Directv Phase III HD dish conversion

Big Katuna wrote:
Oh, I am already there. I have tossed the Phase III dish and am looking for Dish Turbo.
I probably wouldn't bother except my Slimline bracket is slight bent so I am looking for a new dish, why not mess around?

Thanks for all the info.

I have also made one with the Turbo with about equal success to the 1000.2. I think the Turbo is the 1000.4. It is a little larger and heavier but it has the screw adjustments like the Slimline. Still mounts on 1 5/8" post. The arm can be separated from the dish for storage. That is actually the one I am using now.

Oh, I am already there. I have tossed the Phase III dish and am looking for Dish Turbo.
I probably wouldn't bother except my Slimline bracket is slight bent so I am looking for a new dish, why not mess around?

Thanks for all the info.

Big Katuna wrote:
I remember seeing a thread a while back about someone that converter a mini multi Phase III Direct dish to a HD dish by changing out the LNB and modifying the arm eg length and height for the LNB.

I did a search to no avail. I picked one up and wanted to try to do it.

Anybody remember the thread?

If you modify the Phase III you will only need to grind or file off a small key on the bottom of the LNB head. The position of the LNB stays the same.

The Phase III will be very critical to get aligned and the signal on 99 and 103, the HD satellites, will be much weaker. I tried it for a while before going with the slightly larger size of the 1000.2. There is still some drop off from the big Slimline but not nearly as bad as the Phase III. I have used the 1000.2 with a SL3 head for almost as long as the Slimline has been out. It has worked from Oregon to Maine, but of course, the further south you go the better it works.

If you see the pictures I have posted in the above mentioned thread, the marrying of the LNB to the DISH is not too problematic.

While it can be done as daamac said it will be difficult to aim and the signal will be weaker. When DirecTV switched to HD they were forced to go to a larger reflector due to the higher frequencies having greater attenuation by dust, moisture, and etc. in the atmosphere. You do have one advantage with your location. The look angle in Florida is high. The further north you go the lower the look angle becomes and the more of the lower atmosphere, where most of the attenuation takes place, the signal has to pass through.

I replaced the nuts that hold the dish on w.ith wing nuts and glued the bolts into the hole so I don't lose them.
I will try Zus fasteners if I can find some cheap.

I have room for the Slimline, I just like messing around.

I take the arm off my slim line, only 4 short easy to get to bolts. Dish is probably easiest to store than most of my stuff.

Original DBSTalk thread from inception, through Phase III and then a "Dish" dish. LONG:

http://www.dbstalk.com/topic/131362-experimental-small-slimline3-dish/

My version of Mike's mod:

https://picasaweb.google.com/104481312076791094670/DirecTVSlimlineReplacement?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIKfkozFzbTnigE&feat=directlink

Thanks. I found it. Posters name is Mikestock.

Looks like my free dish was worth every penny.

Check out this thread in another forum on this subject: thread here. I can tell you that while a Phase III dish with modified arm will work, it is very twitchy to align and signal strength readings are marginal, at best.

For me, a much better choice is using the slightly larger Dish network 1000.2 dish. Much easier to align to get reasonable signal levels.