Bigger Dish/old LNB helps my signal strength

[Geno]

I had an old "shure shot" dish (30" I think), so I thought I'd switch it out with the VOOM dish to see what difference it would make.

Going from the VOOM dish to the "Shure Shot" increased my signal strength from 52 to 59. Then for the heck of it, I tried my old DirecTV LNB (5 years old at least) in place of the VOOM LNB. Strangely, my signal went up to 62. I switched back and forth to confirm, and sure enough, my DirecTV LNB gave a better signal strength than the VOOM LNB. Go figure.

Then, I noticed the sticker on my VOOM LNB was starting to peel. Being the anal retentive person I am, I picked at it. I then peeled it off, and guess what? The lower label on the VOOM LNB read...

DirecTV Multi-Sat
DirecTV Para Todos

I laughed out loud. I'm sure it was just the same supplier for both, but I thought it was funny.

One thing to note, my signal power is up to 62, but my signal quality is still in the low 30s. Does anybody know the difference, and what affects the signal quality?

 

[phaet2112]

Any update on the differences between your dish setups, geno? Any idea on how to improve satellite quality reception?

 

[rudolpht]

Went to a larger DisHDepot carried 24" Dish with similar results http://dishdepot.com/Cart/description.php?II=492501&UID=20040310081143198.26.119.84

Tim

 

[phaet2112]

Is it necessary? Are your signals "poor" to begin with or normal, and you want to boost it? Any idea how the normal DISH500 20" dish fares?

 

[rudolpht]

Since it's oval, you get slightly better than 18" round but not much. To me not worth the effort & a hassle to reorient skew, etc. I would only do it if you know you have a good sat shot and are experiencing a lot of break up. Voom seems much more sensitive to alignment to me, regardless of dish size.

 

[RickyMac]

Directv & Voom LNBs the same?

Are you saying that the LNBs for Directv and Voom are the same?

I have an oval directv dish with 3 LNBs mounted on my roof that I am not using. Can I use this dish to receive Voom and forgo installing the Voom dish? Do I need to have the installers reaim the dish?

Thanks

 

[Sean Mota]

Are you saying that the LNBs for Directv and Voom are the same?

I have an oval directv dish with 3 LNBs mounted on my roof that I am not using. Can I use this dish to receive Voom and forgo installing the Voom dish? Do I need to have the installers reaim the dish?

Thanks

I do not think the installer will do this. The work order will probably prohibit them doing so. You can always do whatever you want after they have left.

 

[rudolpht]

Are you saying that the LNBs for Directv and Voom are the same?

I have an oval directv dish with 3 LNBs mounted on my roof that I am not using. Can I use this dish to receive Voom and forgo installing the Voom dish? Do I need to have the installers reaim the dish?

Thanks

You would need to reaim, reskew, and use a new center LNB. The Sat C DirecTV LNB is different. You would not be getting significantly greater area coverage with the oval dish.

Suggest:
Reuse dish arm and remount the Voom dish on that. Reuse the cables coming in from the current DirecTV oval (2 of the 4 or whatever you have comin in to the house. Cap off the unused lines but don't cut them, just tie them up behind the new dish for future potential use.

This should get around the work order issues.

Tim