Advice Needed Two dishes or One

[tdc]

Hello
my question will probbaly give you a clue as to my expertise in satellite matters!!
I live in Northern Germany originally from the UK.
We live in a thatched house which means that the dish(es) are in the lawn and not a pretty site.
My better half is from Holland so we have 2 dishes Astra 1 and 2.
This all works very well.
We would like to move the dishes so they are more out of view.
When I look at the angle of the dishes they are pretty similar so I assume the satellites are quite close to each other!!
Is it possible to use 1 dish for both satellites and adjust the LNBs accordingly.
Thanks.

 

[Lazarus]

The Astra 1 and Astra 2 positions are 9 degrees apart and, in general terms, that's well within reasonable limits for getting two Satellite positions on the one decent sized dish.

BUT: There is a game of Space Snooker going on right now: Astra 2D went out of service and most of its Channels moved onto a the new(ish) Astra 1N. But that is itself due to move to its originally intended location at Astra 1 19.2E once yet another Bird called Astra 2E is launched (due late September, but could be further delayed). To boot, yet another Bird called Astra 2G is due for launch next year and there is an underused one called Astra 2F already on station at 28.2E.

Why I mention this is that the already tight Beams carrying prime Free To Air stuff like BBC will only become even tighter with these new Birds, resulting in even more difficult reception "out of area".

So even with a dedicated dish for 28.2E, it may turn out that in the not too distant future you could need a bigger one.

Consequently, your original question becomes impossible to answer definitively.

 

[tdc]

The Astra 1 and Astra 2 positions are 9 degrees apart and, in general terms, that's well within reasonable limits for getting two Satellite positions on the one decent sized dish.

BUT: There is a game of Space Snooker going on right now: Astra 2D went out of service and most of its Channels moved onto a the new(ish) Astra 1N. But that is itself due to move to its originally intended location at Astra 1 19.2E once yet another Bird called Astra 2E is launched (due late September, but could be further delayed). To boot, yet another Bird called Astra 2G is due for launch next year and there is an underused one called Astra 2F already on station at 28.2E.

Why I mention this is that the already tight Beams carrying prime Free To Air stuff like BBC will only become even tighter with these new Birds, resulting in even more difficult reception "out of area".

So even with a dedicated dish for 28.2E, it may turn out that in the not too distant future you could need a bigger one.

Consequently, your original question becomes impossible to answer definitively.

Thanks for the info.
WoW life just even more complicated.
When you say a bigger dish, how big.

 

[Lazarus]

There's the rub: The only real way to know will be after the new Satellites are fully operational.

 

[tdc]

There's the rub: The only real way to know will be after the new Satellites are fully operational.

OK thanks for that.
I will get back to the forum when I have no picture!!!

 

[Lazarus]

Hopefully it won't be too long a wait - 2E was originally due to launch in July but was delayed owing to a catastrophic failure during another launch from the same Launch Site

 

[hexah]

Due to the need for testing it is unlikely Astra 2E will be transmitting until after Christmas.

You did not mention Astra 3 at 23.5e between 28e and 19.2e. It has some Dutch regional channels, mostly free to air, NOS plus subscription channels via www.canaldigitaal.nl (and the BBC etc can be added on for silly money ) and some German language channels. You can get this with an extra LNB as the diseqc switch will have 4 inputs so it will only cost around €7 to get 23.5e as well.

Don't forget to seal the unused inputs to the diseqc switch with self amalgamating tape.

The signals for 19e and 23.5e are very strong where you are. You won't need a multi focal dish like the Maximum T85. All you need is a 'universal Multifeedhalterung' like this one

http://www.satking.de/en/Satellite-...arch&searchparam=Universal Multifeedhalterung

and aim the dish at 28e. Any dish that gets good reception on 28e will be big enough to get excellent reception on 23.5e and 19.2e.

My feeling is that the signal levels of 2E are going to be similar to the current 28e satellites where you are due to the high power it will put down and your proximity to Britain. I suspect that a 1m dish would be 'future proof' but it does remain to be seen.

If one of your dishes on the lawn is an 80cm dish then you have nothing to loose by aiming it at 28e and using a multi LNB holder. The 23.5e LNB might be a little tight to the 19.e LNB but the signal is strong enough. You may prefer a slim LNB at 23.5e like the Micro Gold, ALPS, or similar.

Remember that you can spray paint the dish with non metallic paint like Plastikote to make it blend in. Take a look at the examples in these posts.

http://www.satellites.co.uk/forums/threads/lightweight-80cm-dish.158382/#post-842120

http://www.satellites.co.uk/forums/threads/my-self-installed-fixed-dish-multi-lnb-system.74232/

http://www.satellites.co.uk/forums/...ish-multi-lnb-system.74232/page-2#post-506510

Maxx Digital mesh dishes are sized from 60cm to 1.2m. The perforations in the mesh dish allow the light through and painting it a sympathetic colour along with the back lighting reduces the contrast between the dish and its surroundings so making it less visible.

Triax and Gibertini dishes are also good choices, the latter generally regarded as the best.