90cm for PBS at 125W?

[fred555]

Will a 90cm dish work OK for PBS on 125W or is a 120cm recommended?
What are your experiences?

 

[KE4EST]

A 90cm will work, but I had a high rate of drop outs if weather was not perfect. I went to a 1.2M and all is fine unless a very heavy downpour.

 

[phlatwound]

A 90cm will work, but I had a high rate of drop outs if weather was not perfect...

That is exactly what I experienced, little to no signal margin on a 90cm.

Think I remember a long thread here about signal levels decreasing a couple years ago and most everyone experiencing issues with reception on 90cm reflectors.

 

[fred555]

Thanks very much for the comments so far.
I did not want to buy a 90cm and be marginal.
Time to save up or scrounge for a 120cm.

 

[KE4EST]

Yeah, you really need a 120cm, now a days. When it was DVB-S things were fine, but when they went S2 a couple years ago, things changed.

 

[TRG]

I agree with Michael. I used to get all the PBS feeds on a 90cm. Now I only get the main transponder (12180) reliably. No matter how much fine tuning I do to the dish the other transponders come and go. Even on cloudless days which I find strange. I was thinking about getting a 120cm for 125W but with talk of PBS going to internet delivery methods I'm not sure its worth it. I also wonder what the future of the PBS feed at 103W C-Band will be.

 

[bpalone]

May be where I am located, but the only one I have issues with is OETA on 125W. The PBS feeds always seem to be fine when I check there. My 90cm seems to be OK, except for the OETA dropouts. As for those, it is sometimes bad weather in their neck of the woods. For those that don't want to look up the lat and lon, I'm in NE Wyoming.

But, BIGGER is BETTER. Have toyed with the thought of larger Ku dish too. But, I spend most of my time on the C dish, so keep telling myself no.

 

[migold]

I am in southwest Virginia, in the mountains. I have no problem getting 125W PBS on a 90cm Geosat Pro dish. I do have difficulty in a heavy downpour, but clouds and light rain are no problem here. Of course, bigger is better... I had thought of getting a 1.2M dish, when AMC1 was skewed, but put it off. So, no need for one for that reason. If PBS leaves 125W, then I have no reason to upgrade, as anything else I want is obtainable on what I have....

 

[TRG]

If the footprint image on satbeams.com is accurate the signal favors the eastern part of the U.S.

 

[danristheman]

Fred try for 103w c band you won't get but hd and sd of the main feed little easier to get my opinion.

 

[Corrado]

I use a 90cm dish currently fitted with 2 LNBFs. Dish is centered on 125W with another at 121W on the side. Minimal issues after upgrading to a PLL LNBF for 125W last year. Previously, I had problems with several TPs even in good weather. Sometimes a storm pulls it down now but otherwise it's pretty reliable.

I would agree to save the money on a 90cm if you didn't have one already for this sat.