Sqish, Goodmans and Fortec 4200 - experience of a newbie.

Greenbaysplash

Living in a hilly part of the west country, TV reception has never been a strong point of the listed building I now live in. 4 channels, no Five, no freeview and a limited set of digital channels after the 2010/11 switch over. So Freesat seemed like the ideal answer (not prepared to pay for Sky).

Having made chipboard cutouts of a 60cm dish, a multimo and a Sqish (Selfsat) and clambered all over the roof it was clear that the only dish that would meet the listed building criteria "not visible" was the Sqish. I could hide this behind the chimney stack, in the gully between the roof and the parapet.

Next step purchasing:

Squish Duo from an online store
STB - Ordered a Goodmans SD for store collect from Currys. Waiting for PVRs before I get the HD box.
Cable & F plugs - PF100 cable and crimp F plugs
Satellite signal meter

The Satellite Shop were excellent, Currys had the box (last in stock) and screwfix delivered the next day. Nothing wrong with the cable, but my first mistake (lesson 1) was to get the crimp F plugs - they didn't fit the cable or the crimping tool and made terrible connections. Had to go and buy screw on F plugs from Maplins at £1.99 each!

So Friday night came, everything laid out on the table, time to put the Sqish together. Simple instructions and because it comes with the wall/window/balcony/table/pole mount included - very easy to set up. I used the window mount to temporarily set it up and confirm angles etc before fixing to the wall.

Connected up the STB, meter and antenna (can't call it a dish), and easily found two signal hot spots according to the meter. BUT the freesat box showed no signal. No matter which of the two signals I turned it to nothing showed up, just a stubborn "no signal".

So faulty STB, or just pointing at the wrong satellite - no way of knowing. Spent the evening surfing the net and found that buying a simple FTA STB from Maplins was probably the easiest way of finding what satellite I was locked onto. Certainly cheaper than a clever meter. First thing Saturday down to Maplins and purchased a Fortec 4200 and those essential screw on F plugs.

Back home, made up some new cables, tweaked the antenna and 75% quality signal on Astra 2 - so easy. Plugged the Goodmans back in and it too now had a signal. So lesson 2 you have to set the satellite before turning on the Freesat box, otherwise no signal.

A few hours of drilling, running cables etc later and it was all installed. Slight issue with the "white finish" to the Sqish. Shows up badly against a slate roof, so next weekend I'll get the spray paint out and camouflage it a bit. In the meantime a bin liner works a treat! I know you can get stickers for the front, but the back, sides and bracket are all white.

On the upside (in my opinion) the cheaper Fortec box is easier to setup and has a better picture than the Goodmans Freesat - it certainly has more channels and avoids the painful "add FTA channels" process on the Freesat. Why can't the Freesat box just scan the satellite and add all the FTA channels? Or give me a list to select from instead of expecting me to have frequency numbers and polarisation details? On the downside the number of channels on the Fortec is daunting and I could do with an easy way of managing the list.

For now I have sat TV in two rooms and am trying not to watch TV 24x7!


[Admin note: Live links removed}

portly

Nice one Greenbaysplash dont forget you dont need to put the dish on the roof, ive got mine 6ft up, ive also the fs4200 which does give a good picture, if you need to update the software ive posted a doc in the software section
one more thing did you put self amalgamating tape or silicone grease around the lnb coax cable fitting to stop water getting in.As far as the channels are concerned you can add them to your favourites, you can scan just for fta and tv or tv+ radio, what i do is start at the top and go through the channels adding them to my favourites as i go, it takes quite a while but you do find some interesting channels that way, like ch4.

Topper

Welcome to the forum Greenbaysplash

Well that has to win post of the week, a very clear concise report. First of all well done for sticking with it and congratulations on your result and the report about the squish, please could you post some pics to let us have a look

Just make sure you do not use a spray containing metal oxide such as lead or zinc as it will attenuate the signal.

Just as a matter of interest how are you feeding two stb with the sqish?

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It has a twin LNB and soon to come, a quad option Topper.

@ Greenbaysplash, please don't live link in your post to suppliers, we have supporting advertisers (the guys who help pay for the forum) who sell every piece of equipment you have used, they pay for the privilege to advertise here, so may rightly feel it is unfair for others who don't to be publicised.

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Greenbaysplash

Apologies for the links - and I'll take some pictures this weekend.

rolfw

No problem. Look forward to seeing the pictures.

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Rolf If you enjoy our site, you can help support it by wearing our unique branded merchandise, you can do this by clicking on my baseball cap, making a direct donation with Paypal by clicking on the Donation button below, or using our site supporting advertisers, to do this, click on the central image below

Greenbaysplash

Images as promised - the difference a bin bag makes! The cranked arm is to give enough clearance to get around the chimney edge. It's upside down to allow it to be mounted lower.

Enjoy.

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