satellite Eutelsat 5WA (ATLANTIC BIRD 3)

stef22

Hi , i bought an ASTON DIVA HD PREMIUM receiver with the Fransat card so i can watch French TV at home. Also got a Technomate 95 cm dish.
I am having trouble detecting the Eutelsat satellite, all i can get are channels on Nilesat 7W.

Now according to the dishpointer website the elevation is 28.8 so i have this set correctly using the scale on the dish brackets. The azimut is 180 which is from the North i believe so used a compass to get the dish aligned south.

Still no signal from Eutelsat 5WA , anynody has any ideas as to what i am doing wrong /
Many thanks

Apogee

You generally can't align a dish using compass bearings alone ... unless you're especially lucky.

Firstly, are you certain you're aligned to Nilesat 7W - which channels are you picking up?

*If* you are actually receiving 7W, then your dish elevation is slightly too high and you need to move the dish incrementally eastwards. Pretune the receiver to a channel on 5W, lower the dish and then slowly move the dish eastwards while watching the signal quality meter.

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

stef22

Thank you Apogee , will try this

stef22

i just assumed it is channel on Nilesat 7W we are getting since this is the only sat we get connection with ( 70% ) .
However we have SKY as well and both dishes are inter connected . The new dish for Eutelsat replaced an old one we had for analogue TV before and the cabling remained the same. Don't know if that makes sense but could it be that the channel we receive actually come from the sky dish ?

Apogee

Just because you read 70% on a signal meter does not mean you are aligned to 7W - see 'Common Issues 2'.
https://sites.google.com/site/freetoairinfo/home/how-to-align-a-satellite

7W is not an easy satellite to align to. If the dish was previously used for analogue, it was probably aligned to 19E.

Also, you can't "interconnect" cables from two dishes. You need to run separate cables from each dish.

swoofer

can you say where you are located ie roughly, ie i am in clare, then i will have a look at that sat and see if anything is free to air.

stef22

Apogee wrote: »

7W is not an easy satellite to align to. If the dish was previously used for analogue, it was probably aligned to 19E.

Also, you can't "interconnect" cables from two dishes. You need to run separate cables from each dish.

yes the dish was previously on 19E but i took it off and installed the new dish.

by interconnect i mean the white SKy cable goes from the sky box to the sky lnb ( it has 2 connections ) , a black coax goes from the second sky lnb connection to some sort of "black box" used to plit the signal i guess , it has 3 connections. The second coax goes to the new dish i installed and the third goes to the receiver in the house.

stef22

swoofer wrote: »

can you say where you are located ie roughly, ie i am in clare, then i will have a look at that sat and see if anything is free to air.

i am in North Galway.

Apogee

So this black box has 2 coax cables entering it (1 from Sky LNB and 1 from Eutelsat LNB), and then has 1 coax cable exiting it (to receiver)?

You need to figure out what this black box is. You can't merge/split the cables, but it may be a Diseqc switch. What writing is on the box?

stef22

Apogee wrote: »

So this black box has 2 coax cables entering it (1 from Sky LNB and 1 from Eutelsat LNB), and then has 1 coax cable exiting it (to receiver)?

You need to figure out what this black box is. You can't merge/split the cables, but it may be a Diseqc switch. What writing is on the box?

I will go up the ladder this evening and check this out. thanks again for the help

stef22

the sky guy installed that , initially we only had the analogue receiver with dish. Will check if it is a diseqc switch

swoofer

and you wont get 7west in north GALWAY!! I'll check that 5 west in a while. I use a triax 1.1m.

stef22

swoofer wrote: »

and you wont get 7west in north GALWAY!! I'll check that 5 west in a while. I use a triax 1.1m.

With regard to Nilesat 7W the receiver shows 65 %.
According to Eutelsat i should get 5 W here

swoofer

ok I checked it and that sat is very poWerful, you will have no bother with a 95cm dish. I use a black ultra LNB.

Here are 2 free to air channels that will prove you are pointing at 5west.

1. GCPE2 = 12543H, 27500 FEC 3/4 = 76%S AND 96%Q

2. FRANCE 5 = 11591V, 20000, FEC 2/3 = 78S AND 98%Q.

Where you are 8WEST is due south so at 12 o clock sun is due south, dish goes to left a fraction. Elevation when I put in North Galway gave 29!! Just tune in one of the above channels and move dish slowly but you have to be sure lnb is on correct dish. If you can use cable direct from dish in fact do it that way to start. Unless you know that receiver very well and can set up diseq easy.

let us know result

stef22

will try this out and let you know how i get on.

stef22

Thanks Apogee and Swoofer for the help.
that black box had a diseqc switch in it , remove the sky lnb connection and re-scanned the channels. Receiving then now perfect. Picture is not crystal clear but i guess the dish is not aligned perfectly.