Hi,
I received yesterday my dreamcatcher 21 days after shipping !
First try , I live near Paris, France, and it seems very difficult for me to obtain a better SNR than -14.7dB (outside, without horn and without additionnal coaxial)
Received signal level is -76dBm. Are this values normals ? What should I expect ?
Thank you very much !
Hi, @Butternut
Welcome to Othernet. Your readings of -14.7 SNR and -76dBm are normal! You may want to try to re-aim your LNB in small increments to improve the SNR to something less negative than -14 in order to get a good “lock”. Also try adjusting skew by rotating your LNB slightly as you watch SNR. If these do not help, you may want to try using a “cone” or “horn” as described in the user’s manual.
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OK, good.
I will try to make a small horn with wire mesh.
Not too much experience with the microwave horns. Is it necessary for the metal body of the horn to be in contact with the ground of the plug f ?
Thank you
Ideally, the material should have holes than are less than 1/10 of the wavelength. In this case, less than 2.5mm.
ok thank Syed , I’ll try to find that
On a calm day aluminum foil seems like not a bad choice for an experimental horn that might last a few minutes.
Aluminum foil can work, also foil tape like is used for heating and cooling ducts has met with some success. Some have used soft drink cups covered with aluminum foil duct tape successfully, also.
@Butternut, to answer your question, no, it is not necessary to contact the “grounded” area of the LNB or coaxial cable (f connector) with your horn.
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Here is the link to the reception enhancement document.
Hi Butternut, I live in the near of Cologne. Acc. Lyngsat I am closer to the center of the beam. But I am also receiving with the bare LNB and the SNR is around -7 db. So I guess that you should get to -10 when pointing to the satellite. BTW: with a 60cm dish I my SNR was +7.
Wolfgang
Hi Wsombeck,
-7dB ? This is a very good value.
I tried several power supply and several places in the garden or at the top of the roof but, for now, I am unable to have lock. Best SNR is -14.5dB, with only 1% of valid packets. And a lot of clouds for several days.
Perhaps a problem with my LNB. Did you have the generic dual band LNB ?
Thanks
Right, now it is the delivered Dual-LNB (I think it is Goobay), Inside the dish I used the already mounted double-LNB (Octagon-PLL), which was not better than the cheap one.
Lots of rain and clouds do not really affect the SNR (about 1dB SNR). For the first setup I used dishpointer.com and followed the sightline over the neigbours roof to find the azimuth.
You can watch my Skylark at https://obereip.selfhost.de
Good luck, Wolfgang
OK, thank you Wsombeck.
Now with a DIY horn I gained about 1.5dB on the SNR / Rssi (-13.5dB / -73dBm)
Valid packets 58%
I will still try another LNB
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