Satellite signal strength and quality?

Henry Ford III

What kind of figures should I be looking for?

Recent bad weather has I suspect knocked the dish slightly out of alignment. Signal strength is below 40%, with quality about 70%.

Some channels are breaking up or not tuning at all. I'll get a pro. do a realignment and service and see what happens from there.

Shifty Shellshock

Henry Ford III wrote: »

What kind of figures should I be looking for?

Recent bad weather has I suspect knocked the dish slightly out of alignment. Signal strength is below 40%, with quality about 70%.

Some channels are breaking up or not tuning at all. I'll get a pro. do a realignment and service and see what happens from there.

Getting zero signal strength and quality on ours. Was fine last night. Nothing happening when I try turn it on now.

Tony

Usually 70% and up will give you a good stable picture but there are many factors that can influence this such as cable quality, dish alignment and LNB noise threshold . No hard and fast rules as such just a good indication.

banie01

Henry Ford III wrote: »

What kind of figures should I be looking for?

Recent bad weather has I suspect knocked the dish slightly out of alignment. Signal strength is below 40%, with quality about 70%.

Some channels are breaking up or not tuning at all. I'll get a pro. do a realignment and service and see what happens from there.

Assuming you are lining up on Sky 28.2e you should be easily bettering those levels.
It depends on what channel/service you are using to align your dish.
If you use BBC1 HD or C4HD to line up, you should be looking for 90%+ on both measures.
I usually use C4HD to line up and then use one of the weaker TP's to fine tune it, I usually use Vintage TV or Military History(though I think these TP's have been given a power boost recently).

Shifty Shellshock wrote: »

Getting zero signal strength and quality on ours. Was fine last night. Nothing happening when I try turn it on now.

Your dish was probably moved by wind overnight, even a small movement can knock out your reception.

Henry Ford III

banie01 wrote: »

Assuming you are lining up on Sky 28.2e you should be easily bettering those levels.
It depends on what channel/service you are using to align your dish.
If you use BBC1 HD or C4HD to line up, you should be looking for 90%+ on both measures.
I usually use C4HD to line up and then use one of the weaker TP's to fine tune it, I usually use Vintage TV or Military History(though I think these TP's have been given a power boost recently).

Thanks.

A pro. with a proper sat finder is realigning the dish later on. The dish itself is stainless steel so should be fine. The bracketry is probably starting to fail however.

No harm to give it a bit of service and perfect the signal.

banie01

Henry Ford III wrote: »

Thanks.

A pro. with a proper sat finder is realigning the dish later on. The dish itself is stainless steel so should be fine. The bracketry is probably starting to fail however.

No harm to give it a bit of service and perfect the signal.

You will be up and running in no time then
But would you mind sharing some more info on your Dish? Price? Manufacturer? Where you bought?
I've never come across a S.S dish, it has me very curious.

Henry Ford III

banie01 wrote: »

You will be up and running in no time then
But would you mind sharing some more info on your Dish? Price? Manufacturer? Where you bought?
I've never come across a S.S dish, it has me very curious.

The dish is up years and when last looked at was apparently in great condition despite my living on the west coast.

It cost almost €200 fitted I recall but I don't know the name of it. Purchased from Flynn TV in Miltown Malbay.

banie01

Henry Ford III wrote: »

The dish is up years and when last looked at was apparently in great condition despite my living on the west coast.

It cost almost €200 fitted I recall but I don't know the name of it. Purchased from Flynn TV in Miltown Malbay.

Thanks for that.
I'm intrigued no end by this.
Usually a Gibertini or other Aluminium dish would be used in that circumstance(Exposed/Coastal) with galvanised mounting hardware
Anyways hope you get your alignment sorted, never mind me and my curiousity.

fryup

Tony wrote: »

Usually 70% and up will give you a good stable picture but there are many factors that can influence this such as cable quality, dish alignment and LNB noise threshold . No hard and fast rules as such just a good indication.

70% signal strength or quality ??

*some channels are better than others why is that?..i mean there all coming from the same satellite?

Tony

fryup wrote: »

70% signal strength or quality ??

*some channels are better than others why is that?..i mean there all coming from the same satellite?

Both. Different transponders have different power outputs and beam directions from the satellite. Higher frequencies have higher losses when carried by coax and F connectors. They do not all come from the same satellite as there may be many satellites in the same orbital position just a few KM's apart in space.

Henry Ford III

All sorted.

LNB plastic holder was broken due to the cables not being cable tied down properly. Now replaced and the reception is perfect.

Signal is now a little over 70%.

Tony

Good, glad you got it sorted

Henry Ford III wrote: »

All sorted.

LNB plastic holder was broken due to the cables not being cable tied down properly. Now replaced and the reception is perfect.

Signal is now a little over 70%.

kooga

i know there is no definite answer on this but struggling to improve my signal strength. Very little if any picture braek up. Any suggestions.

Thanks

Tony

Your quality reading looks fine so unless you are having any picture break up there's really nothing to worry about . Is it a long cable run from the dish ?

kooga wrote: »

i know there is no definite answer on this but struggling to improve my signal strength. Very little if any picture braek up. Any suggestions.

Thanks

kooga

Tony

thanks for the reply.
about 5-6 m run its a set up in a mobile home.

Thurston?

kooga wrote: »

i know there is no definite answer on this but struggling to improve my signal strength. Very little if any picture braek up.

For 28 east in Ireland, there's no reason there should be any picture breakup, unless maybe in exceptionally heavy rain.

Tony

That's quite a short run so I'd expect better signal strength . Do you know what type of cable is being used . If its easy to replace you could go with good quality Rg6 or TX/CT 100 spec cable. Is it a 60cm dish ?

kooga wrote: »

Tony

thanks for the reply.
about 5-6 m run its a set up in a mobile home.

kooga

Tony wrote: »

That's quite a short run so I'd expect better signal strength . Do you know what type of cable is being used . If its easy to replace you could go with good quality Rg6 or TX/CT 100 spec cable. Is it a 60cm dish ?

will have alook at the cabelling. triax solid 64cm dish (coastal location)

Tony

kooga wrote: »

will have alook at the cabelling. triax solid 64cm dish (coastal location)

Thats a good quality dish so it should be working well.

STB.

Is that a 28.2 Channel ? Which channel is it ?

Remember signal meters on boxes are NOT to be trusted. I have an Enigma box which says the BBC's are 10%, but thats probabky 110%, LOL!

on 28.2 the weak channels are the likes of Information TV/Food Network. The Strongest if Ch5.

Thurston?

Eutelsat 28A is reportedly cleared out at this stage, so that's 1 less excuse for 'weak' channels.

STB.

Thurston? wrote: »

Eutelsat 28A is reportedly cleared out at this stage, so that's 1 less excuse for 'weak' channels.

True. Must test to see if there is a massive difference. 28A was on its last legs.

kooga

STB. wrote: »

Is that a 28.2 Channel ? Which channel is it ?

Remember signal meters on boxes are NOT to be trusted. I have an Enigma box which says the BBC's are 10%, but thats probabky 110%, LOL!

on 28.2 the weak channels are the likes of Information TV/Food Network. The Strongest if Ch5.

bbc news hd 13/6/15

i hooked up the sky box last night to test, took the following pic of BT sport 1 hd.

On the manhatten freesat box the mrs watched horror channel last night and the wind and rain was blowing..............no complaints re picture quality. Again guys thanks for all the feedback