No Luck with selfsat flat panel antenna for sky in Co.Kerry

air

Hi all,
Just wanted to share my failure on this one.
Today I installed a SelfSat H30D in North Kerry to replace a rusted old Sky mini dish. Unfortunately it didnt work, I got about 70% signal strength and 40% signal quality within the menu of the Pace digibox.
Lock Indicator was given as OK but no picture and intermittent "No Satellite Signal Being Received" messages.
Had to go back to the mini dish, this gave about 50% signal strength but 90% signal quality.
The cable run is about 20 metres, would there be any chance that replacing it with something lower loss would make up the necessary margin? If so any suggestions on a particular cable?

Booms

Does it have a skew adjustment, or does the whole assembly need to be rotated?

air

Yes, it has skew, have everything spot on I think. Strange how the sig strength was good but the quality was low.Perhaps the LNB used is poor?

montgolfiere

i tried one out here in the s of france near the spanish border. It did receive some channels in clear weather during the day but was hopeless as soon as night fell or the weather closed in...I would suggest that these are not up to the job in areas where a Sky Zone 2 dish is required.

the Skyman

watty

There is so much gain on modern LNBs internal IF amp that the "signal" level is meaningless. Only "quality" is meaningful. Those are too small. They are less good than a Zone1 dish intended for London. Only good for Sky in SE England if not raining hard or in Germany for 19E if not raining hard.

Waste of money. Lower "real" gain than a decent 40cm dish. Most of Ireland needs 65cm for rain margin.

Loogie

http://www.astra2.org/dish.html
According to above site, Astra 1N UK Spot can be picked up with 45cm dish across Ireland as of late 2011.
I am trying to moderate the size of dish necessary for Freesat. Would I therefore succeed in getting a good quality with Squish or Selfsat?
I am in Dublin 2 with a clear sight of 28.2 degrees East of South (if I have that right).

air

In case it's of interest to anyone, i've since installed the same panel antenna in Limerick and it's working perfectly.
That late 2011 upgrade probably explains the improvement, in any case the SelfSat is a runner for Astra now anyway (in Limerick for sure at least!).
Bought 2 at the time so will probably give it another go in Kerry now.

Loogie

air wrote: »

In case it's of interest to anyone, i've since installed the same panel antenna in Limerick and it's working perfectly.

Brilliant. I have an apartment with a south facing balcony and a no-dishes rule. One suggestion was to mount this and lightly spray paint it to conceal it. I'll give it a try. Thanks.

air

No worries, you should have no issues in Dublin, I have very good signal strength with it here now in all weathers.
They are very stealthy when installed and even better is the fact that they should last a lot longer than the crappy Sky mini dishes which tend to disintegrate with rust within a few years.

watty

Waste of money, these are not actually equivalent to 45cm, which until the new 2F is active is too small for Limerick.

They are poorer than a real 45cm dish. You will never have good rain margin.

air

Mine is working fine in rain so far, will check again next time there is a serious downpour.
It's a bit harsh to say they're a "waste of money" for someone with no alternative they certainly aren't and I am fully happy with mine for now.

watty

There are alternatives, and cheaper.

air

Can you suggest some Watty, might make the thread a bit more valuable.
The Selfsat Quad can be had for about 80 euro now I think.

Apogee

Horizontal dish:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=69715886&postcount=2

Behind window:


Camouflage


Also Cubsat:
http://www.cubsat.com/gb.htm

air

Thanks for that Apogee. For my own setup the SelfSat is a better aesthetic solution and I'm happy with it's performance for now. Everyone has their own particular install scenario though so good to be aware of the options out there.

air

Loogie, here's a cheaper source for your SelfSat than the one you posted:
http://www.satshop.tv/SELFSAT-H30D4-Quad

STB

air wrote: »

No worries, you should have no issues in Dublin, I have very good signal strength with it here now in all weathers.
They are very stealthy when installed and even better is the fact that they should last a lot longer than the crappy Sky mini dishes which tend to disintegrate with rust within a few years.

Are you sure you are receiving all channels on it ? What about Sky News/CBS stations or the ones not on the new spot beam 1N ?

air

Sky news is working fine, don't have CBS on my EPG, FTA channels only.
Edit: left Sky News on this morning (never normally watch it) and it definitely had some glitching during a decent rain shower.
Will do some fine tuning of my antenna's orientation and report back but the gain may be marginal for wet weather on these channels.

