TRIAX TD88 vs FRACARRO PENTA 85

**satelliteman** · 14-07-2008

Swapped Dish on DiSEqC motor resulting in better noise margin all round.
A well built dish that performs excellent

Results taken from Technomate 5200d Signal Quality info screen:

Results showing quality reading:

> 1w THOR 11.325h before: 92% Now: 95%

> 9e 11823h Before: 80% Now: 84%

> 16e 10.957h Before: 66% Now: 72%

> 16e 11.451h Before: 81% Now: 86%

> 23.5e 10.862h Before: 97% Now: 98%

> 26e 11.819h Before: 58% Now: 58%

> 39e 12.606h Before: 94% Now: 98%

> 42e 11897v Before: 89% Now 89%

> 8w 10.972 Before: 76% Now: 84%

> 30w 11.683v Before: 77% Now 75%

> 30w 12.456v Before: 95% Now: 96%

Satman

**rolfw** · 14-07-2008

That's quite impressive Satman, did it bring in any channels which were iffy before?

**satelliteman** · 14-07-2008

No not really but an improved noise margin and BER for sure

**rolfw** · 14-07-2008

I've always been dubious about the "better than a 1m" claims, it probably is better than some poor quality 1m dishes around at the moment, but due to its compact and high quality build, I would certainly choose it over and above the Triax TD88.

**gerryl** · 14-07-2008

Also think the Penta looks better!

***wod*** · 14-07-2008

interesting results, not sure that i'd buy one though

**satelliteman** · 14-07-2008

You would do well Wod.
The results speak for them self. The dish when up, doesn't look as big although the PENTA is wider

**Robbo71** · 14-07-2008

How wide is it to the end of the pointy bits?

Great results SM, certainly the improvement is obvious for 16E.

kubo · 14-07-2008

Satelliteman

Out of curiosity, what made you vhange the T&K position from the old setup to the new setup?

**rolfw** · 14-07-2008

98 cm Robbo http://www.satellites.co.uk/satellit...30-post27.html

**Robbo71** · 14-07-2008

Thanks rolf, that explains it a bit (I think),
I'm surprised the performance on 26E has not shown an improvement though.

**satelliteman** · 15-07-2008

Originally Posted by kubo

Satelliteman

Out of curiosity, what made you vhange the T&K position from the old setup to the new setup?

Just raised the dish a fraction and mounted one bracket above the other.

* Checked again this morning in clear skies, signal levels / quality even better. The 'after' results above were taken on cloudy dull day*

Thanks rolf, that explains it a bit (I think),
I'm surprised the performance on 26E has not shown an improvement though.

Yes no improvement on Mbc beam 26e. Alignment is spot on

Happy days

**compufunk** · 15-07-2008

I just fitted the Fracarro Penta 85 yesterday evening,

It started getting too windy so I left the job unfinished, I still need to get the alignment spot on, but Its looking good so far.

The only thing I did not like much about it was the pivot point on bracket.

Its just a small indentation on either side. I found that when I would tighten slightly to make small adjustments to dish declination/elevation, There was not enough grip in the small indent and the whole thing tended to want to pull out of the out of its pivot point during adjustment.

This is only a small problem, but it made things slightly harder when I was on the roof with only had one had free for adjustment

Otherwise I'm happy with my purchase.

**satelliteman** · 18-07-2008

Just to follow on briefly, and although the signal were the same from both dishes on Badr at 26.0°E only, there seems to be less rain fade attenuation on the Mbc beam with the PENTA, so overall a good result

satkitten · 4 Weeks Ago

thanks for all the posts guys...great reading and input..now i will defo get one of these speically as it give a lower noise. my lidl 80cm dish is very resonant on my darkmotor ... so better sigs in rain and quieter too..great stuff...

for satelliteman....are you using the steel or aluminium? thnk ill go for aluminium but grateful any thoughts on this..

post note 2: i really want to improve my setup not only by a few DB gain but quieter operation too.....now to research a single lnb to go with it..

