Astra 28.2 E Reception in Southern Spain

robt23

robt23

Member
My Satellite Setup
Reelbox Avantgarde, 1.3 m high by 1.25 m wide dish, inverto quad black ultra 0.2 lnb, astra 28.2E.
My Location
Granada, Spain
Hi Everybody,

I live in Granada, Southern Spain, for the time being and for the past 2 or so weeks have had trouble with 10758 v and the transponder which carries E4 and more 4.

Tthe signal is on the fringe I think, 38- 40 % Q until about 8.00 pm local time when the signal Q downs to 33- 34 % at 11.00 pm to midnight local time. All these channels are completely unwatchable. All BBC channels and Five ,film4, ch4 superb.

I have never had any problems with my setup which I have been using for 9 years. The last 4 years with an invacom quad ,this gave the system the signal boost it needed during that time. Now for some strange reason those channels are non watchable from say 8. oo pm.

I have a generic, no name dish, but when I bought it the saleman said it`s what most people in the costa del sol use to pick up 28.2 E. Cable run is 35 m. The sat dish is offset 1.3 m H by 1.25 m W.

I know it`s not my house equipment that could produce this, as I unplugged the router direct from the wall socket which also carries my dect phone . I don`t have a microwave.

Itv1+1, Itv2+1,Itv4+1 and more4+1 are the substitute channels I use to compensate. Signal Q is 45-51%. Believe me this is really stable because of the lnb I use. I don`t know when it rains if the loss affects the quality because I didn`t really use these channels. When it rains with reasonable intensity then the signal usually goes on all channels except BBC world and Sky News; Their signals are practically always on or near 95 %.

Any suggestions !

Thanks.
 
Blame Arabsat for the More4 / E4 problems :-rofl2

The More4 / E4 tp is getting nailed by a recently activated almost identical frequency on Badr 5 at 26E. Its swamping 10729V at 28E which carries More 4 / E4.

Things will only get worse over the next few months as more low band frequencies are activated on Badr 5
 
Thanks Analoguesat,

Useful to know . So is there a method to solve the problem i.e better lnb, I doubt that there is one better than invacom: or a bigger dish. I don`t really want to install a bigger dish if I can help it. The Reelbox that i have is more like a computer than a std, but has 2 pc cards to pick up 2 independant sats, hd to boot. Can get Itv1 hd and BBC1 hd no problem all day. So, the tuners are very sensitve, but there is the issue of 10758 v. Could BADR at 26 E be affecting those too !

Cheers.
 
You might have to go quite a bit bigger to get rid of the interference - folk in Cyprus are having problems with 3m dishes!! :D
 
There must be a high powered quad lnb somewhere. What about that optical lnb from invacom. One optical cable to a converter to IF signals with an optical attenuator installed between the converter and lnb. Bytheway the converter can be dual or quad, making it literally a quad lnb. Sources also say that the cable runs can run for kilometers , without signal loss. The gain in signal on the lnb makes for eye popping out the socket reading too; max 72 db with a min of 62db. SN ratio 0.5 db, and knowing invacom , they are not over dramatic about their SN figures. Lnb costs around 160 euros. Quad converter 180 euros.

Anyone know more about them, even better has anyone tried one out on 28.2 E.

Any feedback would be great.

Cheers.
 
It doesn't matter how good/expensive the LNB is.

The (weak) signal you want will be mixed in with the edges of the (strong) signal you don't by the dish BEFORE it gets into the LNB. You need to stop this unwanted signal from getting in and, short of blowing up the damn satellite, you can only do this by narrowing acceptance angle. This needs a larger dish but, as AS says above, there are still problems in some places.
 
Theres 3 ways of dealing with it

1) Put a massive dish up - somewhere up past 5m should give you a narrow enough beamwidth to reject the strong adhjacent signals

2) Make do with the increasing loss of signals as more and more Badr 5 transponders are powered up.

3) Move back to Blighty - we dont have any problems here!

Or possibly 4 get the signals slingboxed from the UK to your location.

You need to do something anyway - you are likely to suffer massive loss of signals in 2012 when the new Astra 2's start going into service. Transmission antenna design on the satellites have moved on greatly in the last 10 years and the beam drop off is bound to be steeper. Plus there are new spotbeams being introduced.
 
Thanks Guys,

You have made an already answer seeking man, seeking things he wants to hear into practically a mad man. I am lost for words, except one. DAMN ! possibly afew others, but then we`d be going into words banned by the Oxford Dictionary !