STB

air wrote: »

Sky news is working fine, don't have CBS on my EPG, FTA channels only.
Edit: left Sky News on this morning (never normally watch it) and it definitely had some glitching during a decent rain shower.
Will do some fine tuning of my antenna's orientation and report back but the gain may be marginal for wet weather on these channels.

CBS channels are FTA as are Challenge TV, Food Network and a few others. My point is that will show the true strengths or not of your squish/selfsat dish which make grand claims but dont live up to them. Not all the beams on Astra 28.2 are as strong as each other.

Sky news is one such indicator.

air

Hi STB, yes I understood what you were saying and as mentioned above I'm definitely a bit vulnerable on the Sky News feed, couldn't find CBS on the TV Guide, never watch any news channels.
All told I'm happy enough with the SelfSat, it's the most compact solution for Sky reception that I'm aware of, albeit performance is a touch marginal for some channels in poor weather as discussed.
Will post back if I manage to make any improvements through better alignment at some stage.

watty

Because it's so low gain it's LESS critical on alignment than larger dishes.

Unless you are using a professional meter and posting measurements your claims are not useful. Your idea of a "touch marginal" is likely equivalent to "simply not good enough" for a professional installer. These are x3 the price of better solutions. They are expensive, inflexible and poor performance.

Can you actually fit a different LNBF in yours? Many of these have an integral LNBF.

Capt'n Midnight

with most dishes the lnb is at the bottom , you can rotate it so the lnb is at the top



so the problem changes from hiding a dish to hiding an lnb

watty

The LNB will still work inside a coloured plastic bag. As indeed will the entire dish if the bag is big enough.

Liameter

Watty is correct. Or you can mount the dish upside down, as shown in the photo, and paint the LNB so, from a distance, it looks like a flower.

If you are interested in the Selfsat innards, there's a photo here.
http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/selfsat.htm

Capt'n Midnight

this may even be an option


http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/upside_down_dish.htm

Riley100

Anyone fitted this model? can i use my old sky cabel its there about 10 years? it would be so handy for me

Thurston?

Riley100 wrote: »

can i use my old sky cabel its there about 10 years?

There must have been a Sky dish there at some point too then: have you any particular reason for changing to Selfsat?

air

I used mine in Limerick until earlier this year but LNB ports kept failing on it, I think they are all gone now.
The wall standoff bracket also rusted.
Have a second one in the box which I may replace it with in the near future.
Worked OK in Limerick but gain was marginal on some channels in bad weather, might be better in Dublin perhaps.

watty

The flat panel "dishes" are too small for reliable Irish reception.
Many are over priced x5 and poor quality.
Most can't use standard LNBFs either.
Get a proper solid dish.

steveon

air wrote: »

Hi all,
Just wanted to share my failure on this one.
Today I installed a SelfSat H30D in North Kerry to replace a rusted old Sky mini dish. Unfortunately it didnt work, I got about 70% signal strength and 40% signal quality within the menu of the Pace digibox.
Lock Indicator was given as OK but no picture and intermittent "No Satellite Signal Being Received" messages.
Had to go back to the mini dish, this gave about 50% signal strength but 90% signal quality.
The cable run is about 20 metres, would there be any chance that replacing it with something lower loss would make up the necessary margin? If so any suggestions on a particular cable?

Trying to align a dish with a skybox is not a very good method as each transponder will give different readings and older sky boxes will not give an accurate reading on the screen....only way of properly aligning a dish is via use of a sat meter...

I too have looked at the Selfsat in Limerick and found it only provides approx 70-80 percent of that of a 60cm dish. a 45cm dish here in Limerick is a complete waste of money as it will suffer terrible losses in the rain exactly as Watty has rightfully stated.

No management company can dictate any longer about no sat dishes been allowed or force you into a contract with only one provider such as UPC.....the rules in Europe has changed. if your management company says no dishes then demand your management fee is used to fit a proper communal system which should have been done in the first place. If more than 4 users in one block want Sky then Sky can fit a system for free all the management fee need do is supply an electrician for about an hrs work.

And lastly if fitting a dish in a coastal area stop wasting money buying sky dishes or any other selfsat and buy a fibre glass dish or a triax td series dish which will outlive and out preform anything else out there in coastal areas and serve you for many yrs to come.