90 cm Dish Compared to a 76 cm (Or Even Bigger)

[Andrew K]

Ever since I've gotten into FTA a few years ago, I've always been using a 76 cm Ku dish. Right now, I have it stationary at 30°W. I've seen people highly recommend going to at least 90 cm, but I don't understand why this would make much, if any, difference. Are there signals I'm missing? The only ones that are weak for me right now at 30°W are Canal 11 and Canal 9 in Salta Argentina, and the Uraguayan radio stations like Radio Cero. So is it worth getting a bigger Ku dish?

 

[FaT Air]

So is it worth getting a bigger Ku dish?

Only if you're interested in getting those weak ones.
For me, using a 30 inch across the arc. 103W, 125W, and 99W were 'out of reach'. So a stationary variety* is used for those satellites. 1.2, 1.0 meter and a 83e @ 125.
I also have a 1.2 aimed at 30W. So low to the horizon it was regularly 'knocked out' by weather many miles to the east, as well as locally, on a 30 inch.

 

[SatPhreak]

You might not be missing any channels on that sat, but most DVB-S2 are hard to get on a 76cm dish. I have a 90cm dish and have a hard time getting a few channels like FSTV on 123w or the NBC mux on 103w. If shipping wasn't so much I'd move up to a 1.2m dish.

 

[77TA]

It really depends on what you are going to do with the dish. If it is going to be stationary at a location where a 76cm gives adequate reception, there may be little benefit in upgrading. If you are not getting adequate reception you will notice better reception with a larger dish. I personally do a lot of feed hunting and a larger dish is very important when looking for feeds. Because of that I would never buy another dish smaller than 1 meter for ku, but that is just me. A 90cm seems adequate for most to get the regular channels on most satellites with a few exceptions like nbc feeds on 103W and sometimes the pbs feeds on 125W. I like to compare a 90cm to being the equivalent of a 6ft for c band, a 1 meter to an 8ft, and a 1.2 meter to 10ft. I guess a 76cm would be like minibudding with a 1.2 meter.

 

[jorgek]

Additionally a smaller dish is at the mercy of weather like rain date, snow and ice buildup. So if the FTA is your primary source of TV the bigger dish will be more reliable. I do very well with a 25" with 30W, until it rains!

 

[Andrew K]

It really depends on what you are going to do with the dish. If it is going to be stationary at a location where a 76cm gives adequate reception, there may be little benefit in upgrading. If you are not getting adequate reception you will notice better reception with a larger dish. I personally do a lot of feed hunting and a larger dish is very important when looking for feeds. Because of that I would never buy another dish smaller than 1 meter for ku, but that is just me. A 90cm seems adequate for most to get the regular channels on most satellites with a few exceptions like nbc feeds on 103W and sometimes the pbs feeds on 125W. I like to compare a 90cm to being the equivalent of a 6ft for c band, a 1 meter to an 8ft, and a 1.2 meter to 10ft. I guess a 76cm would be like minibudding with a 1.2 meter.

77TA, your comparison of dish sizes is surprising. I've always been happy with my 76 cm dish. It's brought me lots of channels... like over 90% of what I can possibly receive on Ku. I've never had problems with any of the PBS feeds on 125W when I had a motorized dish. Although I could never receive the NBC feeds on 103W, even with the correct skew. From what I understand (because I've never tried), a minibud won't bring in that much channels from C-band, certainly not over 90% of the available channels. That's why I'm surprised at your dish comparisons.

 

[77TA]

Hey Andrew, A 76cm may be a little better than I have thought then. My experience is using both a 90cm and a 1 meter. The 1 meter significantly outperforms the 90cm especially when feed hunting. I have not had problems with the PBS feeds on 125W, but there are a few threads here were people with 90cm dishes have complained about reception on 125W. A 6ft dish on c band does perform as good as my 90cm does on ku. Most people with 8ft dishes report receiving all the normal channels on c band which is comparable to my 1 meter which does receive all reported ku channels. There have been a few wild feeds reported by someone with a 1.2m that I couldn’t get with my 1 meter. All and all I believe the comparison I made is accurate for 90cm thru 1.2m, but it sounds like the 76cm may perform better than I thought it would.

 

[Andrew K]

Hey Andrew, A 76cm may be a little better than I have thought then. My experience is using both a 90cm and a 1 meter. The 1 meter significantly outperforms the 90cm especially when feed hunting. I have not had problems with the PBS feeds on 125W, but there are a few threads here were people with 90cm dishes have complained about reception on 125W. A 6ft dish on c band does perform as good as my 90cm does on ku. Most people with 8ft dishes report receiving all the normal channels on c band which is comparable to my 1 meter which does receive all reported ku channels. There have been a few wild feeds reported by someone with a 1.2m that I couldn’t get with my 1 meter. All and all I believe the comparison I made is accurate for 90cm thru 1.2m, but it sounds like the 76cm may perform better than I thought it would.

Interesting input 77TA!! On a side note, I'm seriously considering buying a 1.8 meter dish for C-band from SES 6 at 40.5W. But my hesitations are from people in this forum who think that 6' dishes are not adequate to receive enough channels. I would really appreciate if I could get more input from people who have had actual experience. I live in an area that's within the 40 EIRP contour. Is it possible to receive DVB-S2 on a 6' dish? Perhaps I'll have to ask this in another thread if I want more answers.

 

[RimaNTSS]

Hi!
I would say, if you have physical possibility then install dishes as big as possible. Two big dishes (Ku and C bands) would be even better, of course motorized. With big dish you can get everything small dish can provide + that small dish will never get. Bigger dishes give much better rain-sustainability of signals.
Of course, at the end, bigger dishes and their installation cost more. And one more pro- big dishes look nice

 

[77TA]

I can’t get 40.5W from my location so I can’t speak specifically about it. First hand experience with a specific satellite and dish is always the best information. Dvb-s2 is not the real issue most have with a 6ft dish. Specifically it is certain dvb-s2 feeds at certain locations with 8psk modulation and higher fec usually being contributing factors. Kbrk on 99W and city tv on 111W are both dvb-s2 and both receivable on a minibud. Usually about the most difficult dvb-s2 regular channels for us in the US are the cbs feeds on 89W and 97W. Both are dvb-s2 8psk with 9/10 fec. Now according to satbeam I am in the center of the 42.1 eirp area for the 97W feed and can’t receive it. Next door on 95W there is an abc mux that is the same modulation and fec. I’m in the 41.1 eirp area for it and receive it 99% of the time.

At the end of the day I would recommend getting the biggest dish you have both the space and budget for. While there is plenty to be had across the arc with a smaller dish, bigger is always better. But don't let that stop you from getting a smaller dish if that is all you can get.