German TV with 60 cm Minidish

willg

Quick question, can a 60cm minidish with original Grundig lnb be used to pick up DVB broadcasts from Astra @ 19.5 degrees or is a 80cm dish required for reliable reception accounting for rain etc? Location is west of Ireland.

Cheers W

Ulsterman 1690

60cm Should be sufficent for Astra 1 in all but the heaviest downpours

watty

80cm is needed for ALL channels esp in normal western rain. Some transponders are fine on 60cm in rain.

There are a variety of satellites at 19E. Also signal a lot lower on west coast than East coast and rain heavier.

In heavy rain some hotbird channels break up a bit even on 80cm, but astra 19E just OK. Once I have rain that was heavy enough that even Sky knocked out for 5 minutes on 80cm dish. But only once and there was 3" of floodding in garden in 20minutes...

parsi

here in Cork I have all the German channels happily on a minidish . YMMV.

L1011

Will be enough for everything except the Sky News transponder in pouring rain, although expect poor analogue off Astra 1E in said rain.

Aquos76

60cm fine here in Waterford in all conditions for 19E.

watty

All the channels on all the satellites at 19E? I'm sceptical. Remember Astra 19E is a constellation of satellites with differing power and beams. Some beams also fall off quicky to North West or West.

maisflocke

I would not be too sceptical Watty - the official Astra footprints reflect anything but reality.
Where I live, the Astra Webite states I need a dish of 120cm to receive Astra 2D. However, the dish I use is only 55cm and I do not have any reception problems.
Therefore, I would assume that all Astra 1 footprints cover all of Ireland a lot better than Astra state they do...

watty

I'm only going by my own experience on 80cm fixed dish pointed at 19E and a 80cm motorised dish.

The extra cost is not much and the flexibility/rain margin much more.

willg

Thanks for the reply folks appreciate your taking the time to reply and as always the info is excellent.

Cheers