Hey guys. Not intending on hijacking this discussion.
Ime. You've proven solidly that your VU+ can snag signals that the mio can't. I wonder two things.
IF your VU+ tuner is simply more sensitive or if the soldered in mio tuner may be either not as "hot" (or cold in degrees kelvin in the old days) or if it's perhaps defective.
In other words. If you put 2 mio's side by side with the same image, if one shows a higher dB reading.
It would be cool if EB could try that even if he only had a mio and a mio+.

Another thing. EB, you know. Is the signal strength display a rudimentary value that you code into an image or if the actual tuner received strength coming from the data stream is converted into a value? Maybe I'm off on a tangent. 0 dB is obviously...nothing received. But for example on my mio, transponders on 99W blow in showing 17 dB+ and the bargraph is maxed out.
Is that something that one coder could say.....let's make signal capture (where pixellation occurs) 9 dB and 15 dB is saturation. Another might decide 6 dB is lock and 20 dB is saturation. Good question?

I don't know. Maybe a DRO vs PLL could perform the same if the AFC of the DRO tracks properly. Always wondered how they work internally if the ambient temperature fluctuated widely between day and night. Kind of like an old boat anchor ham radio receiver needs to warm up to stabilize. But ones with PLL synthesizers and crystal ovens turn on rock solid. And keep on rockin'.

It was mentioned that I should get an ortho and a couple of Norsats. Then I'm told that there isn't a phenomenal difference between that setup and a quality LNBF. I was ready to get a bread bag and spool of fishing line and vacuum the pull another run of coax. As it stands I didn't jump for that Harvard ortho and pair of Norsat lnb's. Whew! Comments?

Still trying to figure out something else. In the fall and spring when the earth tilts. Probably 1-2 EST. Sats obliterate like clockwork. 101W will reduce signal about 1 dB/minute. Then it's gone for a half-hour, 45 minutes. 103W awhile later. Same thing. And on down the arc.Same thing in the fall.
Or take 127W for an example. Around midnight it will die for a bit.
But looking at stellar charts I use for my astronomy kick. The sun is nowhere inline with 127. Maybe I'm missing something.
I even adjust the declination on my 12 footer in the spring and fall to keep signals peaked.

FYI. on my mio4k. on C Band 9-9.2 dB seems to be the threshold where pixellation and signal lock loss happens.
On ku I can dip all the way down in the 5's. Is that typical?

......sit back. enjoy the flight. we're not headed to tripoli or havana!