New to here.

[Seamus]

Hello everyone

I am new here.

I have just connected up a FTA digital receiver, with an 80 cm dish , and universal LNB. ( all purchased at lidl) I seem to be receiving Astra , I can get sky news, CNN , BBC , etc.

Could someone please tell me is it possible to also receive Hotbird or another satellite with out moving the dish ? Or would I need another dish, and LNB ?

I live in the very south of Ireland, with a clear view of the sky. Is there any other satellites that I should try to connect to ? Would I need a bigger dish ?

How are the outputs of the lnb’s connected ? Can the coaxial cables be connected together? or must one run back another coaxial cable to the receiver? I have only one input to the receiver. I have an old 80cm dish with an analogue LNB, the analogue receiver I have is not working (unit itself is faulty ).

I do have a multimeter and a sat-finder which I also purchased at Lidl.

Thank you for your help ,

Seamus….

 

[Simba27]

Hi Seamus,

I'm a newbie too, but here's my understanding. You have two options:

(i) Fit an LNB holder to the dish. This allows you to have two LNBs on the same dish at a different angles, one LNB will pick up signals from Astra and the other from Hotbird. It's driven off a single coax, and you add a "DiSEqC switch" which is controlled by the receiver to automatically select the appropriate LNB for each satellite. (You can't just connect the cables together)

(ii) Fit a "DiSEqC motor", this is only slightly more expensive and allows you to move the dish in an arc across the sky and point it at any satellite you want. Again, it's all driven off the single coax cable and automatically controlled by the receiver. Once you've set it up, you just flick channels and the receiver moves the dish to the right satellite.

I bought a motor from http://www.maplin.co.uk for £60 and I think it was a worthwhile investment. I have the same Lidl equipment as you and can pick up Astra1, Astra2, Hotbird, Eurobird, Hellasat, Thor, Sirius, Nilesat, Amos, the Atlantic Birds, Hispasat and probably a few others I haven't looked for yet.

If you have a look at http://www.lyngsat.com or http://www.kingofsat.net you will find a list of the satellites that you should be able to get and the FTA stations which are on them. There are so many stations that I've run out of channels on the decoder.

Phil.

 

[damhy]

Could someone please tell me is it possible to also receive Hotbird or another satellite with out moving the dish ? Or would I need another dish, and LNB ?

As previously stated you have two options regarding receiving alternate satellites. If you are receiving ASTRA 2A/B/D at 28.2E then the multiple LNB route should allow you to get ARABSAT but HOTBIRD is way too far away. I suspect most people these days would use a motor, a little more expensive to start with but great fun to play with. If you were using ASTRA 19.2E then it would be possible to get HOTBIRD as well with a dual LNB setup, and was very common back when analogue was used.

I live in the very south of Ireland, with a clear view of the sky. Is there any other satellites that I should try to connect to ? Would I need a bigger dish ?

In my opinion the best thing to do to see what is available to you is to download the SatcoDX software from http://www.satcodx.info/Setup.exe on setup just click next when it asks for a serial code and if my memory serves me correct it gives you a cutdown version of the software. When loaded I think you select Dish Track from the menu which lets you put in your position on the Earth and some other options like dish size, and it will tell you everything that is available to you.

How are the outputs of the lnb’s connected ? Can the coaxial cables be connected together? or must one run back another coaxial cable to the receiver? I have only one input to the receiver.

I wouldnt try splicing the cables together in to one, there are a lot of reasons why I cant see that working. To connect the feeds of two LNBs together, you would normally use a DiseqC switch, if your receiver supposrts DiseqC(which most digital ones do), if not you can by a high isolation manual switch from maplin. If you are using DiseqC the receiver will normally let you specify which channels are on which LNB so that it can electronically switch from A to B when you change channels. I'm not 100% sure here since I have never used this type of setup as I have a motor.

 

[smiler247]

Hi Seamus,

I too have the same equipment as you and I'm having trouble aligning my dish. How did you go about aligning it to pick up Astra 1 (that's the only satellite I want to receive!)

Welcome to the forum.

Laura xx

 

[damhy]

How did you go about aligning it to pick up Astra 1 (that's the only satellite I want to receive!)
Laura xx

Astra 1? I guess you are meaning Astra 1B/C/E/F/G/H/2C at 19.2E, if not what I am going to say will still apply. Most groups of satellites are relatively strong signals so the method I use is to simply tune in the receiver to a channel on that satellite.

On a digital receiver like I have it is not quite the same if you dont have any channels stored, on my receiver I can go in to the manual tuning settings and it gives a signal level for a given transponder. May sure that the transponder has something on it, say by looking at www.lyngsat.com then move the dish around whilst watching the TV, in my case by looking through the bedroom window.

If you are looking for 19.2E can you see any body that has an old Sky dish, not a mini dish, if so this will probably be aligned there and so you can look at theirs to get a rough idea of what direction to point the dish.

Once you have a signal even a very weak one, move the dish left and right until it is at its highest level, bolt it down, then move it up and down again until you get the strongest level.

Hope that helps

Damien

 

[Seamus]

Hello everyone,

Thank you very much for all the helpful replies to my questions. I have learned a lot from the replies and also by looking at other questions and answers .

Thank you.

Seamus

 

[Razor]

Hi Seamus,

I too have the same equipment as you and I'm having trouble aligning my dish. How did you go about aligning it to pick up Astra 1 (that's the only satellite I want to receive!)

Welcome to the forum.

Laura xx

Laura you can buy a cheep sat finder at Lidli for £10 They work great for Astra and hotbird.