110 And 119 Signal Strength

Andrewwski

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Aug 24, 2007
1,205
4
New here - and I already love this site!

I'm familiar with the satellite basics, but I have one very simple question. My apologies if it's been posted already...a quick search didn't find me much.

A relative of mine had Dish Network installed 2 days ago. They have two 322's running four standard TV's. Since Dish doesn't let DIY'ers install it themselves anymore, we had the installers come out. They were nice guys and did everything the way I wanted (rooms for the boxes, no extra cables - use diplexers instead, etc.) but I'm not sure they peaked the Dish right.

On a perfectly clear day, I get between 70-74 signal strength on both 110 and 119 (using Dish 500) when read on the 322's signal meter. Since it was installed, it's dropped out twice when it was a bit cloudy. Today we had some decent rain, but nothing really bad, and the skies weren't too bad either, and it dropped out for 10 minutes. After it came back, signal was only around 50.

When we called back, they said "72 means 102 - add 30 to the 322's reading." I know the 322's meter is probably not the most accurate, but it sounds like I shouldn't just add 30 for the heck of it.

I've heard elsewhere that normal signal on a clear day should be in the 90's or 100's.

We called back and they said they'd come back out and check it.

I'm comfortable peaking it myself. I used to do it quite often but haven't done it for about three years, so I'm not sure what decent signal is now.

If anyone could give me an indication as to a good signal strength on a clear day, I'd appreciate it. Oh, and by the way, it's a perfectly clear view to the satellite.
 
New here - and I already love this site!

I'm familiar with the satellite basics, but I have one very simple question. My apologies if it's been posted already...a quick search didn't find me much.

A relative of mine had Dish Network installed 2 days ago. They have two 322's running four standard TV's. Since Dish doesn't let DIY'ers install it themselves anymore, we had the installers come out. They were nice guys and did everything the way I wanted (rooms for the boxes, no extra cables - use diplexers instead, etc.) but I'm not sure they peaked the Dish right.

On a perfectly clear day, I get between 70-74 signal strength on both 110 and 119 (using Dish 500) when read on the 322's signal meter. Since it was installed, it's dropped out twice when it was a bit cloudy. Today we had some decent rain, but nothing really bad, and the skies weren't too bad either, and it dropped out for 10 minutes. After it came back, signal was only around 50.

When we called back, they said "72 means 102 - add 30 to the 322's reading." I know the 322's meter is probably not the most accurate, but it sounds like I shouldn't just add 30 for the heck of it.

I've heard elsewhere that normal signal on a clear day should be in the 90's or 100's.

We called back and they said they'd come back out and check it.

I'm comfortable peaking it myself. I used to do it quite often but haven't done it for about three years, so I'm not sure what decent signal is now.

If anyone could give me an indication as to a good signal strength on a clear day, I'd appreciate it. Oh, and by the way, it's a perfectly clear view to the satellite.

Compared to the old signal strength meters on many dish receivers, the new one they are rolling out to all receivers reads from 30-50 lower. Confusing anyone familiar with the old numbers. E.g. on my ViP 622 it use to read as high as 125 on some transponders and often above 100. Now the highest I see is 79 with many reading in the 40's.
 
Search for previous posts - signal meter has changed, in fact it tells you at the point dish screen in yellow lettering that the signal meter has been modified.

In the last couple of days due to significant weather the main uplink center in Cheyenne has been disrupted - I'm thinking between the combination of the two there is probably nothing wrong with the mentioned install.
 
OK, thanks, they did come out and check it for free. They said it was perfectly fine and didn't need any modification. I was getting 72 on that day. They gave me the same explanation which I found acceptable.

After they left, I decided to try myself anyway, and got it from 72 to 78 on 110...so it wasn't perfect, but it was close.
 
It seems to me, that the lower SS is not consistent. Means it's not just 30 less everywhere. Having some old numbers in mind, on some satellites/TP's it seems like it's around 30 less, and on others it's more like 35-40 less. On spotbeams it seems just around 30, whereas on regular TP's it's at least 35 less.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 0, Members: 0, Guests: 0)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)