Astra 2E: Western Europe Reports

Steve Steve said:
Yea...maybe faulty.....I even bought 4 Attenuators...to give it a fair chance......Great on BBC 1 and many other Channels.....But just would not hold on to Ch5 & ITVHD in the evening low signal time...... as the Opticum would / does....

Richard .....I Think "Best Germany " LNB's ..are rebadged Opticum LNB's .....Or.... vice versa.....?

The Octo version.... looks Identical apart from the black cable rain cover on the "Best" (White cable rain cover on the Opticum).......
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Fair enough, if the Opticum works better for you then makes sense to use it. Can you let me know the exact model so I can try one please?
 
This is the B.E.S.T lnb i have and was on about before, the models is HQDL 101 plus, I have had a look at the Opticom lnbs and can't see that it resembles any of them...but it's about 2-3 years ago when i bought it..Also a friend of mine wanted a black ultra for their dish and i was tasked to source it and fit it, when i contacted the local supplier he said that the B.E.S.T was out performing the BU in this area, a sales ploy..maybe.. but it did go along with my previous findings too..As you can see where the lnb is in the lnb bracket it has plenty of room for manouvering in and out, BU obviously has a longer neck but i totally lose weak channels beyond the point it is now
 

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RichardinSpain said:
I also have tried a black ultra ( i have 2 of them) which i can say is good but i have had a few problems in the past where it might be more sensitive on some channels and not on others, in the past i have had good signals then all of a sudden not so good, i bought a B.E.S.T lnb last year which seemed to be a bit better on some channels..Recently (since feb) i have been using a black ultra until last week when i started to get lower figures i put the B.E.S.T back on and it gets better reception than the black ultra..People go on about the long neck of the BU but to me i have enough margin on the necks of the other lnbs i have to get max reception
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The gain of any LNB will vary across the band. The BBC and ITV channels are at the bottom of the band and its always going to be a bit of a random thing as to any LNB being good over only a part of the band.

In an ideal world we could try before we buy, which would solve that problem.

Anyway its all tiny gains, as you said only increasing your dish size really helps.
 
Up on the roof again this evening for a few hours (along with the cat who climbed up the ladder after me....).
No chance to improve the signal with the MTI Hi-High Line Quad LNB - totaly 0% signal on all 2E UK spot beam.
But..... I changed the LNB for a quad LNB "twin dish" non branded eBay thing which I bought years ago.. and I get a signal after some tweaking; I now have 1/2 of the 2E transponders on the UK spot beam at 70% quality (ok for SD but not HD).
I take back all the scepticismes I had about changing the LNB - all is forgiven...
I await delivery of the Inverto Ultra quad.

Otherwise I have realised that having a good adjustment system is vital to honing in on these difficult to get signals, and el cheapo stymie bracket mounts isn't best at that.
 
sonnetpete said:
I very rarely (if ever) take note of the strength readings, it's the quality that's more important. It's entirely possible to have a strength reading above the level for a lock but for the quality reading to be below it.

The Satplus isn't as sensitive as either my VU+ Solo or my Dr.HD (which in turn just edges out the VU+). My particular model isn't suitable for HD transponders either. I do find it more practical than the method you've described, though previously I've used a cheap analogue needle and tone meter. If you did use one it's best to align on one of the weakest lockable transponders that the meter can display. It will show a reading for an unlocked signal, which is useful, rather than a receiver which may only display something on it's setup screen when it achieves a lock. The streaming solutions that have been posted about are fine if your internet speed is up to it. Here in the sticks, I'm getting 1.5mB at best. That would be fine for SD streaming (just) but couldn't support HD unless you were prepared to put up with huge amounts of buffering....
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Thanks for the reply on the sat plus etc.. .
Internet based TV doesn't interest me much. I don't have an internet based TV and watching on the PC /iMAC sucks in my view.
Onwards and upwards.......
 
stephenG said:
Up on the roof again this evening for a few hours (along with the cat who climbed up the ladder after me....).
No chance to improve the signal with the MTI Hi-High Line Quad LNB - totaly 0% signal on all 2E UK spot beam.
But..... I changed the LNB for a quad LNB "twin dish" non branded eBay thing which I bought years ago.. and I get a signal after some tweaking; I now have 1/2 of the 2E transponders on the UK spot beam at 70% quality (ok for SD but not HD).
I take back all the scepticismes I had about changing the LNB - all is forgiven...
I await delivery of the Inverto Ultra quad.

Otherwise I have realised that having a good adjustment system is vital to honing in on these difficult to get signals, and el cheapo stymie bracket mounts isn't best at that.
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Hope the cat got back down ok......as Hexah has said, all LNB's will vary to some extent. I also think some suit certain dishes and the adjustability of the IBU single, with it's long feedhorn probably is a clincher for most of us. I hope the IBU works well for you. I know I'm lucky, living this far north and practically coming under the spotbeam, yet there are expats here who still use a UK sourced zone 1 mesh dish and get away with it until it rains.
 
Very good point ..."Hexar"....a bigger dish would fix most probs.....But here..spot beam signal can go from from 100 Q midday ...Down to 50 Q (right on the edge of ok reception with Humax box ).....for 4 hours in the evening.........Then recover at about midnight.... for me a dish upgrade from my 1 year old 150 Gibby is too much money to spend..( Again )..( Dish choice was based on 2 F Feb 2013 signal...but has now been reduced 30% ).......
(Yes I know now...I should have got a Raven 180 in the first place .but .its too late now)

So i will have to make do / and try to make the best out of with what i have....

