astra. Receiving linearly polarized signals with a circularly polarized antenna means a loss 3 db which should still be enough to receive Astra. The main problem is the distance between adjacent transponders. A linearly polarized LNB can separate these transponders (with alternating polarization) simply by switching from v to h or vice versa. A circularly polarized LNB cannot; it receives a mixture of adjacent transponders.

Has anyone tried to convert a circularly polarized Squarial into a linearly polarized one?

[breezybadger]

Originally Posted by Kay B

Has anyone tried to convert a circularly polarized Squarial into a linearly polarized one?

I just thought I'd drag this up cos I'm bored!!!

I tried to build an LNB to fit onto the back of my Squarial, but as I had no clue what I was doing, it didn't really work, plus the feeds were the wrong shape, the squarial had a rectangular on and the LNB I was using had a round one, round peg square hols and all that!!! But, I did manage to fit a Universal LNB onto my BSB minidish (the round Channel master version) and it worked perfectly on Hispasat using my Analogue box (before the last analogue channel Cuatro closed down), I still have it somewhere, but I haven't finished building the new LNB clamp, even though all that needs doing is just drilling 5 holes and putting it together...

[Analoguesat]

??? If you fit an lnb to the BACK of a squarial it wont pick any signal up as the squarial will be blocking it!

[nvingo]

The Squarial contains an array of LNBs on the PCB. Polarisation is circular determined by the print on the plastic sheets in front of the PCB. Flipping the top sheet (so the print is mirrored) changes the circular polarisation.
Linear polarisation can be received, but only one thereof as there's no facility to switch it.

[breezybadger]

Originally Posted by Analoguesat

??? If you fit an lnb to the BACK of a squarial it wont pick any signal up as the squarial will be blocking it!

I was under the impression that the hole in the back which goes through to the little twig on the LNB assembly was where the signal passed through to be received & converted...

[breezybadger]

Originally Posted by nvingo

The Squarial contains an array of LNBs on the PCB. Polarisation is circular determined by the print on the plastic sheets in front of the PCB. Flipping the top sheet (so the print is mirrored) changes the circular polarisation.
Linear polarisation can be received, but only one thereof as there's no facility to switch it.

I did manage to receive some sort of image from Hispa on my squarial and old MSS300, but it wasn't enough to create a "stable" picture, but thinking about it now I probably didn't compensate for the frequency shift, and I can't try again cos I've lost the original LNB and mount, so all I have left is just the plate...