dish sizes NW England

[teleaddict]

I have just made a return to the world of satTV after an 8 year absence (following house moves & children arriving).
Mrs T has stipulated that I'm not allowed a "large" dish again (the last was only a 80 x 90 mirage dish) so I'm hoping to make use of the sly mini dishes.
Having read the articles about the zone 2 dishes having multi feeds, this is where I hope to reach.
In the mean time, I've got 2 zone 1 dishes as has my neighbour, 1 of which they don't use & have kindly said I could use.
After the arrival yesterday of my spiderbox 6000HD, I've set my dishes at 13E & 19E.
I've tried to locate 0.8W with the third, but give up in the end due to frustration.
Should I be able to receive 0.8W with a zone 1 dish on a prime focus? I thought I should, but I'm not to sure how good the signal strength would be.

Can any body please advise me?
thanks

[echelon]

you may get some channels but I suspect its far too small for 0.8w to be honest about it

a zone 2 dish may give better results but in my experience you need between 80cm and 110cm for 0.8w here in the N/W

a zone 2 dish will sort out 30w for sure, also you will find a zone 2 (and possibly the zone 1) will work ok on 13e and 19e

you can piggy back an lnb on the side of a zone 2 dish pointed at 28e and the piggy back can get 39e so thats another option of 2 sats on the one dish

but 39cm (zone 1) is far too small to be used on most sats, especially those not aimed at the uk or with weaker signals

check the sticky threads in this dish forum and the lnb forum to see zone 2 options with multiple lnb,s on them

[teleaddict]

Thanks for the quick response echelon.
I've read through the stickies and it was your post about the zone 2 dishes that got me thinking about making a return to multi-sat TV.
I wasn't too certain how much of a signal drop there would be on a zone 2 dish secondary focal point compared to a zone 1 dish at prime focus.
I had a triple feed on my previous dish, but like you pointed out, a zone 1 dish is only half the height/width so perhaps I am expecting too much from my zone 1s.
Unfortunately I don't know how Mrs T would take to me "aquiring" a couple of zone 2 dishes...

[echelon]

they would be standard size in northern ireland and scotland , also give you much better options as you have already seen

[digicon]

Agree with the above an ISS Mesh 80cm not much larger than a Zone2 will give you far better results than any Zone1/2 dish. If you are set on using the Zone1/2 then you may need to alter the LNB arm length slightly to get the very best of the dish as these are predominantly made to pick up probably one of the strongest satellite positions in the ARC