What's a good reading for the 105 bird with Superdish?

[RJS]

The best reading I'm seeing for 105 with superdish is 57. All the transponders are between 48 and 55. It seems low but maybe it varies in various sections of the country. On 110 many of the readings are 125.

I'm in Southwest Wisconsin. What kind of readings are you other Superdish owners getting?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Anywhere from 45 to 74 is what I have seen reported.

In Denver Dish Network is getting 57 or so. You will not see a 125 from this satellite as its lower powered.

 

[Burt]

Hmm... With such low signal quality, the FEC rate must be quite higher. They may be tweeking some, thus reason for such delays in content launch to customers. Lets hope the STB chip sets can handle it reliably.

 

[Stargazer]

You should be lucky you are getting much of anything in WI. I believe that is one of the states in which Dish said would not be able to have Superdish until the new satellite launches in 2004. If its not on the list its borderline with it being so far north.

How much signal do you have to have on 105 in order to get it to lock to get a picture?

 

[Tom Forness]

Madison WI has the Superdish and hopefully Milwaukee WI (which is due east of Madison) should get them by the end of December . Green Bay was taken off 105--farther North

Since this has such a low signal--won't this cause problems with the HD channels???

 

[RJS]

As I said, my readings were from 48 to 55. I haven't had a problem getting a picture.

It's been very cloudy here on all but two days since the install. Even with the clouds I haven't noticed any loss in signal.

 

[mike123abc]

With a dedicated dish I am seeing low 70s on the odds and 80s on the evens (decided that evens do better because the dish is 4" taller than it is wide). This is with a 90cm/36" dish.

They have error correction turned way up on this sattellite compared to others. They are running most of the transponders at 2/3 FEC (2/3 programming 1/3 error correction). Some are at 1/2 FEC (half the bits going to error correction). The HDTV channels are running 3/4 so they can squeeze in 2 HDTV channels/transponder. This compares to the main satellites that run 5/6 (i.e. only 1/6 of the bit stream is error correction).

I sure hope AMC-15 is not delayed and gets up quickly. Space flight now reports August 2004 ( http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0309/08amc15 )

 

[Stargazer]

What is the lowest signal you can get on the SuperDish to get a signal lock and a picture to come in?

 

[LarryG]

My signal on 105 ranges from 67 to 76 with most in lower 70;s

 

[Bogney]

What is the lowest signal you can get on the SuperDish to get a signal lock and a picture to come in?

38 locks. 37 and below are unlocked on my system (Canadian Star Choice dish pointed at 105 and a 6000 receiver).

 

[Stargazer]

I know its in the high 30's such as 37-38 for a lock on Dish Networks DBS transponders. It used to be 40.

 

[Rocky Watson]

105 Singal in ks

we are getting 60-65 in southcentral kansas

~rock

 

[nsaspook]

Signal level

Solid 64 with primestar dish in Oregon.

 

[Mike_H]

Would such a low "optimum" power number worry anyone about increased rain fade issues?

Considering all the changes including the dish size it is not obvious to me. But I know I was pleased with the move to spot beams of local stations and the increased boost in their power. While I might loose TechTV or Discovery during a rain storm, I found my locals now more reliable.

It would suck to have ehanced service taking a step back in rain fade resistance.

Are they targeting a new satellite into that slot eventually?

 

[Stargazer]

Yes, they are launching a new satellite to 105 in 2004. People have had no problems with rainfade with 105 so far, at least not any worse than what dbs rainfade is.

 

[Guest]

Is AMC-15 supposed to be equally as powerful as the EchoStar IX?

 

[RJS]

I just had an interesting expierence. I was checking the drip loops on the 34 switch and noticed one of the nuts was loose on the mount that bolts the Superdish to the up/down bracket. Checking closer I found that, in all, there were three loose pieces of hardware. Two just weren't tightened very well but one of the nuts was quite loose.

After making sure everything else was OK and tightening the loose hardware I decided to recheck my signal. I was surprised to find that my signal strength had improved considerably.

105 improved from 9 to 14 points. Now I'm getting from 59 to 69 on 105. 110 improved the least, averaging from 2-12 points better. 119 actually picked up even more than 105 with improvements from 5 to 21 points.

My installer was fighting drizzle and wind when he setup my Superdish. His meter had broke and he was using the meter on the TV program menu to assist his setup. He'd move the dish and I'd relay the readings. I think what happened is that he forgot to go out and finish tightening everything. When you think about it, rechecking all connections when an installer is done isn't a bad idea anytime. Just a little FYI.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Mike the 105 location has been extremely good durring heavy rains.

I have not lost signal from 105 durring some real REAL heavy rains.

 

[Stargazer]

I have seen people on the message boards say in the past that the medium power satellites have fewer rainfade issues than the high power satellites. Primestar used a medium power satellite and they had less issues when they were still around than Dish Network and DirecTv.

 

[mike123abc]

The lower rain fade is because the dishes are so much larger. You have to use a larger dish to pick out the satellite from the adjacent ones. The larger dish helps with rainfade. If you had 119/110 on 36" dishes like with the KU-FSS, rain fade would be extreamly rare.