2 dish vs 1 dish

**ndcoop** · 10-29-2009 09:19 PM

A couple of questions:
1. Will the signal strength be considerably better with 2 dishes vs 1 dish (for HD)?
2. Can the base for a Dish 500 be used for a Dish 1000.4, or will new holes need to be drilled to place the base for the 1000.4? Thanks

**CowboyDren** · 10-29-2009 10:17 PM

Theoretically, a 24" (Dish500) with two LNBs (DPTwin) only feeds each LNB as much signal as a dedicated 18" dish. This means that a D500 with a DPDual LNB would feed that LNB more signal. I don't know how the math works out on the 1000.2 or 1000.4 dishes. If the question came down to using a 1000.4 or a D500 spotting 110/119 and a 61.5 wing dish, I'd go for the wing dish. The best signal you can get with COTS hardware is three D500s with three DPDuals, each spotting a single bird, and feeding into a DPP44 multiswitch.

The 1000.2 and 1000.4 dishes use the same size mast (1-5/8") as a D500, but I'd personally want to brace it better, DirecTV style. That's personal preference, though.

**whatchel1** · 10-30-2009 01:45 AM

Don't think you will get that much more signal w/ 2 Dish 500's than with 1 1000.4 if peaked correctly. You would have to go to larger dishes than the %00's to gain signal level.

**MikeD-C05** · 10-30-2009 07:32 AM

Bigger the DISH for each satellite you are looking at , the better signal strength.

**thedamaja** · 10-30-2009 08:19 AM

Originally Posted by CowboyDren

The 1000.2 and 1000.4 dishes use the same size mast (1-5/8") as a D500,.

The dish 1000.4 has a longer mast and different mounting base than the 1K2/500. If you try to use the 1K4 mast with a 1K2/500 base it will bind on the bottom and not swing completely through the range. Depending on the angle you need this may be an issue.

I actually just went from a 1K4 to a 2 dish setup with a 500 (110/119) and 300 (61.5). My signal level on 110/119 is much better than what I received from 72/77 and the 61.5 signal is marginally better than what I had with the 1K4.

Honestly I never had issues with the 1K4 signal reception but decided to move the dish from the yard to out of site on the back of my garage. I figured if I was doing this I would maximize my signal.

**jeffero** · 10-30-2009 11:25 AM

If someone has a 1k2 satellite and then connects a 500 dish into the port thats open on it aimed the 61.5 satellite would the 61.5 disable the 129 dish or could the 129 just be unplugged? I have a 1k2 and my picture quality is not good. I'm thinking of going to a 2 dish system to see if the picture gets better.

**CowboyDren** · 10-30-2009 12:36 PM

Picture quality (fuzzy, blurry, grainy) or signal quality (blocks, tiles, dropouts)? Changing your dish won't change your picture quality. There's no way you'll get better signal quality from 61.5 than from 129. 129 is the most powerful satellite in Dish's service, high in the sky. 61.5 is old hardware, and I'm pretty sure it's farther away. If you're having signal quality issues, get your dish repeaked.

**MrDogDad** · 10-30-2009 06:07 PM

Originally Posted by CowboyDren

Picture quality (fuzzy, blurry, grainy) or signal quality (blocks, tiles, dropouts)? Changing your dish won't change your picture quality. There's no way you'll get better signal quality from 61.5 than from 129. 129 is the most powerful satellite in Dish's service, high in the sky. 61.5 is old hardware, and I'm pretty sure it's farther away. If you're having signal quality issues, get your dish repeaked.

Actually both satellites are about 22,000 miles high.

The look angle all depends on where on the earth your dish is as located. The closer you are to the satellite's longitude, and to the equator, the higher in the sky the satellite appears. For me, 61.5 is 37,477km away vs. 129 at 38,930km. Of course 129 is more powerfull so I get more signal from 129 on my 1000.2 than my wing dish at 61.5.

**CowboyDren** · 10-30-2009 06:50 PM

But the quick way to tell which is closer to your dish is to look at your elevation. The lower on the horizon, the longer the hypotenuse, and the greater distance (more importantly, how much atmosphere) you have to listen for the transponder.

Am I wrong?

Looking at a mostly worthless 2D map, it looks like OH is closer to 61.5W than it is to 129W, but I'm pretty sure that even if you live in Miami, CIEL-2 is going to kick out a stronger signal than Rainbow-1 (E*12) or EchoStar-3 ever could.

**mike123abc** · 10-30-2009 09:42 PM

If you want the best possible signal a dedicated dish per slot is the best way to go. Multisatellite dishes are a compromise, mainly because they are designed to work anywhere in the US, which means that the apparent angle of the satellites in relationship to eachother is different as you move around, yet the LNB arm is fixed and not adjustable.

The bigger the dish the better gain. The triple satellite dishes work around the compromise problem of three satellites by being much bigger, so they compensate for the lousy focus 2 of the 3 satellites will have. You can peak any of the three but the other two will be slightly compromised.