Lidl Satellite dish/Mount Weather related problems - HELP!!!

liamtech

Hi folks
I installed a Lidl Satellite dish system 8 months ago. Aside from the usual problems we all have aligning the dish i got it up and running inside of an hour or so. It all worked fine, and i had a relatively good signal strength and quality:

BBC NEWS 24 - Strength 93% Quality 81%
Sky News - Strength 93% Quality 79%
probably the weakest channel was
Press TV - Strength 91% Quality 69-72%

So it was working , hey presto. Im a FTA only man so i get these stations plus RTE1 RTE2 etc. I obviously got quite dependent on it.



Problems started at christmas when it got very windy. At first it was just the dish allignment that was out and was easily solved by re aligning...

However a month of realligning on a weekly/daily basis, ive come to the conclusion its the wall mount that is the issue... It doesnt seem sturdy enough to hold the dish still.... its moving around in the wind no matter how much i tighten it... the screws at the wall are not the issue it is the actual kneck of mount thats bending. The wind is obviously cathing the dish and putting a strain on it.

So im wondering is there anything else i can do..

Is there a way of strengthening the mount physically?
Where could i get a new mount (a stronger one if possible) that is compatible with the dish mount:

or dare i say it
...
Should i pack it in and get a triax dish from maplin (quite expensive by comparison to the lidl dish)

Would moving the LNB help at all(i cant see that it could but thought i would ask anyway)

As of now i have lost many of the stations i had grown used to
Press TV Gone
CBS Action Gone
BBC NEWS & Sky News are very flakey (picture breaks up a lot)

Would a professional installation be the way to go and how much would it cost. I thought i did a good job but i obviously under estimated the difficulty of using these dishes.

Any help you could offer i would very much appreciate it!

Sam Russell

Which dish have you got?

I had a lot of trouble with the 80 cm dish because it is too big for the flimsey mounts, but the 60 cm one is OK. You could brace the top of the mount to the wall with a double strap to prevent movement. I also had to tighten the screws to an inch of their lives. It has been stable for a long while now.

You just need a stronger mount really. It is a standard dish.

Ger Roe

Hi Liamtech.

I am a fan of the Lidl systems, they first got me out of bad reception analogue terrestrial TV over five years ago. The wall bracket is a problem though, it is very weak and prone to bending in the wind, or in my case weakening at the welded plate joint and moving from there.

Practically any simillar wall bracket would be better, availabile from shops such as Maplin, or on line from any of the sources suggested on this board.

The Lidl dishes tend to come in for a bit of a slagging too, but I still have my original one working on a pole mounted motor - no problems experienced in even the strongest winds.

Change the bracket and you should be OK.

Randyleprechaun

Get yourself a sky minidish(better for this part of the world anyway). You can get one from the guy at the link below for not big money.

€40 should cover it including delivery, lnb, bracket etc etc.

Get some decent fixings for the wall and your worries are over.

http://tvtrade.ie/show/2,Sky-Satellite-dishes-with-LNB

polyfusion

Not wanting to critisise your installation or alignment, but have you set the LNB skew suffiently? It's quite important, particularly for the weaker transponders.

Another option to consider might be to re-site the dish where it doesn't catch the wind as much.

If the bracket thats attached to the wall is bending, then it's only a matter of time before it gives up completely. If that happens, you risk the dish getting bent out of shape, and/or damage to the lnb. Other than replacing it, if you have access to a welder, you could strenghten it with a strap to the back of the plate (to join plate and cylinder part), and a couple of metal triangles to strengthen like a truss.

Trevord

Either relocate the lidl dish to ground level (attach to garden wall) so that it's protected from the wind and can easily be realigned if it moves.

If this is not an option due to houses or trees blocking the signal, then dump the Lidl dish in favour of a raven Zone 2 dish (the common sky black dish you see around the place)

This guy on ebay is reliable and offers very good value IMO
http://stores.shop.ebay.ie/The-One-Stop-Sat-Shop__W0QQ_armrsZ1

Your Lidl box will run fine with this setup.

Also if getting a new dish consider what type of LNB you want. Quad LNB will be useful if want to run additional cables to other rooms. (your Lidl dish only has a twin LNB)

Mike 1972

The wall mounts are the weakest part of the "Lidl systems"

Tony (Satellite.ie) does some good ones