Installation of the GeoSatPro 1.2 M antenna
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I've had this dish for about 3 years and my readings are similar to yours.The reception is excellent.
Excellent post Radar!!
I wonder if you ever recorded or remember you readings for Nimiq 4 @ 82W with the 2076 dish. I have one of these in western NC and not all TPs from that sat. lock in. I was also considering a 120 cm dish.
Theoretically the larger dish should provide an additional 5dB gain. I see that you've posed signal levels on Nimiq 4 that would be usable. Are they all in the 60-70% range? What were they before?
Thanks.
Dave.
I wonder if you ever recorded or remember you readings for Nimiq 4 @ 82W with the 2076 dish. I have one of these in western NC and not all TPs from that sat. lock in. I was also considering a 120 cm dish.
Theoretically the larger dish should provide an additional 5dB gain. I see that you've posed signal levels on Nimiq 4 that would be usable. Are they all in the 60-70% range? What were they before?
Thanks.
Dave.
Sadoun,
The DG-380 is excellent, especially with this GeoSatPro 1.2 M dish. It drives spot on to each sat that I have listed in the previous post using USALS and it does not hesitate or stutter anywhere along the way. I think it could handle a larger dish than specified.
A while back, I made an "oops" and loosened the motor latitude bracket bolts too much without supporting my old dish. The motor slipped away from me and went all they way to the bottom of the scale. This damaged my angle pointer arrows on each side of the motor.
Now, in order to get the latitude set properly on the motor, I use a dial inclinometer and (without the dish and motor tube attached) I slap the inclinometer to the lower base of the motor and read the angle. Then I subtract this angle from 90 degrees and that gives me the latitude angle.
This works out very nicely as my inclinometer has a really good resolution to its scale and I can read increments every two tenths of a degree.
The motor drives so quietly, you have to stand right next to it to hear it, even with the large 1.2 M dish amplifying the sound.
As for USALS, this combination (DG-380 motor, GeoSatPro 1.2 M dish and either the Coolsat 5K or the Fortec Dynamic receiver) is spot on every time! I can drive back and forth between any satellite and it comes right on target every time.
I check this accuracy by going to DiSEqC 1.2 control and fine stepping the motor east and west from where USALS positioned it and I monitor how many steps until the signal begins to drop off. I can step the same distance (roughly) in each direction before the signal drops, so I must be darned close to being right on target with every satellite (with the exception of 30.0W - I have to use DiSEqC 1.2 for this one as it is too far for USALS to control it).
Gordy (RADAR)
Dave,
I cannot truly comment on the signal and quality levels from this bird as it is a subscription satellite from Bell Express Vu and so I never bothered checking it out that intensely. There used to be some freebie channels there a long time back and with the 76 cm Winegard, they were up in the high 80's to low 90's for me.
These channels were not anything worth viewing, just information or test card type channels anyway. But, they moved their stuff around and altered their channels and now there are no free channels available that I can detect.
The one channel that does appear seems to be ITC, but it is HD and therefore not viewable to me with the equipment that I have. I can only tell that it is there. I am betting that this is a "What's On HD" type of channel, something to entice you to subscribe to their service. So probably just clips from movies and advertising.
I assume that because of it's format, that is why it is lower in the quality reading - my receiver doesn't know what to do with that signal.
Gordy
Gordy,
Thanks for the quick reply. I do have a subscription to Bell ExpressVu and Nimiq 4 @ 82W is the HD satellite, for the most part, as you mention. In October 2008 they replaced Nimiq 2 with Nimiq 4 that has a beam centered in Canada. Consequently if you are in the southern US, you will have difficulty. I had to place the LNB for sat 82W on the 2076 to get most of the channels back. However, rain fade is a problem.
I was going to switch to StarChoice when I was back in Québec last April, but decided to hold out for a while to see what happens. Especially since I have an investment in Bell equipment and Star Choice would require all new hardware. That is why I am considering the 120 cm dish and I was interested in your results before and after. Since I don't know what 6dB of gain would translate to in the % signal scale, I want to know if it will be worth the effort.
Do you know with your FTA stuff if for example you had a signal @ say 50% on the 76cm dish and then it jumped dramatically on the 120 cm dish.? Do you have any examples of that?
Thanks
Dave.
Thanks for the quick reply. I do have a subscription to Bell ExpressVu and Nimiq 4 @ 82W is the HD satellite, for the most part, as you mention. In October 2008 they replaced Nimiq 2 with Nimiq 4 that has a beam centered in Canada. Consequently if you are in the southern US, you will have difficulty. I had to place the LNB for sat 82W on the 2076 to get most of the channels back. However, rain fade is a problem.
I was going to switch to StarChoice when I was back in Québec last April, but decided to hold out for a while to see what happens. Especially since I have an investment in Bell equipment and Star Choice would require all new hardware. That is why I am considering the 120 cm dish and I was interested in your results before and after. Since I don't know what 6dB of gain would translate to in the % signal scale, I want to know if it will be worth the effort.
Do you know with your FTA stuff if for example you had a signal @ say 50% on the 76cm dish and then it jumped dramatically on the 120 cm dish.? Do you have any examples of that?
Thanks
Dave.
