I have switched from my small elliptical (dual LNB) dish to an old but huge C Band dish today. Since the changeover of *Choice satellites to Anik F1R, I have had serious signal-loss issues, especially on Canadian specialty channels like Space. Interestingly, my DSR-350 box got about a 30-point stronger signal than my DSR-500, running off the same elliptical dish. With the bigger dish, both boxes show the same tuning signal.

Does anyone know: do the Hi-Def 500 boxes require extra "juice", as it were, over a non Hi-Def box, even for regular SD programming?

Moreover, using this larger C Band dish precludes my getting any Hi-Def channels. My reception is so weak I have been advised I need the "larger" elliptical dish in order to properly bring in enough signal from the two birds to enable Hi-Def again... is there truth to this story?

First things first, you need and epliptical dish of some variety to get HD at all. But yes, you are correct in that the size of the dish (eliptical or round) will affect how strong of a signal you can receive. However, unless your signal is really low anyway ( <50%,) with your disk peaked correctly, I doubt a bigger dish will do anything for you.

I guess I should ask, what are your signal strength readings? Check on both receivers on 299 so you are comparing apples to apples and don't worry about the 30 point difference in signal strength. Most 300/400 receivers start counting signal at 25% on the signal bar (so effectively, 25% is zero), on the 500 series, zero means zero, so there's usually a difference.

Also, you didn't say if the signal was better on the bigger dish (what type of LNBF are you using on that by the way?). If it's considerably better, check the obvious -- alignment, obstruction and lnbf/cabling issues (no splitting) with the elipical. I doubt if these issues started after the F1R switchover that the size of dish has anything to do with it either as the signal from F1R is stronger than it was on F1.

If everything checks out ok, then yes, a 75cm quad might help matters, but unless you're in an area with hills/natural obstructions, I wouldn't think Ottawa should really need a dish bigger that 60cm.

Yes, the 60cm should be fine. With the new F1R there has been an increase in signal strength of about 10%. We've had alot of rain over the last month or so in Ottawa and I can't recall suffering through any rain/cloud fade during that time with my 60cm dish. If the 60cm dish is properly aligned then that's all you need for the Ottawa area.

If your LNB is not matched to the size of your BUD, then the illumination footprint may not be allowing the stronger rain fade margins you expected.

Have you corrected for Skew and Focal Point as well as Azimuth & Elevation?

Could also be the Noise Factor on your LNB's as well.

The guys here are right, a 60e or 75e will do the job.

The slight differences in signals some got after the replacment sats went up are due to beam coverage and not higher power transponders.

But, like in life, size matters, but as long as the dish is big enough to get the job done, then size doesn't matter.
H'mm, were have we heard that one before!

Thank you for the helpful comments. Stuff I certainly wasn't aware of. But a question: does anyone know for sure that F1R has a 10% signal-strength improvement, or are we just guessing?

Now for this next part, I must tread lightly: fact is, I am spending a few months in Mexico, south of Guadalajara in my RV. Have you ever used a large dish on the roof of a trailer? Sheesh. With this big dish, I am getting a 70 (ch. 299) and 85 (ch. 500) on my 300-box signal meter. But because it is round, I can "see" only one bird, so no HD.

There are tall trees around, but the angle of the dish is pretty much skyward, and clear of the foliage. There is a local guy who set this up for me, so I cannot answer the azimuth/skew/focal point/elevation question. But the signal jumped from about 15 when we switched over to the big dish. I am guessing the biggest issue is beam coverage this far south.

But, like in life, size matters, but as long as the dish is big enough to get the job done, then size doesn't matter.
H'mm, were have we heard that one before!

My dish is large enough to make me happy :p
plus it's fast too.

Thank you for the helpful comments. Stuff I certainly wasn't aware of. But a question: does anyone know for sure that F1R has a 10% signal-strength improvement, or are we just guessing?

That seemed to be what most people on this forum were getting. I haven't heard anything announced "officially" from telesat that EVERYONE should be getting 10+ more signal strength...

There was NO changes in transponder power, so any gain you noticed is strictly a change of the beam pattern in YOUR area.

