u/schirmyver

I know the R2 hasn't been out that long, but can anyone comment on how good or bad the cellular coverage is with the Connect+.

I write this as I'm driving through the U.P. and at&t coverage is spotty on my phone, fading in and out with every hill.

Normally it's no big deal, but with the infotainment system being pretty much reliant on cellular coverage it's more important.

I've got a Sept - Oct order window and I am coming from a much older vehicle with a simple old fashioned key. I am planning on getting the LE so I will have the key fob, but in general how do you handle valet parking when you use your phone or device as the vehicle key or do you have to have a key fob or card?

Lots of new technology to me so I apologize if this seems like a stupid question.

So I am new to the RTL-SDR world and picked up one of the NooElec V5 dongles and have been using it to do simple things like listen to FM stations and pickup and decode the ADS-B signals. All of this is pretty interesting to me.

Now I am thinking of setting up a dedicated system to pickup the GOES signals. I know I will need to pickup an LNA with GOES filtering and most likely a different RTL-SDR dongle. My question is more about the antenna itself. I know NooElec sells a bundle with the dish, LNA/Filter and receiver. I have thought about just picking up one of these, but I would like to keep this setup more inconspicuous. What I would like to do is make use of an unused DirecTV dish I already have. I know this would require modifying the LNB that is currently installed. I would rip everything out of the current LNB and just use it as a mechanical housing. I have access to some patch antennas that while tuned for GNSS, still function at 1.7 GHz.

So long story short here are my questions. I know that some the signals from GOES are linearly polarized and to maximize the signal reception I would need to tilt the antenna to the appropriate angle. Can I instead...

• Tilt the antenna in the feed, keeping the dish straight?
• Instead of using a linear polarized antenna in the feed, use an RHCP polarized antenna in the feed? I know there will be some loss due to polarization mismatch, roughly 3dB, but then I do not need to worry about tilt, especially if I want to aim the dish at a different satellite.

I would really like to use the RHCP antenna, as that just takes some of the guesswork out of aiming and since that is what GNSS uses there is no shortage of possible antennas to start with.