Problem with satellite receiver

_Nuno_

Hello

I am having a strange issue with my satellite system. I just moved house and put the dish up at the new house.

I have the satellite pointed to the right satellite (Hispasat 30W) but the strange thing is that when I initially found the satellite and had about 20% signal strength the receiver box worked fine, although a channel search failed. I then moved it a little and got 80% signal strength, but from then on if I restart the box with the cables plugged in from the LNB the box does not restart properly and the screen stays black. I can not access menus or anything.

If I unplug the cable while the box is on then I get the picture saying no satellite signal and I can then access the menus. If I plug in the cable again at this point then I can see the 80% signal strength, although a channel search still fails.

Now I have a spare box and LNB and I have tried every combination of both with always the same results.

The only thing that changed between this new house and the old place (where everything worked) was the cable. The cable is from Maplin, and is a standard satellite cable with copper core and foil/braid. I have also checked the cable for shorts with a multimeter and there are no shorts. I have also tried a very short run of it (around 6 meters) and same result.

Could this be the cable? Why would a poor cable prevent the box from displaying any image or menus?

Could it be the signal that is too strong?

Thanks

Peter Rhea

What procedure did you use when aligning the dish? Are you sure you're on 30W? (Why would you search for channels before the dish is properly aligned?)

What make/model receivers are you using?

_Nuno_

Hi Peter

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I am sure I am on 30W because the receiver will not acknowledge any other signal. These are receivers from a TV provider from Portugal and it's a paid subscription. They are thomson, not sure what the model is but I can check.

I have done this before in the old house and the procedure was pretty much the same as I used before.

Right now I am thinking on calling professional help as I am really at a loss here. I tried everything, even putting the dish on a stand and using only two meters of PF100 cable to the receiver and even that did not work. I have around 80% signal, 100% quality, but still the receiver will show no image if it's restarted with the LNB cable connected, and only after I unplug the cable and plug it back in I can access the menus and do the channel search, which always fails.

I also took both receivers to a friends house as he uses the same provider and they worked there.

Also tried powering everything from a APC UPS in case it was mains interference, but same result.

I do have a wireless broadband mast very close to me, so I suspect that's the source of my problem, but I won't be able to tell without help anyway.

Ronnie Raygun

_Nuno_ wrote: »

Yes, I am sure I am on 30W because the receiver will not acknowledge any other signal.

Even one on the same frequency from another satellite? Most receivers aren't that clever.

_Nuno_

Ronnie Raygun wrote: »

Even one on the same frequency from another satellite? Most receivers aren't that clever.

Well, when I had to do this before I never got any signal indication when I was on the wrong satellite. Even though the satellite finder was beeping like crazy the receiver always showed the signal strength as zero and that only changed when it was hispasat. I have no reason to believe it would be any different now.

The person from technical support also told me that if the receiver shows the correct time when you power up the receiver, after it was disconnected from power, then it is pointing to the correct satellite, and it is doing that.

To answer Peter's question, one of the receivers is a Thomson DST8040 and the other one is a Pace 7151

Ronnie Raygun

Do you know the frequency of the transponder the receiver is tuned to when aligning? It's possible you've just got lucky in the past & avoided other sats. using the same one.

As for displaying the correct time, were they doing so before you took them to your friend's house?

minterno

Hi nuno.id say ronnie is spot on and that your getting the signal from another sat,there are dozens of sats with similar transponders and any one who has set up a few systems would normally encounter this,when im inputting tp information on my sat meter i come across the same tps on different sats all the time and its only the extra info ie onid and tsid that can id them properly,only yesterday i was up a ladder doing a favour for the next door neighbour,he had replaced the arm of the dish and could not get a signal so i set it up for him but even though i had my meter set for 28e,one of the tp was getting a signal from either 23.5e or 26e,my meter has nit so i knew it was the wrong sat and moved east and the same tp buzzed again and i was on 28,i dont know the in and outs as to how a reciever recieves a time signal from a satellite but if hispasat sends a time signal im sure other sats do also,wrong satellite to me seems the most obvious and i would suggest moving the dish a little further west,you could be on 27,5w or further east,if you had a fta reciever you could connect it up and see if your getting a signal on any tp and if so scan them in and see what channels your getting,good luck anyway

_Nuno_

Ronnie Raygun wrote: »

Do you know the frequency of the transponder the receiver is tuned to when aligning? It's possible you've just got lucky in the past & avoided other sats. using the same one.

As for displaying the correct time, were they doing so before you took them to your friend's house?

Ronnie,

The correct time was shown before that.

