Advice on a bigger dish for 2D in Madrid

sayireand

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Hopefully someone can give me a bit of advice with this.

I'm in Madrid working with a Grundig 3000 box,
a 1.35 dish

http://www.tecatel.com/productos/detalle.asp?cod=10&pos=9

I have all channels all day including ITV 10.906V. I want to maximise reception of 2D to receive the Irish channels available on 10.744H At present I receive the signal (as well as the other Horizontal ones for Hallmark/Eurosportnews, ITV 10.831H fine during the morning and late afternoon and sometimes all day until about 20.00 depending on the day. At night I seldom get a 'No Signal' message and sometimes on changing channel I get the image of the previous channel watched. This also happens as the channels get progressively weaker.

My options are a 1.2 Channel Master
http://www.tecatel.com/productos/detalle.asp?cod=12&pos=11

A 1.8 Channel Master
http://www.tecatel.com/productos/detalle.asp?cod=13&pos=12

or a 1.9 Prime Focus
http://www.tecatel.com/productos/detalle.asp?cod=15&pos=14

Any thoughts would be appreciated as I don't want to invest to be in a similar situation.
 

Old Satellite

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First option i would suggest is to small, your current dish is likely to be already higher gain. what is your current dish?

Second channel master 1.8 is generally a very good dish with proven abilities. The Tecatel should be also fine although I do not have knowledge of this dish myself- its listed performace seems ok however they do list the gain at 12.6 Ghz which is not following normal convention.

Both potentially should improve upon your current problem, please note however though that even with a 1.8 mtr it is still very close to the reception footprint on Astra 2D at your location Normally I would have reccomeded a 2.4 mtr for 100 % reception.

However your results suggest that may be the 1.8 will provide good reception.
Please also note the differnce between the channel master which is an offset dish and the Tecatel which is prime focus you may need to source a feed horm dependent upon your current dish etc.

Regards

Old Satellite
 

sayireand

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My current dish is the Tecatel 1.35.

Sorry but I didn't get your point as regards needing to source a feedhorn dependent on my current dish.

Any ideas why one polarity is that bit stronger??

Also any ideas on what sort of signal strength I should be looking for on a signal meter?

Thanks for your time and help
 

Old Satellite

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The Feed horn would normally have be required when you change from a prime focus dish to a offset dish or the opposite way, due to the design of the dish.

Its very difficult to actually state what signal strength you should see on a signal strength meter since most are different and calibrated differently.

The Astra footprints are designed to cover different areas chosen by the service provider (sky) during their leasing of the transponders from the satellite.-Primarly this is to provide a higher signal strength in those chosen areas. A smaller transponder footprint results in higher power.

Additionally to this you also have satellite footprints that have variations this is due to a large number of reasons including maintaining the position of the satellite by the use of the on board thrusters. (approx every 3-4 weeks)

Normally every satellite drifts marginally in its pre defined area in space along the geo stationary orbit- external influences cause the satellite to drift they include gravitational effects, thermal extremities etc.

Additional the cycle (approx 4 hours) you identify is most likely a result of the actual power on board the satellite changing marginally due to re-positioning of the solar cells to maintain the satellites aspect to the sun.
As a consequence the satellite's Transponder TWA (Travelling tube wave amplifiers output will also change marginally this results in a minor change in level of signal within the defined recieving footprints area.

When you consider that a majority of TWA are around 100 Watt's it gives you an indication of why only a small change in TWA power results in quite signifcant changes within the recieving area.

Regards

Old Satellite
 
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