1st dish in France

[archive10]

^^^ not in writing, but personally from 'Le Maire', but may change his mind if seeing a bunch of 3 to 5 meters all over the property :O) But that won't happen, so should be all clear.

Been walking around with the compass today looking for spots in between hills and trees, restrictions all around, luckily the wanted sats (28 & 19) looks good. Soon to start looking for a decent dish, 125 to 150.

Will you be driving down again from NO at some point?
I have too many 1.2 meter dishes - you can have my Gib 125 (which is a 1.2 in real life) if you want.
It's slightly dented on one edge (see thread elsewhere on this site), but it does 28.x quite nicely here.
And I have no multi-LNB holder to offer. You will need to source one elsewhere.
Plus it's a long way on the roof rack to France!

 

[4wd]

^^^ very friendly offer, thanks+++. Some time before am driving trough dk again, quite firmly planted here in France ftm, nearly 2 months now :O) Eventually no problem for transport, it would fit inside my van.

But very welcome to visit if you should go to the Nice\Cannes\Alpes Maritimes region :O)

 

[4wd]

Advancements :O)

Got some pieces of hardware to test out, now possibility to make some roughly better adjustments, 28e improved on the old, deformed 90cm. Getting BBC HD is a great improvement. Daytime got 2E & 2G, + some hints of 2F jumping in and out of lock.

The 'garden' pic (in post above) gives some hints of the environment, must find openings in forest + mountains.

Make the mount more stable (will need better support than the single steel band) and find a suitable dish, it all seems promising.

 

[4wd]

Things are advancing. Got this socalled 140 x 130 cm (real size 122 cm :O) for 28 east. Low price. But very bad packaging (lack of padding) from the supplier resulted in some transport damage to one side. The Famaval's are not what one could call solid, need real good packaging.

Instead of returning it, chosed to straighten it, went ok (good enough for my use). Next time buying some large dish I'll drive and collect it myself (as usual!)

Anyway, quite good & immediate results for the UK beams, will do finetuning and test lnb's over time.

 

[4wd]

... and now working to churn out every available % and db from that dish :O)

Getting there, just had the pleasure of watching Car SOS on more 4, excellent program.
And Wimbledon matches are secured. Even getting the RB's on 2F 12422, very weak signal on that frequency, but saved by the 2\3 fec.

Picture, the scientific setup... maybe soon time (after 35 years with dishes) to buy a decent meter :O)
& yes, roof repair ongoing.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Picture, the scientific setup... maybe soon time (after 35 years with dishes) to buy a decent meter :O)

Maybe a flat screen TV.......

 

[4wd]

^^^
Not (yet) having network\wifi connection from solo2 to phone app ...so just using whatever available tools to get some reception :O)

 

[4wd]

Some results with the 140x130 (122 cm in reality). Enough levels to keep everything 24\24 with some margin.

One positive discovery, no need to get oversize dish to cope with day-evening level variations, ftm just 2-3 db, as opposed to 6-9 db in the fringe dept. in Norway. Can't say anything about seasonal variations yet, it's been summer and blue sky here for 3 months and should continue for 3 more months :O)

Will continue with the crucial millimetre adjustments + lnb tests, and see how much there is to get out of it.
So far so good.

 

[a33]

Maybe a flat screen TV.......

Flat screen TV for outdoors? Much too unstable, I would say.
One touch, and it falls of the roof, or in the earth/grass.

I also use such an old one for outdoors....

greetz,
A33

 

[archive10]

Flat screen TV for outdoors? Much too unstable, I would say.
One touch, and it falls of the roof, or in the earth/grass.

Get a 17/19" monitor (ot TV if you can find one), and a mount it in the lid of an aliminum frame suitcase.
Put the STB in the suit-case, along with some cabling etc.
Then you have a proper roof-top assembly for tuning without a meter...

 

[4wd]

Going well, all <freesat 24\24.

The difference between mediocre and good levels was the adjusting of the lnb to point towards a better "sweet spot", by removing the lower arm screw and moving the arm back and forth until max levels. Gained approx 2-3 db by arm just 1 cm towards rear, see schematic, LNB now pointing (approx) green line vs original red line, see picture. Same tendencies on my 120 Famaval in Norway, so I suspect this is "from the factory", not bent dish or other cause.

Means nothing for very strong transponders, but for the weakest 28 UK beams this 1 cm arm movement (= maybe 1-2 mm tilt of LNB placement) made all the difference here.

 

[4wd]

Here's the adjustable sliding mechanism :O)
Actually ended up approx 2 cm towards rear.

 

[4wd]

& having the pleasure of putting the 28 east installation to perfect use, watching the 4 hours+ wimbledon epic Nadal-Muller. Must be the Game of the Decade !

 

[Captain Jack]

Epic game. Shame about the result.

On a side note, SD feeds on "red button" are of awful quality. Totally unwatchable - reminds me of those dodgy African channels on 10e..

 

[4wd]

All well, 24\24 reception continues, with some db's of margin. And still on the roof after some quite crazy wind today, with no need to readjust. Good sign. All in all, very good results at low expense and little work.

 

[4wd]

A follow up report on Freesat 28, all working fine with good margins and no problems for months.

The inexpensive "140cm" 125cm Famaval does the job (with a lnb that it likes, best was (again) the single Maximum, but currently using a MTI quad that is quite good). Dish needs the usual fine adjustment to find a good compromise between EFG. & the key to real succes was the arm adjustment seen in #31.

Reminder of localization, approx 40 km north of Nice\Cannes. Yes, the planned 4 weeks holiday has turned into a 6 months stay (so far) in beautiful South France.

At around 22.30 usually the weakest signals of the day:

ITV 1-4 13 db
CH4 10 db
BBC 1-2 12.5 db
BBC 4 10.5 db
BBC HD 1-2 13 db
BBC 4 HD \ News HD 10db
CH5's 10.5 db
Yesterday 11 db
PBS 9.5 db
Spike 10.5 db
4 HD \ 4seven 10.5 db
Film4 10 db
Horror \ CBS action 9.5 db
More4 13 db
E4 13 db
Dave 11 db
Quest 9.5 db

 

[jeallen01]

I think I'll start a new thread on "dish dimensions " v "effective dish size"!

 

[4wd]

And a photo of the 'final' installation, all well, looks like the chimney will survive (it's the only practical placement ftm regarding 28e). Reception is stable, with just a few dB's between day and night.
The best multi lnb (...on that specific dish for that specific sat) is an old MTI, best single is the Maximum.

 

[4wd]

And finally got the solo2 onto network and to wifi to the phone \ DMSatfinder. Excellent app\tool.
...just to confirm my adjustments done with the £5 needle meter\beeper were good :O)

 

[4wd]

Greetings from sunny, warm Côte D'Azur (nearly, only 4o km away).
Dish performing great, with snow still on only lost the very weakest on 28 (quest).