Ku Linear FTA with 60 cm Dish?

[IA6Newspath]

Hi everyone. Just curious if anyone knows if there has been any success (or failure) with Ku-band FTA reception with a 60 cm dish. The other day I was browsing Winegard's website and noticed that they have a 60 cm dish, the next smallest dish after their 76 cm dish, so I'm curious if it might be suitable for FTA. I've used their 76 cm dish in the past with decent results, but I'm curious if any success could be expected with a slightly smaller dish. Perhaps the extra 16 cm makes a huge difference!

Thanks in advance to anyone who might be able to help.

 

[Lak7]

It's all about the Square CMs.
There is a section here "What can I get with 18" Dish"
http://www.satelliteguys.us/fta-mpeg2-faqs/34131-what-can-i-get-18-dish-post2120420.html#post2120420

 

[Anole]

just my opinion

Generally speaking, North America is not the land of the 60cm dish.
Of course, there are always strong transponders which can be received on little dishes.
One fellow made a hobby of using a cast-off 18" DishNet (or DirecTV) dish for such purposes.
I once posted a few pictures using a 20 (?) inch DirecTV Phase III.

But there is a difference between what you can get away with under good circumstances and what is reliable under challenging circumstances.
I won't even recommend anyone BUY anything under a 90cm dish!
Now, if you found a smaller one and want to play, I'm all for it. -

 

[IA6Newspath]

Sounds good. In terms of size, the 60 cm dish is a little larger than an 18" dish, but I didn't know if it was still big enough to be able to pull in Ku FTA feeds.

 

[Lak7]

Sometimes a 120cm is hardly enough.

 

[Anole]

As I said, I wouldn't buy a two-foot dish.
But if you found one for free, why not experiment?
Here's a table of some common dishes you might find for free to play with:

Primestar / ChannelMaster dish info:
-----------------------------------
size, width x height
1.2m = 48x52 round
1.0m = 40x43 round
84e is 40x30
75e is 37x27 arm: 21"
70e ?? 35x21 Hughes special
60e is 32x20

DishNetwork Superdish and DirecTV dishes:
----------------------------------------
DishNet SuperDish: 36" x 20" h
DishNet D-500:... 20.5 x 22" h
DirecTV Slimline: 32.5 x 22.5 h
DirecTV Phase III 20.5 x 18.5 h

Msc useful dishes:
------------------
DirectWay: 39" wide X 23" tall elliptical with rectangular feedhorn.
Wild Blue: 26" wide x 28" tall (?)

For the elliptical dishes, it's the width that helps suppress the adjacent satellite.
So, wider is good, while taller isn't such a major factor.

Even for free, I wouldn't screw with anything under 30" wide.

 

[Bob2011]

I use a Dish 500 (less than 60cm) for 30w with great success. In bad weather the weak channels break up but the cubavision channels are still good. On 97w it pulled in 135 channels compared to 254 on a 40x30 primestar.

Like the others have said, I wouldn't buy a 60cm dish unless it was few dollars at a yard sale. There are plenty of free ones out there from Anole's list that can be easily converted to FTA.