Recommend an 80cm dish

machiavellianme

I would like to get a new 80cm dish to replace my rusted sky dish and in doing so hopefully pick up a few extra birds at 9 E, 13 E, 16E, 19 E and maybe 23.5 E. (I cant go beyond 9 E as the corner of my house gets in the way). I want the dish to look relatively discreet and have as small a form as possible without compromising picture quality/ signal strength).
Can anyone explain to me the difference between the various Satellite dish tyes in terms of picture quality expected, durability and suitability?
I've gone through the Whats your setup thread and seen all sorts of interesting ideas but dont really understand the strengths and weaknesses of each. For example, there are triax mesh dishes such as the one here that look like they tick all my boxes (I'm guessing the mesh lets wind through, and is lightweight) but will it rust faster than another type (like my sky dish did)?
Or should I get a plain old aluminium or steel round dish? What are the advantages of these?

From what I understand, a toroidal dish (such as T90) uses multipath reflections to avoid the use of a motor but allows all lnb's (pointing at different birds) to avail of the full size of the dish. I'm guessing this would be overkill for the small range I am looking at. However, I have also seen links to dishes with unusual shapes on this forum such as this Visiosat one. Is there any advantage to having a shape that is not round?

Also, there seems to be very little difference between an 80cm or 90cm dish in terms of price, would the larger dish offer much improvement given my limited range of satellites? Would it be much larger to look at from street level? I'm based near Dublin but close to the sea.
Thanks for any clarifications.

zg3409

Beside the sea a fibreglass is best, next best alumium, next best galvanised steel, worst mesh dishes.

Many dishes do not come with brackets. Depending on the position of the dish needed on the wall the length of the bracket may need to be up to half the diameter of the dish to allow dish to stick out far enough to swing around. Do not skimp on the bracket.

Mesh does not let high speed wind through, this is a myth.

For 9-23.5 & Sky at 28.2 a T90 might be needed or other multifocus dishes. (A T90 is VERY heavy and Ugly. Other multifocus dishes are lighter.

Going from 80 to 90 might not make much difference. It will not look much bigger. The colour/position of the dish would have more an effect on how ugly it looks. You can paint the dish if needed.

I think some of the transponders on 23.5E may need a 1.1M dish in Ireland. Others can confirm. The more off centre the LNB is, the less of the actual dish is sees. Ideally the weakest signal should be at the centre of the dish with all others offset each side.

28 all the way to 9 is a very wide angle to use on a small dish.

machiavellianme

zg3409 wrote: »

Beside the sea a fibreglass is best, next best alumium, next best galvanised steel, worst mesh dishes.

Many dishes do not come with brackets. Depending on the position of the dish needed on the wall the length of the bracket may need to be up to half the diameter of the dish to allow dish to stick out far enough to swing around. Do not skimp on the bracket.

Mesh does not let high speed wind through, this is a myth.

For 9-23.5 & Sky at 28.2 a T90 might be needed or other multifocus dishes. (A T90 is VERY heavy and Ugly. Other multifocus dishes are lighter.

Going from 80 to 90 might not make much difference. It will not look much bigger. The colour/position of the dish would have more an effect on how ugly it looks. You can paint the dish if needed.

I think some of the transponders on 23.5E may need a 1.1M dish in Ireland. Others can confirm. The more off centre the LNB is, the less of the actual dish is sees. Ideally the weakest signal should be at the centre of the dish with all others offset each side.

28 all the way to 9 is a very wide angle to use on a small dish.

Thanks for clarifying that. I had thought as much. I get what you are saying about the number of LNBs on the size of the dish but have taken heart from some of the posts about using a TD88 with slim LNBs so might opt for that approach. 23.5E isnt essential, just thought I might go for it down the line when I'm more comfotable picking up anything other than 28E.

machiavellianme

Any idea if the see-through resin dishes are any good?
Maybe this 85cm one

dodzy

machiavellianme wrote: »

Any idea if the see-through resin dishes are any good?
Maybe this 85cm one

Looks nice, but to land it at your door, if you are in Ireland, would be €130. Without LNB and without wall mount. Madness.

kooga

Good morning Guys

Thinking of installing an 80cm dish i;m based in cork city, i already have two 60cm dishes picking up 19.2 and 28.4.

What would be the best configuration to put on this new 80cm dish in addition to hotbird 13. Thanks again for all previous replies.

dicey2

machiavellianme wrote: »

For example, there are triax mesh dishes such as the one here that look like they tick all my boxes (I'm guessing the mesh lets wind through, and is lightweight) but will it rust faster than another type (like my sky dish did)?
.

that's actually my setup. I have it a year and a half know and no rust. im high up so can get very windy. never had a problem with channel signals etc.

if you are by the sea then take the advice as per previous poster. the one bit of advice I would give is get a dish that has a solid arm rather than one that clicks in. my previous dish had a click in arm which mean there was a bit of play and so when it got windy I did have some issues with the signal

Ronnie Raygun

kooga wrote: »

Thinking of installing an 80cm dish i;m based in cork city, i already have two 60cm dishes picking up 19.2 and 28.4.

What would be the best configuration to put on this new 80cm dish in addition to hotbird 13. Thanks again for all previous replies.

Are you after anything in particular? Maybe a foreign subscription service?

In other words, do you need totally reliable signals on any particular satellite or is it just for "browsing" or whatever?

kooga

Ronnie Raygun wrote: »

Are you after anything in particular? Maybe a foreign subscription service?

In other words, do you need totally reliable signals on any particular satellite or is it just for "browsing" or whatever?

Thanks fror the reply, haven't given the subscription route much thought yet, but i suppose to maximise the putting up of a third dish will consider it. In essence more for browsing and seeing whats out there and would an 80cm dish be sufficient for a few more additional satellites?

snaps

The triax dishes are good enough for being beside the sea. Just make sure the bracket is galvanised too (Hot dipped). You cant go wrong with a triax, especially a TD88.

Ronnie Raygun

kooga wrote: »

In essence more for browsing and seeing whats out there

What's "out there" are the tv services of other countries, mostly foreign language.

Maybe you've already looked at what's available on the likes of http://en.kingofsat.net/satellites.php?

STB

A TD88 allows you all sorts of multi lnb setups.....

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=84066713&postcount=20

byte

Yup, I'd go with a TD88 too, great dish.

snaps

Or a TD110!!!!!