A Zone 1 dish is 43cm high and suitable for England and Wales. Scotland is further from the centre of the signal footprint and therefore needs a larger dish, which is what Zone 2 is (60cm)
It has greater gathering power and therefore, yes, it must give you a more robust signal. That's what Sam meant by a better rain margin. Rain, and other weather conditions, can disrupt a satellite signal and a larger dish will usually compensate for that.
As for an octo LNB, Sam will have a better understanding of the internal workings of an LNB than I do, but as I said at the start, a larger dish will generally (not always) out-perform a smaller dish.
It has greater gathering power and therefore, yes, it must give you a more robust signal. That's what Sam meant by a better rain margin. Rain, and other weather conditions, can disrupt a satellite signal and a larger dish will usually compensate for that.
As for an octo LNB, Sam will have a better understanding of the internal workings of an LNB than I do, but as I said at the start, a larger dish will generally (not always) out-perform a smaller dish.
I take it Virgin Media and Tiscali must have large dishes then?
A Zone 1 dish is 43cm high and suitable for England and Wales. Scotland is further from the centre of the signal footprint and therefore needs a larger dish, which is what Zone 2 is (60cm)
Northern Ireland (and presumably the ROI as well) is also in Zone 2.
I think I should have been given a Zone 2 dish as my Sky viewing is disrupted whenever it rains heavily. According to Wikipedia they should be used in N England, not just Wales, Scotland and Ireland (both N and the Republic).
Perhaps they don't use them in the NE of England as it's a low rainfall area, but heavy summer showers can be a problem.
I use one in London, and very rarely do I lose signal.
Hail is the very worst, even a small amount is like putting a metal dustbin lid over the front of the dish!
Out of interest how easy is it to upgrade a zone 1 to a 2? ie. is it possible to keep the original brackets on the wall and just replace the dish facia and arm etc?
Out of interest how easy is it to upgrade a zone 1 to a 2? ie. is it possible to keep the original brackets on the wall and just replace the dish facia and arm etc?
It's a while since I did mine, so I'm not too sure. (Mine is mounted on a pole anyway).
I would think that, if possible, it's best to replace all components while you're at it (corrosion).
I appreciate that in a lot of cases, the dish can be challenging to access safely.
IIRC the larger the dish is, the more accurately aligned it has to be, although when it is accurately aligned a larger dish will of course pick up a stronger signal.
A Zone 1 dish is 43cm high and suitable for England and Wales. Scotland is further from the centre of the signal footprint and therefore needs a larger dish, which is what Zone 2 is (60cm)
Northern Ireland (and presumably the ROI as well) is also in Zone 2.
In Roi we use zone 1 dishes now. As sky narrowed the satellite footprint over roi & uk.
Comments
Can you please explain this "rain margin" ?
Will a zone 2 dish give a stronger signal than a zone 1 dish with an octo-LNB?
As for an octo LNB, Sam will have a better understanding of the internal workings of an LNB than I do, but as I said at the start, a larger dish will generally (not always) out-perform a smaller dish.
I take it Virgin Media and Tiscali must have large dishes then?
For the channels they take off satellite, yes they have fairly large dishes, though they still suffer from rain fade.
Northern Ireland (and presumably the ROI as well) is also in Zone 2.
But not needed - a Zone 1 will do the job
Yes, the Zone 2 dish is considerably bigger than the Zone 1 I notice this when I am in the South of England how small the dishes are.
Perhaps they don't use them in the NE of England as it's a low rainfall area, but heavy summer showers can be a problem.
I installed a Raven dish about 4/5 years ago (£25-ish on Ebay). No rain-fade since.
Hail is the very worst, even a small amount is like putting a metal dustbin lid over the front of the dish!
Out of interest how easy is it to upgrade a zone 1 to a 2? ie. is it possible to keep the original brackets on the wall and just replace the dish facia and arm etc?
My signal keeps going off on France 24 channels in the rain on my zone 2 dish here yet it shows this in fine weather
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3883/15223907135_1a72445ebb_o.jpg
Its happened about 4 times in the last few months in heavy rain.
It's a while since I did mine, so I'm not too sure. (Mine is mounted on a pole anyway).
I would think that, if possible, it's best to replace all components while you're at it (corrosion).
I appreciate that in a lot of cases, the dish can be challenging to access safely.
I see France 24 is on Eutelsat 28.5 (rather than Astra 28.2), so it may be worth re-aligning / optimising the dish for both?
11426 V
Do you have problems with any of the other channels on Eutelsat?
In Roi we use zone 1 dishes now. As sky narrowed the satellite footprint over roi & uk.
Omar