Fracarro Penta 85cm dish setup

[Rick]

I did a Penta 58 last year. It performed very well in my opinion, Hit some of the stronger TP's on 26e, and gets 16e apart from in heavy rain. Did have to flex the surface of the dish slightly to get best signal though. Ended up wedging a conduit corner in between the back of the dish and the LNB arm.
But for a small dish it performed remarkably well.

[Analoguesat]

Originally Posted by satelliteman

Well in my opinion for what it's worth, they do perform as good as most budget 1m dishes (orbital).

Having installed around 40 of the Penta dishes, I've been impressed with the performance especially on 16e. Careful alignment will be required.

Its quite possible mine isnt aligned optimally on 5E - Its a steel one and very heavy - The fence post its bolted to may well have moved under the weight and the winter gales....

(Another quality install from Mr Bodgit)

[Yorks]

Originally Posted by Rick

Did have to flex the surface of the dish slightly to get best signal though...........

Yep, I did similar for an install on a Zone 2 mesh dish. Found while peaking the signal, that by flexing the dish I could improve both Horizontal and Vertical signals on 28e by about 5% on a Freesat box.

Originally Posted by Analoguesat

Its quite possible mine isnt aligned optimally on 5E - Its a steel one and very heavy - The fence post its bolted to may well have moved under the weight and the winter gales....

(Another quality install from Mr Bodgit)

Any chance I can borrow it - if there's no noticeable difference you can have it back

[satelliteman]

Originally Posted by Yorks

Yep, I did similar for an install on a Zone 2 mesh dish. Found while peaking the signal, that by flexing the dish I could improve both Horizontal and Vertical signals on 28e by about 5% on a Freesat box.



Any chance I can borrow it - if there's no noticeable difference you can have it back

Certainly see a difference over a Td88cm Yorks.
I've tested them side by side on many occasion.

[Yorks]

Yes - thanks satelliteman.
I think I read some of your detailed tests some time ago over on satellites. Interesting stuff, but if I remember right, 16E didn't seem to show much improvement on the Penta. I'm toying with the idea of getting a Digitalb sub, so haven't been interested until now. Although I think the current dish would suffice most of the time, if I could squeeze a bit more out of the Penta, it may combat any rain fade.

Ah well, I'll go and put some more splinters in my arse.