Help with aligning a dish!!

stepdoyle

Hey im at the end of my tether trying to align a crappy B&Q Ross HD dish and receiver. Been trying for nearly 2 weeks using a basic satellite finder. Just cant seem to pick up the english Astra 28 signal. Get the german/french ones and every other feckin satellite apart from the one i want. Im a ground floor apartment in Tallaght and where i had it was directly in line with trees according to the sat finder website, moved the dish around the front and got the foreign ones but not the english. I really need someone who knows what they are doing just to help align it or tell me its on the wall wrong. Was quoted 75 euro just for an alignment but cant afford it. If anyone in Tallaght fancies €40 to give me a hand just let me know. Cheers

mike65

Buy a compass from an outdoor activities shop, find south point the dish in that direction and then turn the dish by 28 degrees to SSE, you'll find it.

excollier

Not just that straightforward, might be close-ish if you lived in Greenwich, London.
Where I live, I have to add on 8deg, and then correct for magnetic north error. Somewhere around 140 +/- deg on the compass, around 40 deg - ish east of south, not 28.2 deg.
Use Dishpointer.com instead, very useful tool, enter your address and it will give you a better idea to start with.

stepdoyle

mike65 wrote: »

Buy a compass from an outdoor activities shop, find south point the dish in that direction and then turn the dish by 28 degrees to SSE, you'll find it.

tried compass on iphone and got a normal one too. Seems im getting the Astra 1 but where the Astra 2 is theres nothing. When i try the 21.4 degrees elevation on the dish theres nothing, get a big signal when its flat though. driving me mad!

stepdoyle

excollier wrote: »

Not just that straightforward, might be close-ish if you lived in Greenwich, London.
Where I live, I have to add on 8deg, and then correct for magnetic north error. Somewhere around 140 +/- deg on the compass, around 40 deg - ish east of south, not 28.2 deg.
Use Dishpointer.com instead, very useful tool, enter your address and it will give you a better idea to start with.

yeah tried dishpointer but there must be something blocking the signal from the direction its saying

shinobi

stepdoyle wrote: »

Hey im at the end of my tether trying to align a crappy B&Q Ross HD dish and receiver. Been trying for nearly 2 weeks using a basic satellite finder. Just cant seem to pick up the english Astra 28 signal. Get the german/french ones and every other feckin satellite apart from the one i want. Im a ground floor apartment in Tallaght and where i had it was directly in line with trees according to the sat finder website, moved the dish around the front and got the foreign ones but not the english. I really need someone who knows what they are doing just to help align it or tell me its on the wall wrong. Was quoted 75 euro just for an alignment but cant afford it. If anyone in Tallaght fancies €40 to give me a hand just let me know. Cheers

In addition to direction, there will be a slight decline in elevation. for Ireland approx 7deg West is the highest in the sky. As you move east or west of that point the dish angle will need to decline slightly also.

stepdoyle

shinobi wrote: »

In addition to direction, there will be a slight decline in elevation. for Ireland approx 7deg West is the highest in the sky. As you move east or west of that point the dish angle will need to decline slightly also.

i'll give it another go in the morning. reckon i need to go a bit further east but im thinking the trees might be blocking it. most of the neighbours are foreign so dishes are pointing in all directions so no help

Cantona's Collars

stepdoyle wrote: »

i'll give it another go in the morning. reckon i need to go a bit further east but im thinking the trees might be blocking it. most of the neighbours are foreign so dishes are pointing in all directions so no help

Very basic way of finding the sat you want: If you are picking up German tv then you aren't far off,stand behind the dish & move it slowly to your left (roughly 4 inches or so) & down slightly.A bit of tweaking & you should be ok.Remember-Move the dish slowly,it takes a few seconds for it to find the signal so have patience.

As I said,this is the most basic way of finding the sat you want,simple but very effective.

Dishpointer is a great site for help in finding sats.

stepdoyle

cheers, i'll try that. knew i was only inches off but when i move it away from the german signal i lose the noise on the Satellite Finder guage i have. Could do with one of those pro finders but couldnt justify buying one

zg3409

Bring your receiver to a house that has already got a dish installed. Then scan for channels.

When you get home put the receiver and TV outside beside the dish on a known channel with a logo like Sky news. Then slowly move the dish until Sky news pops up.

Cheap signal finders are not much good as they beep on every satellite. They are OK for fine adjusting the dish but no good for actually finding the right satellite. The signal meters in the receivers are a little better but will still show a signal sometimes when pointed at the right satellite. The best way is to pre-tune the box and have it on a known channel that has an on screen logo.

Ring a few installers if you are really stuck. They should do it for 50 Euro.

stepdoyle

zg3409 wrote: »

Bring your receiver to a house that has already got a dish installed. Then scan for channels.

When you get home put the receiver and TV outside beside the dish on a known channel with a logo like Sky news. Then slowly move the dish until Sky news pops up.

Cheap signal finders are not much good as they beep on every satellite. They are OK for fine adjusting the dish but no good for actually finding the right satellite. The signal meters in the receivers are a little better but will still show a signal sometimes when pointed at the right satellite. The best way is to pre-tune the box and have it on a known channel that has an on screen logo.

Ring a few installers if you are really stuck. They should do it for 50 Euro.

yeah already done that with the reciever in another house, works ok apart from channel 5 and BBC HD. I'll try the sky news thing

stepdoyle

anyone got the number for an installer that would do it for 50?

zg3409

Sky installers normally get paid 45 Euro before tax by Sky.

Tell them you already have the dish, box and cabling. All you want is the dish aligned to 28.2 for the free channels.

Here is a link to the main bodies:
http://www.saorview.ie/equipment/installers/

stepdoyle

I got a guy to come out from Swords Satellites and it turned out that the LNB was faulty! So wasnt me doing anything wrong. He had it up and running in a few mins.

Thanks everyone for the help anyway

Ronnie Raygun

Did he say how the faulty lnb managed to work with the German channels?

zg3409

Ronnie Raygun wrote: »

Did he say how the faulty lnb managed to work with the German channels?

It may have been slightly off frequency or one of the polarisations or bands did not work. This would allow it to still work with some german channels but not necessarily with all channels.

stepdoyle

Ronnie Raygun wrote: »

Did he say how the faulty lnb managed to work with the German channels?

no it just wouldnt pick up the english 28.2E signal. He tried moving the dish too. As a last resort he took out a new lnb and immediately it worked plus i didnt have to move the mount. Only cost a tenner extra

he also said that he had been out yesterday with another guy who had been 4 days trying to get his Ross kit to work. Read online its not the most reliable buy

Cantona's Collars

Ronnie Raygun wrote: »

Did he say how the faulty lnb managed to work with the German channels?

Maybe it was a German lnb,lol.

Skull Murphy

I suppose if you were really paranoid you could try the original lnb on the now correctly aligned dish.

Gerry Wicklow

Skull Murphy wrote: »

I suppose if you were really paranoid you could try the original lnb on the now correctly aligned dish.

If the engineer hasn't, (ahem) recycled it. As in "I'll dump that for you..."