Dish Alignment Advice

Road-Hog

The inlaws own a mobile home and about 2 years ago I successfully installed a Free to Air Satellite Dish and STB (Triax SD Type, nothing fancy but it worked fine), it took a while to get the dish aligned correctly but with the help of a cheap satellite finder (€10 I think) I managed to get a good strength signal and all the UK channels and more came in fine.

To get RTE 1 and 2 and TV 3 etc I had the two aerial combo going directly into the TV however reception was never great. So this year with Saor view available I decided to get a new combo set top box (went with a triax again, 537 HD I think is model no) which would mean only 1 box and 2 remotes as opposed to 3 remotes and 2 boxes.

So I linked up new box with the satellite cable and aerial cable and using HDMI supplied with the STB and connectd to TV. I went through the set up menu auto tune, saor view came in fine but no sign of any satellite channels, I checked all connections dish alignment etc and everything seemed to be fine.

Next step I took was to try and realign the dish again in case it got slightly moved over the winter due to wind, however no matter what I did with the dish I couldn't get a satellite signal to register on the STB.

Without getting a third party involved and without buying a more sophisicated satellite finder, does anyone have any suggestions as to what actions I can take. I've done all the obvious checks including bringing back the box to supplier, running new cable etc. Is it possilble that a new LNB could be required??

Peter Rhea

Road-Hog wrote: »

I've done all the obvious checks including bringing back the box to supplier, running new cable etc.

Did you try reinstalling the original satellite receiver? Do you still have it?

Road-Hog

Yes have tried the original box and this doesnt work either as it used to which makes me wonder about the LNB.

Ronnie Raygun

Did you have the original receiver working "this year" before you replaced it, or did you just slot in the Triax without any verification that the system still functioned before you changed anything?

When you took the Triax receiver back to the shop, did they test it on a known good dish system?

Lnbs seldom fail; they're fairly cheap though, so certainly try replacing it if you think you've accounted for everything else.

Road-Hog

Ronnie Raygun wrote: »

Did you have the original receiver working "this year" before you replaced it, or did you just slot in the Triax without any verification that the system still functioned before you changed anything?

When you took the Triax receiver back to the shop, did they test it on a known good dish system?

Lnbs seldom fail; they're fairly cheap though, so certainly try replacing it if you think you've accounted for everything else.

Didn't check the old box before I put in the new one. Wish I had now.

Guy in shop checked the new box with their system which I assume is reliable.

Would I be correct in thinking that my cheapo sat finder gizmo would not register any beeps if LNB was knackered.

May be I just need to give the dish adjustment another go despite the tediousness of it.

If anyone is familiar with the triax HD 537 what is best way to check the signal strength. I've been selecting a pre tuned channel such as ITV and then going to the settings and under general selecting manual tuning option. This screen shows polarity etc and has a strength and quality of signal bar at the bottom. Keeping an eye on these bars I've been adjusting the dish in horizontal and vertical but to no avail. Can anyone confirm if above is the correct approach.

Apogee

Road-Hog wrote: »

Would I be correct in thinking that my cheapo sat finder gizmo would not register any beeps if LNB was knackered.

The meters will usually still emit a sound even if LNBF is banjaxed.

One (rough!) way of testing if the LNBF is OK is to place your hand over the LNBF cap and see if the signal meter responds - if the sensitivity is high enough, you should normally get a response.

Road-Hog wrote: »

If anyone is familiar with the triax HD 537 what is best way to check the signal strength. I've been selecting a pre tuned channel such as ITV and then going to the settings and under general selecting manual tuning option. This screen shows polarity etc and has a strength and quality of signal bar at the bottom. Keeping an eye on these bars I've been adjusting the dish in horizontal and vertical but to no avail. Can anyone confirm if above is the correct approach.

That's more or less the right approach, but just note that sometimes there can be a lag/delay before the satellite receiver meters respond, so you have to move very slowly.

More info here:
https://sites.google.com/site/freetoairinfo/home/how-to-align-a-satellite

derek214

Hi All,

Apologise for hijacking this thread. Have a quick question I am hoping someone can answer. I have also bought & installed the Triax HD537. Saorview channels are working perfect. Only issues i am having is intermittent loss of picture on some satellite channels. What I have discovered is on some frequencies/polarisation I am getting good signal strength and quality but on others I am qetting weaker readings. for example:

Channel Name Frequency Polarisation Symbol Rate Strength Quality

FIVE USA 10.964 H 22000 93% 90%
FIVE 10.773 H 22000 80% 80%
E4 +1 10.729 V 22000 80% 80%
Channel 4 HD 11.798 H 29500 73% 70%
BBC HD 10.847 H 22000 66% 60%



So my question is can the dish be adjusted to have all channels at a good level of strength and quality or is it a case that if i increase one the others may decrease?

