What dish size is needed for CCTV4?

[zmips]

hello, i have an old "dish 500" (20-inch?) satellite dish that i would like to use to receive CCTV4 on G3C (95W) -- does anyone know if this 20-inch dish is big enough to receive the Ku-band CCTV4 signals in Seattle (47.5 latitude, -122.3 longitude)? or do i absolutely have to go purchase a bigger, 76cm (30-inch) dish?

on lyngsat.com i see that there are a lot of satellites near G3C (such as Telstar 5 @97W and Nimiq 1 @91) -- will the beams from these other satellite cause any kind of interference or reception difficulties if i use only a small 20-inch dish to aim at G3C?

i currently have an "IR2000" CCTV4 irdeto receiver/decoder, and i am planning to buy a linearly-polarized LNBF, but i just don't know kind of dish i would need... should i invest in a "motorized positioner" in addition to a 76cm dish?

thanks in advance :)

[zmips]

in seattle, we typically have a lot of rainy days and cloudy skies (ha-ha-ha)... would i actually need to get an even bigger dish (such as 86cm) to get good reception of CCTV4's Ku-band signal from G3C? ...i guess i'm willing to mount a massive dish in the backyard (is this done by pouring cement around a metal pole?), but i would just really really prefer not to, hee-hee :-)

[tvdxer]

You appear to be in the 48 dBw contour of the satellite's footprint (coverage area). You'd probably be able to get the signal with as little a dish as 60cm, but since you have a lot of rain in the area, I'd recommend a 76 or 80cm dish.

[zmips]

hey tvdxer, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions! :-)

based on your response, i did a search on google for the G3C satellite's footprint map, and you are absolutely right about the 48dB coverage! this is so cool. i'm learning so much about satellite stuff. this is very fascinating stuff. hey thanks again for your answers, tvdxer!

wow, it's weird how the contours of the satellite's footprint have such odd shapes... instead of CIRCULAR concentric contours... very fascinating. if anyone has an answer for THIS, please please let me know. :-)

[bobkat]

Originally Posted by zmips

wow, it's weird how the contours of the satellite's footprint have such odd shapes... instead of CIRCULAR concentric contours... very fascinating. if anyone has an answer for THIS, please please let me know. :-)

I'm not real sure how they do it but yes its amazing how they can control the satellite footprint to pretty much any coverage area they want. What is even more amazing, to me anyway, are the spot beam satellites like DirecTV and DishNetwork have that can beam a coverage area of only around 50 miles. That blows my mind... :shock:

kat

[zy9]

18" ok in Vancouver BC in media rain. 0.6db LNB