_Nuno_

minterno wrote: »

Hi nuno.id say ronnie is spot on and that your getting the signal from another sat,there are dozens of sats with similar transponders and any one who has set up a few systems would normally encounter this,when im inputting tp information on my sat meter i come across the same tps on different sats all the time and its only the extra info ie onid and tsid that can id them properly,only yesterday i was up a ladder doing a favour for the next door neighbour,he had replaced the arm of the dish and could not get a signal so i set it up for him but even though i had my meter set for 28e,one of the tp was getting a signal from either 23.5e or 26e,my meter has nit so i knew it was the wrong sat and moved east and the same tp buzzed again and i was on 28,i dont know the in and outs as to how a reciever recieves a time signal from a satellite but if hispasat sends a time signal im sure other sats do also,wrong satellite to me seems the most obvious and i would suggest moving the dish a little further west,you could be on 27,5w or further east,if you had a fta reciever you could connect it up and see if your getting a signal on any tp and if so scan them in and see what channels your getting,good luck anyway

OK. I will give it another shot since both you an Ronnie recommend that.

The problem is that I have been at this for 3 days now. I had the dish on the wall and now in a stand in front of the house and I always get the same result.

The FTA receiver may be helpful though.

Could you recommend any decent ones?

Peter Rhea

Are you aware of this site?

Might give you a decent visual reference for alignment.

_Nuno_

8 days latter and I found the problem. The LNB was skewed the wrong way.

After endless failed channel searches and experiments I eventually figured out that if I selected vertical instead of horizontal polarization then the channel search would find the channels if my LNB was at around 23 O'clock (looking at it from the front, instead of from the back as I was doing. I skewed it the other way and all channels worked fine.

I feel very stupid as I spent many hours trying to figure this out because of something so silly.

Oh, and I was on the right satellite all the time

Anyway, thanks to everyone that replied.

minterno

that can happen very easily and with hindsight we should have asked you to check the skew but i would have assumed that it was ok and the results you were getting pointed to a wrong sat,if the same question was asked again 6 month time my first thought would be the same and that you were on the wrong sat,a neighbour asked me to tune in his dish for him a while back,he was at it all day with no joy,he was new to the area and someone pointed him in my direction,anyway i found out he was at it from 9.15am until 7.45pm but could get nothing,the dish which was a rusty old sky one which he wants to use for fta,the guys a refugee and seems strapped,load of kids as well and although i hate doing any installor out of a job,this guy just couldn'd affoard an installer,the guy spent 10 hours at it and he made the same mistake and had the lnb skewed wrong,took me about 2 minutes to sort it,anyway its a lesson learned and i wouldn.t feel too stupid about it as it happens now and then and just chalk it down to experience,regards

Liameter

My neighbour spent three days trying to align his dish. I noticed he was using a multimeter connected to the LNB. I asked him what he hoped to achieve with a multimeter and he looked at me as if I was the stupid one.

On the fourth day, I noticed a Sky van parked outside his house.

_Nuno_

Well today I set up the dish back in the wall bracket, put the compass on the floor, pointed the dish arm 30W moved it slightly to the right till the sat finder bipped lowder and bingo, signal at 100%. It literaly took less than one minute.

thisNthat

minterno wrote: »

check the skew

Hi minterno,

Bit of a newbie question here so apologies - What is the recommended skew or angle for the LNB to be pointing towards the dish for the Sky/FTA channels if looking at it from the front?

Should it be pointed bang on straight at the dish or offset left or right? and if so by how many Degrees etc..

I've included attachments to help show what I'm on about..

Thanks in advance

minterno

hi,if your standing in front of the dish as in the second picture you should rotate the lnb by approx 17 degrees clockwise,its best not to tighten up on the lnb until your finshed with the skewing,so start at zero and turn the lnb clockwise a little at at time and wait for the signal to catch up and in no time you will have it peaked,if you want to set the skew on the ground before mounting the dish i would suggest that the lnb be set on a line from 1 o clock to 7 o clock,look at a wall clock and draw an imaginary line from 1 to 7 and that would roughly be what you would be aiming for.
some of the sky dishes have the skew allowed for in the way the lnb is mounted and sometimes the recomended skews might seem out so its best to start at zero and turn clockwise if faceing the dish,if you were behind the dish the skew would be anti clockwise,regards

thisNthat

minterno wrote: »

hi,if your standing in front of the dish as in the second picture you should rotate the lnb by approx 17 degrees clockwise,its best not to tighten up on the lnb until your finshed with the skewing,so start at zero and turn the lnb clockwise a little at at time and wait for the signal to catch up and in no time you will have it peaked,if you want to set the skew on the ground before mounting the dish i would suggest that the lnb be set on a line from 1 o clock to 7 o clock,look at a wall clock and draw an imaginary line from 1 to 7 and that would roughly be what you would be aiming for.
some of the sky dishes have the skew allowed for in the way the lnb is mounted and sometimes the recomended skews might seem out so its best to start at zero and turn clockwise if faceing the dish,if you were behind the dish the skew would be anti clockwise,regards

Thank you.