Hey Jim how is your neighbours signal strength. I remember reading on here or digitalhome that your neighbour couldn't get line of sight so you were going to use a 75cm dish with in line amplifiers has this solved the low signal strength?
SZ56,
We are still working on that install but here's the data:
At the Dish prior to cable run install off short 30 foot cable:
On FR1 Channel 299 - ShawDirect Reg - the strength is 72
On F2 Channel 284 - NBC HD - the strength is 94
At the Rear of the Cabin at end of 350 foot of RG6 Quad Shield cable install:
On FR1 Channel 299 - ShawDirect Reg - the strength is 71
On F2 Channel 284 - NBC HD - the strength is 92
After adding 248 feet of RG6 Quad Shield to the above to carry the signal over to the neighbor's house:
On FR1 Channel 299 - ShawDirect Reg - the strength is about 58
On F2 Channel 284 - NBC HD - the strength is 90
The above is with a 60e Dish. We tried an in line amplifier - right after the multiswitch - and another attempt before cable entry into his house - both with no increase on 299 strength. (We did not try 4 amplifiers at the dish as we didn't see much degradation prior to the Multiswitch.)
So the move towards a 75e seems warranted as the most cost effective next move. I've read posts where both Dishes we "professionally algined" side by side and the 75e consistently gave a 10 point increase in signal strength.
So if the signal on Channel 299 is 80 before the multiswitch, hopefully it won't degrade as much going the last 250 feet (and remain above 70).
We are definitely going for the 75e Dish. The next step after that would be a move to RG11 Cables. But it's winter there now (and besides the neighbor says the stations are solid) so the 75e dish will have to wait until spring for me to install it..