Torrmented by 13E

peter_dublin

Hi All.

Just looking for a bit of advice, trying to allign to 13E or 19E using both a Sky Dish (mounted 4m up) or a 1.1m at ground level. On both dishes I can get 99% signal strenght but no Quality. I know the sky dish so well I can have it back to 28e in a second and track around until I hit the next signal 19e and then 13e but no quality.

On the 1.1m things are more obvious in terms of the spacing between the signals and per the guide on the mount the elevation is spot on, align with compass, get signal strenght so strong my beeper is only about 25% up from being off when i'm done yet still no quality using a standard Konix beeper. Sky dish would be approx 60up from off when I've locked 28e so I know i'm getting a very strong signal.

Would items blocking the line of sight cause this such as a pallasade fence or am I just not accurate enough, using a Dreambox 800 which I bought specifically for its satmeter as an standin after my pc tuner died.

Any advice on how to proceed. I'm starting to think I live in a cursed place :-)

zg3409

The elevation is roughly 20 degrees so things would need to be quite close to block the signal.

It's probably best to use the smaller dish for starters.

Compared to 28.2 19 and 13 should be more south and slightly higher elevation. Also slightly less Skew on the LNB.

Normally to show strength receivers are programmed to look at only one transponder. This is normally chosen based on which one is best based on the following rule
1) Strong
2) Unique -same frequency and bitrate etc not used by a nearby satellite

If you are getting strong signal, and no quality it means one of two things
1) Pointed at wrong satellite -Do a blind scan and see if any channels appear. If so which sat are these channels on?

2) Pointed at right satellite, but the "signal strength transponder" details are out of date. Check on lyngsat etc if the satellite still has a transponder at that frequency, with the same bit-rate etc. Can you check every transponder to see if any have quality.

Ideally pre-program your receiver on another dish pointed at 13E, to prevent have two unknowns. -remove a receiver settings problem.

Let us know how you get on. I know how frustrating it can be!

peter_dublin

zg3409 wrote: »

The elevation is roughly 20 degrees so things would need to be quite close to block the signal.

It's probably best to use the smaller dish for starters.

Compared to 28.2 19 and 13 should be more south and slightly higher elevation. Also slightly less Skew on the LNB.

Normally to show strength receivers are programmed to look at only one transponder. This is normally chosen based on which one is best based on the following rule
1) Strong
2) Unique -same frequency and bitrate etc not used by a nearby satellite

If you are getting strong signal, and no quality it means one of two things
1) Pointed at wrong satellite -Do a blind scan and see if any channels appear. If so which sat are these channels on?

2) Pointed at right satellite, but the "signal strength transponder" details are out of date. Check on lyngsat etc if the satellite still has a transponder at that frequency, with the same bit-rate etc. Can you check every transponder to see if any have quality.

Ideally pre-program your receiver on another dish pointed at 13E, to prevent have two unknowns. -remove a receiver settings problem.

Let us know how you get on. I know how frustrating it can be!

To update... I updated the Satellite.xml with a new one from Satellite-xml.eu last night and manually set the tuner to each sat from 10E to 28E and at each stage then started the Satfinder program. None ever got a Quality of a lock with multipe transponders recieving 99% signal on several sat but with 13E and 19E being the best, 17E was missing, 10E had a lot of weak signal transponders as did 23E.

I am thinking of moving the dish heigher, there is a pallisade fence about three meters in from which is 2.4m heigh, but I would have taught this would have block the signal rather than preventing a lock, I used Dishpointer Pro on an Android phone to check the line of sight and it was clean but I will return to manual calculations to doublecheck.

As for elevation I can set it on the dish and then find the sats where they should be but just cannot get any quality what so ever... Is it possible for a cable issue to result in 100% signal but no quality...

Seems it maybe indeed the fence...
Distance x TANGENT(Elevation) = Height
3 x 0.4985 (13E) = 1.5m max height.