I am interested in the LNB skew adjusters ..you mentioned in another thread.......As I seem to be continually adjusting LNB skew for max signal....from about 8 deg..to almost 0 .....
 
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sonnetpete said:
Hope the cat got back down ok......as Hexah has said, all LNB's will vary to some extent. I also think some suit certain dishes and the adjustability of the IBU single, with it's long feedhorn probably is a clincher for most of us. I hope the IBU works well for you. I know I'm lucky, living this far north and practically coming under the spotbeam, yet there are expats here who still use a UK sourced zone 1 mesh dish and get away with it until it rains.
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Much to my surprise the cat climbed back down the ladder on his own; I have never seen him do that before, usually... he has man handled back down.... when his ready of course...

You may be right in that the key is the focusing of the LNB closest to edges of the dish rather than the performance of the electronic front end. Too wide and it picks up noise from around the dish, too narrow and it looses some of the gain of the dish... The el-cheapo LNB is working best maxed out from the dish, but still gives 50% signal if pushed fully inwards. The MTI High Line LNB gives diddly squat in all positions.

I probably won't have the IBU before end of the week as Amazon.fr says allow 2 extra days for delivery....
 
Steve Steve said:
Very good point ..."Hexar"....a bigger dish would fix most probs.....But here..spot beam signal can go from from 100 Q midday ...Down to 50 Q (right on the edge of ok reception with Humax box ).....for 4 hours in the evening.........Then recover at about midnight.... for me a dish upgrade from my 1 year old 150 Gibby is too much money to spend..( Again )..( Dish choice was based on 2 F Feb 2013 signal...but has now been reduced 30% ).......
(Yes I know now...I should have got a Raven 180 in the first place .but .its too late now)

So i will have to make do / and try to make the best out of with what i have....

I am interested in the LNB skew adjusters ..you mentioned in another thread.......As I seem to be continually adjusting LNB skew for max signal....from about 8 deg..to almost 0 .....
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Hi Steve Steve,

there is a man sitting in SES Platform services in Unterföhring thst swears on his life that 120 cm is enough. I did not believe him then and you have just prooved my point. THANKS!!

I must say, I ws really lucky to start my upgrade in May last year. I also had a deal with my dealer to part exchange my 180 cm system should it not be working properly. And by July the signal was so weak, that even the 180 was a waste of time. Since I upgraded to 240 my biggest problem is the position of 2E. If the 2 sats would be sitting in the same box, I think I should have nothing to moan about.
 
Hi Mickwig....a 120cm..might be ok....but only for daytime 2E /F.......I imagine... about 4-5 Pm ish ...signal would be lost...

Anyway...I have been given a old SKY SD Amstrad DRX100...with truly awful Tunner sensitivity ....has anyone on here..... ever tried to change or upgrade the tuner inside the sat box.........to a better more sensitive type..??

It seems a bit of a shame to junk a working box......
 
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240 is what i'd need here as well a few kilometers west of hamburg for 2e & 2f with HD receiption. Satellites are in summer mode again...

2f:



2e:



the graphs show the minimal and maximal SNR measured on each day. the minimum can of course be influenced by rain.
 
stephenG said:
Much to my surprise the cat climbed back down the ladder on his own; I have never seen him do that before, usually... he has man handled back down.... when his ready of course...

You may be right in that the key is the focusing of the LNB closest to edges of the dish rather than the performance of the electronic front end. Too wide and it picks up noise from around the dish, too narrow and it looses some of the gain of the dish... The el-cheapo LNB is working best maxed out from the dish, but still gives 50% signal if pushed fully inwards. The MTI High Line LNB gives diddly squat in all positions.

I probably won't have the IBU before end of the week as Amazon.fr says allow 2 extra days for delivery....
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The Inverto Black Ultra LNB arrived today and..... after an hour on the roof again... no signal, 0%, diddly squat, for UK beam 2E or 2F transponders. But the cheapo LNB gives 70% signal quality on most transponders, incl CH5, I can just HD but not stable..

I think I will suck it and see with the cheapo LNB.... And the Inverto Black Ultra LNB can go back to Amazon.
 
Steve Steve said:
Thats a shame.....I Had a spare Black Ultra Quad here you could have had.........but chucked it in the bin.... just last week...........

Anyway........not to worry........ with the mighty Opticum LNB......all 2E spot beam currently at 90 Q....2F spot beam 80 Q........(Humax Freesat HDR)
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steve steve, which Opticum LNB are you using ?.
 
That doesn't appear to be a PLL type. I thought it was the PLL version that was the mutt's nutts?
 
PaulR said:
That doesn't appear to be a PLL type. I thought it was the PLL version that was the mutt's nutts?
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The PLL one was the LNB involved in the IBU comparison test I did. I've also got the quad above and did tests on Astra2 using a small dish with it. Without trawling back through this thread to find them, the results will be on an early page I think. I think it's unfair for me to compare what I find with Steve, due to the differing locations and dish sizes involved. I can only say that overall the results didn't persuade me to change from an IBU for fringe stuff.

@Stevesteve : You'd do better to advertise those surplus BU's on here rather than throwing them away. I'm sure plenty of people would snap them up.
 
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