When is a 18" dish better than a 24"?

[Mr Tony]

Weird situation over the weekend. I have had a bugger of a time getting a good signal on 110. 119 was always aorund 100 but some of the TP's on 110 were at 70. This is using a Legacy Twin and DP301..

so I decided to do go with the two dish route

I already had a LNB for 119 attached to my Starchoice LNB for the FTA audio. So that was set (every TP except for spotbeams betwwen 120-125)

So all I needed was a dish at 110 and a SW21....so I pulled out the old 24" dish I use to use for ExpressVu and hooked it up to 110. Aimed and in 2 minutes I had a 85 signal as the max (weird but OK). Spotbeams were 125. I had an old DirecTV LNB that I put on there and hooked it all up and ran chekc switch.

Then I started checking numbers
evens on 110 were around 80-85 but odds were 65 (!!!!!)

This was majorly weird and I had no Y adapter and this same setup did work for 91 a while back. So I tore it down and put a 18" DirecTV dish there...in 30 seconds I had a 115 signal on TP 11

Finished it up and now all my TP's on 110 are at least 100 (some are 115 and these aren't spotbeams)

Now why the heck would the 18" give me a better signal than a 24" would? I know the arm length has to be right, but I use to use this for ExdpressVu and it worked fine. (all TP's use to ping between 95-100 on a 100 scale)

Second question is....is anybody still doing it this way?
(1 dish for 110 and 1 dish for 119...not for a wing slot)

 

[OoTLink]

24 bottles of beer at the dish, 24 bottles of beer! Pass one down and throw it around... 25 bottles of beer at the dish!

(maybe some drunk people got bored and threw bottles of beer at your dish?)



Guess it's not very funny :|

 

[Mr Tony]

24 bottles of beer at the dish, 24 bottles of beer! Pass one down and throw it around... 25 bottles of beer at the dish!

(maybe some drunk people got bored and threw bottles of beer at your dish?)

The dish was up for maybe an hour and I don't drink

 

[boba]

Warpage of the dish in storage would be first thought. Try laying it face down on a flat surface and see how well it touches.

 

[Mr Tony]

I'll try that...but it is a sturdy dish so it should be fine

 

[stevelite]

Normally the bigger the surface of dish, better it is because all the beams gets concentrated in the focus(LNB). There is a BIG O dish in Puerto Rico. . Arecibo Observatory, the largest single dish telescope in the world. How would you like to have this dish in your backyard.

I think the problem you seeing might be due to bad or worn dish of 24". Maybe the paints worn off and not performing as it should. Do you have another 24" you can test?

 

[Mr Tony]

Normally the bigger the surface of dish, better it is because all the beams gets concentrated in the focus(LNB).

I know how that works...I use to use a 30" dish for ExpressVu (before I moved to a 24")

I think the problem you seeing might be due to bad or worn dish of 24". Maybe the paints worn off and not performing as it should. Do you have another 24" you can test?

nope. Just that one. Its no biggie as rain season is pretty much done here in MN (soon it's now season)

I just wanted a higher signal than 70's

 

[SimpleSimon]

You mentioned no Y-adapter on the Dish500. You got an I-adapter on there?

If you're just plugged into the short metal arm (did you say you're using a D* LNB?), then that's the problem - wrong focal length, but you know that, so i dunno.

 

[Mr Tony]

You mentioned no Y-adapter on the Dish500. You got an I-adapter on there?

nope.

If you're just plugged into the short metal arm (did you say you're using a D* LNB?), then that's the problem - wrong focal length, but you know that, so i dunno.

This same setup use to work when I had ExpressVu
LNB right into the arm (this was designed for DirecTV or ExpressVu) and it worked fine.

I'll have to see if the dish warped somehow

 

[SimpleSimon]

Ah - so it's NOT a Dish500?

A D500 running short arm will SOMETIMES work - because it's bigger, but it's not optimal. You want maximum signal, you've got to get the LNB out where it belongs. That's why they came up with the I-adapter.