Eddles
New Member
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2014
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 3
- Age
- 54
- My Satellite Setup
- Polsat receiver, CAM & card with Sky dish & LNB based in UK
- My Location
- Bristol, United Kingdom
Hi all,
We live in Bristol, UK and moved houses 3 months ago. The house has a Sky mini dish and quad LNB with 3 cables already installed, but looks rather old, the dish has some light surface rust, but seems physically intact - there's no dents. The LNB plastic has deteriorated. There's no receiver and all 3 cables terminate in a cupboard under the stairs which is a little mystifying.
My wife's Polish and misses all the FTA Polish channels so we brought a second hand Samsung Polsat HD receiver with a decoder card that hasn't got an active subscription. My plan was to readjust the dish to point to the Hotbird satellite and use the Polsat box. Due to the age of the dish/LNB and lack of Sky boxes I don't know whether the existing system works or not. I'm aware a new dish and LNB is relatively cheap but I'd like to try to get this dish to work before binning it. I brought a satellite finder, connected the Polsat receiver box up and the finder shows a signal, although the Polsat receiver showed no signal unsurprisingly, as the dish, I expect, is still pointed to the Astra satellite. I adjusted the finder so the meter would point at 5.
Looking at dishpointer.com, based on where I live, I need to adjust the dish to 29.4 degrees elevation, 162.3 degrees azimuth with a LNB skew of -12.1 degrees. From here, the Astra satellite is 28.2 degrees elevation, 144.7 degrees azimuth and needing a LNB skew of -14.7. The difference is thus 1.2 degrees elevation, 22.4 degrees azimuth and 2.6 degrees LNB skew.
Looking at the elevation scale on the dish, it is rather imprecise and wasn't sure if adjusting for the elevation would make such a big difference, so I've not touched the elevation just yet. LNB skew is slight too, and the LNB skews rather freely around the mount, so I tried it in the original position and one click clockwise when looking from behind the dish. Also I moved the dish to roughly 162 degrees but I get nothing on the meter - I moved the dish past 162 degrees both ways but nothing registers on the meter, with the LNB skew in all possible positions. The polsat box says zero signal as expected. I tried placing a compass against the LNB arm but the arm or something else causes the compass to point west and not north.
So my questions before fiddling any further...
1) Would the Sky LNB pick up signal from the Hotbird? Or do I need a new LNB? I can't find a definite answer on Google, I found vague messages one way and other vague messages the other.
2) Is 1.2 degrees elevation that crucial? If so, how best to move up 1.2 degrees with such an imprecise scale? I was wondering whether I could use a spirit level, but I couldn't see any perpendicular surface.
3) How to measure the skew? The LNB has vertical sides, would using a spirit level on the sides give the correct reading?
I'd really appreciate any advice! Thanks!
We live in Bristol, UK and moved houses 3 months ago. The house has a Sky mini dish and quad LNB with 3 cables already installed, but looks rather old, the dish has some light surface rust, but seems physically intact - there's no dents. The LNB plastic has deteriorated. There's no receiver and all 3 cables terminate in a cupboard under the stairs which is a little mystifying.
My wife's Polish and misses all the FTA Polish channels so we brought a second hand Samsung Polsat HD receiver with a decoder card that hasn't got an active subscription. My plan was to readjust the dish to point to the Hotbird satellite and use the Polsat box. Due to the age of the dish/LNB and lack of Sky boxes I don't know whether the existing system works or not. I'm aware a new dish and LNB is relatively cheap but I'd like to try to get this dish to work before binning it. I brought a satellite finder, connected the Polsat receiver box up and the finder shows a signal, although the Polsat receiver showed no signal unsurprisingly, as the dish, I expect, is still pointed to the Astra satellite. I adjusted the finder so the meter would point at 5.
Looking at dishpointer.com, based on where I live, I need to adjust the dish to 29.4 degrees elevation, 162.3 degrees azimuth with a LNB skew of -12.1 degrees. From here, the Astra satellite is 28.2 degrees elevation, 144.7 degrees azimuth and needing a LNB skew of -14.7. The difference is thus 1.2 degrees elevation, 22.4 degrees azimuth and 2.6 degrees LNB skew.
Looking at the elevation scale on the dish, it is rather imprecise and wasn't sure if adjusting for the elevation would make such a big difference, so I've not touched the elevation just yet. LNB skew is slight too, and the LNB skews rather freely around the mount, so I tried it in the original position and one click clockwise when looking from behind the dish. Also I moved the dish to roughly 162 degrees but I get nothing on the meter - I moved the dish past 162 degrees both ways but nothing registers on the meter, with the LNB skew in all possible positions. The polsat box says zero signal as expected. I tried placing a compass against the LNB arm but the arm or something else causes the compass to point west and not north.
So my questions before fiddling any further...
1) Would the Sky LNB pick up signal from the Hotbird? Or do I need a new LNB? I can't find a definite answer on Google, I found vague messages one way and other vague messages the other.
2) Is 1.2 degrees elevation that crucial? If so, how best to move up 1.2 degrees with such an imprecise scale? I was wondering whether I could use a spirit level, but I couldn't see any perpendicular surface.
3) How to measure the skew? The LNB has vertical sides, would using a spirit level on the sides give the correct reading?
I'd really appreciate any advice! Thanks!