Upgrading from TD110 to Gibertini125

Fredrik M

Fredrik M

Regular Member
My Satellite Setup
Gibertini 125 dish, Inverto Black Ultra single aimed at 28.2 E, built in Philips TV receiver
Triax 110 aimed at Telstar 12 (15 W)
My Location
Landvetter (15 km E of Gothenburg), Sweden
I currently use a Triax TD110 for 28.2 E with a fairly good result. In good weather conditions I get all channels except 10847V (BBC HD) 24/7 (10847V fades out for some hours at lunch time and in the middle of the night). Currently, I have good reception from 2G, but it was not the case right after the switchover from 2F. Bad weather margin is limited on all uk spot channels. I just found a good offer for a barely used Gibertini 125 (see sellers photo) . Do you think that it would do the trick or should I aim for an even larger dish?

gibertini.webp
 
Fredrik M said:
I just found a good offer for a barely used Gibertini 125 (see sellers photo) . Do you think that it would do the trick or should I aim for an even larger dish? View attachment 81740
Click to expand...
If the dish is not bent or damaged (bring some fishing line and a rool of sticky tape; stringing it can be done in 5 minutes), it will be an improvement.
The Gibby is AFAIK really a 120 cm dish, and the Triax is a 100 cm dish, so you will get a marked better reception with the Gibby (about 2dB more gain (in theory)).
(Talk about improper marketing when naming dishes after wishful thinking rather than even actual physcial dimensions!!)

In my experience, a 120 cm dish is sufficient for 28.2E in Southern sweden (where I would put Gothenburg) for most conditions.
If you come across a good deal on a Gibby 150, or even a CM180, then of course that would be something else.
Until then, the Gib125 (if performing as it should) will be an improvement.
 
Overall performance will be better with the Gib 125 given dish size and known issues with the Triax boom.
 
If you upgrade, it will be very interesting to hear the result. I'm also suffering with very low margins. Currently 24/7 on all UK spot transponders but....it goes up and down. Astra 2G UK spot was terrible in the beginning but steady improvement in signal level over the last weeks...:)
 
st1 -thanks for the advice with the fishing line. How should I do the threading? Two lines crossing in the middle? How close should the lines cross to be satisfactory in that case (not indicating a bent dish)? A 150 cm Gibertini dish would be great, I am not sure if my neighbours would appreciate looking at a 180 cm dish... Maybe I could buy an octo LNB and offer them to connect :-).

Satelliteman -sounds good. I have been trying to adjust the arm of the TD110 dish, but I dont know if I had any success.

bema -Good to hear that you get UK spot beam channels 24/7 (even 10847V?) now. I guess that some tweeking with my dish could improve my reception given that we use almost the same equipment and that I live only some 30 km away (in a supposedly favourable direction for spot beam reception). However, I think that I will go ahead with the upgrade and I will keep you posted.
 
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Fredrik M said:
bema -Good to hear that you get UK spot beam channels 24/7 (even 10847V?) now. I guess that some tweeking with my dish could improve my reception given that we use almost the same equipment and that I live only some 30 km away (in a supposedly favourable direction for spot beam reception). However, I think that I will go ahead with the upgrade and I will keep you posted.
Click to expand...

Yes...even 10847...Yes, you should have higher signal compared to me...

Last 24h below, 2F should be 2G...


all_V.webp
all_H.webp
 
Update! I did buy a Gibertini 125 and finally it is in place. Hopefully, I will have it up and running by the weekend.
 
Fredrik M said:
Update! I did buy a Gibertini 125 and finally it is in place. Hopefully, I will have it up and running by the weekend.
Click to expand...
The gibertini 1.25 is a great all rounder, I have had one for a few years now, with good results in ku/ka/c band. I have now put mine in the shed for a while. I had the opportunity to upgrade to a gibertini 1.5 :D and it just bolted on my polar mount.

How will you be using your dish? Fixed or motorised ?

You won't regret buying it.

Good luck with the setup.
 
Thanks for encouraging comments. The installation is currently in progress, as can be seen in the photo. I will pour some concrete where the 75 mm post rests in the ground. Then I have to get some good cable etc.

Gibertini.webp
 
Looks good so far. :)

Fredrik M said:
A 150 cm Gibertini dish would be great, I am not sure if my neighbours would appreciate looking at a 180 cm dish...
Click to expand...

Bigger is always better. Painting a 1,8m front and back and the mount with matt spray paint like plastikote really does make it look much smaller. If you paint it before the neighbours see it, it will look much smaller than it would if it was a big white mushroom that catches the sunlight.

Unless it is in front of a white wall!
 
