signal strength and signal quality

***ralphmagno*** · 18-08-2009

hello,
i was looking at this and what satellite are you trying to receive?
if you are trying to receive sky uk or the free view like bbc unless you have a defective lnb or a verry old one all lnb's in europe are compatible with every satellite system.
they all have 2 local osc. andy all switch with 14 v and 18 v and they all use the 22 khz upper band and lower band.
if your box is defective it could cause the problem.
take your box to a friend and see if it is working there.
if it works ok then the line could be verry old of the lnb could be bad.
the lnb costs about 5 euro now a days.
hope this helps
ralph

***Tivù*** · 18-08-2009

Originally Posted by ralphmagno

hello,
i was looking at this and what satellite are you trying to receive?
if you are trying to receive sky uk or the free view like bbc unless you have a defective lnb or a verry old one all lnb's in europe are compatible with every satellite system.
they all have 2 local osc. andy all switch with 14 v and 18 v and they all use the 22 khz upper band and lower band.
if your box is defective it could cause the problem.
take your box to a friend and see if it is working there.
if it works ok then the line could be verry old of the lnb could be bad.
the lnb costs about 5 euro now a days.
hope this helps
ralph

This is the LNB he is using, and which we have advised he replaces with a Universal type

**rolfw** · 18-08-2009

Originally Posted by lloowen

I you are right on that one. Very probably was used in the analogue days.

Here's a couple of photos of the LNB that worked on the old metal 1.8m dish, that gave a 10% signal, but was watchable..

picasaweb.google.co.uk/lloowen/SatelliteLNB?authkey=Gv1sRgCP7hn6qJn7D50gE&feat=di rectlink

I tried to attach it to the 2m fiberglass dish, but no lock. Someone once suggested that I cut off the front off the lnb and remove the trumpet shape matal bit.

Take the present one off and see what it looks like when you only have the feedhorn piece left. If it has a circular mounting plate with 6 or 8 holes, it should accept a C120 LNB, which will simply bolt on to it. If not, you could attempt a DIY job, but may not achieve the best of results.

PS. please upload your photos by using the manage attachments button at the bottom of the post template.

**Llew** · 18-08-2009

SMW LNBs and feedhorns are normally 4-hole fixing. I managed to screw my SMW feedhorn onto an Invacom C120 screwed to just the four holes with no problem - as long as the O-ring seals up OK.

Llew

lloowen · 4 Days Ago

Sorry to bring up this old post,

As you can see the problem was that the lnb was an old analogue.

I've recently installed a digital variant and now I can view channels on astra2d.

Now I'm only getting at best 25% signal strength with the digital lnb compared to 60% signal strength with the analogue lnb.

Someone suggested that I could change the default transpoder to 12.207 V for the analogue lnb.

Would this work?

Thanks

**Topper** · 4 Days Ago

Originally Posted by lloowen

Someone suggested that I could change the default transpoder to 12.207 V for the analogue lnb.

Would this work?

Thanks

No mate the analogue lnb was not designed to receive signals at that frequency so it will not period, you will just need to tune your new lnb by focussing back and forth and apply the correct amount of skew, assuming of course your dish is aligned correctly. The default transponder is to do with the stb not the lnb

***Huevos*** · 4 Days Ago

Originally Posted by lloowen

Now I'm only getting at best 25% signal strength with the digital lnb compared to 60% signal strength with the analogue lnb.

Someone suggested that I could change the default transpoder to 12.207 V for the analogue lnb.

Would this work?

Thanks

All changing the default transponder does is change which transponder the receiver downloads the TV guide from. The "default" default transponder is 11778V which is a North beam frequency and should be strong in your area. On the other hand 12207V (Sky News) is on the South beam. BTW, the background music for the TV guide comes from 11778V so if you can hear that you are receiving that transponder fine. Changing the default transponder will not have any effect what so ever over the signal quality on the various other transponders which carry the channels themselves.

lloowen · 4 Days Ago

Hello all,

Thank you all for your input. Great forum.

I just noticed that this thread has an error. I'm talking about signal strength, but I actually mean signal quality. Still my digital lnb works fine even though the signal quality is lower (25%) than what the analog lnb is producing (~60%).

I just figured that cosidering my location (lat63n lon19e), that one should be trying to maximise the signal quality.

Can anyone recommend an lnb that would give me a better signal quality? Price is a prohibiting factor, so I suppose it's value for money that counts. Incidentally I paid 130SEK (~£10) for the current lnb I'm using.

You can see some photos of my set up at this thread I posted a couple of days ago.

wind wind wind !

***Tivù*** · 4 Days Ago

Well Signal Quality is indeed the most pertinent factor.

However, unless I am mistaken you are using a Pace Sky Digibox?

In which case, the Metering is very vague and relatively meaningless in numerical terms. All you can do is maximise what the bars do register, regardless of the apparent percentage.

My neighbour has a Sky Box that indicates zero Quality, but my own Receiver attached to his system tells a different story.

Bottom line: If you have lock even in poor weather, you've done the job.

If you really want to squeeze every last drop out of the Dish, then use a decent meter or a Receiver with meaningful metering.

lloowen · 4 Days Ago

Hello

The signal quality figures I quoted are readings from my satellite finder. (Horizon HDSM USB Digital Satellite Meter) Good quality. I trust the figures I'm getting from this device.

Sorry I didn't make it clearer where my signal quality figures where from.

***Tivù*** · 4 Days Ago

Originally Posted by lloowen

Hello

The signal quality figures I quoted are readings from my satellite finder. (Horizon HDSM USB Digital Satellite Meter) Good quality. I trust the figures I'm getting from this device.

Sorry I didn't make it clearer where my signal quality figures where from.

Aha. Thanks for the clarification. It's more likely I didn't recap the entire Thread properly than any omission on your part!

But do you have good stable lock on all the Channels of interest?

lloowen · 4 Days Ago

Yes I have a good stable lock and I can get the BBC, which was my primary objective.
However I cannot get good signal quality on Astra2a. 10% I was suprised at this as the footprint charts show that it should be easier to get astra 2a than astra 2d

***Huevos*** · 4 Days Ago

Originally Posted by lloowen

Still my digital lnb works fine even though the signal quality is lower (25%) than what the analog lnb is producing (~60%).

You are still missing what everyone has been telling you all along. Your old LNB was a standard, not a universal. That means when the receiver puts on the 22khz tone to get the LNB into high band it just sits there in low band, i.e. looking at the wrong frequency. So when the level says 60% that is for some part of the spectrum that is completely non related with the default transponder, which is why the box wouldn't fire up with that LNB even though you were getting some magnificent signal level.

lloowen · 4 Days Ago

Thank you Huevos for putting it into plain English for me.

As you can see I'm a newbie on this. Still I'm hocked on this satellite stuff.

Any suggestions where I can read up more on the subject on the net? For newbies of course.

Thanks..

moaead · 4 Days Ago

thanx to all .

lloowen · 4 Days Ago

moaead

thanx to all .

!!

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

signal strength and signal quality Information exchange on LNBs, Single satellite, motorised and multi-satellite systems. DiSEqC switches, positioners, motors, actuators, dish-alignment etc.

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)