Need help moving a dish from Hotbird 13.0 to Astra 28.2

its a croissant

We moved into a house fairly recently that had a satellite dish and box set up but it was pointing to hotbird and just got mainly Arab channels. I fiddled with the box for a bit but gave up, we had an analogue signal from a virgin cable that gave us the 5 standard channels plus 7 more and that was enough.

My girlfriend just called me though and said that the analogue signal has been switched off. So now we have no TV and I really need to sort this satellite out to get the freesat channels.

I've checked where the my dish is pointing compared to other dishes on the street and it's slightly more to the right than the others, though they all seem to differ a little and there's some Sky minidish's that are very similar to mine. The problem is I'm not sure how much I can turn my dish to the left before it hits the wall, it's a fairly big dish, the biggest on my street for sure.

I have a Fortec Star FS 4200 box (pretty sure that's the model) and it's a pain to set up, I've gone to the satellite list on it before and just ticked for it to search Astra 28.2 but it doesn't make any difference to what it finds when it searches, I've tried messing with all the settings infact but obviously without moving the dish it was a bit pointless.

I apologise for my noviceness on the subject and would appreciate any help at all. Should I just unscrew the dish and make it point as left as possible then try and do a search?

satelliteman

Hi,

Easiest, simplest and a diy approach would be to highlight Astra28e on the receiver and select an active transponder ie. 10714h. You need to see the signal test screen.

Slightly undo the bolts on the dish and drop the elevation a tad first, then swing the dish in an Easterly direction until you get a lock on transponder (10714h). Scan/search satellite to see if your on Astra2, if not repeat and scan until found.

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Tivù

Swing indeed - but slowly, and bit by bit.

its a croissant

Thanks for the advice! and sorry for putting it in the wrong section.

What do you mean by get a lock on transponder? is there any way I'd know if it's in the right place or is it just trial and error?

Tivù

Basically just watch out for an upswing in Strength and then home in and tweak the alignment for the best Quality reading.

In general, there is a degree of trial and error as you may not hit the correct Satellite: But between Hotbird and 28E the only others you might hit on are 19.2E and 23.5E.

Satelliteman has been cunning in suggesting you monitor a frequency that is only used for Analogue on 19.2E and is not used at all on 23.5E.

So, if you get a signal on that TP, just scan it. If you get any Channels popping up, they will almost certainly be 28E Digitals!

Robbo

The receiver will have signal level and quality indicators on it, look at the signal quality indicator while moving the dish.

its a croissant

Right.

I've managed to move the dish after lots of dangling out of a window fully stretched in the rain, got it in the right position according to the posts in this thread, the line shown on dishpointer.com and the position of all the other satellites on my road.

Yet when I go to Antenna setup it says 45% intensity and 5% strength. This is what it said before I even moved the dish and this is what it says no matter where I move it, it just doesn't change.

Also, now when I try and change the transponder, it always resets itself when I leave antenna setup.

There's quite a few settings that I don't what to choose - the first is antenna connection, it says fixed or motor, i'm presuming mine is fixed?

Then it says LNB freq which is automatically on Universal (9750-10500), is that right? Then it says something about DiSEqc10? I choose disable.

Do I have any any chance of getting channels?

satelliteman

Yes, LNb universal, DiSEqC 1.0 disabled and fixed dish set up.

Sounds like you just haven't found the satellite yet. Maybe worth investing in an in-line squawker meter.

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