If you have a satellite dish, then you may have heard of LNBs, or low noise block converters. They are the relatively small parts that attach to the front of your satellite dish that take the incoming signal from the satellite and send it on to your satellite box after having tweaked it slightly. You may think that this is of no interest to you as long as it works, but if you have more than one TV in your house, think again.

The tweaking that the LNB does includes filtering unwanted signals, amplifying those that are left and converting them to lower frequencies so that they can be sent across your satellite cables to be decoded by your satellite box. LNBs are not only used for satellite television, they also amplify satellite signals for telecommunications and internet services.

There are various types of LNB depending on which type of communication technology you are hoping to interpret. To be on the safe side, picking a dual polarization or dual band LNB will allow the equipment to receive any communication. What you want to do with the signal once received will determine which size of LNB you require.

Single feed LNBs can only send their adjusted signal to one connection in a satellite box. To work a satellite box with two inputs or two or more satellite boxes you will need a dual or quad LNB or even the super sized octo. As their names suggest, these allow for two, four and eight feeds respectively to be sent independently from your satellite dish to receiving boxes. This is ideal if you have TVs in different rooms in your house that you wish to receive satellite TV independently from each other. With satellite boxes that now allow you to record one channel while watching another requiring two feeds from an LNB, it is no wonder that the LNB quad is rising rapidly in popularity.

Problems can occur with LNBs if they are misused or the satellite dish is not aligned correctly. Misuse includes using too large a satellite dish that captures too many signals or pointing at a strong satellite when the LNB is designed to listen to those with low power. Make sure you follow the instruction guidelines to avoid such problems.

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