Signal Strength Question 110 vs 119

[UpOnTheMountain]

Hello all.

I'm using an old gilat/starcrap dish as my "Dish500" solution.

What signal strength relationship should be expected on a Dish 500?

In other words ....

I'm seeing 95% + on most of my 110 transponders (on my 721).

But I'm seeing very low 80% numbers on most of my 119 transponders.

So ... Is this normal and expected, or should I consider a fine-tune-tweak-alignment-kinda-session on my dish?

This question comes from having a very strange two-event recording occur last night with 119-transponder3 where Agency and meet my folks was recorded into four different events. two of which showing around 20 seconds each and the other two showing 57 minutes each. Th net effect feeling like there was a loss of signal problem?

anyways .. thanks in advance for any help!

[beegfoot]

Your signal readings can vary depending on each different receiver. I've installed two 301's in a home and got full signal on one and weaker on the other with equal coax runs.

My normal readings here in East Texas are 125% on 119, and 123% on 110. I heard on one chat that Dish was going to reset the receivers to 100% peak, but haven't seen one yet.

I may be mistaken, but as long as your signal is locked in, you should have no difference in picture quality in the 80% range. One guy I talked to in Alaska can only peak to 75% with his 508, 1.2 meter dish, and has no problems.

[UpOnTheMountain]

thanks beegfoot.

I'm mostly worried about reducing my risk to rain/cloud fade.

So if I should expect 119 and 110 to have roughly equal strength on a good 500 aim, then I will consider doing a re-peak.

But if instead it is normal for 119 to be a little weaker, then I just let it be as it is.

It sounds like on yours that 110 and 119 are about equal....

tia

[Mike123abc]

110 was weaker until they got E8 up last year and now they shoudl both be about the same between E7 and E8. Note that 110 has 2 satellites, and different strenghts on different transponders.

More likely your dish is peaked on 110, but is not quite tilted right to be peaked on 119.

[scooper]

I peak for 119 for me, because about 95%+ of my Dish viewing is either locals (119 spotbeam) or AT100 (also 119 - conus). Only some PI and PPV are on 110 for me, so that's my decision. YMMV.

[boba]

Your 119 should be as strong as 110 or slightly stronger with the starband dish it should have been peaked for starband then fine tuned for the best DISH while maintaining Starband requirements.
If you are no longer using starband you probably can re peak the dish for better reception of 110 & 119. The 721 peak signal is 100% so your 110 is probably near max capability, I would guess your skew setting on the starband dish could be the problem mark your starting position then make small adjustments either side of starting point.

[UpOnTheMountain]

Thanks everybody,
I'll give it a quick re-peak later today. Focusing on the skew.
Appreciate the help!
Keith

[jeffr]

When testing the relative signal strengths of the 110 and 119 satellites do you generally use the initial "pointing" screen and cycle through each transponder for each satellite and utilize an average of those #'s to come up with the percentages everyone talks about? Or do you jump into the Dish500 screen where it displays both satellite locations (110 & 119) simultaneously on the screen with no regard to transponders?

The reason for my question is that my 110 #'s are significantly higher then my 119 #'s when viewing the individual transponders. Most of my 110 transponders are in the 104-107 range with two or three up in the 112-113 range. Most of my 119 transponders are in the mid 80's which seems awfully low to me. When I look at my Dish500 screen my 110 signal is "109" and my 119 signal is "102".

After my install this past fall I had a lot of problems with rain fade. So far this winter has been kind to me with no outages from snow however I do seem to lose my guide on my 301's and my 508 alot. This morning I had no information available on most of my guide.

I'm not sure if location means anything but I'm located in Central Wisconsin and have a wide open field so I have zero obstructions in front of the dish. My signal testing was done during the day with bright blue skies.

Jeff

[johnsmith22]

Personally I think the best way is to use two Satfinder boxes that cost about 15 or 20 bucks each and peak for maximum reading on each of their analogue meters. That is much easier than trying to use the receiver readout because the meters are right there with you by the dish and the analogue readout is much easier to peak on than the receiver bars and numbers. I have found once peaked that way you are pretty certainly spot on.

[UpOnTheMountain]

I did finally try the re-peak.
I could not get above 90 on 119 no mater what i did.
But that did get me about 5% higher on average, so I'll take that with a smile.