From this it looks like you should be good to go in Mexico.

http://www.telesat.com/images/satellites/F1KNACONT.gif

F1R has a much lower signal level in Mexico vs F1 and F2

Mike Kohl of Global Communications has been running a thread on Satellite Guys US about it

http://www.satelliteguys.us/forumdisplay.php?f=72

Once again, thanks for the very helpful answers. I am checking out your links. It would seem that southern Mexico has lost up to 3dB (representing a 50% loss in signal strength), thereby explaining some of the issues.

Now I need to back-peddle a little and see if any kind of larger elliptical dish will bring in the Hi-Def channels while here. Looks iffy. I will continue to follow this thread in case there are others looking for reference info on the same topic. .... Cheers ....

I'm having reception problems along with everyone in Manzanillo. I have an unused C-band dish. How difficult was it to add your Starchoice LNB to your large dish?
And just a thought-if you still have your C band receiver couldn't you use it to point the dish to the HD satellite?

Sorry I never answered this; must have been one of the times my PC had to be redone with Windows and I lost my subscription to Digital Home. In case anybody wants to know, it was a snap hooking up the dual-quad LNB to the huge dish, and it brought my signal up from about 42 to well over 80 most of the time. No HD, though.

Now I hear this week from a friend that my local installer has figured out how to get HD on one dish and everything else on a second dish, regardless of shape or size. Apparently, as well, there are accounts running with HD actually not turned on by Star Choice. I must check this out. Meantime, I am playing phone tag with the installer.

Yes, the large eliptical is necessary in the Pacific Mexico area. The published 'footprint' map is incorrect, and the signal dropped dramatically with the new satellite. I use a large dish (1 meter across) and struggle for a signal level of '50'. For general viewing it works great, but a beast to align because of the low signal level. Too much movement on the top of an RV I would think.
Should have a sturdy tripod....?
I'm located in Melaque, and most everyone with the standard (e60) dish lost
reliable signal the moment the satellite switch occured.

I've discovered that no, the larger elliptical dish is not necessary in Mexico; at least, not always. I had occasion to have my standard-sized dish to be installed in a new location, and wow! all the HD channels started coming in. Then, I brought down the 75 cm. larger dish from Canada, and the signal has actually deteriorated since it was installed.

So what have I learned?


the standard dish is good enough for HD, as long as you have a good install
you can no longer get any dishes at the regular outlets like Future Shop; only by having an installer come to your house
if you can find a Star Choice "outlet", you can order a dish there (there are very few outlet stores left)
the store charged me $100, plus tax, after saying on the phone that they would charge $75
Star Choice will send you a larger dish for "free" (after a $49.99 one-time service fee), but only if you can show proof of a second "legal" residence (eg. proof of ownership of an RV; proof of a cottage or second home, etc.)
always check on CH 299, after a new dish install or re-point, to see if you are getting the best signal. My installer is a friend, and he works hard, but even he needs to come back a second time, sometimes
DSR500 HD boxes will lose the ability to receive HD sometime in August 2007 when Star Choice switches to the new 8P** standard. However, they are offering $99 newer HD boxes (the DSR505), and letting you keep your old box.

Just a friendly tip -- you might want to look at the dates on topics you post in -- especially if you do a search to find them........ this thread was almost 1 year old.

Not to put too fine a spin on it, but it certainly attracted you, didn't it? :p If you look waaay down at the beginning, you'll notice that I started this thread, and I will continue to post updates for everyone's information. That's the whole point behind these things, isn't it?

Cheers...

You got me on this one -- didn't look to see you were the original poster. Sorry 'bout that.

Feel free to keep us updated for sure.

Lol.

I really wanted to update this one, because I often have huge difficulties finding the info I need using a Forum Search... and I assume others do, too. So, this particular topic may apply to perhaps a limited number of people, but people who can really benefit from getting the answers, I'm hoping that the title will turn up in their search. There've been well over 2,000 views, so I can only assume there is some interest, if not a huge amount.

Tell me, BGY, were you looking at this one for your own benefit, or just browsing?

Mostly browsing -- I try to view most threads in this forum just to get more info and such. :)