The dish is now up and running and the results are somewhat positive. Particularly the astra 2e seems to be stronger. However, I do have some problems with 2g HD channels. Maybe I need to adjust the skew better? I moved my black ultra single to the new dish so I have good cross polarisation isolation. Do we have european/data beams that should be strong herr in Sweden at opposite polarisation for both BBC, ITV and Ch4 HD transponders on 2g?
 
Fredrik M said:
The dish is now up and running and the results are somewhat positive. Particularly the astra 2e seems to be stronger. However, I do have some problems with 2g HD channels. Maybe I need to adjust the skew better? I moved my black ultra single to the new dish so I have good cross polarisation isolation. Do we have european/data beams that should be strong herr in Sweden at opposite polarisation for both BBC, ITV and Ch4 HD transponders on 2g?
Click to expand...
The old 2C data transponders have gone to the higher band (above 12.5GHz) but now there are plenty of very strong 2G Europe beam transponders between the UK spots to cause problems next to some of the ITV HD and Channel 4 HD channels.

Don't forget 2G is at 28.2E and 2E is at 28.5E too, that makes a big difference on larger dishes in the fringes so you need to decide which to peak on.
 
After some more adjustment, I seem to be getting all the BBC channels alright, bur I am still struggling with ITV and channel 4 HD. During parts of the day, I can get the 11063H transponder, but the ones at higher frequencies seem impossible. When I tune to them manually, I get 0 for both strength and quality. Could my long cable run be the problem? I currently have the following connection from receiver to lnb: lnb-25 m cable (120)-diseqc switch-6 m cable (unknown quality)-receiver.
 
Fredrik M said:
Update! I did buy a Gibertini 125 and finally it is in place. Hopefully, I will have it up and running by the weekend.
Click to expand...
Where did you buy that dish if I may ask?
 
It is a used dish that I bought from a satellite enthusiast is southern Sweden. It was advertised on the used items market blocket.se
 
Fredrik M said:
After some more adjustment, I seem to be getting all the BBC channels alright, bur I am still struggling with ITV and channel 4 HD. During parts of the day, I can get the 11063H transponder, but the ones at higher frequencies seem impossible. When I tune to them manually, I get 0 for both strength and quality. Could my long cable run be the problem? I currently have the following connection from receiver to lnb: lnb-25 m cable (120)-diseqc switch-6 m cable (unknown quality)-receiver.
Click to expand...

4 HD should not be any problem. It uses DVB-S so the threshold is lower compared to DVB-S2 transponders. I got approx 2 dB of average margin for that one. For ITV HD use 11097 V. For me it's stronger than the other S2 transponders 10847, 11023 etc...Regarding 11053 H ? I don't know if it still uses different FEC which gives lower reception margins. Maybe you should also do a check with shorter cable if possible.
 
Fredrik M said:
It is a used dish that I bought from a satellite enthusiast is southern Sweden. It was advertised on the used items market blocket.se
Click to expand...
Lucky you then, congratulations! I just ordered one from a German webshop, 2.430 Skr shipping included.
Hope it will arrive in Småland in one piece....
 
I just did a test. 11068 V no probems. 11053 H nothing. Still 3/4 FEC ?
 
Fredrik M said:
After some more adjustment, I seem to be getting all the BBC channels alright, bur I am still struggling with ITV and channel 4 HD. During parts of the day, I can get the 11063H transponder, but the ones at higher frequencies seem impossible. When I tune to them manually, I get 0 for both strength and quality. Could my long cable run be the problem? I currently have the following connection from receiver to lnb: lnb-25 m cable (120)-diseqc switch-6 m cable (unknown quality)-receiver.
Click to expand...
I don't think your cable runs should add to the problem, especially with a Black Ultra (unless cable or LNB is broken).
I have 4 x 30 meters from my dish to my multisiwitch, I then get to pass the combined signal through 10s of meters of "normal" coax, and wall plates and more coax to STBs. And I have very good signal all around.

But I too struggle with CH4HD and ITVHD as my CM is aimed at 2E at 28.5.
Be sure to observe timo_w2s's advice on ITV HD and CH4 HD being on 2G at 28.2E, whereas the BBC stuff is on 2E at 28.5E.
Once you get into the bigger dish sizes, alignment becomes more and more important, as your beamwidth is narrower.
A good 1.2 meter will start feeling this.

You may find that aiming the dish at 2G gives better results.
Or somewhere in between (use a felt pen to mark where the 2E is on azimuth (pole) and elevation (bracket), then adjust to 2G for max receptiion, and mark with different colour felt pen. The best spot is probably somewhere in the middle between the two colours.)
I will get to do this myself in the autumn leave, I hope...
 
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