# signal strength



## satcrazy (Mar 16, 2011)

Hi
Question about signal strength and the 222k. Just got dish installed a week ago, and I noticed occasional pixelation on a channel I was watching [ an encore channel to be exact] it was "lightly" raining that night, and yesterday more pixelation on a local, [ was windy] dish is a pole mount, which had a Direct dish on it previously with No signal issues, unless there was a horrendous thunderstorm.
I stressed to the installer that signal strength was most important to me,[ I was shooting for 90, as direct averaged 95 easily] and he indicated that dish's set up was different, and 70 was an excellent strength. I'm trying not to bash here, but I was concerned that the existing pole would not be in the correct spot for dish. I made sure cs knew it had to be a pole mount, [ house mount was out] but installer said existing pole would work.. So, what actually is a realy good signal strenght for dish? I don't think pixelation is acceptable unless the weather is downright horrible.

thanks for any thoughts on this, and let me know what Your signal strength is, hard to believe 70 or lower is good.


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## davejacobson (Mar 14, 2005)

what dish did he install?Signals in the 70s are ok depending on the transponder. Dish signal meter calibrated different than direct so you will never see 95%. Do the menu-6-1-1 on the offending channel. Is that signal 70%. Dish starts cutting out at about 20%-25% so at 70% you have a lot of room. If wind or light rain is giving you trouble sounds like the dish is not peaked to me and you have dropout on one sat.


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## satcrazy (Mar 16, 2011)

hi,
The dish says "turbo hd" and is eliptical, with the triple lnb.

Right now the weather is stable, and 119 is averaging 85. checked 4 transponders.

110 is averaging 73, checked 3 transponders.

129 is averaging 57, checked 3 transponders.

crappy weather comming up this weekend, so will check the 611 menu if/ when it starts to pixelate.

Btw, encore and my locals are on 2 seperate sats.


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

Those signal strengths are good for western arc.

Be sure to note the channel that pixelates, look at the signal strength while it's doing it and report it to DishQuality at echostar.com email site.


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## satcrazy (Mar 16, 2011)

thank you.

If it persists, will they fix it with no charge?

Also, I'm in pa. why would I be looking at western arc instead of eastern?

Not sure what the difference is.


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## gtal98 (Jan 30, 2011)

Western arc has been around forever, Eastern only a few years. Not all markets in the eastern part of the country have their locals on the Eastern Arc yet, so they still look to the Western Arc. The 3 local markets I serve here in VA are all Western Arc markets.

And those signal strengths seem fine, well above Dish required minimums. I'm wondering if he left something loose by chance, and it is moving in the wind.


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## satcrazy (Mar 16, 2011)

I will check that.

Since the dish is obviously larger than the direct dish, could it be too large?

Meaning catching more wind, making it move? The installer never said anything, so I thought it was O.K.

I take it 129 draws a signal that is not as strong? I thought [ 50's] was kinda low, but your saying it's fine.

I will see what happens when the weather acts up again [ should be soon]

thanks


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## gtal98 (Jan 30, 2011)

Technically, yes, the dish being larger will catch more wind, but as long as the pole is firmly set in concrete it won't be an issue. And yes, 129 is a satellite that is extremely far to the west and is at a low angle, and as a result has a much lower signal on the east coast. Each transponder is also different. If you check transponder 21 on 129 it will probably be in the 70s. Most of them will be in the 50s though.


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