Check Satellite/LNB Install and alignment

[simola]

Hi everyone, I’ve finally put my trusty 9200 out to pasture and purchased the FoxSat HDR. Early impressions are very good although I’ve only had it since Sunday! Although everything seems to be working fine, one thing I’m unsure about is how to check that the Satellite dish is lined up correctly to ensure that the FoxSat works as it should.

The reason I’d like to check is that I’ve used an old Sky satellite dish that’s been in place for about six years and installed a quad LNB myself (with a Sat finder). As people will know, there’s many articles on the Internet about aligning the dish to the correct satellite which I’ve followed and like I say everything seems to be OK but want the reassurance that everything actually is.

I’ve gone into the System menu and there’s various Strength and Quality readings that I’ve summarised below;
• Freesat Tune (the screen that validates your postcode) S 90% and Q 20%
• Manual Tune S 100% and Q 80% (Transponder set to All)
• Diagnostics has Tuner 1 S 100% and Q 50% and Tuner 2 S 90% and Q 50%

So three results , all different. I’m a little confused to be honest but it looks like I need to focus on Quality Rather than Strength. I've done some more research and I've been reading about ‘Skew’ this evening and this isn't something I considered when installing the LNB so that’s maybe where I need to start.

Any advice? Thanks for your help.

[grahamlthompson]

Those are very low quality figures. You can check any specific transponder by going into manual tune and selecting any transponder. I use a 60cm dish in the Midlands and get 100% for both signal and quality for most transponders and nothing less than 90% quality on the worst transponders. I imagine you will lose pretty well all your channels in heavy rain.

This site has excellent advice on diy dish adjustments

http://www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk/

Find one of the worst transponders using manual tune and follow the above advice.

[caldirun]

Hi everyone, I’ve finally put my trusty 9200 out to pasture and purchased the FoxSat HDR. Early impressions are very good although I’ve only had it since Sunday! Although everything seems to be working fine, one thing I’m unsure about is how to check that the Satellite dish is lined up correctly to ensure that the FoxSat works as it should.

The reason I’d like to check is that I’ve used an old Sky satellite dish that’s been in place for about six years and installed a quad LNB myself (with a Sat finder). As people will know, there’s many articles on the Internet about aligning the dish to the correct satellite which I’ve followed and like I say everything seems to be OK but want the reassurance that everything actually is.

I’ve gone into the System menu and there’s various Strength and Quality readings that I’ve summarised below;
• Freesat Tune (the screen that validates your postcode) S 90% and Q 20%
• Manual Tune S 100% and Q 80% (Transponder set to All)
• Diagnostics has Tuner 1 S 100% and Q 50% and Tuner 2 S 90% and Q 50%

So three results , all different. I’m a little confused to be honest but it looks like I need to focus on Quality Rather than Strength. I've done some more research and I've been reading about ‘Skew’ this evening and this isn't something I considered when installing the LNB so that’s maybe where I need to start.

Any advice? Thanks for your help.

From what I can remember from installing my dish you have to get it directed between the 2 satellites (check transponders from both !) then adjust the skew to get the best signal from H and V polarised signals.
100%/100% is the aim but high 90s should be possible

[simola]

Thanks for your replies, some good advice. I'm going to look at realigning the dish this weekend, I'll post back how I get on and any advice which I guess may be of help to the novice :).

Just one question, I've checked the 105 transponders and a few of them have zero quality and strength. Should every transponder have a healthy quality and strength or can I expect some to still be 0/0?

Thanks again.

[grahamlthompson]

Thanks for your replies, some good advice. I'm going to look at realigning the dish this weekend, I'll post back how I get on and any advice which I guess may be of help to the novice :).

Just one question, I've checked the 105 transponders and a few of them have zero quality and strength. Should every transponder have a healthy quality and strength or can I expect some to still be 0/0?

Thanks again.

Not sure what you mean by 105 transponders. If you post the frequency and polarisation I will tell you what my readings are. You should be able to get a viewable signal from every channel in the epg assuming you are in the UK.

[simola]

Sorry for not being clear Graham, last night I went into the Manual Tune part of the system interface and checked the Strength and Quality of all the listed items under the drop down Transponder list. I thought I had 105 different elements in the list? Many of these items had zero Strength and Quality and I just wanted to check whether every item in the list should have a strong strength and quality reading.

I didn’t want to realign my dish and desperately try to get a reading on all of these 'transponders' when some of them aren’t relevant/should be zero reading.

Hope all this makes some sort of sense!!

[grahamlthompson]

Sorry for not being clear Graham, last night I went into the Manual Tune part of the system interface and checked the Strength and Quality of all the listed items under the drop down Transponder list. I thought I had 105 different elements in the list? Many of these items had zero Strength and Quality and I just wanted to check whether every item in the list should have a strong strength and quality reading.

I didn’t want to realign my dish and desperately try to get a reading on all of these 'transponders' when some of them aren’t relevant/should be zero reading.

Hope all this makes some sort of sense!!

If you download this .htm file and open it in your browser it lists every transponder (currently 36 of them) that the epg uses and the satellite it comes from. (If you have excel or a compatible the same info is avaialble as an excel file - http://www.4shared.com/file/120132100/a68cb8e7/FoxsatStaticMK2_011.html )

http://www.4shared.com/file/120132171/9eca1eb6/FoxsatStaticMK2_011.html

If you cant get a signal from any of these the channels listed on that transponder won't be viewable.


It will help if you look for a common element for the missing channels. eg can't get channels in HBV (High Band Vertical block it will greatly help in figuring out what the likely problem is.

[simola]

Thanks Graham, that spreadsheet will be incredibly useful.

Thanks for helping me out, I'll see if I can get some time to get up the ladder this weekend.

Thanks again.

[grahamlthompson]

Thanks Graham, that spreadsheet will be incredibly useful.

Thanks for helping me out, I'll see if I can get some time to get up the ladder this weekend.

Thanks again.

You are welcome

When you sort out the dish this thread may prove interesting

http://www.hummy.org.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=5596

Hows Rotherham, I worked at the Prince Of Wales power staion in the 60's (giving away my age :D) also at Blackburn Meadows by the Tinsley viaduct

[simola]

Thanks Graham, Rotherham is fine thanks ;), not sure about the Prince of Wales and where that is but I know Blackburn Meadows, I guess you know they knocked the cooling towers down last year which was a real shame.

I've managed to realign the dish yesterday and things have improved considerably. I can't believe how much difference altering the Skew made. I found this website which tells you the recommended Azimuth, Elevation and Skew based on you postcode. It was very helpful;
http://www.uksatellitehelp.co.uk/2007/08/01/alignment-calculator-for-sky-digital/#calc

I'm not hitting 100/100 on all transponders but I'm happy with the readings and will just have to wait for heavy rain or snow to see if I have any issues that need revisiting.

Thanks for your help Graham, it's been a good introduction to Freesat after being a keen Freeview user with my trusty 9200.

http://files.myopera.com/simola/files/transponder.gif

Couldn't find 12607H but as this is used by Filth I'm not worried :D