Thanks..

Peter Rhea

For a start, Channel 5 is on 10964 H with all the other '5' channels & the BBC & C4 HD transponders use vertical polarisation. C4 HD tp is 11127 mHz, 11798 is encrypted Sky channels.

Also BBC HD SR is 23000, C4 is 22000. Where did you get the info in your table?

Gerry Wicklow

@ derek214

Channel 4HD is on 11127 V 22000
BBC HD 10847 V 23000

See here for more details
http://en.kingofsat.net/freqs.php?&pos=28.2E&standard=All&ordre=freq&filtre=Clear

Mugser

I'm in the middle of doing a self install of a combo box. I have the dish and aerial up on the chimney and have the Irish channels fine. Now here's the bother: I'm getting a 'no signal' on the screen when I go to the satellite side of things. I also used one of those cheap ebay finders to line up the dish. I got my hands on an old grundig sky box and hooked it up to the feed from the dish and the channels, BBC1,2, 3 etc, and the ITV's are spot on on that, so I'm guessing I'm doing something wrong at the combo box?? What satellite shoule I select from the menu? is it 'astra' or something to that effect?
Apologies for the hi-jack and thanks in advance for the assistance;)

SalteeDog

You need the satellite at 28.2E - It may be labelled Astra 2.

Mugser

SalteeDog wrote: »

You need the satellite at 28.2E - It may be labelled Astra 2.

So do you reckon my allignment is ok?

SalteeDog

Mugser wrote: »

I got my hands on an old grundig sky box and hooked it up to the feed from the dish and the channels, BBC1,2, 3 etc, and the ITV's are spot on on that, so I'm guessing I'm doing something wrong at the combo box?

If you are picking up all the channels fine on the grundig box (and make sure you also check the Horror channel and CNBC as they are on a different beam), then your alignment is good and you should be able to tune them in on the combo box. Incidentally - what make and model of combo box is it?

Mugser

SalteeDog wrote: »

Mugser wrote: »

I got my hands on an old grundig sky box and hooked it up to the feed from the dish and the channels, BBC1,2, 3 etc, and the ITV's are spot on on that, so I'm guessing I'm doing something wrong at the combo box?

If you are picking up all the channels fine on the grundig box (and make sure you also check the Horror channel and CNBC as they are on a different beam), then your alignment is good and you should be able to tune them in on the combo box. Incidentally - what make and model of combo box is it?

It's a xoro hrc 9000 box.

Edit: The Horror Ch and CNBC are comming in, no problem, on the sky box.

SalteeDog

@Mugser - your alignment is good then.

Dave from TVTrade has a video here explaining how to do the sat channel setup for the Xoro. (Look for the section on that page under 'How to Find Satellite Channels with Autoscan'.

derek214

Hi Peter, Gerry..

Thanks for the response. Sorry for the delay in getting back..

So i have ended up having to manually tune each and every frequency and symbol rate on the Triax HD537 - I found during an auto tune the frequency or symbol rate would be slightly off. So now all are good the only thing I cant manually edit is the FEC. Does this matter?? For instance BBC One HD is now at 10847 / 23000 / Vertical and FEC is 3/4 and should be 8/9. Does this matter?

I only ask because I get intermittent blinking on the BBC HD channels, all other channels are perfect.

Peter Rhea

The figures being off was probably just some quirk of the receiver & mightn't have had any effect on the actual tuning.

The BBC HD channels would need a better signal than others due to the 8/9 FEC. What size/type of dish are you using? It's either too small or needs realigning, I would think.

derek214

Cheers Peter, I'm using an old dish that came with sky plus about 3/4 years ago...maybe a minidish I think. Funnily enough though I got a larger dish last night from a mate. Might try this over the weekend if we get some dry weather. Just read what FEC actually is, so my intermittant blinking now makes a bit more sence if I'm only getting FEC 3/4 right? 3/4 = 75% 8/9 = 88% GENIUS


This is from https://sites.google.com/site/freetoairinfo/home/dish-size-and-footprints

Error correction – for digital transmissions, the lower the error correction, the larger the dish required to maintain a stable picture. For example, if you were able to receive signals with an FEC of 1/2 without any problems, signals with an FEC of 2/3 would require an antenna that is 1.3 times larger than the original antenna. Signals with an FEC of 3/4 means an antenna 1.4 times larger and with an FEC of 5/6 a factor of 1.5 is required.

Will give an update once I get a bit of dry weather & have the new dish up.

Thanks,
Derek