Why Do I Need SNR for Unlocked TPs?

[cyberham]

Recently the Edision Mio line of receivers running TNAP5 has added the feature to allow display of SNR values for a transponder that is not locked. Here is a practical example of why this is useful.

Montana PBS on 99W on a sunny day here can be 11.0 dB. But it can be tough to receive when it is raining or about to rain. Its C/N lock value is 6.6 dB. This is the minimum SNR at which you can see the channel. It is now currently 6.0 dB.

Before this new feature, I might have guessed the signal was too low to see but I would have been guessing. It also might simply be off air. Now I can measure the unlocked value and KNOW that the signal is too weak for me to see.

Unlocked SNR of Montana PBS:


Locked SNR of PBS:

 

[Keith Brannen]

Nice feature! As well, thanks for the confirmation that Montana PBS has a crap signal right now. Haven't been able to get it here for the last two days! Nice to know they haven't stopped broadcasting, just forgot to feed the gerbil running the power! LOL!

 

[comfortably_numb]

Don't most receivers display SNR or some measure of activity on feeds that won't lock? I can observe weak feeds on my Amiko 4K and GTMedia V8 Nova Blue..

 

[cyberham]

Don't most receivers display SNR or some measure of activity on feeds that won't lock? I can observe weak feeds on my Amiko 4K and GTMedia V8 Nova Blue..

You may be right. Maybe it's more common now. The receivers I have now and have had haven't had the capability.

 

[cyberham]

... thanks for the confirmation that Montana PBS has a crap signal right now....

You've also confirmed what I'm seeing regarding Montana PBS. Maybe it's not the poor weather then. It's been like this since at least yesterday.

 

[Keith Brannen]

Don't most receivers display SNR or some measure of activity on feeds that won't lock? I can observe weak feeds on my Amiko 4K and GTMedia V8 Nova Blue..

I assume most receivers give an indication of when a signal is close to being receivable (sometimes a jumping signal of zero to whatever, or a low signal with a lot of pixelation or just a black screen). I assume that the receiver is getting something from the signal, but not enough for video.

The above seems to be it registers a signal, but isn't getting any information.

 

[Keith Brannen]

You've also confirmed what I'm seeing regarding Montana PBS. Maybe it's not the poor weather then. It's been like this since at least yesterday.

Yes, it was gone all day yesterday, and can't remember whether it was there on Monday or not (I think it was, but not too sure, if may have disappeared in the evening). We had just cloudy weather yesterday, and today have been getting light drizzle/snow in the afternoon, so did notice it was still gone when the weather wasn't bad in the morning/early afternoon Thought about starting a thread about it, but was going to wait until tomorrow, if it didn't correct itself.

Always get a bit twitchy when a signal disappears around the first of the month!

 

[Brct203]

Don't most receivers display SNR or some measure of activity on feeds that won't lock? I can observe weak feeds on my Amiko 4K and GTMedia V8 Nova Blue..

yes my Amiko miniHDre will do that - a blind scan will detect and display frequency and SR for very weak signals but it won't show any quality info unless it can lock. Very usefull when strugling to find a satellite. But until now the Enigma2 images that I have tried would list only what they can lock on and show 0dB on anything else

 

[Keith Brannen]

Just a quick note to say that the Montana PBS signal is back to its normal good level (they fed the gerbil!).