Signal Intensity/Signal Quality

[evans88]

I have a 66cms Maxview crankup dish in my campervan. Attached to this is a Pace skybox and a free to Air Box. I've also got a satfinder permanently inline because I raise and lower the dish frequently.

I am about to go to Spain around Barcelona and want to ensure that my system is operating as effectively as possible bearing in mind that it will be operating at the edge of the Astra 2D footprint.

The best signal reading I can get in my front garden in Devon is as follows:

Signal Intensity: 94%

Signal Quality 78%

Are these readings OK bearing in mind my foreign trip? What is the meaning of Signal Intensity and Signal Quality?

Many thanks.

[satelliteman]

Barcelona region, your looking around an 80cm dish for 2d

[evans88]

Thanks for that. However, fellow campers on the campsites I visit in and around Barcelona do receive the main Astra 2D Channels on a 66 cms dish with a Sky receiver. It was on the basis of what I had seen working this Spring I decided to buy the dish. I think the footprints must be slightly pesimistic.

I remain puzzled about the meaning of the terms signal intensity and signal quality. Do they have any bearing on the connections I have made between the dish and receiver and are they good enough? Or do the terms mean something else?

Thanks.

[satelliteman]

One is for general signal strength as a power ratio and the other a signal quality reading taking in to account of packet errors in the data received

SatMan

[evans88]

Thanks SatelliteMan. So are the readings I'm getting (see original post) as good as I'm likely to get or can they be bettered somehow.

[Robbo]

Originally Posted by evans88

Thanks SatelliteMan. So are the readings I'm getting (see original post) as good as I'm likely to get or can they be bettered somehow.

The figures given by receivers are usually specific to themselves. However in general, the way to increase quality assuming the dish is aligned as best it could be, is primarily to use a bigger dish, and secondly a better LNB.

[radtv]

The dish is too small for Spain, I sell many of these systems and know that you need a bigger dish for Astra 2D

[satelliteman]

yes as I said, 80cm for North SPAIN (Barcelona region)

[evans88]

Thanks. I've already got the dish. Its a 66cms eliptical, the largest permanent manual crankup dish I could buy/fit on my motorhome. During the Spring I was in a motorhome using an identical dish watching the BBC on Astra 2D on a site just North of Barcelona.

I notice from _www.roadpro.co.uk that based on experience of using dishes they sell they were even able to get Astra 2D on a 40cms Camos Dome satellite system around Barcelona.

I will report back in November when I get home.