Ronnie Raygun

The fence can't be blocking the Sky dish though, as you say it's mounted 4m high. Sky dish is plenty big for 13 & 19E, even a zone 1 would be usable.

zg3409

Try the receiver on a known good dish of a neighbour. Having too many unknowns is a nightmare as you have found out.

STB

Ronnie Raygun wrote: »

The fence can't be blocking the Sky dish though, as you say it's mounted 4m high. Sky dish is plenty big for 13 & 19E, even a zone 1 would be usable.

Absolutely.

I have a Sky 60cm dish with a cheapo bracket and diseqc and get all three sats (28.2, 19.2 and 13) with dish concentrating on 28.2 and other lnbs to the right looking face onto the dish. Quite like this>

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=77279933&postcount=10

19.2 lnb is right up beside 28.2lnb and 13.0 about 1/2cm away again.

peter_dublin

STB wrote: »

Absolutely.

I have a Sky 60cm dish with a cheapo bracket and diseqc and get all three sats (28.2, 19.2 and 13) with dish concentrating on 28.2 and other lnbs to the right looking face onto the dish. Quite like this>

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=77279933&postcount=10

19.2 lnb is right up beside 28.2lnb and 13.0 about 1/2cm away again.

Interesting, that would save me a lot of messing with the large dish, can I ask what signal levels you get on each sat and if possible a picture.. Thanks

snaps

if your using a dreambox, instead of using a sat beeper, use a programme called enigma 2 signal meter. take the laptop outside next to the dish once your connected to the dreambox via wifi/network. its very handy and 100% accurate.

STB

peter_dublin wrote: »

Interesting, that would save me a lot of messing with the large dish, can I ask what signal levels you get on each sat and if possible a picture.. Thanks

CTech Readings






The Sat installers know their jobs are safe... it works though (about 9ft off the ground).

Ronnie Raygun

peter_dublin wrote: »

Interesting, that would save me a lot of messing with the large dish

My own reference to the Sky dish was simply to remind you that you were getting no signal quality with it either, without the fence in the way.

110cm is probably needlessly big though, even for multisat, unless you're after a weak sat. or two or feeding a big distribution system.

wil

Ronnie Raygun wrote: »

My own reference to the Sky dish was simply to remind you that you were getting no signal quality with it either, without the fence in the way.....

I wondered that too, not clear from the OP, certainly sounds like problem is at box end not dish. Its not clear he got anything visible on the Dbox, could it be a corrupt image or transponder list.

STB

You dont need a sat meter to install it anyhow.

The OP knows the exact position for the 28.2 from using his eyes.

Standing behind the dish you only need to move it a notch to the left at the same elevation as 28.2 to pick up 19.2 another couple of notches left again for 13.

Load up the DBox with a channel list for 13 or 19 from the web, stick it on a station, whack up the volume and gradually move the dish till you find it.

peter_dublin

Well the issue is resolved and after 15 hours i'm ashamed to say it was a case of wrong cable, the sky dish had an offset lnb which I was informed was not alligned to anything (which is true except when I would swing back to 28e unknowingly using this LNB) which I this morning noted was connected to cable #2 according to the numbering scheme, being stumped I took the chance that the number scheme had been mixed up the cables 1 and 2 at one end and it had, I switched the cable and instead of getting full power but no quality I found that with the beeper last night I had alligned to 23.5e (Astra 3B and Thor 2)(99% Signal, 53% Quality on 11325H) withouh any further tweeking. Currently listening to the Czech Republics finest on Radio Cesko and BBC CZ waiting for the rain to clear so I can get out and reallign correctly. My beeper skills are now world class :-)

A big thanks to everyone for the help, it was your confirmation that I wasn't living in some satellite black hole that led me to the cable. Re why the big dish, well the apartment complex wanted to provide 16E for some tenents when we removed owner dishes as part of renovation works so we purchased a 1.1m so as to enable 16e for them.

Screenshot of 23.5e on a Sky Dish: