That sounds like under-optimized dish. Tweaking the aim and tracking on a smaller dish can be frustrating. Remember, a smaller dish 'sees' more of the sky, so to speak, so more precise aiming is needed to squeeze out all the signal you can get. And, some c-band small dishes may not be that great on ku-it requires a more precise shape than c-band signals. I had a 5' c-band I worried with for 6months, trying to get ku on it, when I got my first old primestar dish, it was amazing how much stronger the ku was on that one! I ditched the 5' dish, since 2degree spacing came it was mostly just a toy anyway.