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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.

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

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

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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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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