Where are you that allows a bare LNB to receive indoors?
I’m in Apex, North Carolina. I’m not seeing that great of a signal, usually -11 or so, but it works and I can get the full 20kbps.
-11 is great. After a certain point, the packet error rate will not decrease any further. What was the SNR when you had the LNB outside? Is this only one wall that signal is going through before it hits the LNB? Could you share the composition of that wall?
When it was outside, I was getting -10 or so, but I’m not sure if I was pointed directly at the satellite. I’m pointed a few degrees east of where I was when I had it outside, but outside it also went through about 75 feet of RG6 before it got to the wiring closet. The wall it’s pointed at now is an exterior wall, which has hardiplank siding, water barrier, sheathing, insulation, and drywall. The electrical does run up through the wall where the LNB is pointing as well, which may explain the sensitivity to positioning. I do have a picture of the wall, but can’t tell if it’s 4" or 6" thick. The LNB faces the wall to the left side of the window.
Been playing with feed horns today. The best I’ve come up with so far is a 12oz Mandarin Orange can. I normally (without a feed horn) get an average of -12db S:N but with this can Scotch taped to the LNB I’m getting an average of 8.5db S:N. I’ve gained 3db which if I understand my logarithmic tables correctly is a signal gain of roughly 2x what I had before. Wow!! Obviously I need to come up with a better mounting solution but what this experiment has shown me is that I can McGyver something and improve the signal.
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Tried a skinnier but longer can tonight. Pretty spectacular fail. Not only did it not improve the signal but it actually made it worse!! Makes me wonder about the Pringles can I am trying to finish?
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Trying to finish? I never need to try too hard to finish a can of Pringles.
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I dumped out the Pringles into a ziplock bag and then removed the bottom with a regular can opener. It’s peeing down with rain here just about 15 miles NW of Philthydelphia and my Mandarin can is not cutting it. I get about a 3DB gain in the dry but in the wet its no better than before. Swapped in the Pringles can. Same result; -14db or so with intermittent lock. I used the dog’s satellite dish collar covered in foil a while back. It worked pretty well. Will have to come up with something similar but smaller. I did try nesting the larger can at the top of the smaller can and that worked in bringing the signal up to about -12db but I have no way to properly mount it.
Mark, here is one that I have had good success using. It is made from the pattern of a 12-oz soft drink cup. The “ears” can be pulled through the conduit clamp holder and bent to hold it in place.
My metal bashing skills are non-existent. What metal did you make it out of? I’m thinking that one of those sheets of metal one can get at Home Depot may be what this is? Also, how much material is above the line of the cup? And can I use rivets instead of screws?
Mean time, I picked up some tin foil pans that go under the burners on the cooker. They have a nice hole in the bottom already that is just the right aperture for the LNB. I thought I’d cut one and bend it about a bit?
There’s another thread similar to this going on here Would someboby turn the satellite on - #8 by kenbarbi where @kenbarbi gives some pointers about LNB alignment. I’m starting to wonder about my alignment now too. Maybe that’s why the long skinny cans did nothing but the short wide ones did? I’ll take another pop at it after work this afternoon.
Good guess, that’s where I got the metal. The cone is made of thin stainless steel. I would have used aluminum but couldn’t get it close by at the time, and the ss was available. The cone is total 8.5 inches from opening to opening, and yes, you certainly could use pop-rivets or screws and nuts instead of sheet metal screws. The cone is about a 15° taper. I am not really a metal mechanic myself, but learned a few things when a teen-ager in my buddy’s dad’s sheet metal shop. Bending the tab edges is the hardest part, it helps if you have a concrete block or piece of angle iron to bend it over. The cutting can be done with heavy shears or aviation snips if you can borrow one. I have found @kenbarbi Ken’s wise advice invaluable during my time with this project!
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To test things I just connected the LNB directly to the pigtail on Dreamcatcher, cut hole in the box it came in, pointed it to the right direction and elevation and success! SNR -8.5, rate around 10500 bps. It worked smoothly for about 8 hours as long as my portable charger could supply the power.
And now time to construct something more “pro”… 
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Thank you! This will be a good short term solution for me!
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