Improving Reception - How?

[mickel1138]

I've had my Fortec Star 80cm dish and Invacom QPH31 for a few years now. I've tested a few different receivers, but am now back to my old Fortec NA, waiting until the new SatHawk is back in stock.

For about a year it seems that the quality had been going downhill.
I mainly watch AMC 4 (101) and used to get fairly desent quality of about 60. Now it seems to be hard to get about 40. Even tho on 11.931V (5000) a new SES transponder I seem to be getting 66% (no channels on there tho.).

I went on the roof, tweaked the dish as best as I could, improving the signal somewhat, but it I think it can still be better.

RTv and TUFF on AMC 6 about 33% quality, and that's hardly enough to watch it, but it has a lot of pixelation. Even 97 has bad transponders, almost perfect south for me.

So what can I do to improve reception? Different LNB? I don't use the circular on the invacom anyway after the clear channels on 119 went away. So I could try another LNB?

Or maybe a bigger dish? 120cm or so. What's the minumum for C band, or maybe I shouldn't put a 4 foot dish on my covered patio roof.

My cabling is in many places still RG59, that's what's run inside the house, again, but that should too much of a factor, because I better quality.
Suggestions welcome.

Thanks,

Mickel

(Added picture...)

 

[crackt]

check the lens on your invacom to see if it has clouded up.

crackt out,.

 

[turbosat]

Try another lnbf on it, I would have a spare anyway, but if you don't they aren't that expensive. Just a regular linear ku lnbf.

 

[Mikey11]

assuming your dish and motor are aimed correctly, and assuming your LNB is functioning well....the only other way to improve signal quality is to get a bigger dish....

 

[Mr Tony]

The issue I found with the QPH is that its so heavy that it actually pulls down the arm of the dish which results in poorer reception. I'm in Minnesota so the dish is aimed pretty low even on my true south. If your dish had the arms on the side (like the larger dishes do) that should help. I know some folks fabricated some rods on the dish to help support that arm

 

[concord]

As Ice mentioned, the weight of the LNB may be too much. I had a similar problem trying to use the LNB on my 31" Fortec; luckily GloryStar had their 36" on sale at the time, which had LNB arm supports and works well.

 

[mickel1138]

Now I have an excuse to buy another LNB & bigger DISH.

The "eye" does look a little cloudy, here in the south near the ocean, plastics get eatenr for breakfast by corosion/oxidation.

I think I have a PowerTech DG260, will it hold a bigger dish, and how big can I go? 120cm may too much, will 100cm work?

What's a good LNB?

Thanks guys!

 

[Mikey11]

you would need the DG380 for a 120cm dish or better yet the SG9120

you could probably go to 100cm with your current motor depending on the make of the dish....some are heavier than others....

 

[guacharaca]

My cabling is in many places still RG59

In many places? that implies connections. Try one uninterrupted section of RG6 from your receiver to the lnb to see if it improves your signal. If it improves it, put it in permanently.

 

[Mikey11]

In many places? that implies connections. Try one uninterrupted section of RG6 from your receiver to the lnb to see if it improves your signal. If it improves it, put it in permanently.

i must have missed this the first time i read it....yes definitely upgrade your cabling to RG6....one straight run from receiver to motor....no connections or breaks....

 

[SATisfied]

The issue I found with the QPH is that its so heavy that it actually pulls down the arm of the dish which results in poorer reception. I'm in Minnesota so the dish is aimed pretty low even on my true south. If your dish had the arms on the side (like the larger dishes do) that should help. I know some folks fabricated some rods on the dish to help support that arm

I have a 36" fortec dish and the QPH-031, and yes it's heavy and does weigh down the arm. My solution to this was to use plumbers support strap ( as used for supporting plumbing drain pipes from floor joists ). I screwed one end the side of the dish, and the other to the dish arm. One on each side, obviously, and this did the trick. It pulled the lnb up considerably, and improved the signal.

 

[emuman100]

Those Fortec Star dishes are nothing but junk. I had one and I was peaking it almost every day. I got a commercial 90cm Prodelin Ku Rx only offset dish with dual polarity feedhorn (feedhorn comes with the dish and is only to be used with the dish) with two Norsat Ku LNBs. Not a single reception problem. Only thing is, you need separate feedlines for each polarity, so the solution here is to get the Invacom LNBF with waveguide input, and the dual polarity feedhorn, and attaching the Invacom LNBF directly to the feedhorn and not use the "T" Fitting as you would for separate LNBs.

You might be able to get away with using the Invacom LNBF with it's own feedhorn and scalar ring, but you may need to adjust things. I paid about $250 for everything brand new from Prodelin, but you might be able to find a Tx/Rx dish used for cash register transactions at gas stations.

My Prodelin is rock solid stable. I love it and I'll NEVER go back to Fortec!

 

[chaskuchar]

checked on amc2/4 with my sathawk receiver, QPH031, geosat 90cm dish with dg280. one run of 50' rg6 from dish to receiver. just got packers/seattle game on at 87% sig intensity and 62% quality. packers are on top, 14 to 7. charlie

 

[mickel1138]

Today I installed the LNB I ordered. It's a JSC322, it was the cheapest dual-output LNB I could find, and it got fairly good reviews.

My reception on SES-1 (AMC4) only went up marginaly. but on AMC9 my quality went from 30% to 46% on RVT and TUVF (misspelled on purpose).

So overall the new LNB is a success, not too bad for under $20 including shipping.

The invacom I took down looked kinda corroded, but I believe I can be cleaned up.

When I can't stand it anymore, i'll get a bigger dish, but the arms, then that should be the end of it. Too bad I can't really place a BUD, my yard is kinda small, and i'm hesitant to place it on the patio-roof. Maybe a mesh dish, oh well i'll see.

The RG59 run are all inside the house. I run RG6 with line amp from dish to my cable distribution, then split. Then it runs on RG59 until I split/combine it again at the TV. When I use a 10 foot line from dish to the nearest TV and hook my receiver up to it, the quality improved about 4%, which in some cases could mean, picture or no picture. If I get desperate, i'll run some coax around the house, but I really don't want to drill any more holes in my house. It's already swis-cheese after two cable co's, 2 phone co's and now Uverse.

Thanks everyone for the help and advise.

Mickel