Online Signal Amplifier on a < 100' line...

[lars]

Hi there, Hi have a question for the installing gurus...

I installed my dish about 5 years ago ( i am in Mexico so it is a 6' dish).

I changed the old RG6 for some new RG6 (55'), but since then i am loosing all signal arround noon... for about 15 minutes, then comes back normally.

I have 85% to 45% depending on the transponder, and my questions are... "Why do i loose all transponders by noon??" are those Solar Flares ??? and "If i install a online signal amplifier, will it help, or is it just wasted money ???"

Thanks and Peace everyone !!!

-lars

[lars]

Thanx Man, now i have a question, there arent many stores that carry such hardware in Mexico, I know Rat Shack has some signal amplifiers... are they really sucky ???

Would a 2.2 Ghz 15db gain be ok ?? or what would you guys suggest ???

Thanks in advance.
-lars

[SMOKER]

I think buying on the net will be your best bet down there.I dont trust alot of stuff that Rshack sells.

[lars]

Hi Cellular,

I thought i told you about my dish, I have a big one, it is 6 feet on diameter, (and trust me that when you have a dish that size, this hobby starts getting really expensive and I have to reaim it pretty often).

My neighbour next door owns a 10 yr. old BIG "C"Band dish, 18 feet diameter, he is not using it anymore, (it has a mesh bottom) and he told me that he could sell it to me... I dunno if it would be better or worse hassle to convert it to Ku Band... (because of the 3 birds aiming angle) I think it might be like... .38 degrees freedom ???
(thats pretty tight)

any thoughts or experience on such big dishes ??

-lars

[Blaster]

Whoa... 18 feet is TOO big :)

The "beam width" (the size of the aperture the dish looks to the sky through) would be so narrow on an 18 footer that you couldn't look at more than one colocated satellite at DTVs 101 at a time. This would mean you couldn't get the whole service there.

Is your 6 ft dish prime focus or offset? A 6 foot offset will outperform a 12 foot prime focus dish for DTV (using an amp from an 18" dish) everytime. KTI and ChannelMaster 5 & 6 footers are used Far into the US to receive DSS Latino (from South America) so I'm assuming the reverse would be true for you :)

[lars]

I tried to do my homework on this, read a lot, and i came across that my dish is offset, it is a Channelmaster 6 feet fiberglass dish...

I came across some posts from Raddoc, and he is THE MAN !!!

if you do a search with his name you can find tons of intersting stuff related to dish and satellite interaction !

BTW, more info needed !!!!

-lars

[Blaster]

OK, 6ft offset ChannelMaster is probably about as good as you're going to get. Again, the 18ft Cband dish is going to be prime focus and Not going to work at all for DTV.

Have you spent some time "peaking" the Lnb to the dish? moving it in & out, side to side, up & down? looking for the "sweet spot" with the most signal? Even a 6 footer has a Much smaller beam width than an 18" dish which means you have to be very particular on how you set it up. Often a cheap meter, which measures All signal coming down from a sat will throw you off by making you peak to the strongest transponder. Take a TV & receiver out with you and find a weak transponder and try to peak to that, having an 85 on one and 45 on another you might be better off having a 65 on both.

So.. what "more info" are you looking for?

[lars]

Well, I have been about 4 years in this hobby and I tried all of that... gone with the small TV and fine tuned, everything, i give maintenance about 3 - 4 times a year.

There was a problem about 3 years ago, when Dave decided to reaim the beam of some transponders, so no one arround my hometown is able to receive transponders 2,6,10,14,18,22,26,30 I have about 85%~50% on all other transponders...

So that is why i wanted to go to a bigger dish, to have all channels available, for example.. i am unable to receive Tech TV !!!!

And I have somewhat a problem with rain fade (not a lot).

Keep posting.

[partytyme]

sun spots kill us all so get useto it happens every fall so life go's on:Z:Z

[Blaster]

Well, as I said, if you go much bigger you're going to start having trouble, the system is designed for a wide beamed 18" dish.

The next thing you can do would be get into an array. This is where the signal from several (typically 3) dishes are combined. For DTV they could probably be like 1.25Meter dishes. It's expensive, tricky to set up and tune and I'm not sure who's doing it here with DTV and could get you started :(

You might have more access to guys in your area, where it's necessary. I've heard rumors of people in Costa Rica and Central America useing arrays for DTV. Here in North America, except for Latino, we don't run into it much and the Latino guys are getting away with what you already have.

So maybe live with what you have or go really techie and try setting up an array :)