Replacing sky minidish and WNC octo lnb

A

arcam_man

Member
My Satellite Setup
Sky Minidish with Wnc octo lnb feeding 2 sky+ and 1 sky HD box
My Location
Derbyshire, United Kingdom
I have a 43cm sky minidish running two sky+ boxes and a sky HD through a Wistron NeWeb Corporation F88 octo general lnb which was fitted by sky as a replacement for a failing quad lnb about 18 months ago when I had the HD (sky didn't replace the 43cm dish with a 60cm when I had HD). The system has never been very good in rain, sometimes breaking up completely and I'm not sure that the WNC octo is a true minidish lnb as I do not believe it has the oval feedhorn necessary to match with the oval minidish. Recently a number of the channels have been continually breaking up on both the HD box and one of the Sky+ boxes (the other Sky+ box seems ok for now). I want to replace the dish/lnb myself with a significantly more substantial system that will hopefully be far batter in bad conditions. For the cost of getting sky to replace the lnb and the old minidish I am thinking of something like a Fracarro Penta 85cm dish (I believe these are good quality and attractive) fitted with a Technomate 0.1dB octo LNB or similar. I have a very substantial pole already fitted, so it should be a relatively simple job to carry out. I'd like views on how this is likely to compare with fitting two quality 60cm minidishes with (properly feedhorn matched) quad lnbs to drive my current system.
 
Welcome to the forum.

For Derbyshire a zone1 with the correctly fitted matched Octo LNb will be just fine. A standard feed LNb with circular scalar rings will not perform well on an elliptical type dish. No problem with fitting a zone2 with correct LNb for better rain margin or upgrade to a circular type dish and use your existing octo as mentioned.
 
hello
i woukd say go with the biger dish for sure.
the lnb is only 18 months old.
the 85 is double in size and the signal is stronger.
lnb's are usualy 2 types
offset and prime fucus.

all offset lnb'e are interchangable.

don't forget the scew of the lnb
that is the lnb is slightly twisted in the holder looking at and facing the dish the lnb is twisted clockwise.
basicly the cable connector instead of pointing down to the 6 oclock it will be at the 7 oclock.
swap the octo lnb to a bigger dish and if its set up correctly you aill make a big improvement.
ralph
ps
you need 2 lines for each sky plus and one for the hd totaling 5 lines so a octo is fine
.1 db is the best out there now.
the sky plus is like 2 boxes inside one ,one runs the hard drive for recording the other is for watching tv.
ralph
 
ralphmagno said:
all offset lnb'e are interchangable.
ralph
Click to expand...

Not strictly true Ralph, LNBs designed for Sky minidishes have a custom feedhorn shape and do not perform well on standard offset dishes, the same is true with standard Universal LNBs when used on Sky minidishes.
 
ok sorry,
i thought he had something else.
the mini dish is the screen mesh dish.
and the scew is fixed.
if the octo or 8 output lnb is designed for the minidish then it would take a lot or work to adapt it to a 85 cm dish.
he is better off to upgrade dish and lnb.

usualy solid dishes work better than screened ones and bigger will give better and stronger signal in bad weather.
ralph
 
I believe that a major reason for the poor rain fade could be the use of the wnc universal octo lnb with circular hornfeed with the minidish (I may be wrong, but from what I have gleaned the mnc octo lnb has a circular and not an elliptical hornfeed). As both the HD and Sky+ are giving problems then I'm also fairly certain the wnc lnb is on its way out (based on the short life of the previous sky fitted lnb then this doesn't surprise me - it certainly doesn't seem a high quality product). If the wnc octo lnb is reducing the rain margin then my only minidish option appears to be two dishes with matched quad lnbs. In total this would approach the price of a quality larger standard dish like the Fracarro Penta and a high quality octo lnb like the Technomate.
 
Also consider an FR Penta68cm with the correct octo LNb.
 
After hearing of numerous psu issues with Thompson boxes, I swapped the good Sky+ box with the Sky HD and, low and behold, the fault follows the Sky HD box. I didn't realise until I saw all the discussion on the internet just how poor quality the internals of the Thompson receivers are. It's probably not surprising that the faulty Sky+ box and the Sky HD have have showed problems at similar times, the Sky+ being about 3 years old and the HD about 20 months. I'm leaving the dish alone for now and concentrating on the psu capacitors in both boxes, which, from what I've read, are probably the culprits.

Before this problem occurred, I was thinking about changing one of the Sky+ boxes for a second HD box. Does anyone think I'll have any chance of persuading Sky to change my failing HD box if I complain? As well as not going ahead with the 2nd HD box, I may even threaten to cancel (I have fairly high subscription - the full works plus HD plus multiroom on 3 boxes).

If I do repair the HD box and decide to go for a second HD box, does anyone think I have any chance of insisting that Sky do not fit another Thompson?
 
arcam_man said:
If I do repair the HD box and decide to go for a second HD box, does anyone think I have any chance of insisting that Sky do not fit another Thompson?
Click to expand...


My only experience was when I first signed up many years ago and there was no dictating to them then and I doubt one can now but you should be able to dictate your choice the fact that you are paying out all that money. I found that a quick word with the engineer/installer paid dividends and I had my 3 month old Grundig which was malfunctioning replaced by a Sony which is still working to this day....( darn that has probably just cursed it into dying instantly)
 
Just to let you all know - it turns out the two boxes are faulty. I was going to cancel my subscription and fit freesat when Sky offered a free service call - they have replaced the faulty Thompson HD box with a new Samsung (not refurbished) - what a result! :). They are also coming to change the Sky+ box this week. Guess they didn't want to lose over £900 per year!

The Samsung seems very quiet, gives a very good image and seems to be indicating a very good signal. I don't seem to have any lip-sync problems I've read about on some of the forums.

I tried to get the fitters to put up a new Mk4 minidish or a zone 2 dish but they didn't have any - I'm probably pushing it a bit given what Sky are already doing. I'll see how the Samsung receiver performs during heavy rain and, if I still get fade, I may fit either a Fracarro or a zone 2 minidish (depending on just how bad the fade is).

Thanks to everyone who took their time to reply to my thread.
 
Yep ditto that, certainly a good result.
 
Back
Top