Help with SAT TV in the Caribbean

In Sint Maarten contact Advance Marine, Colin Kristensen 011-599-552-9760

To put it in a nutshell you will need to change over to GLA 095W which will give you fewer channels and most will be spanish to do this you will also need new recievers ect.... possibley a new LNB on your dish, I think that depends on the age of your system. We deal with an agency in Mexico which causes me no end of grief, but it does seem to work most of the time, Usually it stops working when the boss arrives I also understand that there has been a merger and everthing is subect to change.

Fixed dish territory

The user is saying you have to go to a larger (90cm?) dish? This is certainly true of DirecTv on land-based systems. I used to chat with Raoul, who was the moderator on the Dishforums site, based in Puerto Rico. I'm not seeing the same hardware used here on boats.

For starters, where's Weingard? Do they not make anything that tracks the signal fast enough?

Anyway, 18" US reception= 1.2m Caribbean. Can you just boost? Yes, and no. There are not many optional LNB's that give both the circular polarity you require and the low-noise suited to boosting. In-line filters, (which are probably very common down yonder) will only increase the gain about 1-2dB above the noise-floor. "Stackable-MDU LNB's" (California Amplifier) have the lowest noise.

Are you needing to get both 101 and 110... 119? ParaTodos?

humm

Sorry, I meant *DBSForums.com*, where, as I recall, I got shunned for arguing with 'BornRich' about 'BoyGeorge.'

Dbs+

Alan; If anyone ought to be able to master this equation, you are the person most fit for the job! I haven't participated in the 'little dish' forums since 2002, so I'm a little out out of the loop myself. I did however give the problem of off-shore reception my best shot, up until I had to go back to 'phone-school,' ie: Panasonic mail-programming. That's when I decided maybe i'd best stick to A/V and call it a day!

It's awfully handy to start your research with help from the C-Band community. These are the veterans who actually know their dishes and the real issues with maximum gain. In general, you'll want to learn s/n -ratios as you approach the edge of the conus, because the signal is 'up-ended' according to normal 'phase.' Therefore, a much larger dish is required to boost signal gain. With a 'stacked LNB,' potentially you can combine antenna, opting for free-to-air (analog) 'Ku,' much as you might have turned that old 'UHF' -knob on yesterday's TV's.

DirecTV is now distinctly different from Dish. Dealers must know both. Our issues will be with American-based subscribers, who are afforded different regulations than say, Mexicans. Also, we are likely most interested in English programming options: "Pay here,watch Everywhere." That said; "Raoul" in Puerto Rico, is the only guy I know who had consistently tracked all of the myraid problems as we might see them. (Think of him as your 'Lars,' or 'LMB'

At NAB, I met Germans and Swedes who complained of the poor Mfg. quality of our US products. Are they not splitting hairs? Not according to one supplier and another Mfg. who's links I can provide. But let's assume we have a perfect dish that is 25% larger than any you see here. Gain is up 11.2%. Double the dish and you only get 13.8% Due to the circular polarity of DTH LNB's, they all have a fairly short aperature....See the problem? Maximum ever may be +4.91dB above noise in computer simulations. "California Amp" is the most helpful tech dept I've ever called.

The next issue is 'auto-tracking.'

Wouldn't it be handy if there were an LNB that used a SONY, Canon, or Nikon's system of image stabilization? Inversely, you see how complex and expensive it might be to create a *very large* self-syncing dish? In port,we might just as well place the antenna and receiver Onshore, and use a local FM-transmitter, ($200.) or a broadcast tool for short-distance microwave camera transmissions, (est.$2,200. dual-ch send/receive to change TV channels). Hopefully, someone doesn't walk off with the whole rig!

Lastly, ALL island dwellers will recognize the difficulties of wind-sheer. I love Paraclipse's Windsurfer line, while Raoul's buddies have actually resorted to hand-plastered concrete parabolas with metallic surface paints.

"Americas LNB"?

What would it take to combine all of the features of all of the systems into one? Now, that's a challenging prospect.Two basic differences exist between the DirecTV and DishNet receivers, aside from the minor, (50kHz?) disparity in their stated frequency-range, ie: Info-Channel-100's bandwidth.

Direct sends a simple audible 'tone' to switch the polarity from even to odd transponder in the LNB. So the higher, (18v. vs 13v.) may remain constantly fed through the wire, while the local multi-switch arbitrates the output selection. Dish applies the switching in the receiver, and lately have adopted an even more complex dual-path signal switch, which actually enables single-wire, dual-channel TIVO from any single receiver. While this sounds awesome for existing 'single-feed' up-grades, it's not making any customers happier. You'll still want Ku (H/V linear polarity) for International back-up.

Another Murdoch conspiracy?

Great news. Save the old one(s) for the return trip. How's the English language line-up?