Dumb question

[PhilipPeake]

Ok, I have tried to make some sense of this in my mind, but fail miserably.

The question: Why does best signal quality not necessarily coincide with maximum signal from a satellite.

I am assuming that skew is correct.

 

[qwert1515]

Are you asking the difference between Signal Strength and Signal Quality.

Signal Strength - Calculated by the signal strength from the receiver to the LNB. (Someone might want to correct this, but I think thats how this is calculated)

Signal Quality - Calculated by the signal to noise ratio of the Satellite signal.

 

[giraffejumper]

All I know is that ALL you need to focus on is Quality!
I don't even look at the signal level any more.
No quality = no channels.
As for the difference in them, I still am not exactly sure myself.
But what qwert1515 said makes sense!
-phil

 

[mastermesh]

I always thought signal strength had to do something with cband, but not having cband, I don't know if that's true or not.

 

[tvropro]

Signal level is an for the most part reads the LNB gain, there is no set numbers. Higher is better when it's not seeing any interference TI, etc on analog.

Quality focus on BER, this is for digital only. The higher the quality the less errors that are received. A lot of factors come into play here FEC, carrier to noise ratio, etc. One should always shoot for the highest numbers with quality. When tuning digital once you have a lock forget signal numbers altogether.

 

[mastermesh]

When tuning digital once you have a lock forget signal numbers altogether.

Not necessarily so... small, itty bitty tweaks of a centemeter to an inch here and there in elevation and left and right can make or break you once you get a signal. When I last did major tweaks on my dish, some slow and deliberate hand tweaks on the lnb got some of the g10r signals to jump from 30 to 60 or so more... these are tweaks that I did after I was locked on to a signal, just to bump a smidge closer to the "real" arc.

 

[tvropro]

Not necessarily so... small, itty bitty tweaks of a centemeter to an inch here and there in elevation and left and right can make or break you once you get a signal. When I last did major tweaks on my dish, some slow and deliberate hand tweaks on the lnb got some of the g10r signals to jump from 30 to 60 or so more... these are tweaks that I did after I was locked on to a signal, just to bump a smidge closer to the "real" arc.

You may have been off the perfect focal point on the lnb.

Looking at signal numbers from my experience once you get a lock can fool you. I have seen that the signal number can go down as the quality goes up. Weird but I've seen it happen. Once I get the Q to rise respectively 45 or higher (not in the 10's to 30's) I just focus on the highest Q. What I think is happening is the signal number is just picking up noise or adjacent satellite signal or something like that, that falses when the real signal isn't there. I've also noticed it's best to tune through the peak and then come back and lock in on that sweet spot. When I finally lock my bolts down I push up and down and left & right on the dish making sure that I'm dead nuts on in the center of the beam, not off to one side. This will help when the wind blows etc. The last thing I do is fine adj the skew and slide the lnbf in and out looking for the sweet spot. It can drive you nuts sometimes dialing these things in, but worth it.

 

[PhilipPeake]

So the consensus seems to be "Don't know" ?

 

[colbec]

Seems to me that the consensus is clear, strength is strength and quality is quality, and the two are not necessarily correlated. Say you have a moderate signal and find that by nudging to the right you can boost the strength. Problem is that by nudging you introduced another signal that has nothing to do with the original. You have more signal, but now it is harder to process it. Strength is up, quality down.

 

[tvropro]

Seems to me that the consensus is clear, strength is strength and quality is quality, and the two are not necessarily correlated. Say you have a moderate signal and find that by nudging to the right you can boost the strength. Problem is that by nudging you introduced another signal that has nothing to do with the original. You have more signal, but now it is harder to process it. Strength is up, quality down.

I'll drink to that