Debating between a 30" dish and 36" dish

[hacksorus]

I am debating on which size dish to get. I am going to get a motor either way and a KU-Band LNB. What channels would I receive with this setup? Which size dish would be better? My game plan is to be able to pick up the wild feeds of preseason football games like the bars do. Are those broadcasted on KU-band or C-band? I would hope that there are a lot of wild feeds on KU-band, Where I live in florida I cannot have a dish big enough for c-band, but I miss the old wild feeds on it. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Mr Tony]

the bigger the dish you can get from the getgo the better you will be (especially with the weaker signals)

Alot of the preseason games are KU band but some are C-band

 

[hacksorus]

I live in Florida so I was hoping that I can just go with the 30" dish and leave it at that. I was looking at the winegard with an Sg2100 motor. Then was also looking to get the coolsat 6000 premium. I hear that it was the motor settings already in place. I appreciate your help.

 

[mrrabbit]

From someone who is 37ish North...

I would definitely go 36" if it won't be a budget buster for you...

The Wineguard 30" is a pretty good item - and very much used here in San Jose. However some of my buddies say that it took a good 1-2 hours to get the best signal possible - and still when a few clouds move in the lower channels on G10R start to get the flaky effect...overcast with rain pretty much wiped out receiving that transponder...

I refered to online graphics noting dBs...signal spread...minimum required for audio signals and video signals...etc...noticed that a 36" would exceed the dB needed for video by 4-5. So I went with 36" and have not regretted it.

Just yesterday - the windy conditions knocked out my dish. I had to completely replumb everything and remount the dish and LNB arm. Had the lower channel transceiver locked in 2 minutes flat upon aiming with almost half a bar for signal quality on my viewsat.

As Iceberg noted in his "Tip of the Iceberg" thread - don't ignore LNB position and skew. It's amazing just how much of a difference it will make between an adequate signal and a good signal.

When I first installed - I could barely get the lower transponder. Then one evening, I pulled the LNB all the way back - and pushed the hanging body portion 5 degrees west and viola! Almost half a bar...

Lots of folks say that installing and aiming big dishes is harder because of their weight, mouting type and offset LNB. To be honest - I find it not to be difficult at all.

Having a significant other around to help with results monitoring certainly helps.

Good Luck!

=

 

[Tron]

Bigger is better, but if you want a high performance 30 inch dish, the Winegard 2076 outperforms some 36" dishes.

 

[Anole]

I read the review sections about a year ago, and selected a 36 over a 30, and an Invacom LNB to go with it.
Ice had some favorable comments on both.
(and a Stab HH90 motor, after some of my own research)
Plus, the difference in price from 30 - 36" (at least where I bought it) was minimal.

Just wish I'd known then what I know now about the bigger Primestar dishes.