Quad increases signal strength?
Last weekend, I swapped out my two legacy duals and SW21 for the Legacy Quad. My dish is accessible out a 2nd-floor window. I had to loosen the two bolts at the back, and swing the dish around to reach the LNB's. I marked (with a Sharpie) the dish alignment before moving it. Once the Quad was in place, I just swung it back and re-aligned the sharpie mark - nothing more careful than that.
After doing the check-switch, everything worked instantly. The thing I noticed, however, was that many transponders showed much higher signal strength (10-15% higher) than with the legacy duals. Here's a summary (data taken on a sunny afternoon with light cloud, using a 5100 receiver):
Two legacy dual LNBs, SW21
91W
01-08: 89 95 81 87 99 78 100 82
09-16: 100 78 100 83 80 79 91 86
17-24: 96 76 88 87 100 75 100 78
25-32: 96 75 88 85 88 85 87 91
82W
01-08: 76 75100 96 75 75 71 93
09-16: 81 75 65 92 80 76 72 92
17-24: 79 75 70 91 80 75 68 93
25-32: 80 75 66 93 79 75 68 94
Legacy quad, no SW
91W
01-08: 100 100 88 88 100 80 100 85
09-16: 100 83 100 88 89 85 100 91
17-24: 100 83 100 97 100 82 100 86
25-32: 100 84 100 94 100 91 100 98
82W
01-08: 86 78 100 100 85 77 82 100
09-16: 96 77 76 98 96 78 82 97
17-24: 96 76 81 91 98 76 78 99
25-32: 94 76 76 97 95 76 76 99
The odd tps, especially, showed the highest gains. I also now have more 100%'s than I do on my DirecTV system that was installed professionally. I was ecstatic! Should a transition like this make such a difference? Were my connections to the SW21 or the jumper cables from the LNBs to the SW21 that poor?
Of course, every silver lining has a cloud for me. My tuner glitching issue, described in detail here:
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=99454 (posts 5-6, 8-9, 13-15)
is now more prevalent that before - rather than less prevalent (which was most of the motivation behind making the swap!) I'll have to deal with that issue separately.
But it would be good to know if upgrading to a Twin/Quad LNB is expected/known to increase signal this much - in which case I'll never bother playing with an SW21 again!
Thanks