Zone 1 mini dishes to small in south wales, Any one else useing a zone 2 dish

R

Rd100

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I live in south wales near newport i have installed sky mini dishes since sky digital started but i have always noticed that here where i am in south wales a zone 1 mini dish is a bit to small for this area,

When i really noticed the diffrents is when i went to stay with a family member who lives in london about 2 years back and he ask me to take my satellite meter with me to check his dish so i did i say they have alot stronger signal from astra 28.2 then we do in south wales,

So i always use a zone 2 mini dish for my sky system at home any one else useing a zone 2 mini dish,
 

digiguy

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Hi RD100

I am using the Zone 2 dish. I don't trust the zone 1 to produce good results.

I get no break up during rain storms etc. Although I think I need to re align it, as I think I can get a better signal reading (using a lacua meter, when it wants to stay powered for more than 30 secs)
 

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I'm surprised you don’t get a reliable signal in south Wales. You still see the odd zone 1 dish in Scotland, I've seen a couple in Glasgow and some further north. I'm not sure why people use them, one was on a block of flats amongst a few zone 2 ones, so it wasn't even someone just trying to have a discreet setup.
 

wod

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i use a zone 1 minidish in west yorkshire and the signal can be iffy sometimes, thinking of switching it out for a zone 2 but only use it for the fta channels so it doesn't matter atm

also is the zone 2 any better with the quad lnb issue of the lnb arm dropping down on minidishes ?
 

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wod said:
also is the zone 2 any better with the quad lnb issue of the lnb arm dropping down on minidishes ?
Don't have any first hand experience but I could imagine it to be more critical with a Zone 2. The arm is longer, thus giving a greater leverage effect and, with a larger dish, the acceptance angle is narrower.

No doubt one of the "real" installers will give a definitive answer.
 

rolfw

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The boom on the zone2 is slightly more robust, have to say though that I have been using a 45cm Technisat dish for testing purposes and it performs much better than the zone1 and close to a zone2. :)
 
R

Rd100

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Yes its worse on a zone 2 mini dish as like you said a zone 2 have more leverage is worse if you live where the is no protection from the wind like where i am on the side of a big hill (mountain) over looking the bristol channel,

On the weekend i am changeing my mini dish (which the misses use the most for sky+:-doh! ) over to a 60cm channel master and putting my c120 invacom quad on there,

sky mini dishes zone 1 or 2 where not made to carry the weight of a quad lnb and now the monkey sky installer's are also useing octo lnb's on them lol




PaulR said:
Don't have any first hand experience but I could imagine it to be more critical with a Zone 2. The arm is longer, thus giving a greater leverage effect and, with a larger dish, the acceptance angle is narrower.

No doubt one of the "real" installers will give a definitive answer.
 
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