Does size matter???

[cajal]

We live near Cahors in the Lot.  Over the past month we've experienced more torrential downpours than usual and with the advent of the change of TV satellite we have lost the signal to our Sky box more frequently than prior to the changeover.

Our dish is 70cm horizontal and 60cm vertical and is attatched to the chimney stack on the roof. The signal strength reading has always been 6/7 on a scale of 1-10 and the signal quality has aways been 9 on a scale of 1-10.

This afternoon I attempted to fine tune its position using an in-line meter but all to no avail as I  was unable to achieve a higher signal strength with either horizontal or vertical adjustment.

So, my question is, do I install a larger diameter dish or is the loss of signal during rain something we have to live with.

Prior to the satellite changeover we could sometimes lose the signal during torrential rain but not during bog-standard rain.

Thanks

cajal

[AnOther]

I replace my standard zone 1 UK dish with an 85cm since when I've only lost the signal briefly maybe two or 3 times in the most torrential of the recent rains.

My feeders (quad LNB) are only about 7m long which helps, how long is yours and have you checked it, the tiniest bit of water ingress can kill cause massive attenuation. The copper conductors should be as bright and shiny as they were on day one.

I'm about 1/2 hour west of Cahors.

[cajal]

Thanks for your quick response.

The dish is a VisionSat and must be a minimum of 10-12 years old.

My feeders (quad LNB) are only about 7m long

Ours (single LNB) 8m long

The copper conductors should be as bright and shiny as they were on day one.

Having removed the tape from around the cable connector to the LNB I was amazed at the quality of the copper and chrome. In fact I could have combed my hair (if I had any) in the reflection of the chrome.

I figured a larger dish might improve the quality and as I was considering installing a dual LNB it's probably worthwhile fitting a larger dish.

Any recommendations on specific dish or LNB?

Cheers

cajal

[Quillan]

You need a bigger dish thats for sure. Don't muck around either, go for a 110 or 120cm dish, both can be bought for under €100 if you hunt around on the Internet and the difference in price to say a 90cm dish is about €20 or so. For LNB look at Inverto Black Ultra or Invacom, personally I would choose the Black Ultra.

You might get away with using your inline meter to align it but I would strongly recommend you get a guy with the proper kit in to do it. The reason is that the bigger the dish the more accurate you need to be and a very small movement like mm or two can make a big difference to signal quality.

[Danny]

You definitely do need a bigger dish to get reliable reception in poorer weather.

I am also close to your location.

I recently went from (horizontal measured) 75 cm to 85 cm

I bought this one from 2galli

http://www.2galli.fr/boutique/fiche_produit.cfm?ref=ATD880&type=29&code_lg=lg_fr&num=21

Since then I have not had one dropout.

I also use an Inverto quad LNB which helped improve in the past but only made at a guess a 5% improvement on the previous LNB.

The difference in signal with 10cm change of dish was massive.

I think 100 or 110cm is over the top in this region.

Danny

[Quillan]

What I am suggesting Danny is that the difference in price is very little, prices only start to jump when you go beyond 130cm. So for the want of a few extra Euros why not go for even bigger. I forget which website it was in France but they are offering a 130cm offset dish for under 90 Euros. My logic behind this is that I have a big dish and the channels that are still on the wide beam (CBS stable and Sky News as examples) are not affected even in very heavy rain.

[cajal]

Thank you all very much for your interest in my predicament and for the advice and pearls of wisdom that you have all offered. I'll return and let you know how I get on

Cheers

cajal

[HoneySuckleDreams]

As Quillan has mentioned Size is all important. I had to change ours to a 150 and we seem to have sorted the loss of signal now, even in the rain. Go for the biggest your pocket can allow, but also consider getting a man with a box in as it's worth getting the thing setup properly.

I put the old dish (1m) on leboncoin to try and recoup something, as it's only 6 months old. It's surprising the number of French households who had the UK channels and have now lost them. ALL  the enquiries I have had have been from local people, probably within 10km of where we live. Unfortunately I can't help them as they have to upgrade to a 120 minimum.