What about that optical lnb ? Doesn`t it count for anything.....................................!

What about a c120 invacom with Andrews feedhorn for offset dishes.

Cheers, he says with his chin just about touching the floor !
 
A fifth and only partial solution could be a subscription to Sky HD, as some of the "difficult" channels might have a "better" signal in HD, but no guarantees...
 
Hi Hughes,

You have been here longer than me , my stay uptil now is nearly 17 years. I still miss my best friend though; contact through the is good, but in person , well you can`t beat that.

Anyhow, back to the satellites. Not really interested in the sky packages as all I need is on BBC , Itv1 ,2,3,4 and sometimes more4. I have found alternatives though. Itv1+1, Itv2+1, Itv4+1 ,and more 4+1. Itv3 has a rock solid signal and I can combineit with Itv1 west, which is on the same transponder. Very useful if you want to record both at the same time ,whilst watching some thing else or recording on another tuner.

I don`t think I will invest any more money. Bytheway, you must have heard of a company called Electronic suiza, trading from Lugo. I don`t know whether they sell Inverto ultra black lnb in Quad format. They sell it in Quattro. I have a generic dish and I have read in a similar forum , I think it was Georgum or something like that, that he tested invacom quad all in one and the invacom c120 with Channelmaster feedhorn on a 2.4m dish in Israel. Results were identical with a humax test meter.

Some people say you will really see improved results with a c120 lnb with matching feedhorn with dishes greater than 1.2 m in diameter. However, he did not. He saw a difference with the titanium 0.1, incredible as this is nowhere near the cost of invacom.

Strange things are satellites.

Cheers.
 
An optical LNB won't/CAN'T separate out the unwanted signal.
 
PaulR said:
An optical LNB won't/CAN'T separate out the unwanted signal.
Click to expand...

Correct - the problem is literally overspill from two closely spaced satellites, and there is no simple and cheap answer to that. No lnb is going to make any difference whatsoever - in fact a very sensitive one may actually make the situation worse as it will give you MORE signal from Badr 5 :D
 
Hi PaulR,

How`s that . I don`t know much about these new lnb types because they are just that new.

I thought they did. The only lnb to faithfully have a good seperation between high and low strength is invacom. They are expensive because of the input they put into providing a quality product.

Cheers.
 
I think I will stay with what I have now and see if the meteor will hit me full on or just pass !

Cheers.
 
As I keep saying - it doesn't matter what type of LNB you have it will process any signals that get fed to it by the dish. It has no way of "knowing" what you want and what you don't.

As has also been said you might, JUST, get a better wanted signal by ever-so-slightly moving the dish further eastwards away from Badr 5. But it's a big might.
 
Hi Analoguesat,

I thought I had finished, but a thought just hit me, what if a more powerful sensitive lnb, like the optical, which happens to be made by invacom is capable of filtering out the powerful from the weak signal as it has been doind , uptil 3 weeks ago. However, cost to benefit ratio is not in invacoms favour.

So, I will again pass. Or if some can test that optical out on 28.2 E in a fringe location like Spain . Hughes might be in a position, but he seems to be way up in northern Spain, so I doubt he`s got any problems on signal whatsoever.

Cheers.
 
You dont seem to understand - no lnb can filter out the unwanted signals - the reason there wasnt a problem until a few weeks ago is that the interfering frequencies on Badr 5 are new signals only powered up recently.
 
PaulR said:
As I keep saying - it doesn't matter what type of LNB you have it will process any signals that get fed to it by the dish. It has no way of "knowing" what you want and what you don't.

As has also been said you might, JUST, get a better wanted signal by ever-so-slightly moving the dish further eastwards away from Badr 5. But it's a big might.
Click to expand...

Hi PaulR,

That`s a good point , might just do that. Although in the days when I had a reasonable back, I remember trying like mad , tweeking here and there. Really difficult without a meter. If I was fit I would spend those almost 10 hours in 2002 , tweeking. I`m not going to call an installer because I didn`t really know what he was doing , even though he had a meter, I don`t think he could readit and the second came with a beeper, which is not good for getting the max out of your system.

Nop, I`ll pass , unless I get some positve feedback.

Cheers.
 
Ok AS,

I`m not boing to get into an argument with you. All I`m saying is this optical lnb might be able to filter the signal out. If you have never seen, let alone tested one you can`t really comment, no one can.

Cheers.
 
AS - Sorry to say this is what lots of us have to put up with. People ask advice (especially where I live), you give it, but as its not what they want to hear so they don´t hear it! Grrrr!
 
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