Freesat Installation Query

BarryM3

Hi guys,

Hope you can help me on this.

I bought a basic Freesat receiver and 60cm oval dish that came with a Zinwell J4L LNB. I bought it to use with a little camper day van I use for my hobby at various locations in Ireland and UK.

I pointed the dish east and at 28.2' using an inline satfinder and also using an iPhone app but couldn't get any signal.

Today I noticed that my Sky system uses an identical dish and an almost identical LNB. I plugged the sat receiver into that and got coverage straight away. I have just realigned my new set up again, mirroring the sky dish location and orientation and I am getting absolutely zero reception through the receiver.

Am I missing something very obvious here with the LNB? My sky dish has two cables from/to the receiver - i think one of them carries a voltage? But the settings on my receiver are set to supply the new LNB with 13/18v.

I have looked online and see Skew mentioned in relation to the angle of the LNB within the holder. On my Sky dish I can move this almost a quarter rotation either way with no signal difference so I'm guessing its not too critical in the new set-up.

Any help appreciated

Barry

The Cush

BarryM3 wrote: »

Am I missing something very obvious here with the LNB? My sky dish has two cables from/to the receiver - i think one of them carries a voltage? But the settings on my receiver are set to supply the new LNB with 13/18v.

The 2 cables from the LNB are independent of each other and are used for twin-tuner sat receivers such as Sky+ so that you can record 1/watch 1 channel or record 2 channels. Voltage, tone switching and signal are carried on each co-ax cable between the tuner and LNB.

The problem with the camper setup could be dish alignment or LNB fault or cable fault.

Aligning the dish can difficult and a tad out will mean no signal.

Peter Rhea

BarryM3 wrote: »

I pointed the dish east and at 28.2' using an inline satfinder and also using an iPhone app but couldn't get any signal.

You have to set the dish elevation too: for 28 degrees east over most of Ireland, it will be between 20-21.5 degrees above the horizontal.

There should be markings on the dish bracket to give you at least a rough idea. Accuracy of these markings mightn't be great & will also depend on how close your mounting pole is to being properly vertical.

BarryM3

Thanks The Cush.

I have just swapped the LNBs over from new system to Sky and Vice Versa - Sky still working so new LNB is obviously OK.

New receiver is getting signal from new LNB attached to Sky dish (with no other cables)

It is looking like its simply alignment.

They must be EXTREMELY sensitive, as I have both dishes pointed in same orientation as best my inline satfinder and iPhone app will tell anyway! I can see this being a complete nightmare for mobile set-up!

BarryM3

Peter - The markings are indeed on the brackets but TBH I was discounting them and using the iPhone app for this, which seems accurate on the known quantity in this case, the Sky dish!

The Cush

BarryM3 wrote: »

They must be EXTREMELY sensitive, as I have both dishes pointed in same orientation as best my inline satfinder and iPhone app will tell anyway! I can see this being a complete nightmare for mobile set-up!

I use a Digisat meter for dish alignment.

http://www.emitor.se/products_costeffective.htm
http://www.sateuropa.co.uk/cart/catalog/dish-installation/digisat-pro-1747.html