Edmonton signal strength

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taxtwit

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Had really bad rain fade issues last Thurs/Friday. Seem to be having more fade issues at new location, which is only a couple of blocks from old location and has a better sat viewing window. Dish at new location was professionally aimed and installed. Once the rain & cloud cleared up on Saturday, I checked signal strength and am in high 80s on 91 and high 70s on 82. Pretty sure I was close to 100 on both at the old location. Before I climb up the ladder to try to tweak the aim, I thought I'd ask what signal strength others are getting here in the 'chuk?

Also, I'm using a DP34 switch at the new location, whereas I had a legacy quad at the old - would this impact on signal strength?

Finally, if the problem isn't a bad aim or because of the switch, how large a dish can I get that will just bolt into my present setup, i.e. without having to change LNBs/arm/etc.

All responses much appreciated.
 
The signal meter in the IRD varies from unit to unit and from model to model and from transponder to transponder.

For instance, I have 2 3100s and when connected to the same cable they report different strengths on the same transponders. The scale seems radically different between models.

My point is that you can only get a rough idea from somone else, and only if you narrow it to model and transponder.

A poorly designed/built switch may indeed affect strength, same goes for cable and connectors.

I always use the same short piece of cable and the same IRD to align my dish or help others with theirs. That way it reduces the variables.

You can't just change the pan portion of your dish. Moving to a larger dish changes the focal point as well so at a minimum you need to change the pan and arm.
 
I haven't had BEV for a while but I believe it was Transponder 11 which was the one that you are supposed to check your signal on. I had close to 100 in Edmonton on that transponder. However, I did have serious rain fade issues with BEV.
 
Yeah, I know it's apples to oranges to some extent, but just curious to find out what other BEV folk in the region are getting for signal strength. Also would like to hear from any other locals as to whether they've been having the same rain fade problems lately, in which case there's probably not much point in tweaking the dish.

I understand that increasing dish size will potentially impact on other elements of the dish set up, but thought that you could step up a few inches in dish size before you needed to change anything else, e.g. from 18" to 20". Maybe to be more specific about it - can I change from a 20" dish (which is what I believe I have now) to, say, a 24" or 30" dish without changing anything else?
 
You can change your exising 20" setup for 2 x 60 cm's, that works really well.
 
We reccomend that client receives 75% or more signal in normal weather condition. As long as your signal is over 70% you shoudn't have to worry you will see all your shows
 
No, The focal point changes too much. At best, you will lose about 20-25% signal. The arm and dish go together. It is unlikely you could buy one without the other anyway so I don't understand why you are reluctant to do it properly.
 
I also had serious problems with rain fade on the 82 bird with last weeks rain. A quick check of the transponders showed that I could not even get a signal lock on 5 transponders on satellite 82. On a clear day this week I could not get a lock on one of the transponders. I assume I should get a signal on all the transponders, and that this is an alignment issue? I had good signal strength on sat 91 (63-82%) in the rain, but it was all over the map on sat 82 (43-76%).
 
I have an issue with signal when it is heavy rain or snow...expecially between 9 and 10 pm
 
we always seem to get the extreme in signal fade, because of how far north we are in Yellowknife. There seems to be another signal problem with Bell, maybe related to last years crap signal fade that occured about this time andcontinued all summer.

I have a 3 foot dish for my HD and it seems to be 15-25% less signal that in the winter when the finalyl addressed the issue.

Keep an eye on it, it may not be trees, dish size, or pointing issues. It could be Bell again
 
have ahd signal issues in last week as well, nothing before. i have been in edmonton area since september ly and this is first problem. i also lived in yellowknife for 2 years and never had signal issues there but it wasnt a hd reciever there
 
Rain fade issues continue &, based on responses that suggest other Edmonton BEV people are experiencing rain fade, I think the only answer is a bigger dish, therefore some follow up questions:

1. I understand from dosborne I'll also need a new arm - how about LNBs? Can I count on my current DP Twin working with a larger dish/arm set up or will I need to get a new LNB as well?

2. Assuming I can solve the worst of the rain fade problems with a 30" dish, am I correct in assuming there are 30" dishes that will simply bolt onto the support structure, thereby eliminating the need to re-aim the dish?

3. There's a local outfit here that advertises in the weekly classified rag that they have 24"/30"/etc. dishes. Any specific brands to look for/avoid or will pretty much any 30" work?
 
2. The "support structure" is just the mast that you bolt to your house (fence, or whatever). It is a 2" pipe (??) so most dishes use the same size.

What you cannot do is change the dish on without changing the arm that holds the LNBs as the focal point on the new dish is not the same.

3. A dish is a curved piece of metal. I've never heard of one being better or worse than another...... The larger the better if you are trying to maximize signal strength.
 
I'm a wee South of ya, but also suspect signals levels have declined badly of late.
Of course their silly circular polarization doesn't help when it comes to rain fade either, but that's another discussion.

The 20" is 'slightly' better than the 18", but I still prefer to find the older 24" Dishnetwork Canada dishes floating around.
Even the old 24" Starchoice fitted with a DirecTV LNB works well.
Just have to adjust a couple of vertical degress to compensate for the mount.

The 30 to 40" FTA dishes work OK, but I've found the metal isn't as heavy a gauge as the Bev OEM units.

As has been suggested, a pair of large singles would be your best bet.

Knowing that they keep telling me to get a 1.2M or bigger for my commercial sites and noticing the lower levels, I can't help but wonder if they know maybe the birds are dying and it's still a while before the new stronger ones arrive.

It could also be that they are testing some new channels and the extra power to light them up has to come from somewhere, so maybe the TP power is down a bit to compensate.

Either way, for folks out West, birds that don't favour the East would be better.
I seldom to never have rain fade with my other DTH provider.
 
Another rain storm last night, more rain fade - REALLY getting annoyed.

I've got some questions about using two dishes:

1. I've got two or three "extra" 20" BEV dishes in my garage from having purchased receivers that include dishes. Would I actually gain any signal strength "unskewing" the current dish so that it was more "focused" on 91 and aiming a second 20" dish at 82?

2. Right now I'm using a DP Twin/DP34 set up off the single dish. Obviously, that's not going to work with two dishes. I presume my two primary options for LNBs/switches would be: (A) run four cables into SW44 or (B) using DP single LNBS, send one cable from each dish to a (DP) SW21 (x2) and send the two output cables from the 2 SW21s to the DP34. Correct? Am I missing any other options?
 
Short of changing providers to one using less rain fade linear characteristics and with a better Western Canada footprint, I think your best bet would be to use stock legacy LNB's because they are cheap, plentiful AND supported by Bev and then just pick up a couple of 30-40" FTA dishes, point them at each bird and use 2 wire pairs to an SW44.

You really wouldn't gain anything by using the same 20" as a separate.

To gain the extra margin, I would use anything smaller than a 24" separate.
 
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