2 dishes?

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goonie

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I'm getting upset with the signal strength on the 82 sat.
I have a spair dish (old direct tv dish), so could I use one for the 82 sat and one for the 91 sat? If so how would I do this?
Thsnks
 
Should be no problem - just continue to use whatever switch you have to join them (SW21 - SW44)
 
Actually I was thinking about almost exactly the same thing today. I just picked up the new 9200 receiver and now I have two 20" dishes. The only difference is that I was wondering if I can combined them together to increase the signal strength. To explain ... have two 20" dishes and four dual lmbs. Hooking up the 18v LMB for 91 to the other 18v LMB for 91 on the second dish... and the same for the other 3.... However after dooing some reading this does not look like it will work as it seems the actual receiver is in the LMB and from what I understand the signal is converted to a digital signal completely different from the one it received. This being the case they may interfere with each other. Anybody know about that? Maybe I should just get two big dishes with a signal dual LMB on them....
 
You can't use a DirecTV LMB with ExpressVU. You would have to change the LMB to the type that Bell or Dish use. If you try it may not fit and/or the angels may end up being off.
 
Just to clarify- a DirecTV dish will work with a Bell receiver, however it will not work with any Bell Switches. Yes, you could swap the LNB as was suggested. Sometimes they fit, other times they don't.
 
I called ExpressVU on the phone and ordered it on Monday and I had it on Thurdsay....
 
There are two kinds of LNBs for BEV/Dish.

BEV & DirecTV Legacy LNB:
There are the older design (nothing wrong with 'em) "Legacy LNB" which have been around for years.
The are -electrically- interchangable with DirecTV LNBs. (see below)
Mechanically, the BEV/Dish LNBs want to mount on a "D"-shaped arm, and the DirecTV LNBs have a rectangular mounting base for a rectangular arm.
(see pictures on internet - Google is your friend)
These LNBs select left or right circular polarization based on the voltage sent up the coax to them.
The two voltages are nominally 13 and 18 volts.
Over long cable runs, there is some voltage drop and the LNB may not be able to see the higher voltage and change modes.
If you want to bring both left and right polarized signals to your switch or receiver at the same time, you would need two cables.

BEV/Dish LNBs with DishPro Logo:
To increase cable run length, and reduce the number of cables from LNB to switch, DishPro LNBs and switches were developed.
The left and right polarized signals are both available on the cable at the same time.
They are just translated to different frequency ranges.
One is higher than the other, requiring higher performance cable.
This is called "bandstacking".
Now, one cable can carry both left and right polarized signals at the same time.
Voltage drop on long cable runs is no longer a problem, lending to 200 foot lengths.
All DishPro equipment relies on this feature.

Mix & Match:
Normally, you cannot mix Legacy and DishPro LNBs, switches, and receivers.
Legacy switch examples are: SW21, SW42, SW64
DishPro switch examples are: DP21, DP34, DP44
Note the "SW" and the "DP" (hope I got those model numbers right) ;)

BEV receivers prior to the 3100 were Legacy-friendly, only.
3100's and later, will take -either- Legacy or DishPro LNB/switches.

There are both Legacy and DishPro LNBs which see just one satellite, with one or two connectors.
The confusing name for these are "single" and "dual" (for number of connectors)
Then there are "Twin" and "Quad", which look at two satellites and have either two or four connectors.
Twins and Quads have been built in Legacy and DishPro models, as well.

DirecTV antennas:

The American DirecTV satellite service has three antenna.
The oldest is an 18" dish with one legacy LNB. (sound familiar?)

Then there was a big (possibly 24x36) dish sporting two or three LNBs. The 101 and 119 LNBs are legacy. These were known as "Para Todos" or "Phase II" antennas.
similar to: Phase II .

And now there is a smaller (about 18x20) dish with a single LNB block that looks at three satellites and has a 4-output switch. This is known as the Phase III antenna.


What works:

The little 18" dish/LNB is interchangable with BEV/Dish 18" sporting legacy LNBs.
It's no better, and no worse. Just has a different logo on it. ;)

The Phase II (Para Todos) dish/LNB has its two legacy LNBs mounted farther apart than 9 degrees.
If you move the LNBs to the appropriate spacing, this dish will work fine on 82/91, and may have some increased signal.

Under no circumstances is the DirecTV Phase III assembly useful on BEV/Dish.
 
The main reason to use separate dishes is
1) to make one (or both) larger for more signal
2) to make for easier alignment (skew isn't easily adjusted)

I assume you have the Dish500 now, which has two legacy LNBs on the 20" dish?
You could disconnect your cable going to the 82 LNB and connect it to the DirecTV dish's LNB.
If that DirecTV dish is 18", I wouldn't expect much change, but you might get some because you could now align it easier by itself.

