Dish alignment help

U

upahill

Regular Member
My Satellite Setup
Wisi 85 cm offset dish, MTI Quattro LNB, Spaun splitter, amplifier and multiswitch
My Location
Scotland
I've tried and failed to properly align my dish after the recent storms. I'm getting maybe 90% of Sky channels but not all the HD ones.

I have a First Strike FS1 which I've used successfully before. It doesn't work with DVB-S2/mpeg-4 TPs so I have to use DVB-S ones such as TP26 from lyngsat.

I get high signal strength and quality readings and similarly with S/N.

So I'm wondering why I'm missing those HD channels and how I can get them. I aligned the dish before Xmas after the previous storms and had all the channels.

Any advice gratefully received.
 
Welcome to the forum.

If the box doesn't work with DVB-S2 TPs then you won't get any channels that are carried this way. Unfortunately this includes most HD channels I'm afraid.

Your only option in this case is to change your box.
 
It's the Meter that can't cope with S2 - not the Box.

I'd be inclined to remove the meter and use empirical tweaking to bring in the HD Channels.

Let's face it, the dish can't be far out now.
 
Where's the slaphead smiley when you want it? Misunderstood the post completely!

As Laz (to his friends) says - try tweaking of the dish alignment to the sat box signal quality readings now. What box ARE you using?
 
yep, just to be clear the meter is the limiter on using TPs using DVB-S2.

Given it's only a small number of channels short of the full house, so CH5 HD, Movies Showcase HD, Sky Atlantic HD etc how would you use empirical tweaking? I move the dish a fraction and my S/N can go between 0 and 16, meaning the difference between 0 channels and most of them.

Cheers
 
The box is an Amstrad DRX890. should also say I've aligned the dish 4 or 5 times over the last 2 years and with the result that I get all channels both HD and SD. Is it possible that if I noted the frequencies of the missing channels and found comparable SD TP frequencies that I might get closer or am I missing something obvious?
 
Fractional movement of the dish shouldn't result in such massive swings, unless you're using an unnecessarily large dish with concomitant narrow beam width

However, as your overall results are OK, I'd be inclined to try another Receiver, if you have one. Amstrad boxes are notoriously fickle and prone to a range of odd behaviours once they begin to degrade.
 
Looks like a bit of manual tweaking then. No spare boxes in my house and I'm guessing that I might face the same issue with anything other than a new one. Or beg, steal or borrow a S2 compliant meter.

Cheers
 
Lazarus said:
Amstrad boxes are notoriously fickle and prone to a range of odd behaviours once they begin to degrade.
Click to expand...
Not true with the DRX890 - they were not introduced until way after Sky bought out Amstrad but didn't rebrand for a couple of years. Quality control improved drastically after Sky took over and the DRX890 and DRX895 are now considered the most reliable ever of Sky boxes.
 
Have you skewed your LNB, for Astra 2, 28.2E? To maximise your signal.
 
upahill said:
I've tried and failed to properly align my dish after the recent storms. I'm getting maybe 90% of Sky channels but not all the HD ones.

I have a First Strike FS1 which I've used successfully before. It doesn't work with DVB-S2/mpeg-4 TPs so I have to use DVB-S ones such as TP26 from lyngsat.

I get high signal strength and quality readings and similarly with S/N.

So I'm wondering why I'm missing those HD channels and how I can get them. I aligned the dish before Xmas after the previous storms and had all the channels.

Any advice gratefully received.
Click to expand...

Have you checked to see if the dish mount may have shifted out of alignment?

If the mounting mast is out of plumb, then all the tweaking in the world may not help, the mount/mast should be as vertical as possible.
 
Don't discount the possibility of tree/foliage growth on your line of sight as well, especially as Spring seems to be early this year....
 
Terryl said:
Have you checked to see if the dish mount may have shifted out of alignment?

If the mounting mast is out of plumb, then all the tweaking in the world may not help, the mount/mast should be as vertical as possible.
Click to expand...

Why on earth would the mount have to be plumb , this is a fixed dish not a motorized one ???
 
I've skewed the lnb and the dish pole mount is also plumb, although I'm not sure that would matter significantly, given I'm aligning it with my meter. It might affect the skew a little I guess, at least in theory. And it's a clear line of sight.

I'm still left wondering whether only being able to use dvb-s as opposed to s2 TPs is part of the issue.

I also think I could try a host of other dvb-s TPs that I haven't tried yet in the hope of a full range of channels.
 
Can you please post some channels, frequencies, polarities, and the signal quality readings.
Also if you can upload some photos, of the dish, pole, and LNB, hopefully someone can spot the problem.
 
Hi, the easiest bit is to list TPs 1, 5 and 33. I'm clearly not picking those channels up.

Given the limitations of my FS 1 meter in so far as dvb-s2 , I'm wondering whether being more selective about which dvb-s TP to choose might help? And also whether the lnb skew angle could be significant? I have to do that pretty much by eye given I've no tool or meter to confirm the angle.
 
upahill said:
And also whether the lnb skew angle could be significant? I have to do that pretty much by eye given I've no tool or meter to confirm the angle.
Click to expand...
Skew angle is very significant and can have a big effect for even a small amount of rotation.

Depending on what your meter can do choose your TP and rotate the LNB one way and then the other. Choose two points which give equal amounts down on the best figure and your best position is in the middle. If your meter can flip from H to V on the same frequency then rotate for minimum signal. This is easier to see.

The best position can also be configured using, I think, BER or MER which is a statistical error counting method. But as I can't remember (unless anyone else can?) try one of the other methods. In the UK either should be good enough.
 
I usually peak the dish on 11307 v , the one with Flava and True Movies on and everything else falls in .

After you peak this one tighten everything and then play with the skew . Job done .

PS , the way to check for skew is to keep the meter connected and rotate the lnb until you get a peak , no need for special tools or anything .
 
It may just be a coincidence but the three you mention that you don´t have are all H polarity and would also appear to have had fairly recent FEC changes.
As a test, can you see txps 27 and 39, also H polarity. A further test would be to look for txps 16 and 34, V polarity but also recent FEC changes.
It may indicate a problem with the LNB or possibly the sky box has not updated correctly. May be worth trying a forced software load on the box.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
TPs 27 and 39 are all NO. I get some of 16 and 34.

Do you happen to know how I'd do a forced software load on the box?

Cheers
 
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