Advice Needed Dish manufacturer comparison

[Trader]

Hi

I have been working my way through this excellent forum and I notice members have their favourite makes. That is to be expected, not a criticism from me as I am no different with TV, camera, car etc.

What is the consensus on dishes? It seems there is a hierarchy in terms of quality and therefore performance so I would appreciate people's views. From what I have gathered it seems Raven (CM etc) Gibertini are close to the top but how do they compare in real life i.e. Does a good 1m Raven/CM or Gibby outperform or match a lesser quality 1.2m or is it a case of "bigger is always better"???

TT

 

[timo_w2s]

From what I've read about Fortec Star 2.4m petalised dishes on forums, I'd say bigger is not always better...

As well as performance, you need to consider build quality, durability, ease of installation, etc.

 

[Trader]

From what I've read about Fortec Star 2.4m petalised dishes on forums, I'd say bigger is not always better...

As well as performance, you need to consider build quality, durability, ease of installation, etc.

Thanks. I know that petalised are less efficient but what about solid dishes and their general performance. It seems Gibby and Raven/CM come top but I was wondering how much better they are and are they worth the extra £££s?

 

[sonnetpete]

From personal experience, you can't go far wrong with a Gibertini. I've got nondescript dishes, a Penta 88, a Triax TD88 and a 1M Gibertini. (Most of these are used in the multisat setup) All the 'brand' ones are excellent dishes and well made. The Triax lets itself down with it's 'quirky' elevation adjustment which would make a saint swear. I use a Laminas on the motor because it was both cheap and light being fibreglass. It's by no means perfect as the clamp for the motor stub slips sometimes and is difficult to get really tight. It could also benefit from a threaded elevation adjustment but as I said it was quite cheap. Sadly, I have no experience of Channel Masters, though as you've observed their reputation is usually beyond reproach.

 

[timo_w2s]

I've not had the luxury of testing a decent sized Channel Master dish, mine is only 35cm big (old BSB dish).

 

[Huevos]

From what I have gathered it seems Raven (CM etc) Gibertini are close to the top but how do they compare in real life i.e. Does a good 1m Raven/CM or Gibby outperform or match a lesser quality 1.2m or is it a case of "bigger is always better"???

For me CM is miles above the rest. I don't own one, but have worked on loads. What makes it good is that it is very rigid, and the mount is so easy to adjust. Most other dishes re made of sheet metal and bend out of focus pretty easily. The thinner the metal the worse they are. And the cheap ones are always out of focus from brand new and the only way to get them performing is to bend the dish face after aligning them. The other problem is the mount. Most of them lose the alignment of the dish just by tightening them up, and some distort the dish face by tightening. By the way, after CM I would put Fibo build quality at number 2, and way above anything else I've ever worked with.

 

[Trader]

For me CM is miles above the rest. I don't own one, but have worked on loads. What makes it good is that it is very rigid, and the mount is so easy to adjust. Most other dishes re made of sheet metal and bend out of focus pretty easily. The thinner the metal the worse they are. And the cheap ones are always out of focus from brand new and the only way to get them performing is to bend the dish face after aligning them. The other problem is the mount. Most of them lose the alignment of the dish just by tightening them up, and some distort the dish face by tightening. By the way, after CM I would put Fibo build quality at number 2, and way above anything else I've ever worked with.

Thank you for that, I have just called a favour in and asked for a good price on a 1.2m CM!!

 

[PaulR]

Aren't Prodelin dishes supposed up there nearly at the ChannelMaster level in terms of construction? Plus they're a bit cheaper (but not cheap!) than CMs.

 

[workshoppete]

Yep , Channel Master 1.2mtre the most rugged and stable dish i have come across. And alignment of them is very easy and very precise.

 

[RimaNTSS]

Thanks for topic! I do not have experience with all antenna's brands, but from what I have I would say that made in USA Prodelin and Andrew are great quality. I also like very much old (about 20 years) German Kathrein, especially well designed polar-mount. T90.... maybe not so great quality but nice antenna.

 

[Captain Jack]

Yes, CM is untouchable in terms of build quality. It will NEVER warp and a 20 year old dish will match performance of a new one.

Have also used Gibertini 125 and the Fibo 120. The Fibo is the best performer due to Gregorian nature of the dish.. and the fact that it's slightly larger than a CM. It will give you slightly better signals over the CM but I have not compared either of them directly to the Gibertini.

Gibertini has a threaded elevation adjustment and it's quite precise. It's also the only one of those listed that will work with a DisEqC motor in a *sheltered location*.

Build quality: CM > Fibo > Gibertini
Signal gain: Fibo > CM ? Gibertini

1m CM dishes are just as good as the 1.2m as it's the same fibre glass construction. Have installed the 1m Gibby and it was painless.

I'd also recommend a Penta 85cm dish. It's square and fairly rigid due to the reinforcement bar on the back. Good performer too - people say better than a TD88.

 

[wod]

I've got 3 channel master dishes 90cm, 1m and 1.2m.

After owning them I wouldn't want anything else, build quality and mounts are excellent.

I never need to tweak or adjust them for ages until now the dish needs a slight re align due to being very exposed but otherwise virtually maintenance free once setup.

I do wish they would start manufacturing the polar mounts again as good as my 1224 motor is these are discontinued too so I'm using it sparingly.

 

[mosllam]

what about the gibertini 150 cm with a motorized poler mount
what size of a prime focus dish does it equal ? may be 180 cm prime focus ? i mean ofcorse europian or amercan dishes not the cheeper ones from asia or else
sorry for the quistion but we are not familer with the offest dish - most of us uses a big local prime focus from 165cm to 220cm but full of deficts - i beleve the 220cm is equal to C M 120cm or gib 125cm or even worth
i can order the gib 150cm form some dealer in u.a.e for about 450 $ incl sipp cost
the other option is much more expensive
a C M 180 cm on sail in egypt for more than 800 $ but with fixd po mount - i can ask for spicial order a motorizid polre for extra more than 200 $ - it will be more than a 1000 $
we have some very old amercan dishes for sale - a used cheep ones less than 100$ like paraclps 230 cm and DH 240 cm but its more than 20 years old and they are very heavy and big size but with littel result
in egypt we need these bigger size to be abel to reiceve sattelites which we are out of its coverage such as astra 1 and astra 2 and many others
15 month ago i bought a steel inverto 90 cm form the same dealer in dubai - and an inverto black ultra ( i think its a second rate qual cuse its mush cheeper than the eu sites prices )
and i convert an old poler mount belong to an old local prime focus 160cm dish and fix the inverto 90cm on it - but the inverto is very light
i donot know if that polar mount can hold the heavy CM 180 cm
offcorse that poler is not very accuret but i can deal with it and with inverto 90cm i reiceved from 30W to 95E but just the transponder with a high coverge beam 40 db and higher is stabel all day long - ps rain is very rare in cairo even in winter just few days in the whole year
but i was able to get some weaker sat on that small size for some houres in the day - 2 frequancy on astra 2a (s-b) and 4 on astra 1kr

 

[Huevos]

what about the gibertini 150 cm with a motorized poler mount
what size of a prime focus dish does it equal ? may be 180 cm prime focus ?

I've got a Gibertini 150 cm dish and a Famaval PF 180cm. Famaval dish outperforms the Gibertini by a fair margin.