Hi Descore
I have just completed my first sat installation and have a couple of pointers that might help
I was given a standard sky minidish,
bought a quad lnb from
Ebay
for around £8,
then I put 2 s350 sat tuners cards in my pc and -
picked up 8x F connectors and 100m foam filled cable from Screw Fix for about £32.
So off I go, ladder in hand !
I used the Google pointer tool for a rough aim, but evelation was more difficult as an offset lnb makes it tricky to measure the angle.
After the first try, I scanned and got NOOTHINGG.
So I went and looked at a neighbours dish for a better stab at the elevation. Scanned again and got loads of channels ! but some either wouldn't work or were very poor quality.
Then I bought a cheap Konig sat finder from
Ebay <£10 (no patch lead with mine, had to make one).
AND TODAY - I went out there and set the dish up again, it's so easy to use (forget the german instructions), you just connect it to the reciever and the lnb (switch everything off first). Then power up, the backlight will come on to signify that power is getting up there.
In my case I already had some working channels, so I was surprised to find no signal recorded on the sat finder. This was because i had it turned right down to -6. So I turned it upto about +4 and got a good bleeping and needle response (shiver!).
So I started fiddling with the dish, needle goes off the top, turn it down a bit, then try again. After 10 mins I had the horizontal and vertical aim all sorted and I tightend everthing up.
Leaving the satfinder still connected allowed me to then gently push the dish around even with all the bolts firmly done up. The slightest movement away from it's current aim (up/down or L/R) reduces the signal. So I'm happy.
And on the TV, all the channels I care about work and picture quality is better than it was. (Personally I think std def sucks, can't they all be HD ?)
So in brief, the little cheap satfinder is great, I have a used one that I probably won't need again. BUT I'm gonna keep it. If you live close you could borrow it and/or I could give you a hand.
So to sum up -
I haven't a clue about your somewhat techy set up except -
The Google tool is useful, but you have to get a bit luck to recieve any channels.
The Konig satfinder is worth it's cost several times over (and no I don't sell them). The only thing it doesn't help with is skew, so my question is
"How do I set up my skew for no monies, without a
Sky box ?)
All the best, good luck,
B