Is this a common problem?

Green Gooner

As I said in previous threads I have moved from Sky to Freesat.

Atm I have a Sagem HD Freesat box.

Prior to installing the Freesat box I got a new satellite dish fitted as the one we had was quite rusty. The installer said sky and freesat dishes are pointed in the same direction.

After he istalled the dish we checked the signal on the sky box and one was full in one and the other was maybe 95% full.

Checking the signal on the freesat box though changes from channel to channel. Typically I get 100% in signal and quality on the BBC, ITV and Ch 4, But in the likes of CBS in might get 80%..in some others it maybe be 60%. Is this normal?

And finally is there no way checking the overall signal strength and quality on a freesat box? Something like the sky boxes have?

snaps

Yes its normal as the CBS channels are on a different satellite than the main Freesat/Sky channels. ( there are 2 satellite positions 28.2e and 28.5e, 28.2 being the main one which your dish is possibly aligned too and the CBS channels are on the 28.5e)

watty

The skybox has an installer menu where instead of signal & quality on one transponder, you can enter any transponder to see levels.

MACHEAD

The signal strength/quality you see displayed on a Sky box is read from one default transponder.

The signal will vary on the Sky channels just the same as they do on a Freesat box, you just can't 'see' them doing so.

Signal strength & quality on a Fresat box is taken from the transponder you are tuned to at the time.

Green Gooner

So the engineer guy was right when he said both are pointed in the same direction?

It says 28.2 on the freesat manual. Is sky pointing the same way?

Green Gooner

snaps wrote: »

Yes its normal as the CBS channels are on a different satellite than the main Freesat/Sky channels. ( there are 2 satellite positions 28.2e and 28.5e, 28.2 being the main one which your dish is possibly aligned too and the CBS channels are on the 28.5e)

Sorry if I'm sounding thick but how can my dish pick them up if its pointed to 28.2?

polyfusion

28.5 and 28.2 are so close together that they're effectively the same orbital position for a small dish (about 1m and under).

As you increase in dish size, the 0.3 of a degree becomes more noticeable, and minor adjustments may be necessary. Increase dish size even further, and you would be looking at dishes of such size that would need to be repositioned to pick up individual satellites within each constellation (or orbital position).

Even with a dish size of 80cm, it is noticeable, you can see from the signal quality whether the dish is slightly favouring 28.5 (Eurobird) or 28.2 (Astra), and I actually set mine up to favour 28.5 a bit more, as the signal from 28.2 is more focused to Ireland/UK and thus stronger relative to the signal from 28.5.

snaps

polyfusion wrote: »

28.5 and 28.2 are so close together that they're effectively the same orbital position for a small dish (about 1m and under).

As you increase in dish size, the 0.3 of a degree becomes more noticeable, and minor adjustments may be necessary. Increase dish size even further, and you would be looking at dishes of such size that would need to be repositioned to pick up individual satellites within each constellation (or orbital position).

Even with a dish size of 80cm, it is noticeable, you can see from the signal quality whether the dish is slightly favouring 28.5 (Eurobird) or 28.2 (Astra), and I actually set mine up to favour 28.5 a bit more, as the signal from 28.2 is more focused to Ireland/UK and thus stronger relative to the signal from 28.5.

Great explination. One example is my 1.1m dish has a lower signal off Eurobird when looking at Astra 2 compared to my fixed 75cm.

homer911

I have an LG Tv with Freesat built in and a separate Humax Freesat box, both using the same dish.

The Humax box shows 95/100 % strength and quality, but the LG TV shows almost none - I still get perfect reception on it however

snaps

homer911 wrote: »

The Humax box shows 95/100 % strength and quality, but the LG TV shows almost none - I still get perfect reception on it however

Signal strength meters on the menu's of satellite receivers/stbs are really a gimick and for basic reference only.