Invacom SNH-031 LNBF

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Cascade

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Jun 1, 2004
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Invacom SNH-031 Review.

I'll start off this review with a note about dish size.
As FTA in general has become more and more popular, people have been looking for ways to maximise signal strength.
Here in the USA FTA is still relatively new on Ku band, although we have a multitude of satellites to work we are unfortunately lagging behind those in Europe whose FTA line-up easily matches a regular DishNetwork/DirecTV package.
A 30" (76cm) dish for Ku is more than adequate to receive most of the programming across the pond and they have a fantastic range of powerful satellites to aim their dish toward.
Here, we're not so lucky (yet) a 76cm dish is considered the bare minimum to receive FTA signals with a 90cm dish being preferred.
Not everyone is lucky enough to be able to install a larger dish which is where the Invacom LNBs come in.

Over the last year I've used a Winegard 76cm dish along with a DMSI ASC321 LNB, by all accounts my setup worked well and was content with what I had.

I received the Invacom SNH-031 last week from Tim over at DMS International, everybody knows these are *the* LNB to own with their low .3dB noise figure so I decided to put this to the test.

What's in the box?
The Invacom arrived double-boxed from DMSI and was packed securely to prevent damage.
Upon opening the inner box I noticed a spec sheet along with a table of graphs with the noise figure and gain response from this actual LNB.
Invacom must be proud of their figures, nobody else I know of shows you exactly what the specs on the LNB you just bought are.
Invacom also included a gaiter to prevent water ingress through the F-connector.

The SNH-031 is a fair amount heavier than the usual Ku LNB which I found reassuring - you know it's constructed to a high standard by the look and feel but not anywhere near heavy enough to affect the mounting arm on your dish.

After taking numbers from a few of my favourite transponders with my Winegard I took down the ASC321 and bolted the SNH-031 to the arm.

This is where the important part begins, anyone can claim a certain amount of gain, or a low noise figure, but it means nothing on paper unless it delivers.

The Invacom delivers.

That's all there is to it.
Taking my favourite transponder on Galaxy10R - TheTube on 11720/V/27692 my usual strength was 32% Signal/100% Quality which fluctuated especially when wind was blowing and caused pixellation and macroblocks onscreen.
The Invacom raised my signal by 5 points to 37 but by far the best part was a ROCK SOLID 100% quality reading.

No pixellation.
No macroblocks.
All music, all the time.

After trying the Invacom on a few other weaker transponders it delivered the goods, a few Canadian feeds off Anik had always been very temperamental, and while it didn't give me a 500% raise in signal it did give a rock-steady picture without the usual squeaks and dropped frames I'd normally get.

Conclusion:
At the end of the day when it's all installed, for a lot of people it's whether the thing works as claimed and whether you can watch some good free TV without having to worry about the more technical aspects.
Sure, people can throw numbers around all day but when you find something that can actually prove how effective it is in real life, you know you've found something special.
It may cost a little more than the el-cheapo units found on eBay but the extra initial expense is well worth it especially for a novice installer who can quickly become frustrated with a dubious signal from equally dubious equipment.

The Invacom SNH-031 is a universal LNB aimed at those who wish to squeeze the best possible signal from their dish regardless of size.

And it does just that, extremely well.

Add on the fact that your Invacom is guaranteed to work for 5 years and you have a clear winner.

Many thanks to the extremely knowledgeable and helpful Tim Heinrichs from http://www.dmsiusa.com - to Pete (PSB) and to all who help out in the FTA section.
 

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I'll second that !!!!

I received mine last week and what a difference. I haven't even put my dish on the roof yet, I'm still working with it on my deck and I am going right thru the heart of a ton of trees and I have signals and channels from Pas 9 to Galaxy 10R. I couldn't get a sniff from G10R with all the trees I am going thru and after changing to the SNH-031 I probably have about half the channels now. I figure once I get it installed on the roof I'll get everything out there with a blazing signal and quality as I will have no more tree issues. I'm actually thinking about moving up to the QPH-031 and really go high end.

:D :D :D
 
Hi, guys:

I haven't seen the long waiting LNB comparision. I know, I should not push them to do the extra work. The reason I want to know that is because I and several of my clients are going to buy it, but we don't know if it is good.

If I remember coreectly, the only feedback I see on this board is: "Hey, I got it today ..."

So can I reasonablely think that they did do the comparison, but they don't want to upset us by the results?
 
Thanks, Shawn. I did miss Cascade's review. Sorry.

But frankly, I feel it is pretty negative to the Invacom SNH-031.

In the review:
- I don't care about "What's in the box?", all I need is LNB.
- Packaging good? who cares. UPS pays for damage it!

Only one result there:

from DMSI ASC321 LNB (0.5dB) to Invacom SNH-031 (0.3dB):

Cascade said:
Taking my favourite transponder on Galaxy10R - TheTube on 11720/V/27692 my usual strength was 32% Signal/100% Quality which fluctuated especially when wind was blowing and caused pixellation and macroblocks onscreen.
The Invacom raised my signal by 5 points to 37 but by far the best part was a ROCK SOLID 100% quality reading.

What? "Invacom raised my signal by 5 points to 37", ONLY?? I don't hope too much, but 5% increase only??? worth the double price?

