1.8m 1.9m 2.4m Satellite Dishes for the Costa Blanca Spain

Types of satellite dishes on the Costa Blanca in Spain

There are two types of satellite dishes available: Prime Focus and Offset.

The Prime Focus satellite dishes are used mainly on the Costa Blanca for the reception of BBC ITV and C4. These satellite dishes have the LNB located in the centre of the satellite dish, held by an LNB holder on on three "legs" (I call this the Spider!)

An offset satellite dish can be identified by the fact that the LNB is offset to the face of the satellite dish - and is not located in the centre of the satellite dish. The 80cm offset satellite dish can be used to get channels from many satellites such as MBC (Arabsat 26), Hotbird (13) and Astra1 (19.2)

The big 1.8m 1.9m 2.4m Prime Focus satellite dishes we install are manufactured in Portugal, and are the most popular satellite dishes for reception on the Costa Blanca, and the best (for their price) for reception of BBC and ITV channels on the Costa Blanca.

Note that there are two manufacturers of satellite dishes from Portugal.

The 1.8m satellite dishes from both companies perform pretty much the same, however, I have found that in my area the Famaval 1.8m satellite dishes do not perform as well as the other Portuguese 1.8m satellite dishes.

Please try not to believe all the propaganda that all Famaval dishes are the best, that you should only install dishes of a certain colour, or stands and supports of a certain colour. Like I have said, I have found that, especially in my service area, I get much better results using what some companies call an economy 1.8 (1.9)m dish than what they call the professional (Famaval) 1.8 (1.9)m dish. Maybe this is why many installers use a mix of the 1.8m satellite dishes and Famaval 2.4m satellite dishes.

And in many ways these Portuguese dishes are not the best performers, as there are a few offset Big Dishes (imported from the USA I think) that actually perform better, but as these cost a bit more due to the import are not as popular with clients or installers.

For information, here are the official sizes for the Famaval satellite dishes.

You can see why there is confusion between installers supplying 1.8m satellite dishes and 1.9m satellite dishes. The official measurements for satellite dishes are actually taken by the size of the reflector part of the dish, and should not include the outer rim of the dish. And by saying the dish is a 1.9m dish the installers make you think you are getting a bigger dish than if you were to get a 1.8m dish. In fact as you can see they are both the same sizes, it is just how you interpret the measurements. I always quote the dishes as being 1.8m as this is what is on the sales invoices from my suppliers.

1.4 prime focus
Outside diameter: 1440mm x 1440mm
Reflector diameter: 1330mm x 1330mm

1.8 (1.9)m prime focus
Outside diameter: 1940mm x 1940mm
Reflector diameter: 1790mm x 1790mm

2.4 prime focus
Outside diameter: 2470mm x 2470mm
Reflector diameter: 2290mm x 2290mm

The 2.4m Famaval has the additional bonus of being future proof, as it is able to be extended to a 3.1m satellite dish by the use of extension panels.

I have tested other satellite dishes and manufacturers, and although they have a lower cost this is reflected in their lower manufacturing quality and levels of signal received.

One satellite dish manufacture is located in Eastern Europe (Turkey or Bulgarian), and are generally regarded as being a poor performer compared to those satellite dishes made in Portugal.

Avoid at all costs “petal” satellite dishes – although cheap it has been reported that the Fortecstar 2.4m petal dish has the same ability as a 1.5m dish!

Do I have a Portuguese or Eastern Europe (Turkey or Bulgarian) satellite dish?

A Eastern European 2.4m dish is identifiable by:
a large hole in the middle. The Famaval dishes do not have a centre hole.
"spin circles" on the back where you can see the dish has been made from spun steel. The Portuguese dishes don't have these as they are pressed aluminium.
the "lnb spider legs" are connected to the dish by small metal holders. The Portuguese dish's connected directly to the dish
5 bolts to hold the dish support ring to the groundstand, the Portuguese clamp onto the groundstand.
A 2.4m Famaval dish can also be distinguished from other dishes is that the Famaval as 24 small holes around the rim which can be used to install extension petals , making the Famaval a 3.1m dish.

A Famaval 2.4m dish (left) and a Turkish 2.4m dish (right). Note the large hole in the centre of the Turkish dish.