The primary difference is the cost of the coax. There might be a redundancy issue to consider if you really need to care about that (and you probably don't), and there might be a concern about protecting the switch. From a signal strength point of view, it is a non-issue. Distance is distance...

Dude. You built your own dish. That is so cool. Not just any random person has the patience and skill to tackle such a project. Okay, enough praise. Now motorize it. :biggrin2 Just kidding. (Sort of.) No, wait, I'm not done with the jokes yet. You know, in about fifteen years, someone is...

Humanity is putting more stuff up than orbital decay brings down, and it shows. If you're in a relatively dark area and have a clear night sky, it shouldn't take more than a minute or two to spot something gracefully arcing overhead. I taught my wife what to look for a couple years back. She...

I've never contributed data to those groups, but I have used their data to track and observe such satellites in the past. That article keeps talking about binoculars, but that's the hard way. You need a good telescope. If the quality of the TLE data is sufficiently high, you'll point right to...

Claro appears to be operating in Brazil, so presumably they would carry a lot of Portuguese content. That alone might make them an attractive option. If lost_mesa is correct about the footprint, and vsolovyov already negotiated the grey market (or otherwise has a valid IRD, again, perhaps as...

Something seems very off here. First time installing dishes and you're heading straight for the massive commercial type stuff. And you're targeting two pay services that don't sell to US consumers. I'm not saying it's completely impossible, but unless this is indeed a commercial venture, it's...

All other things being equal, isn't it fairly obvious that 1.2 < 1.3 <1.4 <1.5 < ... ? You're talking "spill-over" from Mexico? I've received perfectly watchable signals from Central American footprints here in Oregon using a 1.2m, specifically on 113W and 116.8W, although admittedly I've had...

Well, I'm sure glad Mike got here, because I apparently asked all the wrong questions. ccrippy, you just tell Mike how you know stuff and if you've got another working box. I'm sure everything will quickly get resolved to your satisfaction.

Well, the good news is that all your equipment (the dish, LNB, and receiver) are in good working order. The issue would seem to be, in a general sense, your dish is pointed at the wrong satellite. Or perhaps at the correct satellite, but you are locked on to channels that only have encrypted...

You know, I guess I got lucky. That was the first app I tried, and I found it plenty sufficient. Not at all incidentally, too; I'm in the process of buying a house. My friends and family and wife and agent only had a vague understanding of why "southern sky" was important, but I am certain they...

A spectrum analyzer, in its purest form, measures signal strength versus frequency and does not inherently know anything about modulation. There are spectrum analyzers geared specifically toward satellite use, as I suspect you've seen. These will typically trade bandwidth options and perhaps...

Excellent price for what you received and they are fantastic dishes. I'd be thrilled too if I were you!

If I am understanding this correctly, he isn't producing 120AC. So, something said earlier is worth repeating. For those that don't have the proper skills, this really isn't a good idea. Not just because of the high voltage involved, but familiarity with and ability to identify power supply...

The dual output LNBF arrived! Thanks all and thanks Brian!

In under the wire! Thank you much, Brian! I was away last week, and finally got caught up enough to check in here. What a surprise awaited! Thank you for this contest.