Sat signal strength question.. How good is good?

[oregonxfile]

I've had my Dish for 4 yrs, and have always wondered this... How good is 'good' reception on a Dish? Isn't the signal either on or off? Is 105 on the strength meter for both sats going to look better on my TV than, say, 75 on the strength meter?

Both my 110 and 119 sat hover around 100, yet I've always been curious if "more" is better...

Any thoughts??

X

 

[mitchflorida]

Obviously a stronger signal will protect you better from an outage during a strong rain storm . .


My installer actually told me that there is such a thing as too strong a signal . . I found it hard to believe, but he seemed to be quite experienced. Something about overloading the receiver . . does that make any sense?

 

[ciaraco]

I have installed Dish & Direct for a few years and never heard of anything like that. It sounds like a great question for the moderators. It will be interesting to see what they say about this. This site in general is the Best source of good info I have ever found.

 

[wied]

My receivers have signal strength 123 on 119 and 118 on 110.

 

[SimpleSimon]

oregonxfile: DBS uses a digital signal. The signal includes error correction data. Up to a point, signal drops can be picked up by the error correction. If they are not, you will get pixellation, freezes, and the like. The stronger your signal, the less likely this is to happen, and as Mitch says, the less rain fade trouble you will have. However, it will in NO WAY affect the picture quality.

mitchflorida: While it is theoretically possible to overload a receiver with too strong a signal, it's not going to happen with the E* dish & LNBFs.

wied, et al: Signal strength numbers are meaningless without BOTH the satellite AND transponder numbers.