If your DirecTV dish is the Phase II (Para Todos), then you could put one legacy LNB in the middle of its LNB mount, aim it at 82, and proceed as above.
That should get you a better signal, easily.
 
Using two 20" dishes will make no difference over one 20" dish. You need bigger dishes, minimum 24" to make much difference. You can also get 30", 36", 1M and oval dishes such as 36"x24" designed for multiple LNBs. You might need to go with square base LNBs such as those used for DirecTV. I use a 36"x24" *C dish modified to take two DirecTV LNBs and it works great.


Wrong. You can't mount one on a EV dish (due to the base) but DirecTV LNBs have the correct polarity and output and work with legacy EV/Dish switches. What you cannot do is use DirecTV switches with EV/Dish receivers.
 
Well, as I said above (somewhere), getting the skew right is a problem.
If you take skew out of the equation, then aligning two dishes you would find it easier to peak each one.

I hooked up a special test last year, where I aimed at two satellites which were directly to my south.
Skew was not much of a hinderance to getting a good signal on both birds.
Then, I aimed at another pair of birds which were quite a bit farther to one side, and needed 30..40 degrees of skew.
I calculated the desired skew, and preset it on the dish.
(think I was using a dish500)
While I monitored the signal strength of both satellites, I swept the sky, trying to find one place that both peaked.
They peaked at different places.
From this, I determined that I had a problem.
So, I dialed out about 10 degrees of skew and tested again.
This time, I found that both birds peaked at one place in the sky.

I double checked my skew calculations and couldn't find a cockpit error.
Maybe the calculator I used was in error (?)
Not all of them agree.

Whatever the cause, there was no "one place" in the sky I could previously point my dish and get both birds at maximum signal.

So, using two 20" dishes may get you better signals in practice, though in theory they would not.

And having said all that, I am also in favor of trying two 24" or maybe a big 24x32" dish.
Try what ya got, then work up from there.
 
I set up two 24" dishes. One set to 91 and the other set to 82. This setup increased my signal dramatically. Where the best we could get on 82 was 70 before, I am now getting 92. This made a big difference. Weather no longer affects my signal like it use to.
 
telegramsam -

Great post! (and welcome to the forum)

Maybe this should become the stock answer to rain and general weak-signal problems.
Diddling around with less may seem attractive, but in the end, a mediocre solution.

(I just wish I had a stock-pile of 24" dishes to hand-out!)
 
My 4700 came with a 24" dish, and I've had it for a long time. When the Bell guy came to install my Dish500 upgrade, he was drooling over it (he was hoping I'd be dumb and say -- sure take it away, I don't need it....) I didn't cave though. It works nice at our cabin farther north.

BTW, if you have a 20" dish with the Y at the front, you can cut out the plastic standoff out of the Y (where the LNB mounts), and DirectTV LNBs will fit. And they work fine with the Dish Network (non-pro) SW21s.
 
I was doing some research on bigger dishes, and found EyeInTheSky selling 24", 30", and 36" dishes with LNB at what I thought were reasonable prices.
$60, $90, $100, with a two-output legacy LNB.

On their web site, find the yellow Select A Product at the top, and click on: Antennas for Satellte.


I doubt anyone wants to go to 30", but if you do, here's better prices.
DishExperts have 33" Fortec Star with dual-output LNB for $75, and 36" for $85.
They have both USA and Canadian offices.

Again, this is not a recommendation, just a suggestion.
I'm actually looking for ...bigger... ;)
 
Sniff sniff... Where was that link when I bought my dishes!

I paid $200 CND for a Dish500 with the twin (instead of the $59 on that site).
 
Don't feel bad.
Prices have just come down.
I paid a lot more for my first Twin and 500 dish, too.
There are actually several places with the $59 price.
They must be building those in mass quanity to get the price down like that.
 
Guess after a while, I can't edit my comments.

In reference to my post above, #16....

...uhhh... I ran across the above info when looking for FTA stuff.
DO verify that the LNB these dishes come with is for BEV/Dish/DirecTV and not FTA.
Sorry for any confusion.
 
Because of difficulties getting both signals on one dish the technician had to use a diferent dish(20") for each satellite. When I received the 9200 receiver it was an easy matter to run the cables through the sw44 switch with 2 cables to the main tv set and and through the other switch supplied to my old 5900 on another TV. Since the second TV would not receive HD anyway it provided more recording power for people in the house with different progtram interests.
 
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