Advice Needed Astra 2E

[Captain Jack]

What an absolute monster! Lovely dish... And good result!

 

[joddle]

Not sure if its an illusion from the photo but it looks a little as if the LNB is aiming a bit to high on the dish - i.e. that the "bent" arm is a bit too bent - but it may just be the way it has come out on the photo.

 

[jleal]

Hi joddle,

It is not an illusion, you are absolutely right. I noticed that too and tried to correct that as good as I could with a small piece of wood between the feedhorn and the lnb holder. Also the "bent" arm needed to be pushed up a bit so I untightened the screw that hold it to the dish and reception improved.
I have had no time to try the dish again. Maybe tomorrow or in the weekend. Today I talked to the person who installed this dish 20+ years ago but he didn't remember the make of the dish and couldn't help with a new mount that I need.

Two weeks ago he dismantled a 2.8m dish that someone wanted to get rid off. If I knew that before I could have had a 2.8m instead of a 2.3m now.

 

[Captain Jack]

Never too late

 

[Pedro0102]

Two weeks ago he dismantled a 2.8m dish that someone wanted to get rid off. If I knew that before I could have had a 2.8m instead of a 2.3m now.

Well, think positively... It was probably bent and your 2.3m will work better. Anyway, you are already getting quite impressive results.

 

[joddle]

Hi joddle,

It is not an illusion, you are absolutely right. I noticed that too and tried to correct that as good as I could with a small piece of wood between the feedhorn and the lnb holder. Also the "bent" arm needed to be pushed up a bit so I untightened the screw that hold it to the dish and reception improved.
I have had no time to try the dish again. Maybe tomorrow or in the weekend. Today I talked to the person who installed this dish 20+ years ago but he didn't remember the make of the dish and couldn't help with a new mount that I need.

Two weeks ago he dismantled a 2.8m dish that someone wanted to get rid off. If I knew that before I could have had a 2.8m instead of a 2.3m now.

You might try substituting a torch for the lnb to get the aim to the centre correct. I found it pretty easy to find a torch which fitted exactly the mounting collar of my dish. A modern ttrch with an even beam should then produce a circle of light on the dish which is dead centre - so you coud tweek the bend in the long arm to get it illuminaiton correct. Also un-bending the long arm will help push the whole lnb fitting closer to the centre. The piece of wood idea only points the lnb differently but does not put it in the correct focal position. The LNB needs to be correctly centerted first and only then the other adjustments made. Good luck!

 

[Nagusia]

What you need is a laser pointer stuffed inside an old LNB like this ....

 

[Clown man]

Torch or Laser....all ....are a nice and cheap way to check your LNB...alignment is ..spot on.....especially Gibby 150 users with the crappy alloy type LNB holder..!......Right..?...Nag..?..... :-) .......

 

[jleal]

Thanks guys for all input.

I'm trying right now again with this dish. I've tweaked the lnb a little bit more and got good improvement on most channels except channel 5. The other day I had 20% signal quality in my humax 5700, the absolute minimum to get stable image with no breakup, but today I cannot get more than 17%. So for now channel 5 is dark.

The other sd channels improved and at this moment I have almost no signal on most transponders with my 1.8PF and on the 2.3m dish all channels (except HD's and 5) are working with no pixellation or breakup.
10773H is now 0 dB's on 1.8PF and on the 2.3m this same frequency is 28% in my Humax. No pixellation at all.

I'm waiting for the time (in a few minutes maybe) when the strongest frequency 10714H disappears completely on the 1.8 to see what frequencies are still holding on the 2.3 dish.

 

[jleal]

Well, I don't know how and where to start. It's been a very calm night with almost no wind at all. I've been in and out of the house comparing signal levels between my 1.8 and the 2.3m. I was looking at my living room tv when I heard a strong noise... went running outdors and the 2.3 was lying in the ground, bent...

Wind started to blow a little bit more intense and bang! I have now a 2.3m bent dish that was so hard to find. My adventure is over.

Thanks for all the help provided in this thread. Can't say nothing more....

 

[Pedro0102]

Well, I don't know how and where to start. It's been a very calm night with almost no wind at all. I've been in and out of the house comparing signal levels between my 1.8 and the 2.3m. I was looking at my living room tv when I heard a strong noise... went running outdors and the 2.3 was lying in the ground, bent...

Wind started to blow a little bit more intense and bang! I have now a 2.3m bent dish that was so hard to find. My adventure is over.

Thanks for all the help provided in this thread. Can't say nothing more....

What a pity...
So sorry for that...
I hope you can find a new one....

 

[timo_w2s]

Damn... well that sucks.

 

[joddle]

Its a bit easy to forget how much of a sail a large dish is - only a moderate breeze is needed to exert some pretty high forces on the mount. A really stable and solid base is essential even in light winds.

 

[Lazarus]

Gutted

 

[Captain Jack]

Ouch. On the bright side, I heard a 2.8m saucer may become available shortly.

By the way, it's very possible to straighten the dish out, depending on damage. Can you post a picture of it?

 

[jleal]

Just had another try with the dish. It's is useless for 2E/F right now.

Yesterday before the "crash" at around 10:20 I did some records for signal level with my humax 5700:

BBC1, 2 etc. : 33 - 35%
BBC3: 27 - 28%
ITV1,2, etc: 27 - 28%
ITV3: 29 - 30%
E4, more4, E4+1: 30 - 33%
Channel 4, film4, film4+1: 45 - 49%
Channel 5: 16 - 17%

By that time the same channels on my 1.8PF were much worse and a few minutes later started to disapear. That wasn't the case with the 2.3m. Channel 4 for exmple remained at 42-44%, ITV and BBC3 lost only few percentage on humax signal meter.

Well, today, with the now bent 2.3m and at a time when I had more signal intensity with the 1.8 the signal level for the same channels was:

BBC1, 2 etc. : 16 - 17%
BBC3: 0%
ITV1,2, etc: 0%
ITV3: 0%
E4, more4, E4+1: 0%
Channel 4, film4, film4+1: 19%
Channel 5: 0%

Again, these were taken when the 1.8 was displaying the ususall good picture at around 19:30

When I'm pointing the dish at 28.2E, I always use the skynews frequency (12207V) which is very strong.
Before the dish was bent I fine tune this frequency and it reached easily 100% signal level. At this point I new I had some signal on 2E transponders.
With the dish bent, I can't get more than 70- 74 % in 12207V.
I think signal level decrease after the crash is about 25 to 30% which is a lot considering I get a stable picture on my humax for 2E/F frequencies at 20%.

I also removed lnb arms and fliped the dish to the other side placing it on a almost level surface. There's is definitely a bump on the dish rim. The dish doesn't touch the ground all around the rim.
I didn't try to unbent the dish yet. I f someone can help on that... here are the pictures I took today.

 

[Captain Jack]

Oh lordy... @Vipersan had a similar misfortune with his 1.8m dish and he straightened it. He should be along shortly with some words of wisdom.

 

[Captain Jack]

Also check this thread..

http://www.satellites.co.uk/forums/...y-to-repair-a-warped-dish.163111/#post-903138

 

[satesco]

see thread:TBS6983

 

[joddle]

I have heard of a bend dish being straighted out by using a cement/concrete mould to record the actual good curve (thats if there is any left) then using part of it as an anvil to remould the damaged part. The damage on your dish looks pretty one sided and seems it could be repairable.