Total Novice

mjr

Hi and Help

I have a Sky digibox and a Multimo Dish for use in my Caravan. I have a simple satellite finder (Maplin) and compass but have no idea which satellite I am pointing at as Astra 1, 2 and Hotbird all seem to be so close. How do I establish which one I am pointing At?

I got an installer to set me up but don't want to pay his charge evertime I want to use the system. I get a strong response from the finder but the set sometimes says 'no satellite signal being received'

I have used the signal test facility and got reasonable strength and quality but even so could not get BBC 1 or 2 but did get ITV4 and 5. I have a Sky viewing card (the £20 job).

rolfw

In most cases, if you are receiving a signal in the signal strength section, but no quality and you think that you are roughly in the right direction, then you will be on Astra 1 at 19.2 East, so nudging the dish a little further East and down a bit will solve the problem. If you have only some of the channels, the dish is probabl;y slightly off beam and may also need a slight skewing (twisting) of the LNB to increase the signal quality.

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mjr

Many thanks I will give it a try next time we are out. I guess there is no cheap bit of kit that will tell you which satellite is being received?

Lancelot

Nope, they're the expensive ones

However, do a channel scan anyway and look HERE at the lists of Euorpean satellite channels, and match them to what you get with your scan. Then you'll know where you are.


Rgds


L.

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I've got an inferiority complex, but it's not a very good one.

mjr

Thanks Lancelot

I am a complete novice so please tell me how do I do a complete channel scan.

rolfw

Go into Services, System Setup, Add channels and enter one of the frequencies from the link which Lancelot has provided.

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. Follow us on Twitter, click on the twitter image.

Dragon45

Hi
Not sure if I allowed to post a live link but the following is a good source of reference for any caravanners setting up a Sly dish.

_http://www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk

Cheers for now

rolfw

No problem with the link, although we prefer that it isn't live. I would say though, that pretty much all of the information on that site, is available here and also you can ask questions here and get quick replies.

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. Follow us on Twitter, click on the twitter image.

spiney

I use a Sky minidish "perched" on my kitchen sink, not exactly the same situation, but nevertheless similar!

1) To i.d. the particular satellite, a device needs to decode the signal, hence to actually BE a satellite receiver! That's why there's such a huge function/price gap between expensive signal meters, and cheap £10 "sat bleepers" (which are just a simple rectifier across the lnb output, connected to a meter / audio sounder).

2) In most of UK, pointing a minidish dish very roughly south, then "sweeping" it along the "satellite arc", it will "see" the satellites if it appears to be facing the horizon (ie, actually pointing 26 degrees upwards!), just as with dishes attached to houses.

3) Starting with dish facing directly south, then swinging it slowly towards the east, the "big 3" satellites are Hotbird 16E, Astra1 19E, and Astra2 (Sky) 28E, in that order, so Sky is the "leftmost" satelllite! If using a small minidish, and some sort of "bleeper", then those 3 will make a big noise, while other weaker signals will hardly even register. So, it's fairly easy to locate the "leftmost" satellite, especially after you've done it a few times!
(I have to use the kitchen sink every day, then set up my dish again, and it really does become very quick and easy!).

4) Because of how the Sky system works, once you've found the correct satellite, your receiver should straight away start loading the channels list data from the the default transponder. You can check that the receiver says "signal lock", in system services signal menu, but this should not be necessary, once receiving the right satellite then it should happen automatically.

5) However, transponders have different transmission powers and error codes, and you might have trouble getting some channels, epecially further north in uk, and certainly outside the UK.

6) If having trouble with a particular channel, then:

a) Find that channel's transponder details, from one of the Internet databases, eg www satcodx com, or www lyngsat com .

b) Select digibox "services", then the installer menu by doing "4 0 1 select" on remote control. Select manual tune, and enter the transponder details. You will get a signal strength and quality reading, quality is the important one! You must get "signal lock" to be able to receive and view the channel.

If transponder is found, and you get a signal, but poor quality and no lock, then almost certainly the signal is too poor and you need a bigger dish (zone 2). Don't use a satellite amplifier, as this will make things worse!