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Two dishes on one mast:
I added Fransat reception earlier this week to the Viasat dish in the summer cottage.
The existing install was a TD64 (Canal Digital branding!) pointing at 5E (4.8E) for Viasat.
Initially I just wanted to put a multi-feed holder on the dish.
But as one of the German dish-pushers was not delivering, I had no multi-feed holder when leaving for summer house. Luckily, I had several somewhat used metal-dishes lying around.
Re-purposed my travel-TD64 to make a double install.
Once there, and ready for install, I started moving the existing TD64 up the pole to accomodate the new dish. Had to re-align the original dish to 5E to ensure max reception.
Then put new (old) TD64 on below the old dish.
Tried to get a lock on the new dish at 5W (TF transponder at 11591V), but to no avail.
Tried some of the other freqs on 5W, but still very little result.
Finally managed to get a lock on a stronger transponder, but FTA channels were not looking as good as they should with a 60 cm dish.
Checked the alignment of the dishes compared to tress - and found that there was a very conspicuous tree right where 5W was, as seen from the pole. Looking at the dish-pointer app, the sat should be way about the top of trees nearby. However, there was a dip in the tree-line that could explaing why 5E was coming in while 5W wasn't.
I then decided to re-do the pointing of the two dishes, so that the uppper one pointed at 5W, whereas the lower one now did 5E.
After swapping around, the upper dish now does 5W very well, and the lower dish 5E very well as well too. Seems like the tree was in the way, after all.
Finalised with a 2-1 DiSEqC switch, 5E going into port 1, 5W into port 2. Programmed the Viasat (Samsung) reciever to add a transponder by "manual tuning". France 2, O, 5 etc coming in fine as a result. Will add further transponders next time there - ran out of vacation for now.
A couple of interesting experiences from this install:
1) The installation was done without a meter, measurements made using a TBS5922 connected to a lap-top running CrazyScan. Somewhat cumbersome to use (requires 220V at roof-top level, and changing LNB requires re-loading the app), but still do-able.
Appreciation to @CrazyCat!
2) Dish pointer iPhone app is not very accurate. The Az and El of the sats turned out to be quite different from the real stuff. Of course it's a great start (and incredible compared to 10 years ago!), but you really need to get that dish out there pointing at something to be certain...
3) Working 4 metre up on a ladder for several hours is quite different from working at ground level. Not only do you have to carefully consider your moves wrsp to centre of gravity (can't just take a step to the side to see things from a different angle), but if you drop something, picking it up from deep grass 4m below can be quite a lot of work.
And of course, my calves were hurting every night from standing on those bloody rungs.
Respect goes out to you guys who do this every day for a living!
I added Fransat reception earlier this week to the Viasat dish in the summer cottage.
The existing install was a TD64 (Canal Digital branding!) pointing at 5E (4.8E) for Viasat.
Initially I just wanted to put a multi-feed holder on the dish.
But as one of the German dish-pushers was not delivering, I had no multi-feed holder when leaving for summer house. Luckily, I had several somewhat used metal-dishes lying around.
Re-purposed my travel-TD64 to make a double install.
Once there, and ready for install, I started moving the existing TD64 up the pole to accomodate the new dish. Had to re-align the original dish to 5E to ensure max reception.
Then put new (old) TD64 on below the old dish.
Tried to get a lock on the new dish at 5W (TF transponder at 11591V), but to no avail.
Tried some of the other freqs on 5W, but still very little result.
Finally managed to get a lock on a stronger transponder, but FTA channels were not looking as good as they should with a 60 cm dish.
Checked the alignment of the dishes compared to tress - and found that there was a very conspicuous tree right where 5W was, as seen from the pole. Looking at the dish-pointer app, the sat should be way about the top of trees nearby. However, there was a dip in the tree-line that could explaing why 5E was coming in while 5W wasn't.
I then decided to re-do the pointing of the two dishes, so that the uppper one pointed at 5W, whereas the lower one now did 5E.
After swapping around, the upper dish now does 5W very well, and the lower dish 5E very well as well too. Seems like the tree was in the way, after all.
Finalised with a 2-1 DiSEqC switch, 5E going into port 1, 5W into port 2. Programmed the Viasat (Samsung) reciever to add a transponder by "manual tuning". France 2, O, 5 etc coming in fine as a result. Will add further transponders next time there - ran out of vacation for now.
A couple of interesting experiences from this install:
1) The installation was done without a meter, measurements made using a TBS5922 connected to a lap-top running CrazyScan. Somewhat cumbersome to use (requires 220V at roof-top level, and changing LNB requires re-loading the app), but still do-able.
Appreciation to @CrazyCat!
2) Dish pointer iPhone app is not very accurate. The Az and El of the sats turned out to be quite different from the real stuff. Of course it's a great start (and incredible compared to 10 years ago!), but you really need to get that dish out there pointing at something to be certain...
3) Working 4 metre up on a ladder for several hours is quite different from working at ground level. Not only do you have to carefully consider your moves wrsp to centre of gravity (can't just take a step to the side to see things from a different angle), but if you drop something, picking it up from deep grass 4m below can be quite a lot of work.
And of course, my calves were hurting every night from standing on those bloody rungs.
Respect goes out to you guys who do this every day for a living!
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