Sky Zone 2 testing

cwsat

cwsat

Member
My Satellite Setup
Gibertini 85cm / Dragonsat 3000 motor / Inverto Black Ultra LNB
My Location
Midlands
I have been playing about with a new Zone 2 Sky minidish.

My first modification was to remove the Sky quad LNB and fit an Inverto Black Ultra single LNB (latest revision) and I have been pleasantly surprised with how it is performing.

Conditions are pretty much perfect in the UK at the moment for scanning the sky but so far, this is what it is pulling in......

0.8W T1/T2 Nordic beam - plenty of margin.

16e - 10804H - strong signal

13,19.2,23.5e (all strong)

42e - 11676V - acceptable strength.

Unfortunately I cannot get db readings which is a shame but is there anything else I should try and get to see how well it is performing? I have an unobstructed south facing position so the full arc is achievable.


It seems to be performing very similar to an 80cm conventional dish.
 
The zone 2 dish design (even with the fixed wall bracket ) lends itself well to motorising since it has the cut out point for a mast and clamp.
Performance is ok for a perforated dish owing to the cutout dimensions and rigidity of the reflector edges.
 
Channel Hopper said:
The zone 2 dish design (even with the fixed wall bracket ) lends itself well to motorising since it has the cut out point for a mast and clamp.
Performance is ok for a perforated dish owing to the cutout dimensions and rigidity of the reflector edges.
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I motorised one for a relative back in 2024 and it performs very well for its size.

So much so, I decided to have a play with one myself.

I was just wondering what other fringe sats / beams I could try to see how it performs.
 
52 East should be a good catch, plenty of entertainment for free.

68 East will be a good test of the arc you have
 
I motorised one a while back using an old IRTE omnisat motor. I get very good results. 52 east is no problem.
 
I've motorised a few over the years and used a couple with offset LNBs, in all cases I used the sky LNBs, as they appeared to give better SNR, if a little lower dbs on the signal strength than LNBs like the black ultra.
 
rolfw said:
I've motorised a few over the years and used a couple with offset LNBs, in all cases I used the sky LNBs, as they appeared to give better SNR, if a little lower dbs on the signal strength than LNBs like the black ultra.
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I did try the Sky LNB and it was noticeably worse than the black ultra in pretty much every scenario.

It was a GeoSync LNB though and I don’t think the feedhorn matched the dish shape at all.
 
cwsat said:
I did try the Sky LNB and it was noticeably worse than the black ultra in pretty much every scenario.

It was a GeoSync LNB though and I don’t think the feedhorn matched the dish shape at all.
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Yes, they're OK for strong satellites, hence OK for Sky in most case, but not as good as the proper LNB.
 
addicted2tekno said:
I motorised one a while back using an old IRTE omnisat motor. I get very good results. 52 east is no problem.
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Yeah 52e is no issue. Shocked at what is on that sat FTA.

Really impressed with the Zone 2, especially on 16e.

It definitely performs better than a conventional 60cm. Wish I still had my mesh 80cm to compare them.
 
Sky issued a conventional 60cm perforated dish before using the oval zone 1 and zone 2.

IIRC the zone 2 has similar performance to a Triax TD64 but the Triax TD64 holds on to the signal longer in the rain.
 
hexah said:
Sky issued a conventional 60cm perforated dish before using the oval zone 1 and zone 2.

IIRC the zone 2 has similar performance to a Triax TD64 but the Triax TD64 holds on to the signal longer in the rain.
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On analogue on 19.2e they did yes. Never on digital.

I had a TD64 camping dish and it didn’t perform anywhere near as good as this Zone 2.

I just about got lock on 16e and there was absolutely no rain margin at all. On the Zone 2 it will take a decent shower to wipe it out.

I also couldn’t get the Nordic beams on 1west on it.


Granted, I was using a TM Gold LNB and not the black ultra so not a particularly fair test.

I read online the shape of the Zone 2 makes it perform better on certain satellites. Could be the case with 16e as it’s sandwiched between two very strong satellites.
 
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