Advice Needed Unicable LNB vs Universal LNB question

[BM300]

Hello friends,

When fine tuning the dish to get the maximum signal from 16E (Europe B beam) , I get a solid picture on the meter (for week signals) near the dish.
But when I try to lock onto these channels, it is either pixilated or not there on Dreambox 800 se
I think that this is due to some signal loss along the cable to the receiver.

Tried a standard line amplifier but it did not help much.
Tried a special line amplifier with slope adjustment, it helped on some channels but not others.

I am using inverto LNB on SatAn 1.8 m Prime focus dish.

I thaught to use Unicable LNB, but would this help solve this issue?
Would its good Very high Cross Polarization Isolation help?

Has anyone compared the 2 types of LNBs?

Thanks.

 

[davemurgtroyd]

What length of cable and what type of cable?

 

[archive10]

But when I try to lock onto these channels, it is either pixilated or not there on Dreambox 800 se
I think that this is due to some signal loss along the cable to the receiver.

Depends on cable and condition.

If cable is broken or squashed, you may lose certain frequency ranges, but on a good cable you will lose a couple of dB.

But if your cable is good, and the signal comes through without quality degradation only slightly wearker, you should not see any difference on the receiver.
Most receivers are able to compensate for general signal loss through good auto-gain circuitry, so "too weak a signal" is normally less of a problem.

Tried a standard line amplifier but it did not help much.
Tried a special line amplifier with slope adjustment, it helped on some channels but not others.

But as you have a meter, please a) measure power and C/N ratio (S/N) while nex to dish/LNB, and then b) at the receiver (plugging the cable into the meter rather than the Dreambox). Measure the transponders in question.

This should show clearly if you have power problems, or C/N ratio problems (distortion of signal along cable run).

I am using inverto LNB on SatAn 1.8 m Prime focus dish.

I thaught to use Unicable LNB, but would this help solve this issue?
Would its good Very high Cross Polarization Isolation help?

Has anyone compared the 2 types of LNBs?

Thanks.

There is of course also the possiblity that the receiver is not as good as your meter in terms of decoding signals close to the threshold. You can check this when you are measuring the above mentioned signals at the receiver end of the cable. If you have good picture, the DM is not as good as the meter...

Re unicable - this could solve part of the issue if you have a bad cable, or have noise irradiation on certain frequencies. But I think it is unlikely. And as Unicable puts most of the tuner into the LNB, you would have even more possibilities for temeprature variations, as the sun shines on the dish.

I have used unicable LNBs for Ku, but that was really in the primary use case of unicable (aka SatCR) where I had to share a single cable to the LNB between four tuners (2 x 2-tuner PVRs).

Also, I don't know of any unicable LNBs with a C120 feed-horn receptor. But then again, I haven't really been looking...

 

[A nonymous]

Signal strength isn't usually the issue as long as the signal quality is OK as you can always amplify the signal. Providing the signal quality is good through the whole frequency range it should be ok at the end of the cable if amplified before the signal strength degrades too much. If signal quality is poor all your going to do by amplifying it is to make a weak poor quality signal a stronger poor quality signal.

The old analogy You cant polish a turd comes into play. " It doesn't matter how much you polish a turd, its still a turd"

Dependent on the cable length and quality if you amplify it where the signal is really strong it could cause problems, just like if you amplify it where its really weak. If its a long cable run i would amplify it somewhere in the middle rather than at either end where you still have a good quality signal which will amplify well.

If the signal quality is OK i would check the cable for dinks, breaks or water ingress. I'm not sure a unicable lnb would make any difference in all honesty.