Can't Find 'Home Transponder' - Samsung SMT-S7800

eoinmcd12

hello,
I'm trying to setup a new installation to get freesat. (My first attempt) I have a Samsung SMT-S7800 receiver and I have installed the dish with a quad LNB and I am receiving a loud (about 10db) signal using the satellite finder. I have the cables attaching to LNB connections number 2 and 3. I can't however get the receiver to find it's 'home transponder', which i presume is the astra2 Satellite. The receiver when looking for the 'home transponder' shows 100% signal strength most of the time but the signal quality bounces between 20% and 70% every few seconds, see picture attached to the post. I can't find any channels which I guess is because the receiver can't find the home transponder.
Any help appreciated, is there something I've missed in the setup ?
thank you,
Eoin

Peter Rhea

The Freesat 'home transponder' is 11428 mHz, horizontal pol., SR 27500. It's on Eutelsat 28A (formerly Eurobird 1), at the 28 degrees east position.

You need to know which orbital position your dish is actually aligned on.

eoinmcd12

Thanks Peter for your reply.
How do I go about finding what position my dish is aligned on and then setting it correctly ?

PogMoThoin

eoinmcd12 wrote: »

Thanks Peter for your reply.
How do I go about finding what position my dish is aligned on and then setting it correctly ?

You get a professional who will have a meter to align it correctly

eoinmcd12

Thanks but the idea is to avoid the fees of a pro installer and its a mini project which is not uncommon for self installs .

Peter Rhea

eoinmcd12 wrote: »

How do I go about finding what position my dish is aligned on and then setting it correctly ?

This site can be useful for aligning a dish, if there is a high resolution image of your location (easy to pick out landmarks). Also gives dish elevation angle & lnb skew (twisting the lnb from vertical/horizontal for proper polarisation discrimination).

The only indication you have of what signal your receiver is actually getting, is the tv display, so if you can get that within view of the dish, all the better.

It's perfectly possible to set this up satisfactorily, without pro. equipment.

eoinmcd12

That's great thanks Peter, I'll take a look at that site and give it a go

eoinmcd12

hi Peter,
still having a problem with my setup. I've used the site as you helpfully advised and I'm now sure i've the dish setup correctly, I'm seeing 100% signal strength and 80 to 90& signal quality, however my receiver cannot find a 'home transponder' no matter what post code I enter. any ideas, have you a post code you know is working fully I can try, or do you know how I might manually enter the right transponder information ? I can't find a way to manual enter any transponder information into the samsung so completely reliant on the auto scan.

Peter Rhea

It would seem the receiver is supposed to display Freesat status, something along the lines of 'network found' before you enter the postcode. No manual tuning option I can find.

It's not really a receiver that lends itself to setting up a dish, but the Freesat 'home' tp frequency doesn't seem to be used as a centre freq. at any other nearby satellite positions.

jjf1974

If you could get the loan of a box that is not freesat branded,With these boxs you can manualy view transponders by doing a tp scan.If its is already setup for freesat/free to air it would be even better.

snaps

Your still on the wrong satellite. Astra 2 should come in around 18db on a standard 60cm perforated dish. But that's using my professional meter.
My guess your on Astra 1 at 19east. Lower the dish very slightly (if its got elevation marks on it, set to 20), then nudge dish slowly towards the east. Astra 2 is usually the last "strong" satellite towards the east easily visible to us.

Peter Rhea

I don't think he's on 19 east. Probably just needs a slight tweak of the dish (horizontally or vertically) to get 28 properly.

OP, are you still working 'blind' at the dish?