Dave,
I did not witness any dramatic changes in signal quality with the change from the 76 cm antenna to the 1.2 M antenna. The best results that I can cite were 5% to 8% quality improvement on most of the already strong signals. I am almost saturated on these satellites now - as they are showing 97-98% signal quality on my Coolsat 5K. I have never witnessed anything over 98% quality reading with this receiver, so I don't think that I can get any higher.
A good example might be a weaker signal, like what I had from 63.0W Estrela do Sul (Telstar 14).
With the 76 cm dish, I was barely holding 63-66% signal quality readings from this sat (63.0W), which is right above my dropout zone. With the 1.2 M dish, I am up to 69-70% quality. Here, it definitely made a difference, but it is not a dramatic improvement by any significance.
Because my equipment is not compatible with the Bell Express signals, I cannot judge what results you will obtain with the subscription equipment. This is something that you will have to ask of their technicians. I am sure that they can tell you a lot more, but I am uncertain and a bit skeptical about purchasing a subscription this far into the U.S. They may have legal parameters which prohibit this as the signal is crossing international lines. I don't know enough about this myself to tell you.
Anything regarding this provider that I could tell you would be purely speculation and guess work on my part. I just do not know enough about it to help you much. Wish I could do better.
Hope that what I did present to you helps some. Good luck with this, Dave.
Gordy
AcWxRADAR
Just a comment regarding rain fade...
With my 76 cm Winegard dish, I could always tell when it was raining or when the storm was approaching from the south. This new 1.2 M GeoSatPro dish from SatelliteAV ignores most of this. It rained pretty heavily here this morning and the wind was blowing, too. I couldn't tell until I walked outside and got drenched running to my car in the driveway.
This was an excellent selling point for me. Almost every storm which blew through here would knock out my lower power signals completely and cause pixelation or tiling on the medium strength signals. It was a fairly heavy rain today and I did not notice it on my TV. I had to dial down to 63.0W (Estrela do Sul or Telstar 14) to witness any problems and it was not a bad situation there either. I detected a few glips and glitches during the rain, but it wasn't bad enough to knock out the channels completely or make them too annoying to watch. They held right in there.
RADAR
With my 76 cm Winegard dish, I could always tell when it was raining or when the storm was approaching from the south. This new 1.2 M GeoSatPro dish from SatelliteAV ignores most of this. It rained pretty heavily here this morning and the wind was blowing, too. I couldn't tell until I walked outside and got drenched running to my car in the driveway.
This was an excellent selling point for me. Almost every storm which blew through here would knock out my lower power signals completely and cause pixelation or tiling on the medium strength signals. It was a fairly heavy rain today and I did not notice it on my TV. I had to dial down to 63.0W (Estrela do Sul or Telstar 14) to witness any problems and it was not a bad situation there either. I detected a few glips and glitches during the rain, but it wasn't bad enough to knock out the channels completely or make them too annoying to watch. They held right in there.
RADAR
A comment on the RG11 cable...
I knew that I would have to roll out a long length of cable to relocate my dish antenna to a position in my yard where I could get 30.0W Hispasat 1C/1D. When it dries up outside, I will measure the whole length, but it is somewhere close to 200+ feet.
The RG11U cable was the easiest cable I have ever used. With the proper equipment to strip and crimp, this is an easy process!
CommScope RG11U cable
Ripley UDT Cablematic stripping tool
EX11 PPC compression connectors
CAT AS-EX compression tool
Don't be afraid of this RG11 cable and connectors, they assemble so easily and really benefit your signal over very long cable runs! It was easier to assemble this cable (attach the cable ends) than it was for the RG6U cable.
I was a little apprehensive at first, but I snipped, stripped and clicked the ends on just that fast!
SNIP - STRIP - CLICK - DONE! That fast guys!
Thought you would like to know about this, too. This is important for anyone who needs to locate their dish far away from their house to avoid trees or other obstacles.
I will have to rent a trenching tool and buy some 1" PVC tubing to encase the RG11 cable to make it easy to remove if ever necessary.
The RG11 cable really provides an excellent plus for long runs. Get your tools and end connectors from Sadoun (EX11 PPC)! Nice!
RADAR
I knew that I would have to roll out a long length of cable to relocate my dish antenna to a position in my yard where I could get 30.0W Hispasat 1C/1D. When it dries up outside, I will measure the whole length, but it is somewhere close to 200+ feet.
The RG11U cable was the easiest cable I have ever used. With the proper equipment to strip and crimp, this is an easy process!
CommScope RG11U cable
Ripley UDT Cablematic stripping tool
EX11 PPC compression connectors
CAT AS-EX compression tool
Don't be afraid of this RG11 cable and connectors, they assemble so easily and really benefit your signal over very long cable runs! It was easier to assemble this cable (attach the cable ends) than it was for the RG6U cable.
I was a little apprehensive at first, but I snipped, stripped and clicked the ends on just that fast!
SNIP - STRIP - CLICK - DONE! That fast guys!
Thought you would like to know about this, too. This is important for anyone who needs to locate their dish far away from their house to avoid trees or other obstacles.
I will have to rent a trenching tool and buy some 1" PVC tubing to encase the RG11 cable to make it easy to remove if ever necessary.
The RG11 cable really provides an excellent plus for long runs. Get your tools and end connectors from Sadoun (EX11 PPC)! Nice!
RADAR
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