Replacement dish recommendation for 28.2

JMcL

I'm looking for some advice/opinions on a new dish - somewhat of a newbie on this so bear with me

I need to replace the POC Sky minidish which is rapidly turning into a pile of loosely bound rust with the result that I'm having increasing difficulty receiving signals on certain transponders - particularly the Channel 4 family of channels. We live right beside the coast (Waterford) and need something weather resistant that will last more than about 4 years (I wouldn't have had the minidish in the first place but it was either that or not get the then brand spanking new Vu+ working over Christmas)

So I've been looking at the options and there's this Smart 60cm at a price that can't be argued with. Is a Triax 64cm dish worth the extra cost (not that it's that much more)? Is there any point in going for a slightly larger (say 80cm) dish? Can I use the existing quad LNB from the Sky dish, or is the mounting not compatible (can't quite figure this out from online sources)? Alternatively is it best to replace the LNB anyway at the same time?

One thing which might sway the choice size wise is that while I'm primarily interested in Freesat from 28.2, I may someday come good on trying to get French TV from TNTSat on 19.2. According to satbeams.com, a 60cm dish will do either, but am I right in saying I'd need to look at the bigger dish if I wanted to go for a dual LNB setup to pick up the 2 of them (non-motorised)?

Any recommendations much appreciated!

SPAWKER

If it were me I would go for an 80cm dish for a more stable reception.
The Lnb on the sky dish is only designed to be used with an oval dish so you will have to replace it as well.

St Senan

OP i would stay well clear of that 60cm smart dish that you linked, they are worse than a sky dish and especially on the coast. the dish face itself will just disintegrate and and what is left is the hard plastic lnb arm and the hard plastic back bracket. i have replaced loads of those cheap dishes over the last few years, if you could i would suggest that you buy a Fiberglass dish and good quality wall mount especially if your living at the coast.

JMcL

SPAWKER wrote: »

The Lnb on the sky dish is only designed to be used with an oval dish so you will have to replace it as well.

Cool, thanks.

Navarre wrote: »

OP i would stay well clear of that 60cm smart dish that you linked, they are worse than a sky dish and especially on the coast.

Good to know, thanks

if you could i would suggest that you buy a Fiberglass dish and good quality wall mount especially if your living at the coast.

Would you have any recommendations for one? I have a decent wall mount already that the minidish is attached to so only need the actual dish/mounting bracket (and LNB of course)?

swoofer

fiberglas very expensive, im near the atlantic and use this one,

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/78cm-Triax-Satellite-Dish-TD78-Non-Rust-Ideal-for-Seaside-Location-Rust-Free/262489187977?epid=3011381442&hash=item3d1d932689:g:of8AAOxyhXRTLtO9

Get an inverto quad lnb, i use an octo, never missed a beat in 10 years, its on a sky bracket and that will wear out first but have a spare. your vu+ will love it.

Randyleprechaun

Respectfully, I wouldn't agree. The smart dish is miles ahead of the sky dish in my opinion

I've installed hundreds of them and they far out last the sky dish and stand up to wind much better. I think I've only ever had to re align one ever.

For their price they are spot on.

I've no experience of installing any near the sea to be honest but I'd say it last 5 years and obviously the bracket and LNB could be kept assuming you get a galvanised bracket

I'd go for an 80cm if you want to get 28.2 and 19.2 on the one dish

STB.

Do not buy that smart yoke.

Get a Triax TD 88. They are not expensive.

Get a Multibracket if its for two satellite positions.

You can use your existing sky lnb.

St Senan

Randyleprechaun wrote: »

Respectfully, I wouldn't agree. The smart dish is miles ahead of the sky dish in my opinion

I've installed hundreds of them and they far out last the sky dish and stand up to wind much better. I think I've only ever had to re align one ever.

For their price they are spot on.

