Asking for help in spending some money.

[skewed]

HI. Well I am going to do it. I have my eyes set on a dish and motor combo from Sadoun. I could have found a better deal but I decided that there decision to support this site and the ammount of information provided about there products was worth the little extra I would pay. Now to the question. I live in south central louisiana. I would like a motor/dish combo to go from 74 to 123. I know that bigger is better but as of right now I am not sure where I am going to put the dish. I am looking hard at the 36" combo. I was told all I needed was a 31" so I figured that a 36" would be a much bigger improvement. The next step is a 39" or 4ft. I think a 4ft is out of the question because if I am going to go that big I will just scrape up a c/ku bud. So it comes down to a 36" or a 39". How much difference will it make?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Davage]

An inch or two may not seem like much, but don't forget that the inch or two is added to the outside of the dish, which increases significantly the surface area of the dish.

For the math experts - I did this email quickly - the numbers are approximations Don't criticize the math too hard...

Remember that old math formula for finding surface area

Area = pi R squared?

Using that formula, a 36" dish would have a radius of 18"
3.1416 X 18 (squared) = roughly 1018 square inches

A 39" dish would have a radius of 19.5 inches
3.1416 * 19.5 (squared) = roughly 1195 square inches

So.. Using math for a circular dish, the 39" dish would have roughly 14% more surface area than the 36" dish.

Somebody else may have more accurate representations.

Using the above math, a 31" dish only has 755 square inches of surface area. Getting the 36" dish gives you roughly 25% more surface area to collect signal.

 

[Anole]

thoughts on dish size

I like to talk folks into upgrading from 30" to 36".
Iceberg did a review (see our Hardware Review department) a couple of years ago, where he compared 30 to 36 - that sold me on the bigger one.
Now if you find a 1m or 1.2m dish somewhere (40" or 48") and can haul it home for cheap/free, by all means.

The motors we usually get can sometimes handle bigger dishes, but they are well suited to 36" size (in my opinion).
Also, if you'll take a look at the shipping boxes for the various dishes, 39" costs a lot more to ship.

I ordered the 36" and I guess that's all I have to say.

All other opinions are welcome, of course.
For instance, if you live in Alaska, well that's a special consideration . . .

 

[brentb636]

Being in the South, and central in the US, you will find the 36" dish to be just fine. I have both a 31" and a 36" , and they both work from 72W to 148W . Shipping costs are a big factor once you exceed 36" dishes. I think you'll be quite pleased with a Sadoun 90cm package.
Get the Picture ?

 

[Tron]

Agreed, I don't think the 3 extra inches would be worth the increase in shipping costs. If you want to go larger than 36", go all the way to 1.2 meters

 

[cracklincrotch]

Thread title certainly caught my eye. At first I thought somebody was looking for a marriage proposal.