Signal strength v signal quality

mike65

Does it matter much if I have 90% strength but 50% quality?

rob the satman

mike65 wrote: »

Does it matter much if I have 90% strength but 50% quality?

Signal Quality is the IMPORTANT one, the higher the better, you can have minimal signal strength but you can't have minimal signal quality

watty

Quality:
50% may be OK. Depends on how it is measured. Usually if it's not raining and dish is aligned and correct size and LNB Skew OK 70%+

Level is meaningless as modern LNBs have very "strong" IF amplifiers and significant AGC. You can have a 70% Signal and 10% quality, Frozen picture, or on some distribution systems only 40% signal and still 70% quality.

As long as the signal is "peaked" (i.e. Dish Aligned), the quality is the important one.

A poor quality (< 55%) in clear sky and high signal often means LNB Skew is wrong. the "tail" of it on arm of dish should point about 7 o'clock as you face dish. Rotate slowly.

Only professional test gear is accurate. Most set-boxes are variable in the actual amount of % or bar shown for same signal.

mike65

Thats interesting. Right now, having been fiddling with the dish (a fiddle disrupted by what I thought was a failing sat-finder - it turned out to be slightly corroded end of cable copper) I have 90% strength and 0% quality. Yes the sun is out but there are heavy shower clouds lurking now so if one lets rip I'll have another look.

watty

Maybe now pointing at wrong satellite! So not on a channel!

mike65

Ha, I do know the 28.2E channels when I see them!

Liameter

mike65 wrote: »

it turned out to be slightly corroded end of cable copper

Corrosion indicates moisture ingress. Coat all connections with silicone grease before assembly.

rob the satman

mike65 wrote: »

Ha, I do know the 28.2E channels when I see them!

But the thing is if you are getting 0% quality you are not seeing them :cool::rolleyes:
'watty' is quite right in what he says

mike65

the 0% is odd but the reception is fine so I won't worry. A heavy shower tomorrow would be handy to see if I lose signal. That said Vintage TV and M4M+1 which were both flaky/missing before I started tweaking are now fine again.

rob the satman

mike65 wrote: »

the 0% is odd but the reception is fine so I won't worry. A heavy shower tomorrow would be handy to see if I lose signal. That said Vintage TV and M4M+1 which were both flaky/missing before I started tweaking are now fine again.

if those channels are OK you should be fine, that frequency that both are on is one of the hardest to receive, but it's always worth checking cabling and connectors too, not just LNB, Dish alignment and Receivers

Is it a standalone signal meter you are using or a built in meter in the receiver?

mike65

its an in-line type.

STB

Sounds like your signal meter is fecked Mike. One of those Philex SLx yokes ?

You are probablty better off getting a reading from the set top box which is normally under manual tuning in the menu which should give you the quality and strength bars - accurate enough for what you are trying to do.

I saw this post yesterday and was going to comment like Watty but was sure you knew what was what. I mean its obvious that you would have 80-90% strength up there all the time given the number of satellites out there.

rob the satman

STB wrote: »

Sounds like your signal meter is fecked Mike. One of those Philex SLx yokes ?

You are probablty better off getting a reading from the set top box which is normally under manual tuning in the menu which should give you the quality and strength bars - accurate enough for what you are trying to do.

Ditto

mike65

Sheesh I'm beginning to wish I hadn't mentioned it! Everything is fine regardless of what my Skybox or the sat finder says.