Playing with old technology - BSB Squarial and mini dish

[nvingo]

Originally Posted by breezybadger

I did manage to receive some sort of image from Hispa on my squarial
...
but thinking about it now I probably didn't compensate for the frequency shift...

And the skew.
As a motorised dish moves between the extremes, it also rotates about its axis, keeping the polarisation lined up with the satellite transponders.
With a fixed dish, the skew is set by the LNB/mount/arm assembly.
Since Hispa was quite a distance from due south, its skew would need noticeable adjustment.
Skew is irrelevant for circular polarisations.

[breezybadger]

Originally Posted by nvingo

And the skew.
As a motorised dish moves between the extremes, it also rotates about its axis, keeping the polarisation lined up with the satellite transponders.
With a fixed dish, the skew is set by the LNB/mount/arm assembly.
Since Hispa was quite a distance from due south, its skew would need noticeable adjustment.
Skew is irrelevant for circular polarisations.

I did actually set the skew as best I could when I was trying it out, but as I say, I didn't compensate for frequency shift, so couldn't get a picture that I could try to improve on...

It was a while back though (about 2 years ago I think), so the specifics of what I did are a bit faded...

[pudwink]

I spent hours in my garden with my squarial after i brought it from a show got a fuzzy picture but that was it.

[Kay B]

@ breezybadger

> 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!!!

The LNB has to be electrically connected to the squarial.



@ 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.

So, the polarisation of the squarial without the plastic sheet is linear, right?

[lew247]

Does anyone have one of the old squarials still?

I'm desperately looking for one urgently

Not for use as a satellite dish as I know they are less than hopeless being only circular polarisation, a VERY bad noise figure and an off IF frequency.

I had one back around 7 yes ago and I converted it into a radio controlled clock, looked really good too and was accurate to less than a second a year (clock module inside the dish with numbers painted on it)

However my ex who I wont mention other than to say ARGGGGGhhh when I moved out binned the squarial even though she knew how much I loved it and I have been trying ever since to egt another to replace it

I did find someone in Liverpool who has one aparently but anytime I try contacting him his mobile goes to answerphone and he never replies to messages..

IF ANYONE anywhere in the country has one they dont want could they let me know please?
I really want to replace the one I had, it meant a lot (more than she knew or maybe she did know thats why she binned it?)

Anyway contact me if you have one please?

[JakeSnake24]

im 24 now but i do remember our first sky box or should i say boxs. the first box had slot for the card and the other box had a row of small square buttons that wer numbered 1 to 9 if im correct. 1 box sat ontop of the other. our dish was a big white 1 not sure wot size it would of been.

i enjoyed watching a couple of the videos on the Nostalgic site somebody posted. It unlocked some memorys of the old Sky logos which i do remember seeing hehe and also seeing bret heart in the old wwf

nicejob

[lew247]

The bottom box was the actual satellite receiver, it was usually a 16 channel one and yes it had square buttons.
The one on top had a sloped front with the card slot just under the sloped bit
That was the actual decoder (they were seperate in those days) and joined together with a scart lead.
I used to install the decoders in peoples houses and we had a special engineers card that activated all the channels - what I'd give for one of those now that actually worked with the digital channels lol