signal strength

[dmulder]

I live in michigan and I am getting low 80,s on 101 and low 70,s on 119 on my directv system. I am wondering if that is normal or should I be able to get a stronger reading.

[MarkA]

It's NORMAL. Is it the best you could get? Likely not. But it's certainly acceptable.

[Jacob S]

They say that anything 70 and up is acceptable although you will get a signal with anything above 40, however while you might get a signal on one transponder at a low signal rate, you may get none on another one, so the weakest transponder needs to be locked.

The advantage to having a strong signal strength is that it prevents rain fade and will not go out as easily and for as long during a hard rain.

[Karl Foster]

I have similar strength in the summer because of the trees, I believe, but in the winter I have strength in the 90's. If you get much snow, you will want to make sure you have strong signal strength before winter comes around.

I also remember reading somewhere that oval dishes have a lower signal strength than the round ones. I can't remember where, though.

[Richssat]

Karl,
For the most part that is true. An oval dish (2-3LNB) will top out at a lower overall signal strength then a round one (1LNB). It is because you are pointing the dish between two or 3 orbital slots rather then directly at one.

Around here, I routinely get signal strength readings in the mid to high 90's on a round dish. The best I normally get out of an oval dish is 80/80.

The best set up to view more then one sat would be to point a round dish at each one. Few people want 2 or 3 dishes on their house tho.

Now, can someone explain to me why E* felt the need to have their signal strength meter on their recievers go up to 125 ?

Something oddly Spinal Tap(ish) about that if you ask me.

Rich

[Jacob S]

The reason why the signal goes to 125 is because some transponders are in boost mode and they want that boost mode to be shown.

[MarkA]

"Now, can someone explain to me why E* felt the need to have their signal strength meter on their recievers go up to 125 ?"

Because a redesigned 1-100 meter would make people think their signals had dropped, and when they moved to 240 Watt transponders (from 120) - many people were maxing out on 100. Rather than scale it back and make people think they'd lost signal, they just added 25 points.