Difficulties with Astra 28.2 in Luxembourg.

[PaulBJ]

Hi guys

I'm in Luxembourg and have set up a 90cm dish to pick up FTA channels on Astra 28.2 with a Labgear VK4L universal Ku band LNB. I have a GTMedia V8 finder meter for signal strength monitoring.

After struggling a bit, I managed to get a good signal on the meter with most channels showing about 90% signal strength. On the Manhatten freesat box that I use, all the BBC and ITV channels are fine during the day but at night, most of them go "No signal". I'm not sure what to do to remedy this.

Can anyone advise me?

Cheers

Paul BJ

 

[Lazarus]

Well, I hate to say it, but install a bigger dish.

Do you have other British folk living nearby and, if so, what size dish do they succeed with?

 

[LeBelge]

There is no need for a bigger dish.
I live near Luxembourg at 25 km.

 

[PaulBJ]

There is no need for a bigger dish.
I live near Luxembourg at 25 km.

I was told that a 90cm dish was OK for this area but if not a bigger dish then what?

 

[rolfw]

May be alignment, or perhaps even the skew needs fine tuning, LeBelge seems to think that 90cm is big enough and he's not far from you. How long is the cable feed from dish to receiver?

 

[PaulBJ]

Hi guys

I'm in Luxembourg and have set up a 90cm dish to pick up FTA channels on Astra 28.2 with a Labgear VK4L universal Ku band LNB. I have a GTMedia V8 finder meter for signal strength monitoring.

After struggling a bit, I managed to get a good signal on the meter with most channels showing about 90% signal strength. On the Manhatten freesat box that I use, all the BBC and ITV channels are fine during the day but at night, most of them go "No signal". I'm not sure what to do to remedy this.

Can anyone advise me?

Cheers

Paul BJ

I have an update on this. Reception is fine on 'normal' channels but all channels marked HD are dead. For some reason all the non-HD BBC channels disappear from the available channel list after dark!

 

[PaulBJ]

May be alignment, or perhaps even the skew needs fine tuning, LeBelge seems to think that 90cm is big enough and he's not far from you. How long is the cable feed from dish to receiver?

About 2.5m

 

[Terryl]

I recommend two web sites to help you get focused in on Astra 28.2 at your location.

This one will tell you the correct size dish for your location, just click on your location and it will give you a marker...https://satbeams.com/footprints?norad=39285

This one will give pointing information and skew angles for that satellite, enter your address and select Astra 28.2, zoom into where your dish is located, it will give you pointing info and a line to the satellite....https://www.dishpointer.com/

 

[a33]

... with most channels showing about 90% signal strength.

I hope you mean signal Quality?
Signal strength is not really important, when within certain boundaries.

greetz,
A33

 

[Peter Körner]

Or take a look at (sorry about the long link name):

UK Spot - Extrapolated – Google My Maps

Experimental Footprint - South West Nordic. + Germany and Austria added. Guesstimate - Extrapolated from official 2F footprint, and adjusted after available reception reports. Footprint shifts E/W approximately +/-50km over the day. There is also movement N/S. Green marker: 24/7 Reception...

www.google.com

 

[rodscha]

Very interesting map...but very little data from South France and spain
Also,do reception reports date from after the big retune?

 

[PaulBJ]

I hope you mean signal Quality?
Signal strength is not really important, when within certain boundaries.

greetz,
A33

Ah - no I did mean signal strength - signal quality on the other hand is low 40% around that sort of level!

 

[PaulBJ]

Ah, it seems like I was barking up the wrong tree! I was going for maximum signal strength rather than signal quality. I readjusted the skew with the meter connected and lost a bit of signal strength BUT I managed to get 60% signal quality instead of 30 or 40%. Now all HD channels are coming through perfectly; likewise all the other channels that were formerly "no signal"

Thanks for you help guys!

 

[LeBelge]

For signal quality I have 88% for ITV HD & 99% for BBC HD

 

[iandoh]

Or take a look at (sorry about the long link name):

UK Spot - Extrapolated – Google My Maps

Experimental Footprint - South West Nordic. + Germany and Austria added. Guesstimate - Extrapolated from official 2F footprint, and adjusted after available reception reports. Footprint shifts E/W approximately +/-50km over the day. There is also movement N/S. Green marker: 24/7 Reception...

www.google.com

Is there a way to add to this map? I can add for Burgas and Tallinn that there is no reception at all on a 1.8m and a 1.2m respectively

 

[Captain Jack]

Yeah, there's already a no-reception report on 3m in Tallin.

I know @RimaNTSS can get most(?) of UK beam on his 4.6m in Riga.