Getting up and running again

General Othernet Discussions
1

Good day.
Some time ago - before the bandwidth reduction - I had my Dreamcatcher set up and working well. Things got busy, and my Othernet installation sort of fell by the wayside, but now I am interested in getting it back up and running.

My current hardware configuration is a Dreamcatcher 3.05 board, connected to a Maverick LNBf. I understand that the Maverick will probably have problems locking onto the reduced bandwidth signal. I have also acquired a Bullseye LNBf, but have not yet had a chance to swap it for the existing hardware.

I believe that I will probably need to upgrade my version of the Skylark OS, as well.

My question is this:

Given that I will need to upgrade both the LNBf hardware and the Skylark software, would it be a better idea for me to walk through the upgrade process incrementally, or just swap out the LNB with the Bullseye and install Skylark from scratch on a fresh SD card, with the benefit that my LNBf mount is already physically peaked up on the spacecraft?

Thanks for any help or advice that you can provide - I’m looking forward to getting my receiver back in operation.

2

I suggest you just swap out the LNB, then use the procedure found in the Wiki to adjust the LNB’s frequency. The latest version of Skylark - - Version 5.8 has not changed. Ken

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3

Same here. Dreamcatcher listening to the Europe downlink after few months of inactivity. Running great on the Bullseye Lnb.

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4

Thanks for the advice.
I was in fact able to get my Dreamcatcher up and running again with the Bullseye, although I don’t necessarily have it fully peaked, due to hardware limitations - my ladder isn’t really up to the task.
I’ve been working on an antenna upgrade, and hope to get things dialed in a little better soon.

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5

My 19" dish is on a round patio table outside and works fine. No ladder needed. Just find a good line of sight.

6

After a couple of years of inactivity my DC 3.03 w/ Skylark 5.8 is up and running again with a SNR of around 6dB and RSSI of -90. Using the Bullseye LNB on a old 18-in DishNetwork antenna. I originally aligned the dish in 2019 and after two year sitting idle, it brought in a good signal after using the frequency finder app to fine tune the LNB.

Location is far southeastern Arizona.

Richard
KE7KRF

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7

Don’t forget to twist the Bullseye in right direction for adding peaking.

8

Good point. I set the skew when the antenna was originally aimed, but won’t hurt to check it again. Fortunately the dish is very secure on a concrete retaining wall but we do have some strong winds at times.

Skew from my location is -31.2

Do you think I can improve much on the current SNR of 6dB and rssi of -90?

Thanks!

Richard

9

I think you have peaked, Richard. Don’t forget with an RSSI of -90dBm, you are close to the cut off point of the Dreamcatcher’s ability to detect a signal. Ken

10

Is your SNR +6 or -6. Either will work just fine. Mine is around 0 to +1.
I have no problems. Remember, being on frequency so the AFC can do it’s thing is important too. It’s looks like you’re surly in the ballpark.

11

My SNR’s can range from a low of around +4.8 to a high of +6dB, most of the time above +5.5. This morning I noticed that packet loss so far is only 42. My frequency offset at the moment is -83. Is that fairly important for solid reception?

Richard

12

Reception quality doesn’t improve much past SNR of -10 or so. A loss of a random packet here and there doesn’t really matter, as there is forward error correction to mitigate those small losses.

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