Setting digibox for BBC FTA?

psbcn

My second hand Grundig 310/2 has default settings of: Freq. 11.778; Pol: V;
Symbol: 27,5; FEC: 2/3. Was this for the old PPV BBC Sky system? I'm in the process of setting it up and tried the box in a sat shop, just to check it. The shop here in Barcelona only had Astra 19,2 E connection, so I set the FREQ for that Sat. and was able to see signal strength bar of about 30%, tick off the channels, but I saw no picture. So my question is : What should the box be set to in the installers default menu? I want to get BBC FTA on 28,2ºE. I have dish of 1,35m. Thanks

PaulR

No, this is the default transponder for the digibox to get its update information from. Also the BBC was never PPV (Pay-Per-View) but did require a card when it was FTV (Free-To-View). It is now true FTA (Free-To-Air) and needs no card.

Don't know what frequency you would have set the box to for 19.2E but put it back to what it was before. This frequency has nothing to do with scanning for channels. The Digibox is so tightly controlled by Sky that it isn't possible to do a scan as you can on other machines. Everything is specified by them and you have to accept their channel/programme numbering.

Assuming 1.35m is big enough (and it may not be for Astra 2D in Barcelona) it should all work when you connect it up. The only problem is that without a card of any kind you are limited to the BBC channels, Sky News, TCM and a few shopping/God channels.

If 1.35 isn't big enough for 2D you will not get the BBC channels but will get the other FTA channels on the 2A/B satellites. The alignment of the dish must be very accurate to get the best signal. The skew of the LNB is particularly important.

Hope this is some help.

PaulR

psbcn

Actually, the sat set up will be in Pyrenees mountains, around lat 42, Long. 1. So I'm assuming that 1,35m dish is more than sufficient. Some shops sell BBC packs for Barcelona with 1,10m dishes. The thing that really confused me when I tried the set up was that I had read that the Grundig Digibox gives a strength reading, even if not pointing near any satellite. I had a strong signal on my sat finder meter, but nothing in the digibox signal strength. But yesterday in a sat shop in Barcelona I plugged into Astra 19,2, changed the Frequency etc , to that channel, and at least I got a strength reading from the digibox, although no picture.

PaulR

That's the bit I don't understand. What were you trying to find on Astra 1? A digibox is very limited in its understanding of other signals; it only has 2 bit rates (27.5K & 22K) and you have to enter all the detailsby hand - it isn't possible to scan all frequencies.

Anyway, that's irrelevant when you are on Astra 2. As you say, the moment you connect up an LNB it starts to show a signal level. You can use this signal level to help a bit while you try to home in Astra 2 and as soon as you get enough of a signal (this is the default frequency that you were talking about) you can then use the siganl quality to complete the process.

This site http://homepage.ntlworld.com/de.sullivan/#intro (which I found elsewhere on the board) should help you a lot. I found it very interesting and it matches my own experiences with aligning dishes in the UK and France.

Yes, I think 1.35m will be enough also.

PaulR

psbcn

I finally found it!. It took me about 45 minutes but now I get all the bbc's even the Scottish ones. And perfect picture. I also get ITV which makes me think the card that came with the second hand receiver must be active.

PaulR

Glad to you got it at last. The most difficult thing is to stop yourself moving the dish before the signal has time to be analysed by the receiver - you can quite easily shoot straight past the correct spot because of impatience.

The other problem is that with a large dish the beamwidth is so very narrow that you have to make the moves in much smaller jumps compared to the standard 45cm or 60cm dishes.

PaulR

psbcn

Actually what confused me is that on the web page you mentioned, Sullivan says you should see signal strenght the minute you connect your dish to the receiver even if you are not pointing at that satellite and I saw nothing, which made me think the box was faulty. In my Grundig 310/2 I only got signal strenght when I got the astra 2d not before. So that part does not apply to this digibox, on the grundig you will not get any readings till you are pointing to the astra 2d. I kept moving the dish slowly and then lnb and suddently there was a lock and the signal strengh and quality signal appared.
It is great to get all these channels, on Spanish TV there's only 5 channels and crap.