Tooway Signal Strength / Quality

[leedenison]

Hi,

My parents live in rural France and about a year ago I embarked on an epic journey to get them set up with a broadband internet connection. Satellite broadband was, and is still, the only option for them.

They have been set up with a Tooway system provided by Numeo (Skylogic) for around 9 months, but the connection is unreliable and the signal quality is poor. I believe this is largely due to some tree topped hills (approx 200m distant) partially obscuring the southern sky. In periods of good weather the connection can run fine for long periods of time, but in bad weather the connection consistently fails.

They currently use a 60 cm Tooway dish provided by Numeo. Having read this thread:

http://www.satellites.co.uk/forums/...ection/93550-how-increase-signal-quality.html

increasing the dish size seems like a good way to try to improve the connection quality. However, not knowing much about satellite dishes, LNBs or feedhorns, I'm left wondering:

Is a larger dish likely to make a difference?
Will any Ka-band dish, LNB, feedhorn combination work with my Tooway system?
Can my existing Tooway LNB be fitted to a bigger dish? Especially since the current one is 'elliptical'?
What's the maximum sensible size for a residential Ka-band dish?

Any help or comments much appreciated.

Lee

 

[Channel Hopper]

You could try moving the dish a small distance back to check if the trees really are the problem.

 

[leedenison]

You could try moving the dish a small distance back to check if the trees really are the problem.

Agreed. Unfortunately the dish is already sited at the limit in terms of angle over the trees. As well as considering a bigger dish, I'm also working on a plan to mount the dish on a tower to get a better angle - but its a bit difficult to test before spending some money.

 

[leedenison]

Updating with some info from elsewhere in case it is useful to someone:

A larger dish size would certainly be an improvement however there are none compatible for a KA Band TooWay – it may be a better option to upgrade to a KU Band TooWay, this comes standard with a 98cm dish. It also has double the monthly data quotas of the TooWay system for the same price.

I am unable to check which satellite you are currently aligned to, however I am guessing that you are aligned to Hot Bird 6, KU Band TooWay systems require alignment to the satellite EuroBird 3, which you may have better line of sight to?

 

[Janus_ru]

Now that the Ka band Tooway service ha started, can you investigate swapping your parents to the new faster service on Eutelsat 9A..

Will it help that you can move the new dish to point 24 degrees further to the south ?

If you can find a location with clear LoS - take that and then consider running an Ethernet cable or wireless connection from the dish to the location of the PC.

I've installed this new system in various parts of the UK and Southern Europe.