How To Look For & Find 5G Interference in C Band

[el bandido]

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For about the last 5 weeks I have started to have problems with 5G interference on my BUD. Getting worse by the day. I was using a BSC621 C/Ku Combo LNBF. And that worked great for me for C and Ku. But i started noticing pixelation creeping in. I checked online to see if 5G was finally in my area, and it was. And then it got worse and worse. Checked every possible "other" issue, connectors, coax, etc..

So i decided to order the Titanium C138 5G Filter LNBF.

I have a 10 Ft Winegard Pinnacle BUD and lucky for me, i have the manual so i know the focal distance right from the specs. Set that and had to do a best guess for the rotation of the LNBF. Turns out i was off quite a bit at first. After a few adjustments got that just right too. Its a bit of trial and error for me. The dish has to be moved to extreme west for me to be able to reach it with a ladder barely. And no sat signals there. So i have to set it, run the dish to true south and check thats its horizontal.

Anyway, this Titanium C138 5G Filter LNBF totally fixed my 5G issues. Completely 100%. Before i could get say CIVI on 119.0W but it would pixellate enough to make it unwatchable. Over on 127.0W i could not even get a signal on the NFL /Mav TV Transponder. After installing the Titanium C138 5G Filter LNBF, no problems whatsoever, CIVI etc plays perfect. I scan in everything on on 127.0W, same on 103.0W. 3 Sats tested, everything is great.

If you have 5G issues like i did, i would totally recommend this product. I am a happy camper having my C Band back to normal. I lost Ku Band on my BUD by changing, but i will add a Ku Sidecar LNBF come spring.

Excellent that it worked out for you, but it was a crap-shoot at best. I have seen others do the same thing only to find they now have a brand new spare lnbf that doesn't work. Another thing I have yet to figure out is how one checks to see if 5G is available in their area without using any radio equipment. 5G consists of multiple bands with only part of the mid-band being near the c band satellite frequencies. This has been confusing for many people and has led to errors or purchases that either did not work or were not needed.

For some years, I assisted with work on mountaintops including radio maintenance, the installation of towers and the installation of antennas. Interference is common on mountaintops, and the first step that was always performed when dealing with interference issues was to locate and identify the source of the interference. To date, I have yet to see anyone in the satellite hobby do this.

Usually filters cut signal reception, so care should be taken when adding them. It doesn't do much good to add a 20db filter when the carrier you are trying to filter is 25db at your antenna. Quality built spectrum analyzers and other properly constructed directional finding tools can be very expensive. Depending on the situation, the offending signal may need to be measured on the satellite dish to determine the amount of filtering needed.

Things will probably continue pretty much they way there are now in the c band satellite hobby. Someone decides they are getting 5G mid-band interference and will buy parts that either fixes the problem or not. Then these solutions that work or not will be discussed because we try to help each other.

Simple tools including a directional c band beam antenna can be purchased on the Internet for about the same or similar price as the 5G lnbf. To me, it is better to make a small or even large investment in some tools that can show the exact frequency the c band interference is on and where the interference is located instead of throwing money at parts that may/may not work. But this is a hobby with no real right or wrong answers, and each person has a right to his own ideas.