I've no experience of installing any near the sea to be honest but I'd say it last 5 years and obviously the bracket and LNB could be kept assuming you get a galvanised bracket

I'd go for an 80cm if you want to get 28.2 and 19.2 on the one dish

The Smart dish in the attached pics was installed about 18 months ago about 1km from the nearest beach down on the hook peninsula. I took that pic last August as i was at the neighbors house and i haven't been back down that way to see is the dish still there, But just looking at the condition its in i wouldn't say it survived the winter. There is an holiday estate in Rosslare strand and most of the houses there have those Smart " or whats left of the dishes" on the chimneys. the next time i'm working there ill take some photos. In Fairness i dont think that they are ideal for seaside coastal areas and they really shouldn't be advertised saying they are. For the extra money a good Alcad or Triax fiberglass dish would last years longer. Even this http://www.satworld.ie/78cm-triax-satellite-dish-td78-non-rust.html would be a lot better

Randyleprechaun

Fair enough

winston_1

STB. wrote: »

Do not buy that smart yoke.

Get a Triax TD 88.  They are not expensive.  

Get a Multibracket if its for two satellite positions.

You can use your existing sky lnb.

DO NOT use the existing sky LNB.
As Spawker said "The LNB on the sky dish is only designed to be used with an oval dish so you will have to replace it as well.

STB.

winston_1 wrote: »

DO NOT use the existing sky LNB.
As Spawker said "The LNB on the sky dish is only designed to be used with an oval dish so you will have to replace it as well.

I have two triax dishes.

I know what I am talking about.

Capt'n Midnight

Yes you can use the SKY LNB.

BUT it won't use the full height of the dish.

It'll only be as effective as a SKY dish of similar width. YMMV

And an LNB may be cheaper than getting a bigger dish.

byte

Navarre wrote: »

The Smart dish in the attached pics was installed about 18 months ago about 1km from the nearest beach down on the hook peninsula. I took that pic last August as i was at the neighbors house and i haven't been back down that way to see is the dish still there, But just looking at the condition its in i wouldn't say it survived the winter. There is an holiday estate in Rosslare strand and most of the houses there have those Smart " or whats left of the dishes" on the chimneys. the next time i'm working there ill take some photos. In Fairness i dont think that they are ideal for seaside coastal areas and they really shouldn't be advertised saying they are. For the extra money a good Alcad or Triax fiberglass dish would last years longer. Even this http://www.satworld.ie/78cm-triax-satellite-dish-td78-non-rust.html would be a lot better

God, I'd say that thing was pulling in minimal signal even then, as the reflector looks disfigured, presumably by wind force.

winston_1

STB. wrote: »

winston_1 wrote: »

DO NOT use the existing sky LNB.
As Spawker said "The LNB on the sky dish is only designed to be used with an oval dish so you will have to replace it as well.

I have two triax dishes.  

I know what I am talking about.

You clearly don't.
The LNB on the sky dish is only designed to be used with an oval dish. The feedhorn is designed to match the sky dish only. Using it on a Triax circular dish will lose performance and add noise.

STB.

winston_1 wrote: »

You clearly don't.
The LNB on the sky dish is only designed to be used with an oval dish. The feedhorn is designed to match the sky dish only. Using it on a Triax circular dish will lose performance and add noise.

You clearly only do theory and spelling corrections.

The theory was always that the collar size and shape dictated whether it would work.

Like I said I have tested the performance. On a TD88, the dish I suggested, there is no significant db loss. That's because the dish is more efficient (X-Polarisation >27dB) anyway and 28.2E is so strong that you can pick it up on a dust bin lid, which is basically what those disposable sky dishes are.

Thanks for dropping by.

winston_1

STB. wrote: »

winston_1 wrote: »

You clearly don't.
The LNB on the sky dish is only designed to be used with an oval dish. The feedhorn is designed to match the sky dish only. Using it on a Triax circular dish will lose performance and add noise.

You clearly only do theory and spelling corrections.

The theory was always that the collar size and shape dictated whether it would work.

