Would there be a big increase in signal quality with a 100 cm dish over a 90 cm? I'm getting ready to set up a couple of stationary dishes and the 1 meter dish is only about $30 more. Any input would be appreciated.
Difference between 90 and 100 cm dish.
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Some guys with small dishes are having adjacent-satellite interference on a few birds.
From what I've seen, the 90cm takes care of the problem.
You might list which satellites you are interested in, and get feedback on whether or not there is a problem.
Obviously, the 100 should be a little better than even the 90 .... on paper.
But maybe save the 100 for the problematic birds, and go with 90's for others...?
I remember a Fortec 90cm review by Iceberg a few years ago.
That convinced me to not touch anything smaller.
Of course, if you are out of footprint in "The Land of Enchantment", then bigger is always better.
From what I've seen, the 90cm takes care of the problem.
You might list which satellites you are interested in, and get feedback on whether or not there is a problem.
Obviously, the 100 should be a little better than even the 90 .... on paper.
But maybe save the 100 for the problematic birds, and go with 90's for others...?
I remember a Fortec 90cm review by Iceberg a few years ago.
That convinced me to not touch anything smaller.
Of course, if you are out of footprint in "The Land of Enchantment", then bigger is always better.
If you can afford the price difference (30$ does not sound that bad) then I would recommend that you go with the 100cm. (The largest dish you can easily get away with if you are in a HOA, unless you the VP of the HOA like Iceberg )
When I upgraded from a 80 cm dish to a 90 cm dish I saw a huge improvement, I was slightly disappointed that I could not pick up some of the weaker feeds so I finally upgraded to a 120 cm dish which I am very happy with.
) When I upgraded from a 80 cm dish to a 90 cm dish I saw a huge improvement, I was slightly disappointed that I could not pick up some of the weaker feeds so I finally upgraded to a 120 cm dish which I am very happy with.
Some guys with small dishes are having adjacent-satellite interference on a few birds.
From what I've seen, the 90cm takes care of the problem.
You might list which satellites you are interested in, and get feedback on whether or not there is a problem.
Obviously, the 100 should be a little better than even the 90 .... on paper.
But maybe save the 100 for the problematic birds, and go with 90's for others...?
I remember a Fortec 90cm review by Iceberg a few years ago.
That convinced me to not touch anything smaller.
Of course, if you are out of footprint in "The Land of Enchantment", then bigger is always better.
I'm thinking 2 stationary in addition to my existing motorized 90 cm dish. I don't really have any problems with signal except when it rains. I'm wondering if the larger dish will give me a little extra headroom to hold a lock a little longer during bad weather. My other thoughts are looking to the future. From what I gather DVB-S2 "might" require more signal to lock. I don't want to have to buy larger dishes in the future when I can buy them now. Perhaps I'm over-analyzing too much. I tend to do that sometimes.
I was ready to pull the trigger and get a T90 but thought better of it. I can by two or three regular dishes for the same price.
Stationary Dish 1 - 87W, 93W and 97W
Stationary Dish 2 - 119W (Circ for NASA), 123 and 129.
Motorized Dish - Everything else - probably parked @ 101W most of the time.
It also seems to depend on the brand, somewhat. My 75E primestar does as good or better than the GEOSAT 90cm and the 1M primestar is far better than either. I lost all but the 1M in the storm 2 days ago, but has some freezing even on it. The winds here throw the tin dish out on warp, lasts only 2 weeks or so before I have to take down and de-warp.
No HOA here. I think I'll go for the 100cm dishes. I'm doing a group buy with a few locals that want to get into FTA. They have left the decision up to me. It's going to be fun to play with multiple LNB's on a 1 meter. I know 10 degrees to either side is common but I'm going to see if I can get more just for fun.If you can afford the price difference (30$ does not sound that bad) then I would recommend that you go with the 100cm. (The largest dish you can easily get away with if you are in a HOA, unless you the VP of the HOA like Iceberg
When I upgraded from a 80 cm dish to a 90 cm dish I saw a huge improvement, I was slightly disappointed that I could not pick up some of the weaker feeds so I finally upgraded to a 120 cm dish which I am very happy with.
gotchas
Two other things to consider, do come to mind:
1). shipping on anything bigger than 36" dishes usually gets silly.
Could be $20/30 extra. Just verify the overall cost so you know what you're getting into
2). last year, JsatTV up in Canada, had some trouble adjusting elevation on his Fortec 1.0 dish.
When you loosened the hardware, the dish just flopped around.
Also, it didn't seem to have a real pivot bolt for elevation, making it even harder to adjust.
What we came up with was a mod to add an elevation pivot, and a screw adjuster for fine tuning elevation.
The 90's in most all brands, do have a pivot pin/bolt.
Unfortunately, nobody has a screw elevation adjuster, 'till you get to 120cm, and then only the GeoSat does, of the inexpensive dishes.
This gets more critical as you move into the larger and heavier dishes.
I'll dig out the links to the discussion with JsatTV from last year, if you're interested in reading 'em.
Two other things to consider, do come to mind:
1). shipping on anything bigger than 36" dishes usually gets silly.
Could be $20/30 extra. Just verify the overall cost so you know what you're getting into
2). last year, JsatTV up in Canada, had some trouble adjusting elevation on his Fortec 1.0 dish.
