Signal comparison between receivers

[Mr Tony]

In the last couple months, there has been a fair amount of people getting free to air systems and the one question that always comes up is.......what kind of signal are you getting?

Unfortunately this is harder than it seems, because all receivers are different. And to prove it, check the pictures below.

Both were taken at 11:00 Central time Saturday morning using the same setup (30" dish and Fortec .4 Universal LNB. The only difference is the Coolsat is slaved off the Pansat (But the Pansat was off during the test so its irrelevant).

I used 2 frequencies, Ohio News and a feed that was up at the time
ONN-Pansat floors the meter at 99 but the Coolsat only shows a 82
feed-Pansat shows only 35 but the Coolsat shows a 68

So when people ask what signal are you getting, please make sure to state what you are getting and what receiver you have. It will help us in the long run when helping out, so when someone says “I can only get a 34%” and they have a Satwork (which the meter is generally low), we know what we are working with : )

 

[Shawn95GT]

That makes me feel a bit better about never having seen 100% quality on the coolsat .

 

[Mr Tony]

That makes me feel a bit better about never having seen 100% quality on the coolsat .

exactly

I wondered why when I was using it with the 36" to get ONN I had a decent signal, but never a 99....hooked to the Pansat (with its spazzmatic meter) and got a 99

 

[iammike]

The difference in signal strength/quality gets even larger when you throw PC cards into the mix. I might have a viewable signal on my Twinhan card with a strength in the 30's and quality down around 20 or even high teens. The same signal on my Fortec receiver might be in the 50's on signal strength and upper 40's on quality. On the Fortec anything around 40 (quality) or lower isn't watchable.

 

[Mr Tony]

The difference in signal strength/quality gets even larger when you throw PC cards into the mix. I might have a viewable signal on my Twinhan card with a strength in the 30's and quality down around 20 or even high teens. The same signal on my Fortec receiver might be in the 50's on signal strength and upper 40's on quality. On the Fortec anything around 40 (quality) or lower isn't watchable.

I was going to throw in the Viacast too but that is on G10 but yes, each receiver is different.

Also, the bandwidth they purchase is part of it too. IA5 I have some TP’s that I can get a stable picture with a 15 signal. Heck, Chuck’s network (Peoples network), I have a stable picture with a 10 signal : )

My Pansat's threshold is about a 30

 

[Mr Tony]

I'm going to sticky this for a little while

 

[CharredPC]

The difference in signal strength/quality gets even larger when you throw PC cards into the mix. I might have a viewable signal on my Twinhan card with a strength in the 30's and quality down around 20 or even high teens. The same signal on my Fortec receiver might be in the 50's on signal strength and upper 40's on quality. On the Fortec anything around 40 (quality) or lower isn't watchable.

Twinhan cards seem to have a really wacky and semi-useless S/Q ratio. Mine is always confusing me! The Tube general comes in with 63-65% Signal and 35% Quality (after the hail storm here the other day, it's wavering to 37%Q; will have to try and figure out how mother nature tweaked that for me, lol). A 31% Quality seems the minimum to recieve smooth picture on this Twinhan102g. I've never seen the Signal strength get over 82%, save once when setting up my dish I had over 90% on 3ABN... never recreated that once I got my arc I've learned numbers don't mean a heck of a lot unless you're peaking things, it's what shows on the screen and how well.

 

[iammike]

Twinhan cards seem to have a really wacky and semi-useless S/Q ratio. Mine is always confusing me! The Tube general comes in with 63-65% Signal and 35% Quality (after the hail storm here the other day, it's wavering to 37%Q; will have to try and figure out how mother nature tweaked that for me, lol). A 31% Quality seems the minimum to recieve smooth picture on this Twinhan102g. I've never seen the Signal strength get over 82%, save once when setting up my dish I had over 90% on 3ABN... never recreated that once I got my arc I've learned numbers don't mean a heck of a lot unless you're peaking things, it's what shows on the screen and how well.

Mine's a 1020a. It seems to be reasonably consistent, you just have to get used to the lower numbers. Maybe one of those hail storms will come through Roanoke and fine tune my system too. Somehow I think buying one of those new Invacom's from PSB will give me better results though.

 

[Mr Tony]

I went from a .5 to a .4 and it helped...it REALLY helped going to a 36" dish (see review of 36")

 

[CharredPC]

As stated by somone else previously, switch from a .5 (or .6 as I have ) and from a 30" to something larger at the same time; big fat whopping difference It'll make you so happy you did the upgrade.

 

[iammike]

I went from a .5 to a .4 and it helped...it REALLY helped going to a 36" dish (see review of 36")

I read your review, it was really informative. Thanks for putting it together. I also read PSB's Invacom review. I'm thinking LNBF first, I'm currently using a .5 Universal, and then dish. Of course, I've also been reading about Cascade's C-Band adventures. I don't have a HOA to worry about so I've been intrigued by the 1.2M dish and a C/KU LNBF too. Right now I'm waiting to see how the experiments come out.

 

[Mr Tony]

Mike
When I get the Invacom, I will be testing it on the 30" to see how it works between a .5, .4 & .3

 

[iammike]

Mike
When I get the Invacom, I will be testing it on the 30" to see how it works between a .5, .4 & .3

Cool! I'll be real curious to see what kind of numbers you get. Are you getting the new Invacom everyone is drooling over?

 

[PSB]

Iceborg has won the SNH-031 Invacom LNBF

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=66990

Still one chance to win one!

 

[Mr Tony]

Cool! I'll be real curious to see what kind of numbers you get. Are you getting the new Invacom everyone is drooling over?

yep

 

[Cascade]

I also read PSB's Invacom review.

Got a link? Can't find it anywhere.

 

[PSB]

No such review........... I think Mike means YOUR review Gascade!

 

[Cascade]

Thought so, cheers PBS.

 

[John W]

Iceborg has won the SNH-031 Invacom LNBF

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=66990

Still one chance to win one!

Sounds a little fishy to me

I guess you have to play to win though so not much chance I would have had a shot at it.

 

[Cascade]

Sounds a little fishy to me

I guess you have to play to win though so not much chance I would have had a shot at it.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showpost.php?p=508433&postcount=56

Edit: How is that fishy?