Incompatible STB firmware or broken 22Khz Controlled Switch?

[WilburSmith]

Do you guys know about Pansat brand switches? Is it a good brand? I guess this one can be used to solve the problem above.

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[el bandido]

Pansat went out of business some 15 years ago. So that switch is 15-20 years old. Would expect it to still work. It is a decent fta product.

9750 and 10600 are local oscillator frequency(s) for the lnb.
950~2150 Is the typical line frequency for the FTA receiver, sometimes called the IF frequency OR intermediate frequency.

This is common knowledge:

In the United States, service providers use the intermediate frequency ranges of 950–2150 MHz to carry the signal from the LNBF at the dish down to the receiver.

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[Keith Brannen]

@Keith, Well that appears to be the ideal arrangement and with no down side. Why is the 22 switch even around if it has all these downsides ?

22 KHZ switches work very well with Standard LNBs (LO of 10750, no built in 22 KHZ switch) or with one Universal per 22 KHZ switch (using the LO of 10600 and 22 KHZ turned on). On a 4x1 diseqc switch, instead of just 4 LNBs, you can get 8 LNBs using a 22 KHZ switch on each port using Standards only. Since most of the satellites in our sky don't use the lower band, a Standard LNB is all that is needed. You can also just put a Universal on one port (or more), and double up the Standards on the other ports. So, a 22 KHZ switch can be quite useful, especially if you have only fixed dishes like I do.

[WilburSmith]

2On a 4x1 diseqc switch, instead of just 4 LNBs, you can get 8 LNBs using a 22 KHZ switch on each port using Standards only.

Why would you want to do this? From what I see online an 8 port DiSEqC switch is $19.00. Where as 4 22KHz switches will cost $32.00 + $8.00 for the DiSEqC switch.

[Keith Brannen]

Why would you want to do this? From what I see online an 8 port DiSEqC switch is $19.00. Where as 4 22KHz switches will cost $32.00 + $8.00 for the DiSEqC switch.

I bought my 22 KHZ switches a long time ago (been doing FTA since 2006) when I only had a 4x1 switch. At that time 8x1 switches were harder to find, and expensive, I bought my first 8x1 (EMP Centauri) in 2007 (and bought more 22 KHZ switches). It wasn't long before I put the 8x1 on port one of a 4x1, and at one time had 22 LNBs (using 22 KHZ switches, and Shaw Direct dishes which have dual LNBs that use a built-in 22 KHZ switch to switch between the two LNBs) on its 11 ports! I only recently retired the 8x1 EMP Centauri off my AZBox receiver, and am just using a 4x1 with 8 LNBs (most are the Shaw Direct dishes). On my Amiko I have a Amiko 8x1 switch on port one of a 4x1 switch, so again 11 ports and have 14 LNBs in use. I would add more LNBs if I could, but we have lost quite a few satellite positions over the years, so pickings are slim.

[el bandido]

Pretty much No systems are setup the same in fta satellite. Some systems are setup dirt cheap, while other systems can be over ten thousand dollars. People set things up to suit their particular wants and needs with some systems being complicated and some being simple. Almost everyone that has been in the fta hobby for some years will have extra switches, receivers, lnbs, dishes, and other stuff either in storage or just not being used at the moment.

Personally I prefer a separate tuner for each satellite lnb, but receivers with more than two tuners that have the features I want don't currently exist. I also like a receiver to have a several Terabyte internal hard drive. IMO, a decent tuner for each lnb is the best way to go. But I don't have 20 dishes either.

[WilburSmith]

I bought my 22 KHZ switches a long time ago (been doing FTA since 2006) when I only had a 4x1 switch. At that time 8x1 switches were harder to find, and expensive, I bought my first 8x1 (EMP Centauri) in 2007 (and bought more 22 KHZ switches). It wasn't long before I put the 8x1 on port one of a 4x1, and at one time had 22 LNBs (using 22 KHZ switches, and Shaw Direct dishes which have dual LNBs that use a built-in 22 KHZ switch to switch between the two LNBs) on its 11 ports! I only recently retired the 8x1 EMP Centauri off my AZBox receiver, and am just using a 4x1 with 8 LNBs (most are the Shaw Direct dishes). On my Amiko I have a Amiko 8x1 switch on port one of a 4x1 switch, so again 11 ports and have 14 LNBs in use. I would add more LNBs if I could, but we have lost quite a few satellite positions over the years, so pickings are slim.

Are the shaw dishes the same as PrimeStar?

[WilburSmith]

I would imagine a lot has to be also custom designed around what you can find. But I tell you this. Reading an advert on what my 22 switch was suppose to do as compared with actually deploying it into my system was very unexpected. But now as I have learned it appears I just need the diseqc switch and I'll be back in business.

[Keith Brannen]

Are the shaw dishes the same as PrimeStar?

They are similar (as far as I can tell) but are different, and are still in use for Shaw Direct subscriptions. Both were/are made by Channel Master, and are elliptical dishes. The Shaw Direct dual LNBs are 3.8 degrees apart, for the satellites at 107.3 and 111.1 (which is dying, and all channels being moved to 107.3). In my opinion the dishes outperform their ratings (60e and 75e) and work well for FTA, especially the 75e.

[Keith Brannen]

I would imagine a lot has to be also custom designed around what you can find. But I tell you this. Reading an advert on what my 22 switch was suppose to do as compared with actually deploying it into my system was very unexpected. But now as I have learned it appears I just need the diseqc switch and I'll be back in business.

What did the advert say? As I said, the vast majority of the satellites in our sky don't need a Universal LNB, so the advert was probably geared to use with Standards. If you had had just two Standard LNBs, it would have worked just fine. But, at the very least, the advert should have said something like "not for use with Universal LNBs".