When you loosened the hardware, the dish just flopped around.
Also, it didn't seem to have a real pivot bolt for elevation, making it even harder to adjust.
What we came up with was a mod to add an elevation pivot, and a screw adjuster for fine tuning elevation.
The 90's in most all brands, do have a pivot pin/bolt.
Unfortunately, nobody has a screw elevation adjuster, 'till you get to 120cm, and then only the GeoSat does, of the inexpensive dishes.
This gets more critical as you move into the larger and heavier dishes.
I'll dig out the links to the discussion with JsatTV from last year, if you're interested in reading 'em.
Did you know that you can easily replace the mount on some of the different 90cm metal dishes, with a mount from an old fiberglas channelmaster Primestar dish? Then you gain a screw elevation adjuster, which makes life so much easier!
The Primestar elliptical, and larger oval dishes both use the same mount. If one had several of each, and wanted a lighter weight dish, I'd use a mount from the elliptical, since those are so much more commonly available. It's a much stronger and better built mount than the crappy ones that come with a stamped out dish.
heh -
Well, I cannot argue with your logic there.
That's why I said none of the inexpensive dishes had elevator adjustments.
I was thinking of the imported steel dishes .
But you are right about the Primestars ... though, they may well be the most inexpensive of all!
However ....
In most all cases, I'd take one of the molded fiberglass dishes over a steel import any day.
And, as for the heavy mount that comes on Primestars, that is something most guys get rid of when motorizing.
They're just too heavy.
But, you have given me a good reason to collect some of the smaller DirectPC dishes and such.
Just for the mounts. Good idea - especially for fixed installs. - :up
Well, I cannot argue with your logic there.
That's why I said none of the inexpensive dishes had elevator adjustments.
I was thinking of the imported steel dishes .
But you are right about the Primestars ... though, they may well be the most inexpensive of all!
However ....
In most all cases, I'd take one of the molded fiberglass dishes over a steel import any day.
And, as for the heavy mount that comes on Primestars, that is something most guys get rid of when motorizing.
They're just too heavy.
But, you have given me a good reason to collect some of the smaller DirectPC dishes and such.
Just for the mounts. Good idea - especially for fixed installs. - :up
Glad I could give you another idea! Playing with dishes is a fascinating hobby. I don't think it's possible to have too many spares (upgrades, yeah that's what they are!)(though my wife would disagree!) 
:
One thing I wish I had however, is a pencil-size cutting laser that I could mount on a dish! I'd use it to mow down the tops of trees in the satellite arc over my lot that vex me! I have 3 acres of woods, and 70+ foot trees. I've cut down quite a few, just to make holes to see the sats I want. Some are either too large to drop, or too close to a new neighbor who built a house too close to my south line. (should have dropped them as soon as he started clearing the lot)
:One thing I wish I had however, is a pencil-size cutting laser that I could mount on a dish! I'd use it to mow down the tops of trees in the satellite arc over my lot that vex me! I have 3 acres of woods, and 70+ foot trees. I've cut down quite a few, just to make holes to see the sats I want. Some are either too large to drop, or too close to a new neighbor who built a house too close to my south line. (should have dropped them as soon as he started clearing the lot)
The $30 premium from the 90 to 100 has the shipping costs figured in.
These is a simple solution to this. I even did it on my 3ABN 90cm. I just used a couple of c-clamps, a turnbuckle and a couple of ez-links. Clamp on the turnbuckle, make your adjustments, when everything is tightened down on the dish mounts remove the c-clamps and turnbuckle. A re-adjustment takes me about 3 minutes to set the rig back up again.
If it's not too much trouble I would like to read them.
But you are right about the Primestars ... though, they may well be the most inexpensive of all!
If you can find one. I have been looking for over a year now and only found two. One is on top of a 4 story hotel building and the other was in the country but the owner didn't want to part with it. I haven't given up though.
Well, that makes it all the more attractive.
Of course, you've missed the $50-shipped deal on the 3ABN dishes, but that's life.
Sounds great. But, I'm not picturing your setup.I just used a couple of c-clamps, a turnbuckle and a couple of ez-links.
Clamp on the turnbuckle, make your adjustments, when everything is tightened down on the dish mounts remove the c-clamps and turnbuckle.
A re-adjustment takes me about 3 minutes to set the rig back up again.
A picture would be helpful, if you could.
I hope these links fully cover his troubles.
Just scan through them looking for pictures, if you want to shortcut the bulk of the info.
I edited one of his pictures in Paint, and he executed pretty much that idea.
...which I think he posted in more pix, in later threads.
Anyway, he seemed happy with his handiwork, so I guess all is well .
JsatTV and his trouble with elevation adjustment on Fortec dish:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-ai...-fortec-star-dish-elevation-2.html#post889050
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-ai...-re-fine-tuning-1-meter-fortec-star-dish.html
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-air-fta-discussion/102780-fine-tuning-1-meter-fortec-star-dish-stab-hh-120-motor-tips-lessons-learned.html
edit: And regarding Primestars -
I'm not having a lot of luck either.
But, I know there's a 1m out there with my name on it.
And it'll whip the @$$ off the cheap tin dishes - :up
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