Reception problems in S Spain Ch4 E4 m&m ITV

fazer6 · 28-01-2009

I've got a freesat card paired to a thomson digibox which has worked fine for a year and a half. We've now lost ITV, 4, ITV 2 men and motors, all the other 4 channels, basically all the good TV. We're left with 1, 2 travel channels, 5, fiver, pulse.

I'm not sure but we might have lost them following a night of quite a few power cuts, 4/5. Usually we can retune using 12051 as the default transponder but now although they show up in the epg I just get signal not received. I followed some instructions to manually tune channel 4 and can't find it that way either. Dont' know if it's connected but there's also no music in the sky menus any more (not that I'm complaining).

Any ideas what I can try to get the good TV back?

**Robbo** · 28-01-2009

It would make it easier for one of the Costa del Expats experts to help you if you gave details of your setup, including dish size etc. Your profile is an ideal place to put this information.More precise locational information might help too.

**Analoguesat** · 28-01-2009

As its a Thompson it could well be the infamous failing capacitor syndrome in the power supply.

**irart** · 28-01-2009

I heard that you had some very strong winds and storms in Spain recently. I wonder if your dish/lnb might need a little fine tuning. Might be worth a look.

fazer6 · 28-01-2009

1.4m dish Sharpe LNB All was working fine until the other day.

If it's a capacitor can I just open it up and change it? How can I check if it a capacitor is bust?

fazer6 · 28-01-2009

Now the wind thing could be a possibility. It's been windy down here and we live high up in the mountains.

Is it best to get the installer to fine tune or can I have a go without breaking the whole thing?

**Robbo** · 28-01-2009

Might be worth tying another box on it first,save paying the callout, or mucking it up yourself,for no reason.

28-01-2009

Sounds like it has moved, push gently on the left then the right whilst on CH4 or a channel you can no longer get and see if it comes in. Then you´ll know for sure.
The very fact that the music is gone from the EPG says that the signal is lower.

fazer6 · 28-01-2009

Had a little waggle but doesn't appear to move and channel 4 didn't reappear. We have got a second box and card which I haven't activated yet so I'll try that tomorrow when the internet reception is good enough to let skype work.

Does anyone by any chance have a suggestion for a dual/quad lnb which would be good down here? I'm going to set up a second box on a hard drive recorder as a poor mans sky plus. Obviously I only need a dual lnb but as they seem basically the same price as a quad one I figured I'd go straight for the quad in case I want to have more boxes later on. Reception has been fine on the lnb we have, now and then we lose 4 at night or before a storm but that's no major issue.

***Huevos*** · 28-01-2009

Have you ever been able to receive BBC2? If not you've lost channel 4. It moved to 2D horizontal recently and now requires a big dish. Today I was playing with a 1.9m prime focus with a Sharp C120 and feed horn and that couldn't resolve any horizontal transponder on 2D.

***woborny*** · 29-01-2009

i have been out to many clients recently to realign dishes due to the HUGE stroms we have had over the past few days....and the list is still growing...

so, yes, the dish will have moved in the winds and will need realigning to get the ITVs (12402) and C4s (12480) back on your dish.

29-01-2009

Originally Posted by Huevos

Today I was playing with a 1.9m prime focus with a Sharp C120 and feed horn and that couldn't resolve any horizontal transponder on 2D.

You will definitely get it with a 1.9mtr. Skew is very important at that size dish.

***woborny*** · 29-01-2009

Originally Posted by hoppo1

You will definitely get it with a 1.9mtr...

i would suggest that it depends where you are and at what time of day you are trying to get Astra 2d horizontals.....
for example in my area you can get them from about 3am til abut 6pm....
yet further south you can get them from about 3pm to very early am...

sparkyinspain · 30-01-2009

I recently upgraded my Invacom snf-031 single lnb to the quad qdf-031, and it improved reception, so that I now receive the astra 2d horizontal tps almost all day. Same dish etc. no re-aligning. Although these lnbs are not cheap (€95 delivered) It was worth it to me to get the extra channels.

***Huevos*** · 31-01-2009

Originally Posted by sparkyinspain

I recently upgraded my Invacom snf-031 single lnb to the quad qdf-031, and it improved reception, so that I now receive the astra 2d horizontal tps almost all day. Same dish etc. no re-aligning. Although these lnbs are not cheap (€95 delivered) It was worth it to me to get the extra channels.

How big is the dish?

