Advice Needed A newbie as well. AstraN, KR and Plaza Receiver

cheerychops

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Hi

I am new to this forum and am looking for some guidance.

I want to watch German Channels. I can see that these channels are mostly on AstraN, KR and a few on M. I have a Manhattan Plaza XT-CM which seems to be an old model?

I have new cable, a newish (6 months) Maplin single LNB. I aligned the dish as much as I can using a simple meter – it was put up 15 years ago and is rusted into position :)

BUT I can only see AstraH-M on the list of available satellites. On this I can pick up (blind search) a considerable number of channels. Some (labelled as free) appear as blank screens ‘no audio or scrambled’, some are fine with a good quality picture and sound.

Not all the German AstraM channels seem to be there. AstraH is defunct I believe. I have tried to do a Sat linked software upgrade but ‘signal strength was too poor’. The signal light on the front panel is orange and the channels are at ‘Signal strength’ 50-70% and Quality 80+%.

How do I get to see AstraKR and AstraN?

Do I need a better digital receiver?

Any advice welcome.
 
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Analoguesat

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Hello welcome to the forum on this fine sunny afternoon.

Astras 1KR, 1L, 1M & 1N are currently in use at 19E

http://www.flysat.com/astra19.php

They are all effectively co-located so if you get one you will be getting all of them.

Check the frequencies you are receiving against the list, if you arent getting anything above 11700khz then you may need to look at the lnb settings in the receiver (should be set to universal)
 

Analoguesat

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Its also quite possible that many frequencies are missing from your receiver, or the transmission parameters have changed, so check the symbol rate and fec settings.
 

Piltdownpaul

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For your information, a FTA blind search TV only on 19.2 should bring you in roughly 380 tv channels. I know that as ive just done it on my Icecrypt Box after doing a factory reset on it and trying a scan on Astra 19.2E.
 

cheerychops

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Thanks

I think I have some data from a website

for AstraKR
10744 H

SR, FEC et modulation
22000 5/6 DVB-S QPSK

AstraN

11493,75 H

SR, FEC et modulation
22000 2/3 DVB-S2 8PSK

All from http://en.satexpat.com/sat/east/19.2/


Now I need to find out where to enter this; nothing in the manual mentions fowrad error correction or symbol rate.

C
 
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Piltdownpaul

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Do a blind scan on 19.2E,see if you get more channels,it is quite possible various frequencies are missing from your satellite receivers database. The blind scan will find active frequencies, store them and find and tv/radio channels on those frequencies. After that, lets see how many channels you have. You will get less than me hopefully, as your receiver isnt HD capable and there quite a few HD channels on there.
 

cheerychops

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Although I said 90 I think it was many more than this it is ca. 300+. But as I noted even though some were free they came up with 'No audio or scrambled'.

I cannot redo it just yet as I am manually connecting up the LNB as I have new cable and have yet to re route it. The weather is not good today.

C
 

cheerychops

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Also I think since the receiver is an old one (ca. 2007) this predates quite a few updates. However I cannot find the satellite to update the software and the other way via a PC requires a RS232 socket and 'null modem cable' !!
 

Piltdownpaul

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I think if youve received 300 or so channels ,then your dish may need realigning to peak the signal, new coax or a better/newer lnb.
 

Piltdownpaul

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With the above items checked and corrected i see no reason -(providing you have a clear view of 19.2E) why your signal quality shouldnt race up very high. Its a powerful satellite group,booms to me (also in East Midlands) and you are using an 80cm dish which is more than adequate.
 

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Also I think since the receiver is an old one (ca. 2007) this predates quite a few updates. However I cannot find the satellite to update the software and the other way via a PC requires a RS232 socket and 'null modem cable' !!

Chances are the software updates are no longer running. A seven year old receiver is ancient in technology terms, and manufacturers dont support them indefinitely.....
 

cheerychops

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Thanks all. I think I will go for a more modern receiver and an better quality LNB. Coax is new and Dish should be OK. I know when it was originally fitted the line of sight was not great (analogue days) but we got all the channels and so it should be OK.
 

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Digital signals are not like analogue ones - with analogue line of site issues just lead to a slight deterioration of the signal or the fondly remembered sparklies.

Weak signals for digital lead to total loss of signal. - its known as the digital cliff. Up to the point where the signal falls over the cliff things will work fine. Over the cliff and you lose the signal as the error correction cant put the signal back together again.

If you have line of sight issues you need to sort them out.
 

cheerychops

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Digital signals are not like analogue ones - with analogue line of site issues just lead to a slight deterioration of the signal or the fondly remembered sparklies.

Weak signals for digital lead to total loss of signal. - its known as the digital cliff. Up to the point where the signal falls over the cliff things will work fine. Over the cliff and you lose the signal as the error correction cant put the signal back together again.

If you have line of sight issues you need to sort them out.

I guess since I am getting some signals of reasonable sound and picture quality I have not fallen over the cliff. I'll just have to swap out each item at a time.

Cheers
 

Analoguesat

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I guess since I am getting some signals of reasonable sound and picture quality I have not fallen over the cliff. I'll just have to swap out each item at a time.

Cheers

It can vary by frequency and by the satellite being used for transmission where multiple birds are in use.
 

timo_w2s

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What kind of line of sight issues did you have? If they where trees or other plants they may have grown over the years and made things worse. I'm forever moving my dishes because things grow in the way! :mad:
 

cheerychops

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What kind of line of sight issues did you have? If they where trees or other plants they may have grown over the years and made things worse. I'm forever moving my dishes because things grow in the way! :mad:

The back of the house which has neither grown or shrunk - hopefully :)
 

cheerychops

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Hello again.

I have included a picture of the current satellite dish installation. Can the vertical pole can be moved up for improved line of sight? Although this makes finding the optimal direction at the new height more challenging. Or should it matter what the vertical height is - could I fine tune andthen raise the pole to see if it improves?



C
 

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Captain Jack

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I don't see the need to do anything there. From the picture, it looks like a perfect view of the satellite. Height makes no difference to satellite signal reception as long as the dish 'sees' the satellite.
 

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I agree, from that photo it doesn't look like the roof would be an issue. The satellite signals come down to the dish at a steeper angle than where the dish face appears to be looking for offset dishes. Be careful working on that dish though, it's in a tricky location, especially if you are not too familiar with satellite stuff.
 
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