Dish advice please.

[chavo]

Hi all.

Well hen i first got going with dreamboxe's and so on i bought a 95cm dish with a motor. the thing was floor mounted and all was well, eventually the pole that the dish was on started to bend due to the wind, when i bent it back the pole was so brittle it snapped.

I then mounted the dish on the wall and moved it around trying to find a good place for it. the problem is i live in such a windy part of the wirral (liverpool area) that anything more than a calm night caused the dish to literally rock!.

I bought a wave frontier T90. this has 8 lnbs on the arm and i have to say it is fantastic. however with the gales in the last couple of days i have been making adjustments constantly and i am really worried that it will rip my decking apart, it is attached to the frame.

I am looking for suggestions. I only really use 13, 28 and 1west. although 16, 19 and 4.8 are a great bonus to have.

Has anyone used mono blocks? the type that can get you 13 and 16 on one dish? any thoughts on these and thoughts on dish size?

What minimum size dish can i get away with for 1 west?

I am thinking about getting a 60cm mesh dish with a monoblock for 16 and 19 and other one for 10 and 13.

have a sly dish for sly and that is the major ones done with. all mesh tight to the wall no wind sheer. no problems. how would you deal with this if you where me?

(for switching i would use diseqc 1.1 uncommitted switch i think similar to what i use now.

Also i know the chanel master dishes are supposed to be able to withstand gales, if i climb up the side of the house and mount the dish on the gable end, just above the roof apex it will be hugly exposed to winds, probably in the region of 80 - 100mph in the winter at times. would the dish be ripped off ? would i need to be up constantly adjusting it? how well do they hold their position?

 

[RimaNTSS]

I think if you already have T90 (which is great antenna), than just keep it. It has well wind resistance. After tuning, just make some additional elements which will keep dish in steady position. If you use standard T90 mounting, better consider of changing it instead of changing antenna.

 

[chavo]

It is a good dish mate i will agree with you there, but it isnt a great dish! it gets all the relevent sats but it doesnt get all the chans on each sat. thats a bit of a ball ache.

I am now thinking of using something to attach the dish to the tree as the tree trunk doesnt move to much in the wind so it may give the dish the extra support it needs.

 

[RimaNTSS]

but it isnt a great dish! it gets all the relevent sats but it doesnt get all the chans on each sat. thats a bit of a ball ache.

What do you saying by that: That 60cm or even 80cm dish will bring you better reception?! If you have T90 with 8 LNBs on it than it is equivalent if you have 8 pieces of 90 cm dishes. For weak chans you need bigger dish, for example 110cm or bigger, depends on satellites and beams you are looking.

 

[Channel Hopper]

If you have T90 with 8 LNBs on it than it is equivalent if you have 8 pieces of 90 cm dishes.

That isn't actually true, the T90 has an efficiency of 80% of the same size dish at beams within (roughly) 20 degrees of the centre position, and drops to around 70% at the ends of the arc.

 

[RimaNTSS]

OK, I probably should use word "approximately" when speaking about efficiency of antennas, especially for comparison between different antennas. Efficiency of T90 of course depends where LNBs are located on the rail, I would say if all 8 LNBs are between -20 and +20 than we speak about approximately same efficiency as 8 separate 90cm antennas having their LNBs directly in focus. Once I was trying to draw some graph how depends efficiency of T90 depending on LNB's position on the rail.

 

[absatelliteandaerial]

The dish is good but you should consider a much better mount do you have a south facing wall? Could you possibly use T & K's with 2" Steel mast with end caps? Just suggestions. I have been having all sorts of issues with wind myself recently! Other installers will insist on using loft brackets outside and the poorest quality 1" diameter masts! eeps me in business!