Signal quality and strength

hargo

Hi all

I have a Lidl satelite setup for the past 18 months, 80cm dish and the cheap cable it came with and I am receiving signal and quality strength at about 70%. Due to the height of trees behind me it was necessary to put the dish on top of the chimney which makes it fully exposed to the wind and no matter how much it is tightened it has moved from time to time and it is a pain to get at. If I change the dish to a smaller one say 60cm will it affect the signal. I only want to pickup the main freesat channels. By using a better quality cable will the signal quality and strength improve and what figures should I be trying to achieve if everything is set up well? Also whats a good brand of dish to use and should I use a mesh type rather than solid?

Rippy

The Lidl 80cm (and smaller) dishes are pretty hopeless.
They are useless given a bit of wind.
Not a good idea to put an 80 cm dish on a chimney anyway. You do not know how strong your chimney is.
Put up a 60cm zone 2 sky dish, or better a Triax TD 64 .
Only regard the chimney as a last resort. To get distance from the trees , use a T&K bracket and pole looking over the eaves in the far side of the house to the trees.
Or mount on garden wall or pole concreted into garden .
Can be at ground level as long as it can see the satellite.
If cable is RG59 (supplied with some lidl systems) replace with satellite grade cable (WF100 or equivalent,copper on copper), or a good quality well screened RG6 type.
Readings on box display are arbitrary and are only a rough guide to signal strength and Bit Error Rate.
70% on one box may equate to 90% on another.
Hope this helps.

steveon

I hate Lidl dishes.....grrrrrrrrrrrr cheap junk...should only be used as a stepping stone to the world of digital..as Rippy ritefully stated sky dish or triax dishes are way better solution...if u plugged in a fan next to a lidl dish theyd probably move..