C-Band LNB's, loss of quality

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vfrjim

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Jul 23, 2005
635
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Rhode Island
Yesterday I changed my old Mini-Mag part# 140011 to a Calamp 140194 which has a lower noise rating but a slightly lower gain. But the 140194 is a Extended C-band PLL LNB, only thing is that I actually lost 8 points on my quality meter on my DSR-922 receiver. Some of this may have to do with that I had to use the elbow to connect it to the Chapparal Corotor + feedhorn. What's people's opinion? Should I keep the later one on my bud or should I put the old Mini-mag back on? Is a loss of quality worth a more stable LNB?
 
Hard to say, but I would leave the cover off if I could get the points back without the elbo? I would have to see the difference myself to see which picture I would chose like you have it. But, the cover off to me would not be an issue. Of course I don't have a WAF to worry about either. If you could look at the difference under normal conditions between the two, and then maybe look at the difference under not so normal conditions (like while it's raining), and see for yourself which holds up better. My guess would be the CalAmp is the better between the two..... Even if the numbers are lower, doesn't mean the outcome is worse. I can use my Pansat 3500 with an Invacom QPH031 on a 1.2m dish and get a pegged signal, while using the same Pansat with a 0.8db lnb on a Corotor2 on a 10' dish and get a 40-45 signal, but both have clear pictures, under normal conditions. At the same time, under a very hard rain, the Invacom may pixelate or go dark, while the 0.8db lnb will drop 4-8 points and still get a picture. And all of this may not be the lnb or lnbf, but maybe it's the size of the dishes. So, again I say, if the CalAmp looks watchable, even with lower points, it may still be the better lnb...?
 
VoomVoom summed it up. I have switched to more stable lnb's before and lost a few points on quality. No big deal as long as you are well above the digital cliff (pixellation).

I have noticed that some of the more stable lnbs have less gain=less noise I think. Sometimes I find myself playing the numbers game with signal quality where I am always analyzing my systems thinking....Hey I lost a point , should I check my dish? LOL.
 
Thanks for the opinions. I will try it without the elbow and see if I can gain the quality numbers back. I do not have a WAF to deal with, but it looks better to me with the cover on. (I know, I know)

What I really need is a better dish, I really have a POS. It's too bad that I had to choose to purchase heating oil today instead of buying a new dish....
 
Hey Jim,

I do my best not to use the elbows, and always seem to get a better signal.

As to the cover, Mike Kohl made some pretty good points about having the cover on in a post a while back. I even cut out the side of my Perfect 10 7.5 footer cover to get the LNB on without the elbow, and just used the piece I cut out to make a side car and duct taped it back together. It has been like that for over a year now and still holding. I will probably need to replace the duct tape every year, but it is covered. :)
 
I never got around to removing the elbow, but today I was checking the quality and it was back to 99, not sure why but I'm not complaining.

Another strange thing happened today. I have a 4way splitter off of my Cband LNB so that I slave my DVB-S2 card off of the 4dtv receiver but I also use a Diplexer to share the wire with my OTA antenna to my PC. So, in the search to get more signal to my PC for satellite, I decided to try to remove the Diplexer and run it directly to my DVB-s2 card. To my surprise, my db on AMC11 went from 15.1 db to 13.7 db when it was removed, so I put them back in and it went back up, weird huh?
 
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