Astra 2E: Western Europe Reports

[4wd]

You have also BBC HD in 10847V.

...we always enjoy a challenge to get everything, no? need it or not :O) but getting bbc 4 hd from 11.023 is what makes that freq important.

 

[rodscha]

yes ofcourse ,works slightly better,yesterday nothing when ,during previous days it had been perfectly clear

 

[dmaavrigdo]

...we always enjoy a challenge to get everything, no? need it or not :O) but getting bbc 4 hd from 11.023 is what makes that freq important.

It is just the challenge. My wife prerecords most of what we watch, so we're on 10773 H a lot because there we can reliably record BBC 1, 2 and 4 SD at the same time.

 

[rodscha]

i do the same waiting for a better propagation

 

[rodscha]

the Irish seem to have hidden back behind their green wall... until Saint Patrick maybe?

 

[archive10]

...we always enjoy a challenge to get everything, no? need it or not :O) but getting bbc 4 hd from 11.023 is what makes that freq important.

Went out last night to optimise the CM180.
(The previous attempt at "optimisation" two weeks ago had unfortunately just made things worse!)
Instead of compromise alignment at 2E, I went for maximising 2G due to the narrow bandwidth.
Previously, I have dialled frequencies into the meter, or just chosen one for maximising.

This time around, I wanted to switch back and forth between H & V, and E/F/G on hard-to-receive frequencies.
So I programmed 12 channels/frequencies into the meter transponder list:

ASTRA 2E
========
ITV London: 10758 V DVB-S 22000 5/6
BBC One HD: 10847 V DVB-S2 23000 2/3
BBC London: 10773 H DVB-S 22000 5/6
the racing partnership: 11426 H DVB-S 27500 2/3

ASTRA 2F
========
S4C HD: 11306 H DVB-S 27500 5/6
BBC News HD: 12422 H DVB-S 27500 2/3
CBS Drama (SKy UK): 11344 V DVB-S 27500 5/6
Home/Dave: 12129 V DVB-S 27500 2/3

ASTRA 2G
========
BBC HD MUX: 11023 H DVB-S2 23000 2/3
ITV Meridian etc: 10994 H DVB-S 22000 5/6
ITV HD: 11097 V DVB-S2 23000 3/4
Channel 4 HD London: 11126 V DVB-S 22000 5/6

Not shown here is the TSID and NID from the SI, which the SatLook lite uses to identify stream.
Had to enter them manually afterwards.

Challenge here is that the SatLook Lite does not support DVB-S2, so I can only measure absolute signal strength for those frequencies.
C/N-ratio through skew has to be aligned on the DVB-S ones, hence some easier-to-receive non-HD channels in the list as well.

Aligned as well as I could (22:45 at night - and still light enough for antenna adjustment!).

Result is now back to before previous "optimisation".

But I STILL can't get that elusive 11023 to work with the STBs... GRRRRR!

More tweaking required tonight.

 

[parkiepie420]

hi

maybe a daft reply but have you tried a technomate tm5402 hd receiver as these have a very sensitive tuner in them ???

I use the tm-5402 m3 model

 

[archive10]

hi

maybe a daft reply but have you tried a technomate tm5402 hd receiver as these have a very sensitive tuner in them ???

I use the tm-5402 m3 model

Yes, good point. The Technomate's do have a good reputation.
But partly also because they have a good blnid-scan capability.

The Humax boxes are very well engineered (I've visited their design labs and can say I was impressed), and using Broadcom chipsets as the main SoC for their consumer offerings (such as Freesat boxes), I think they're on par with the Technomate's Chinese-derived design.
I'm confident that the Technomate will peform very well, but I honestly don't think it will make a massive difference to the Humax boxes.

 

[archive10]

More tweaking required tonight.

Went out to tweak...



Set the sights (the meter) on 11126V and went for the obvious first job: Skew.

Fiddled with skew for at least 5 minutes, and finally got a lock, and optimised to an 8 db S/N ratio.
Went inside to check with the STBs, and lo-and-behold, they now pull in all of the difficult transponders (including 11023H).

Yipee!!

Just goes to show how much skew means....
I wonder, is there a slight skew difference in the E/F/G birds??

 

[RimaNTSS]

Beautiful dish!

 

[a33]

Just goes to show how much skew means....
I wonder, is there a slight skew difference in the E/F/G birds??

Good question.
Astra 2 (28.2) seems to have 7.5 degrees preskew, but I remember that for Eurobird (28.5) they used to mention NO preskew.
Not sure if that is still the case.

Do you have different skew angles as great as 7.5 degrees?

greetz,
A33

 

[dmaavrigdo]

Yes, good point. The Technomate's do have a good reputation.
But partly also because they have a good blnid-scan capability.

The Humax boxes are very well engineered (I've visited their design labs and can say I was impressed), and using Broadcom chipsets as the main SoC for their consumer offerings (such as Freesat boxes), I think they're on par with the Technomate's Chinese-derived design.
I'm confident that the Technomate will peform very well, but I honestly don't think it will make a massive difference to the Humax boxes.

My old Humax Foxsat is definitely less capable than my Technomates. Are you talking about newer Humax boxes?

 

[4wd]

I've found 11127 V to be ridiculously sensitive to skew (on any dish\any lnb), all other frequencies (I receive) much less so. So it's my reference for overall skew.

 

[archive10]

Do you have different skew angles as great as 7.5 degrees?

I did when I last "optimised" the reception - this seemingly worked for single freuency with HD content (must admit I can't remember which), but ruined it for most other channels. The skew was easily 7.5 degrees, but the pre-skew is less here than when seen from eg the UK.

Twekaing yesterday reached a reasonbale skew compromise, althrough there are still the barest of pixellations on some of the CBS channels - but I don't watch these anyway.
Skew is now more like 2-3 degrees.

 

[rodscha]

Then, is it a good idea to fine tune the skew on 11127
,will that work on other UK beam channels,especially the BBC ones?
Another question:do BBC sd (10773H22000)and HD signals on (11024H23000)
come from the same satellite ie same skew? or different skews?

 

[rodscha]

This morning the 10788 V 2200(Parliament ) and BBC news (10818 V 22000)
are much weaker than 10773 and 11024 ...why should that be?skew?

 

[danny10]

Skew 2F,2G is different from skew 2E.....

 

[dmaavrigdo]

Then, is it a good idea to fine tune the skew on 11127
,will that work on other UK beam channels,especially the BBC ones?
Another question:do BBC sd (10773H22000)and HD signals on (11024H23000)
come from the same satellite ie same skew? or different skews?

Unfortunately 11024H is 2G and 110773H is 2E. I can't afford to risk diminishing my 110773H signal so no 4HD for me.

 

[a33]

Skew 2F,2G is different from skew 2E.....

So in fact Astra 2E at 28.5 east has no pre-skew of 7.5 degrees, as have 2F and 2G? Have you tested this?

Greetz,
A33

 

[Nalleman]

11023H is very difficult for me here, even on the 180.
It seems it is harder to receive that now than it used to be (2-3 years ago)...
Only 100 km east of here, I get it all on a 120. But then the 120 has a wider beamwidth, making it easier to cover all three 2x birds.

At my place in the southern parts of Sweden 11023 H turned much weaker when 11038 V on the european beam was activated. 11023 used to be 60-62 % but now it´s only about 45 %. Still fully watchable due to FEC 2/3. Haven´t tried to fine tune the dish since 11038 was activated since I don´t care that much about 11023.