[JaserLet]

I'm currently using a Phase III dish and I will probably keep using it for another year or two, but I am curious about how the different dishes stack up in regards to signal strength.

I assume the best situation for a non-MPEG4 user would be to have three original dishes, each aimed at a different satellite? Not that I would do this, just curious. How does the Phase III dish fair compared to the original dish for signal strength of the regular 200-399 channels? Is the new AT9 dish any better for those?

I ask partially because I suffer from a couple bouts of rain/snow fade each year. No matter how much I tune the Phase III dish, it still loses too much signal strength durring the heaviest june downpours and heaviest february snowstorms.

 

[JimSpence]

When I had my Phase III dish installed I didn't see any difference in strengths than with the round 18" dish. What are your current signal strengths values?

This site shows larger gain master dishes, http://www.solidsignal.com/cat_display.asp?CAT=Antennas DirecTV Dish
However, the site says they have been discontinued, but a new version will soon be available.

 

[JaserLet]

On an average day, I usually get signal strengths in the upper 80s. Sometimes I see low 80s, sometimes I see low 90s. This is the same whether I use a 5 foot piece of coax from the dish to a receiver up on the roof, or if I use a receiver in the bedroom about 80 total feet of RG6QS and a multiswich away.

For what it's worth, I live in northern Montana, near the Canadian border.

 

[dagap]

As mentioned above, bigger equals "better".

 

[newsposter]

I did notice that the 101 was stronger with my triple lnb dish vs the old dish. But perhaps that was because it was aimed better, not sure. I had mostly 80s on the signals before and now virtually everything is 95 and above here in PA.

 

[TyroneShoes]

When they design a new dish they take the gain into account. If the new dish will be required to pick up more than one signal, or if the newer signals are expected to be stronger of less or more susceptible to rain fade, all of that is factored in, so that a newer model will replicate the gain of the previous models. This could mean it will be slightly larger or slightly smaller, but generally it is engineered to have similar gain.