**compufunk** · 4 Weeks Ago

Originally Posted by satkitten

thanks for all the posts guys...great reading and input..now i will defo get one of these speically as it give a lower noise. my lidl 80cm dish is very resonant on my darkmotor ... so better sigs in rain and quieter too..great stuff...

satelliteman is referring to a different kind of noise than what you are talking about. Its to do with signal interference rather than audible sound.

My Penta doesn't make any noise when its moving, Its pretty much the same as moving the motor with no dish attached.

satkitten · 4 Weeks Ago

thanks for those comments.....very gratefull

**satelliteman** · 4 Weeks Ago

Go for an aluminium PENTA if you can although the Steel version is only around 8Kg - 9Kg I believe.

Noise Margin or Carrier to Noise (Known as CNR OR C/N)

A measurement of the received carrier strength relative to the strength of the received noise floor in a specified bandwidth.

SM

satkitten · 4 Weeks Ago

nods in agreement, aye, i think thats the best way to go for me....ill get a db or two gain over a metronic 80cm clear...i guess 8-10db over this lidl 80cm solid HEAVY steal dish, which is kinda noisy....and being ali..it will be lighter and quieter...i think a good alround investment....i see it comes with a 0.6 fracaro lnb...so ill give that a go before getting (if i need one) one of those 0.2 ones.....anyway....ill order it tomorrow..fit it while im four days off next week...and post my comments here.......ill try and take some comparisons of the old 80cm dish against this 85cm one...i know the stronger sats will not be much diff..but as long as we can get a more stable pic in rainy wx on 1w and sports feeds on 12.5w will be happier.....but...i guess ill never be happy till i win the lotto buy a house on a big high mountain and then a m A S S I V e dish to get abolutely everything lol.....thanks again ..your da man....regards mike

satkitten · 3 Weeks Ago

got me dish...all setup....lots of improvement, and less mechanically noisy too!

**satelliteman** · 3 Weeks Ago

and less mechanically noisy too

Is that right

p.s glad your up and running

satkitten · 3 Weeks Ago

yep dats right...its quite a bit quieter....the lidl 80cm was very noisy due to it being tin/steel.....the new dish is a tad heavier! but noticable improvement when "motoring"! still noiser moving west though...and it seems a 10% and more signal strength improvement all round....even managed to watch a sports feed last night on 12.5W at a constant 50% in drizzle and lots of cloud.....(usually 23-30% and lots of breakup)...bit disapointed it didnt come with the universal 0.6lnb as stated on the specs....so im just waiting for a new lnb ordered (strong 0.2)....

**satelliteman** · 3 Weeks Ago

0.2dB should show overall better performance over a 0.6dB.... assuming these are true figures of course.

Good going

satkitten · 3 Weeks Ago

just to update my findings on the fracarro 85cm alluminium....as there seems to be a few peeps in various forums wondering about them..

My original setup was an 80cm steel or tin dish with 0.6 uni lnb from lidl. this was very good for fixed/strong sats, and quite acceptable for weaker sats, but in rain...pffft.....i have now motorised my system with a darkmotor and found the vibrations of the motor went through the dish making the whole thing a tad noisy.

the new dish is much quieter when moving and here are some examples of improvements read in similar conditons. lots of low cloud/drizzle

SAT Freq Pol. Channel 80cm Lidl 85cm Fracarro
12.5W 12515 H LA7 0% 50%
12612 V Sports Feed 30% 50%
1W 12723 H Ani Plani 45% 58%
13E 12597 V BBC world 55% 63%
16E 11449 H Supersports 0% 40%

Basically a tremendous improvement in receiption and the "squarial" look of the fracarro is brill......a worthwhile investment and recommended to anyone......although i have to fine tune on a sunny day im more than happy with it now.....the strong sats are fine of course and even get a bit more from them too.... might get another one fixed setup soon...