Which is better... 1 meter oval or 90 cm Round?

[snathanb]

Just curious,

I have a old dway dish I have been using... it's a meter across, but it's oval. I've been thinking about replacing it as it is very heavy and is putting a strain on the motor. I had to create a mount for it, and I often have to nudge using 1.2 to fine tune it after a storm, etc, as the mount is not 100% rigid, it flexes a little under the weight of the dish.

I don't want to loose signal, but I also don't want to spent a boatload of money on a new dish, either. It seems that because of shipping costs, 90CM dishes are relatively inexpensive, compared to a 100CM dishes. (Using Sadoun's site as a reference).

Would I notice a big drop in signal? Seems like a 90 CM dish might actually have more surface area than a wider, but narrower dish....

Anyone with multiple dishes have an opinion, or better yet, real life observations of the same transponder, with same LNB, same receiver, yet different dishes?

 

[WTguy]

I have a 90cm and an old Primestar (the large one, model 84, I think that is what it is called). I would take the 90 cm over the Primestar if I had to pick only one.

 

[Mr Tony]

I use a 36" (90cm) and a DirecPC dish (39x23) and they both work good.

The 90cm is lighter so it can be on a motor with no issues

 

[Alec]

Not an expert, but if your dish is oval sideways and offset,,,,,,you'll need an oval feed cone. Ive posted a pic at the 120cm C band thread of an oval cone, Ive recently gone to Seattle WA and seen a curved rectangular offset dish on top of a gas station, it had a rectangular cone on the feed. Station was being torn down, wished Id stopped and offered to salvage dish. Keep it simple, most lnb's are now for offset dishes.

 

[Rick in MD]

Not an expert, but if your dish is oval sideways and offset,,,,,,you'll need an oval feed cone. Ive posted a pic at the 120cm C band thread of an oval cone, Ive recently gone to Seattle WA and seen a curved rectangular offset dish on top of a gas station, it had a rectangular cone on the feed. Station was being torn down, wished Id stopped and offered to salvage dish. Keep it simple, most lnb's are now for offset dishes.

I have been seeing alot of those rectangular dishes around lately. They look like they would make a great MicroBUD testbed, as they seem large enough for that purpose.

 

[snathanb]

I'm going to rephrase and reask this question.....

I'm currently using an oval dish. It's a full meter across, but it's only 23 inches tall (about 55 CMs). It seems that the reason these oval dishes were produced was to provide multiple focus points so they could pick up more than one satellite location at once (example Direcway internet service and tv service, etc). Does the additional width actually provide any additional gain or does it purely support having mulitple focus points on the dish?

So... would a 55 CM round dish provide the same gain as an oval dish of the same height? (just with a single focus point)

And... would a 90 CM round dish provide a much higher gain than a 1 meter oval dish that is only 55 CMs tall?

 

[Shawn95GT]

I don't have specs for that particular dish but I checked my 26x36 P* and the gain figure was just under that of the 90cm Fortec dish.

In your case I'd guess that your dish's overall gain is comperable and probably a bit better than an 80cm dish.

I think Iceberg did an informal comparison of some of the common oval dishes vs the 'round' at one point but I'd have to dig for the thread.

 

[Mr Tony]

I'm going to rephrase and reask this question.....

I'm currently using an oval dish. It's a full meter across, but it's only 23 inches tall (about 55 CMs). It seems that the reason these oval dishes were produced was to provide multiple focus points so they could pick up more than one satellite location at once (example Direcway internet service and tv service, etc). Does the additional width actually provide any additional gain or does it purely support having mulitple focus points on the dish?

So... would a 55 CM round dish provide the same gain as an oval dish of the same height? (just with a single focus point)

And... would a 90 CM round dish provide a much higher gain than a 1 meter oval dish that is only 55 CMs tall?

I have a DirecPC dish aimed at G3. Its 39x23
Signal on CCTV is a steady 90-92. This is with the factory LNB (.6 probably)

The 30" dish I use with the .4 gives me solid 75 with peaks of 90

The 36" Fortec dish (when i was doing the aiming) and a .4 gave me solid 90-92. With a .6 it drops to 87-89.

The oval dishes are more designed for more than one LNB. The DirecPC had both KU and DBS (for 99 & 101). I think the ovals are more designed for multiple LNB's.