Dish size for Thor 2/3?

[mrdaveb]

Hi.

I've got a trusty (old) 90cm dish with a few dents in it and a shiny new Invacom LNB (old LNB didn't do digital) pointing at 1 West.

Signal strength is about 65%, with a few channels working perfectly (98-100% data), and the other few being hopelessly mangled (the box says 0% data, but that can't be right). The rest are conax encrypted, and I don't have the CAM yet.

Anyway, I suppose the question is... is my dish going to be big enough for the encrypted channels? I realise I'm pushing it a bit. I notice in What Satellite that some channels seem to require a larger dish (including TV4 which is a channel I want) - are some channels broadcast weaker? If so, why? If I have to buy a new dish, what size do you recommend? Can you recommend an online store or would it be cheaper to just find something locally? Thanks!

Regards,
DaveB

 

[Rob]

Hi Mrdaveb,
The reason that you can pick up some channels from Thor and not others is that the ones you are able to receive are on the european beam, and the others are not.
While your 90cm dish is fine for the european beam, you would most likely need a 1.5 metre dish to pick up the other beam.
Check this web-site
www.wotsat.com/footprints.html
There you can see the footprint each satellite leaves, and also what dish size you should have to receive it.

 

[mrdaveb]

Hi Rob.

Thanks for the info on the footprints. I'm guessing that website is out of date though? It mentions Thor 1 which is gone, and doesn't mention Thor 3.

All the channels I'm getting (not many since I don't have the CAM yet!) are from Thor 2... so presumably they all use the same beam and share the same footprint? So it just seemed a bit odd that some are strong and others are weak, but maybe it's not so strange. Perhaps some frequencies are easier to pick up than others. I dunno :-)

DaveB

 

[rolfw]

Also check at www.lyngsat.com some of the channels may have moved to different transponders, there is also a link on the right hand side to the current footprint map from the satellite operator.

 

[Channel Hopper]

At fringe locations to the standard footprints, the polarity of the signals sent from the satellite can have a dramatic impact on whether reception is possible or not (as one can see from discussions of Sirius and Nilesat)

Frequency can also play a part, higher transponders in the spectrum normally dissipate their energy into a far tighter beam, and those receiving on the edge will see a defined cutoff point.