180 dish not doing it, west of Berlin

N

ndcoxhead

Member
My Satellite Setup
1.8m dish, Smart switch (2x4 inputs, 16 outputs), Humax FaxSat HDR
My Location
Bützow, N.Germany
I have been trying to reinstall my freesat reception after moving home within Germany (Schwerin to Buetzow), but the third dish installer to try is also not getting reception even with a 180cm dish in the garden. He says the low band is getting low quality signal.
We are a bit north but much less east than Berlin, where 180cm is meant to be more than enough.
We moved from Schwerin last April and had perfect reception with a 120cm dish, and we are only about 60km east of there so I don't understand why our dish fitters (from various electrical shops) don't even manage with a 180.
I can give more details but I'm just sending a SOS at the moment for any good tips.
The satellites haven't narrowed their footprint in the last few months have they ?
 
Is it a decent quality 1.8m dish or one of those flimsy soft sheet metal jobs?
 
It should be decent to good quality, the fitter said it needed to be a good one. And it cost around 600 euros I think. Not sure about the LNB but he would be stupid to not use a good one too. He has put in plenty of hours in to trying to get a signal, so it wouldn't be a good idea if he skimped on it.
 
1.8m is good into Sweden and Poland so I'm sure it should work there. What equipment are they using? Is it a spectrum analyser, or just a squawker? Have they got any experience with big dishes and Astra 2D. The real problem with low band is most of the power is coming from EB1 so if they are just using some sort of field strength device the dish is going to end up aligned on EB1 (28.5E) instead of 2D (28.2E).
 
ndcoxhead said:
We moved from Schwerin last April and had perfect reception with a 120cm dish, and we are only about 60km east of there so I don't understand why our dish fitters (from various electrical shops) don't even manage with a 180.
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You are into extreme fringe reception conditions, and we know that reception can vary over a few miles. Its quite possible you arre in a "coldspot" for Astra 2D reception.

Or your dish hasnt been set up properly by your installers!

If you can post a couple of photos of the dish and the lnb one of oour experts may see something glaringly obvious.
 
I don't know what it's called, but they were using a portable box with a screen that they programmed-in the channel data and it produces a graph and when lucky a TV picture. A decent looking piece of kit. But they've not done a 28.2 job before, nobody around here seems to have.
I'll take some photos later when it's light.
There is quite a long distance from the dish to the switch box in the attic (about 40m). But I'm sure they are using decent quality black underground cable.
 
40m of coaxial shouldn't give you any problems, more likely dish set up. Sounds like your installers are using a decent meter for alignment, but unless they can identify the fingerprint of Astra2, it will be hit and miss. Does their meter have a NIT readout?


ndcoxhead said:
....switch box in the attic
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??
 
here she is....LNB.webp
 

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First observation - the lnb is a quattro. Unless you have a multiswitch distribution system you wouldnt need a quattro fitted.
 
this is what it's connected to...multischalter 50%.webp
 

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This may sound obvious, but is the installer aware that you need to change LNB ports when trying to measure the different bands?
 
rolfw said:
This may sound obvious, but is the installer aware that you need to change LNB ports when trying to measure the different bands?
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I'll ask next time I talk to him.

I'm not sure about the line-of-sight, there are trees in the direction it is facing. How does it look to you ?
LoS3.webp
 

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Hm that tree is concerning.... Although the signal comes from the sky - and 28E is pretty high up where you are - you can never be sure. Do you have a dish pointer app on your Android/iPhone? If so, you can use that to check line of sight.
 
Take the picture from behind the dish and just below it looking up just over the LNB. If you look along the LNB arm and just above the LNB this is the dish take-off angle.
 
ndcoxhead said:
here...View attachment 40114
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There's still a bit of parallax in that picture but to me it looks almost certain that the tree is blocking the dish. And things will only get worse once there are a few leaves on it.
 
To me, that doesn't look too bad - in Germany 28.2E should be quite high up in the sky and may well be above the tree. Does the signal level change excessively when there's a bit of wind (due to moving branches)? If so, then the tree is in the way....

Can't be sure... Can't you chop it down for firewood or some lovely barbecue?
 
I'd agree with Huevos, the tree is your problem. A bit of judicious pruning required.
 
We've cut down quite a few trees but this Cherry is the one we wanted to keep. I think our fitters need to choose a better position for the dish.
Thanks for the advice guys.
 
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