I know it is not a good comparision, but Iceberg's .5dB and .4dB got better results. ( http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=70909&page=1 )
 
air88, you have to remember, LNB tecnology can only go so far in boosting your signal.
There's no doubt the Invacom is great, but no LNB in the world is going to give you a 20-50% boost in signal strength at this stage.

It'll never take the place of a larger dish, however it's perfect for someone who wants to squeeze every last ounce of gain from their setup and could make the difference between a watchable station and a screen full of macroblocks/sparklies.

At the end of the day, you get what you pay for.
 
**rant on**

air88

chill about the reviews....some of us have things going on in our lives that take time away from the board (and everything else for that matter).

Yes, I got my Invacom on Monday and I said a review would be coming...but Tuesday night it rained...HARD
Last night it was so muggy you could barely go outside and with the heavy cloud cover (again, because of rain coming) the numbers I would have gave would not be accurate. I don't feel that is right for a comparison. There is a .4/.5 comparison in the main area that I did. I will be putting my Invacom up soon when I do my changeover (I had the bolts on my motor bust so the motor isn't 100% tracking right. That will be done soon

Cascade did a nice review and it seems you ridicule it. Its a little hard for Cascade to give everyone a comparison of the whole arc because his LOS issue is from 95 east. (dont mean to rub it in Cascade)

I guess from now on I won't say "I'll do a review and have it up on this day" because it seems every time I do and god forbid I miss the deadline, we seem to get lynched for no reason.

OK...I'm done ranting now. :)
 
Guys if you don't have nothing good to say, please don't post any negative toughts.
Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, but we all need to understand that we are not pros, one person opinion may not be the same compared with the other, so we should share our knowledge and if we have something positive to say, no matter if it is to correct or to finish another person sentence or review than we should write it instead of insulting the writer.
Since i found this forum i have learned a lot about FTA and i'm willing to share my toughts with all of you when the oportunity comes, to make this site better we all should do the same.
Have a great day.
Cheers
 
welcome shoemaker :wave

You are right...just because someone says it's a great product, someone else may not like it. If you see a flaw of a product, please post it (as i have done in reviews), but to criticize someone's review is just wrong
 
shoemaker, glad you decided to post, welcome to the forum :)

As for my review, I'm not about to suck up to Invacom and say it'll melt your co-ax with the 300dB signal increase because it won't.
It definitely is the best LNB I've used for reasons stated in my review. I'm sure may others will agree - its reputation alone has been well-earned via word of mouth.

I won't EVER stoop to giving a glowing review simply because I'm sent a product, whether it's free or whether I pay for it, it'll get a fair workout and equally fair writeup.

Roughly adding up the hitcount in the review section we have 30,000 hits in that section alone. Many people (Myself included) turn to these reviews when they're looking to buy a product and by the looks of it the review section is a very popular part of the FTA forum.

In a nutshell, those who review products have a responsibility to themselves and to others not to post a misleading review otherwise the reviewer cannot be taken seriously.
 
to Iceberg, Cascade, PSB and others who have done equipment reviews: YOU HAVE ALL DONE A GREAT JOB AND THANK YOU VERY MUCH :)

Writing a comprehensive review is a lot of work. First you have to have set the equipment up, then you have to establish comparison points, then comes the fun part, the actual writing of the review. All of this adds up to hours of work for FREE.
 
This is no way a formal review on my Invacom SNF-031 the one with the 120mm flange for my 84cm Primstar dish. I've now tried it with my Fortecstar Ultra on IA5,Hisp1C/D and on G10r all at 92-99 quality. My old Primestar LNB could hardly bring in G10r . These Invacom LNBs are truly great! Their quality of construction and proven improvement of signal is almost second to none in this country. I Very Highly reccommend these LNBs Thanks for a truly great forum that like Ice and PSB said is just like a big family. Mike
 
dishMIKE said:
This is no way a formal review on my Invacom SNF-031 the one with the 120mm flange for my 84cm Primstar dish. I've now tried it with my Fortecstar Ultra on IA5,Hisp1C/D and on G10r all at 92-99 quality. My old Primestar LNB could hardly bring in G10r . These Invacom LNBs are truly great! Their quality of construction and proven improvement of signal is almost second to none in this country. I Very Highly reccommend these LNBs Thanks for a truly great forum that like Ice and PSB said is just like a big family. Mike

You know what to do, Mike :)
 
Thanks you for welcoming me to the forum.
It's my own experience that invacom lnb is a great one.
I just bought one 3 days ago. Yesterday was a cloudy and windy day and i was getting freezing picture, so i decided to put my new invacom lnb. The results were awesome. The freezing picture stoped and the quality signal was improved compared with what was before. By the way the old lnb is Digiwave.
In my opinion this experience speaks for itself.
When somebody makes a product review, it doesn't mean we can get the same type of results for many reasons. The main reason is what type of set up we have. Dish(size and alignment), lnb, receiver, cable, connectors and others can give different results to other people and may give the idea that the product doesn't perform that well.
For your information, i don't work or i'm affiliate with any company that makes satellite products, i'm a auto worker, i have done and do satellite installations as a part time.
To all of you keep up the good work.
 
Thanks for the info shoemaker! I did have some channels that gave me better signals, but I will do a full test soon :)

same here...I do not install nor affiliated with satellite companies...I work in telecom
 
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