**petert74** · 03-02-2009

Hi I dont want to annoy any one with repeating quetions that have been asked before (which I must of missed).

But can I have some contributions on what are the LNB that actually work in Southern Spain.

Ive tried quads, Twins ect and have wasted alot of time trying to get another feed into the house however the original 0.5 Yelow Televes Single is the best one after 6pm & Night times were every other LNB starts to loose channels.

The Televes although not the best during the day, some alive in the evenings and is still going where others have given up.

Please contribute on LNB that actually work and are working NOW.

Thanks

**pipino** · 03-02-2009

Originally Posted by petert74

Hi I dont want to annoy any one with repeating quetions that have been asked before (which I must of missed).

But can I have some contributions on what are the LNB that actually work in Southern Spain.

Ive tried quads, Twins ect and have wasted alot of time trying to get another feed into the house however the original 0.5 Yelow Televes Single is the best one after 6pm & Night times were every other LNB starts to loose channels.

The Televes although not the best during the day, some alive in the evenings and is still going where others have given up.

Please contribute on LNB that actually work and are working NOW.

Thanks

the main thing is the dish depense what dish you have,LNB comes after and quad from invacom should be ok

**petert74** · 04-02-2009

We all have to standard 1.3m dish here in andalucia, so apart from the Invacom which is rather expensive, is the any other LNB that is currently being used down here?? Can anyone reconmend anything else apart from the Invacom and the Televes single???

**pipino** · 04-02-2009

you can try inverto lnbs

**petert74** · 05-02-2009

Originally Posted by pipino

you can try inverto lnbs

Can you confirm that these dont break up in the evening like most others.

Which particular model LNB can you reconmend??

Are you current using an Inverto on your system or know someone who is???

***Huevos*** · 05-02-2009

Originally Posted by petert74

We all have to standard 1.3m dish here

What is a standard dish? What make is it? Is it prime focus or offset?

Originally Posted by petert74

Can you confirm that these dont break up in the evening like most others.

Signal level/quality is due to a chain of things (dish size/quality, feedhorn, LNB, cable, receiver sensitivity, noise floor,etc). Just having the "best" LNB is not going to guarantee anything.

**pipino** · 05-02-2009

Originally Posted by petert74

Can you confirm that these dont break up in the evening like most others.

Which particular model LNB can you reconmend??

Are you current using an Inverto on your system or know someone who is???

yeah i can confirm that if you use a good dish good lnb and good sensetive receiver you can get optimum results

,every situation is different so you have to try in yours ,going thru the board you will find many experiences with many reports on what equipement are used in fringe areas ..regards

**petert74** · 05-02-2009

Originally Posted by Huevos

What is a standard dish? What make is it? Is it prime focus or offset?

Signal level/quality is due to a chain of things (dish size/quality, feedhorn, LNB, cable, receiver sensitivity, noise floor,etc). Just having the "best" LNB is not going to guarantee anything.

On the Costa del sol and near Gibraltar the installers use the same 1.3metre dish and televes single LNB. It is the "standard" in this part of Spain. I believe its also the minimum possible to get BBC etc.

***Huevos*** · 05-02-2009

Originally Posted by petert74

On the Costa del sol and near Gibraltar the installers use the same 1.3metre dish and televes single LNB. It is the "standard" in this part of Spain. I believe its also the minimum possible to get BBC etc.

Ok, so everyone on the Costa del Sol has a 1.3m dish and they all lose signal at night with that equipment. You want to know if changing the LNB will cure the problem. I'd say no. If everyone with this size dish has the same problem then the "standard dish" is too small.

***snap*** · 09-02-2009

There's no 1.3m dish made by any manufacturer. The international standard is to measure an offset dish by the horizontal dimension. These dishes are 1.2 metres wide.

It's also not true that you can't get better reception, the Televés standard LNB is far from the best. An Invacom quad C120 with a CM feedhorn will perform far better, but people in this region are generally too tight to pay the extra.
Installers in this area always say they have put in the best available but they never mention that there is better kit to be had. They use Famaval dishes because they are cheap, not beacuse they are good. Some in this area use Gibertini 1.2m, which are higher quality.

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Reception problems in S Spain Ch4 E4 m&m ITV Sky digital support forum at Sats UK, Everything involved on the hardware and software side of reception of the channels from 28.2/28.5 East BskyB, special focus on fringe reception of Astra 2D for UK free to air channels