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Dish Choices

There are so many choices with dishes and so many different things to consider. Before we touch the topic of dishes the first thing to understand is the LNB sometimes referred to as the LNBF

What is an LNB?

Since serving people over the years and taking phone orders or people coming into our retail location in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)  Mississauga, Ontario, we have heard people calling an LNB the Eye, the horn, and various other names. I prefer the Eye as its the Eye to the Sky, it takes the reflection of the Dish and brings the signal to the RG6 Coax cable to your receiver. Many people espically in the earlier days would get terminology mixed up and think a Dual LNB means two LNBs or that it gets two satellites. This is not true, as a rule of thumb one LNB is one satellite, the fact that is a dual LNB means it can feed two separate receivers. Many people are used to traditional cable services and they get one cable tv line in and split it all over the house. This works well for cable TV as all the channels that you subscribe to are on that cable line. That cable line has been already split in your neighborhood before it arrives to your house. With Satellite TV the LNB is what brings you that signal, but with a difference each Satellite has various transponders usually around 30 transponders to that satellite. If you take an LNB apart you will see a board with circuitry that is because there is a two way communication between receiver and LNB and when you are watching a particular show the LNB is only feeding the receiver with that transponder along the cable. So splitting that cable to multiple receivers without an intelligent multiswitch is not possible. The reason you have two ports from the LNB makes it a dual LNB that will treat each line seperately and allow two receivers to share the same LNB and send back different transponders to your receiver. So as a Rule of thumb one LNB is one satellite and one port is one receiver which goes to one Television. There is a couple of exceptions to this rule the first is a dish and a motor the second is the newer standard LNB which gets you 118.7 and 119 on the same LNB with a larger dish. Besides that the rule that one port of an LNB only feeds one tv never changes regardless. The rule that one LNB is one satellite is 99% true in most cases.

Which Dish should i choose?

There are some limitations with certain dishes for example an 18 inch dish cannot be used for AMC 4 you need a 33 inch dish or larger. Also for a dish and motor to work properly you need a 27 inch or larger dish , we recommend a 33 inch dish for a motor. The demand for more and more satellites in this hobby has become even more overwhelming. There is nothing like one dish with one LNB per satellite for stationary dishes (Non motored dishes) as you can fine tune each dish and get the best signal strength with one dish and LNB per satellite, But this is not a practical solution or is it? for most people this though is a little overwhelming and for some living in an apartment or condominium where restrictions to the amount of dishes allowed need to be considered. So many have chosen to have less dishes and combine LNB's to get more satellites from one dish, this is a compromise as one signal strength is better on one satellite and less stronger on another. This rarely stops your viewing and only makes a difference in a extreme winter storm or very bad rain storm where signal loss could be possible enough to interrupt your viewing. To most for this small compromise once or twice a year during extreme bad weather having one or two dishes getting all the satellites they want is a better way to go.

An 18 inch dish in most parts of North America with the bracket and second LNB can get you 2 satellites, if you are willing to spend a few extra dollars then the 20 inch dish 500 with 2 dual LNBs does the same thing but gives a better signal. The eliptical dish 18 x 24 can get up to 5 satellites with 5 LNBs and is also a great choice.

Everyone feels differently about this great hobby and most people that are new to this hobby start with our first combo package of just an 18 inch dish and receiver, this is enough to get a feel for this hobby and if you do go for a bigger dish you still have an LNB from this dish you can bring forward to your next setup.

When thinking of a stationary dish always consider what satellites you wish to get and the number of LNBs determines the number of satellites you can point to, the fact they are dual LNBs simply means that you can connect another receiver is either immediately or later on for another television.