Astra 2E: Scandinavia & Baltics Reports

[mr420]

i am looking for swedish maybe i will get cheaper than here in Norway :=)

 

[Simon Ansell]

As luck would have it I was driving through Bergen today and saw an old satellite dish sitting in someones driveway, 2 mins later the owner is happy to give it away! So.... the question I'm asking is will it work for Sky HD ok? I have attached some pics of the lnb which had some small wires cut going to a box on the back (no idea what that is for) and was wondering if I can use my Inverto Black Ultra or do I have to buy a new one just for this dish?
The dish is about 150cm and the LNB has this on it "gegasat GSE 5000 lnb"

ANY advice as always is greatly received! :-)

 

[timo_w2s]

That LNB is very old (!) and is no good for a modern box (those cut off cables from the polariser were an old way to changing polarity before LNBs started using built-in polarisers using the voltage from the coax). The dish looks like a prime focus dish so a Black Ultra is not really suitable. You need a C120 type LNB and perhaps a new feedhorn. I'm sure others can advise on that. I use an Invacom Quad QDF-031 with good results on a 1.8m dish. The single and twin versions are apparently not as good.

 

[la9thjohn]

Until February does my equipmwnt work very good both for BBC 1 2 3 and ITV channels. But now nothing!! Tried to adjust my dish. It seems to be good signal from the satellite whwn I use the satfinder. But the Skybox shows no signalstrenght and quality. Input 1 shows (4WWW-WWWA. System health check 15. Any help?

 

[timo_w2s]

Until February does my equipmwnt work very good both for BBC 1 2 3 and ITV channels. But now nothing!! Tried to adjust my dish. It seems to be good signal from the satellite whwn I use the satfinder. But the Skybox shows no signalstrenght and quality. Input 1 shows (4WWW-WWWA. System health check 15. Any help?

You are quite far from the new UK footprints. It could be difficult...

Without knowing what kind of signal you are getting now it's hard to tell what you need to do.

Edit: According to one report from Trondheim on Analoguesat's map someone is getting a "good" signal on a 1.8m so there is hope.

 

[Analoguesat]

Until February does my equipmwnt work very good both for BBC 1 2 3 and ITV channels. But now nothing!! Tried to adjust my dish. It seems to be good signal from the satellite whwn I use the satfinder. But the Skybox shows no signalstrenght and quality. Input 1 shows (4WWW-WWWA. System health check 15. Any help?

Welcome to the forum.

Your dish appears to be big enough for Trondheim if its correctly listed in your profile.

So now you need to start troubleshooting. Things to consider:

Has the dish moved in gales - you wouldnt need much movement to knock out Astra 2E's minuscule signal!

Unplug the box, unscrew the top and carefully look at the capacitors around the power supply area. You may find they are bulging or leaking.

Is the satfinder showing a good signal at the cables at the back of the tv - water ingress after cable damage is quite possible

Is one of the lnb outputs faulty - assuming you have a twin or quad lnb.

 

[la9thjohn]

Welcome to the forum.

Your dish appears to be big enough for Trondheim if its correctly listed in your profile.

So now you need to start troubleshooting. Things to consider:

Has the dish moved in gales - you wouldnt need much movement to knock out Astra 2E's minuscule signal!

Unplug the box, unscrew the top and carefully look at the capacitors around the power supply area. You may find they are bulging or leaking.

Is the satfinder showing a good signal at the cables at the back of the tv - water ingress after cable damage is quite possible

Is one of the lnb outputs faulty - assuming you have a twin or quad lnb.

Thanks for all good info. I thing I have to try another coax from the dish. The lenght is about 18 -20 m, and the cable is quite old, about 20 years I think. When I use the satfinder just behind the dish I got better display on it than back of the receiver. It is a lot of difference. The dish is very sharp, and I am certainly sure that it is in right direction. Anyway, I am living west of Trondheim about 15km, and therefore I think it is a better chance to receive the satellite than in Trondheim city. Its a single LNB, and think the satbox is ok. All menys is working and the voltage up t0 the LNB is ok.