Like I said I have tested the performance. On a TD88, the dish I suggested, there is no significant db loss.  That's because the dish is more efficient (X-Polarisation >27dB) anyway and 28.2E is so strong that you can pick it up on a dust bin lid, which is basically what those disposable sky dishes are.

Thanks for dropping by.

The collar size has nothing to do with whether the LNB will work. The feedhorn on a skyware LNB is designed to match the shape of the sky dish. If you use it on a circular dish it will not match. The losses may well be overcome by using a larger dish but what is the point.
Sky dishes are not disposable. They are actually quite well built and nothing like a dustbin lid.

STB.

winston_1 wrote: »

The collar size has nothing to do with whether the LNB will work. The feedhorn on a skyware LNB is designed to match the shape of the sky dish. If you use it on a circular dish it will not match. The losses may well be overcome by using a larger dish but what is the point.
Sky dishes are not disposable. They are actually quite well built and nothing like a dustbin lid.

The point is that they do work without any neglible db loss, despite their conical shape. The arguement in the past was that the collar size was not the same and did not fit.

Sky dishes are made with the cheapest bit of left overs. They dont last long on the coast as the sea air eats them. The original basis of their cheap design to market was made by Amstrad based on dust bin lids who went to the source.

JMcL

JMcL wrote: »

I need to replace the POC Sky minidish which is rapidly turning into a pile of loosely bound rust....

Well, that came to a head a wee bit faster than I'd expected (hoped?)! Here's what just 4 years exposure to salt air does to a Sky dish:

sky_dish.jpg

Anyway, thanks for all the good advice - TD 78 dish and a pair of Inverto Black LNBs with associated bits on the way, though now that the dish is officially junk, it turns out the wall fixing is in less good shape than I thought. so that'll need replacing too. I had a look at fibreglass dishes, but couldn't find any in stock at a price I could justify (I'm figuring 3+ TD 78s for the price of a fibreglass dish - so hopefully they're sea-air resistant enough to justify that!)

Now, to start researching dish/LNB alignment and how to persuade TNTSat to play nicely with a Vu+

STB.

JMcL wrote: »

Well, that came to a head a wee bit faster than I'd expected (hoped?)! Here's what just 4 years exposure to salt air does to a Sky dish:

sky_dish.jpg

Anyway, thanks for all the good advice - TD 78 dish and a pair of Inverto Black LNBs with associated bits on the way, though now that the dish is officially junk, it turns out the wall fixing is in less good shape than I thought. so that'll need replacing too. I had a look at fibreglass dishes, but couldn't find any in stock at a price I could justify (I'm figuring 3+ TD 78s for the price of a fibreglass dish - so hopefully they're sea-air resistant enough to justify that!)

Now, to start researching dish/LNB alignment and how to persuade TNTSat to play nicely with a Vu+

Did you get a Disecq switch too ? You'll need it to switch between the two lnbs. And a Wall Mount and 4 wall screws etc.

You might get away with CCAM config for the TNTSAT card. But Oscam will certainly work and keep the entitlements up to date. Oscam is great fun.

I dont what part of Ireland you are in, but the likes of sat-planet are reasonable with prices on the Triax gear.

Alignment will be easy enough if your dish is at an accesible height (it can be a few feet off the ground once there are no obstacles). There are pics in the foreign sat forum (my set up or something its called)

Here this will give you an idea of the nearness of the lnbs etc.
https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=85419913&postcount=171

Also http://www.dishpointer.com/ is good for giving you the elevations for your area etc.

kilombo1

IPTV Boxes boxes are the best option and will be the best way to go in the near future, I got one from a company called smartsatireland. com thay are based in Ireland. I get around 200 channels with no montlhy subscriptions.

icdg

kilombo1 wrote: »

IPTV Boxes boxes are the best option and will be the best way to go in the near future, I got one from a company called <deleted> thay are based in Ireland. I get around 200 channels with no montlhy subscriptions.

We don’t drag up old threads, certainly not to go off topic and promote illegal viewing methods. Take a warning on both counts kilombo1