What's a normal reading in the diagnostics for TV and radio?I have the minidish with a quad LNB and about 20m. of cable to the reciever. The main TV channels up to 135 on Freesat are good at 90% strength and 80% quality but after that they seem poor at 85/50 at best. The BBC radio stations show at about the same 85/50 but the commercial radio stations are only at 80/40 and are soon lost to me in rain.
Is this as good as I will get it with the minidish?
I am in W.Wales

My readings are 85/100 S/Q across the board, on an old minidish in S.E. Essex, about 10m cable. Also, I got no blips in the recent thunderstorms & torrential rain.

Edit : Have you checked all your connections are secure & tight, especially if the wrong size F-Connectors have been put on for the cable size? Also, I think the further north you are, a bigger dish size is better for rain etc., but your other problems do not sound normal.

Rgds.


Les.

What,even radio channels 80/100?

I get 90% strength 100% quality across tv and radio

Yes, across all, but 85/100

Rgds.

Les.

Looks like I need a new dish. Its got a fairly recent LNB which has always given these values, the dish is a perforated one that I remember did have a fall onto the drive when we moved. I wonder if it got a not noticeable dent/bend. I have tweeked and more tweeked the alignment to get the best possible signal.

Your position in West Wales won't help either. Although a minidish should be sufficient as you're within the main footprint area, you are nevertheless towards the edge of the Eurobird 1's inner footprint.

I believe Freesat is split over Astra and Eurobird.

If you want to improve reception and weather resistance get a larger dish. I put an 85cm dish up (Yorkshire) and its definitely helped during bad weather. I've only ever had channel loss for a few hours on 1 single day since Freesat started and even then it was only the highest channels (Zone's).

That day apart, heavy torrential rain and even heavy snow during the winter have failed to cause any picture problems on any of the channels. I haven't even seen breakup or interference so solid is reception.

I get 100% strength and around 90-100% quality across the board (drops in torrential rain (the type that makes rivers out of roads) but always stays in the green).

Only bad thing I can say is that a big dish is a bitch to align as you pick up absolutely every signal out there. When aligning I could point my dish below the horizon and practically anywhere in the sky and still get 100% strength!!!

A 60cm dish gives me 100/100 for most channels just South of Birmingham. Only time I ever lost a signal is when the dish face was covered with about 4" of snow

Its OK, I've got to the bottom of it. No wonder my reception symptoms were a bit peculiar. When I went to do a close examination of the minidish, by standing directly below the spot where the arm comes out of the dish and lining it up with the top of the dish directly above, it was easy to see that it is badly twisted out of true from side to side. You wouldn't notice it viewing from the front or up the ladder when fiddling. No obvious marks on the front but there is a 'ding' on the edge corresponding with the twist, which is quite severe. I remember it fell on the drive from about 4 feet when we moved but it didnt look damaged, it's only when you get your eye properly lined up with the edge you can see it. I bet a new zone one minidish will do fine but I'll probably get a zone 2 to minimise rain fade as we are as far west in W. Wales as you can go without getting your feet wet.

To my astonishment I have managed to bend the distorted side of the dish back into shape, by hand, to match the good side, quite easily. The perforated minidish is not so rigid as you imagine! I then had to realign and now getting 90/100 most channels. Commercial radio is a bit less at 85/80. So its OK for now. Thanks for the guides.

^^^ nice one now you just need to wait and see how it copes with the rain.... then again it's probably raining already