 

[timo_w2s]

Thanks for all good info. I thing I have to try another coax from the dish. The lenght is about 18 -20 m, and the cable is quite old, about 20 years I think. When I use the satfinder just behind the dish I got better display on it than back of the receiver. It is a lot of difference. The dish is very sharp, and I am certainly sure that it is in right direction. Anyway, I am living west of Trondheim about 15km, and therefore I think it is a better chance to receive the satellite than in Trondheim city. Its a single LNB, and think the satbox is ok. All menys is working and the voltage up t0 the LNB is ok.

An old damaged cable might not have shown any problems when the signal was strong but now that the new satellites have a tighter beam the weaker signals might not get through. Let us know how you get on.

 

[satiwi]

Although not quite on 2E (But Related) dos anyone have experience of the signal level in Sth Finland of IS-907 27.5W (11495V) which carries BBS satback. I can get a weak signal on a 1.2m dish but Hispasat at 30W makes it hard to get an accurate dish alignment. As I am shooting through a gap in the forest jsut want to know what dish size anyone else might be using. Intelsat indicates that signal level should be 50dBw so around 65 cm dish should in theory do it

 

[timo_w2s]

Although not quite on 2E (But Related) dos anyone have experience of the signal level in Sth Finland of IS-907 27.5W (11495V) which carries BBS satback. I can get a weak signal on a 1.2m dish but Hispasat at 30W makes it hard to get an accurate dish alignment. As I am shooting through a gap in the forest jsut want to know what dish size anyone else might be using. Intelsat indicates that signal level should be 50dBw so around 65 cm dish should in theory do it

No problem with an 80cm in Helsinki, assuming you have the keys.... (Amazing still not public fro what I can tell)

 

[satiwi]

Thanks Timo,
I still can't lock 11495v although can see a few peaks on my budget signal meter. Now waiting for usb sat box to run crazy scan and identify with spectrum analyser. I think I have an issue with my dm800 se clone not locking the high symbol rate, so will need to check my firmware and image/tuner drivers once I confirm transponder reception.
Next job is the Biss..seems you can extract yourself if you have enough pc grunt, the software and a little patience.

 

[Captain Jack]

You won't get 27.5W on a Dreambox...

 

[satiwi]

Its a clone, the bcm45405 tuner supports up to 45 Mb/s and with Open Pli 4.0 patched drivers it is not an issue, at least from the forum reports.

 

[Captain Jack]

I was under the impression that patched drivers only applied to Vu+ boxes... Could be wrong though

 

[satiwi]

Openpli runs nicely and the Bcm4505 supports the symbol rate. There are very detailed threads on precisely this setup for the later stages once I get past this annoying signal issue. Just need to confirm I can get the sat. I'd also not be happy to buy a Technomate box & then find they change to powervu.

 

[Captain Jack]

Are we talking about the same patch? BBC et al TP has encrypted PMT that only Technomate and Dr HD boxes are able to decrypt natively. High SR shouldn't be a problem there...

 

[satiwi]

Aaaah...The clone requires patched drivers to run OpenPli, VU and DB are/were directly supported (DB no longer since source code has been pulled out of public domain). OpenPli driver for the tuner are my current concern so no, not same patch. Re PMT which is carried in the encypted stream, there are recently developed scripts to handle that, its a little involved to setup but is reported as working.

 

[Simon Ansell]

Ok..... I now have a 1.5 m prime focus dish running with an invert black pro lnb and matching feedhorn BUT I'm getting a worse signal than i am with my 110cm offset with invert black ultra. Why can this be???

 

[Ask]

Ok..... I now have a 1.5 m prime focus dish running with an invert black pro lnb and matching feedhorn BUT I'm getting a worse signal than i am with my 110cm offset with invert black ultra. Why can this be???

First of all must the alignment of the dish be in place. Can you adjust the elevation by more than "lifting" the dish?
Is it possible to move the feedhorn/LNB "away" from the dish?
At my place, I got more than 1dB better signal by moving the feedhorn/LNB 7mm further out.

 

[satiwi]

Finally got a lock on 27.5W on the Dreambox. Multiple problems...matching LNB to dish...ground noise requiring upside down mounting of the antenna and very, very precise positioning of the mounting pole to align the satellite view through the small gap in the trees. Lots of fun though.. almost more than getting my 2.4 working(Pix also attached). Now comes the fun bit.. before any channels can be enjoyed.