Dish set up on 0 deg or 1W?

[satelliteman]

Did you say if you get 'Al-sat TV' 10.956h ok?

Some Tps can be difficult to get a lock but as said shouldn't be too much of an issue with this type dish

 

[howc]

Well now you come to mention it yes I can and did yesterday. but tonight I also have a solid picture on 11448h (digi promo) although the the signal on the digi channels is still way too weak for any picture. I am also getting a broken picture on 11138h (Bakanika) which yesterday was nothing at all.

So I guessing Im not a million miles off. Yes I realise the difference is probably down to the weather or 9 inches of snow on the dish. . I havent changed anything since yesterday.

 

[guest]

Well now you come to mention it yes I can and did yesterday. but tonight I also have a solid picture on 11448h (digi promo) although the the signal on the digi channels is still way too weak for any picture. I am also getting a broken picture on 11138h (Bakanika) which yesterday was nothing at all.

So I guessing Im not a million miles off. Yes I realise the difference is probably down to the weather or 9 inches of snow on the dish. . I havent changed anything since yesterday.

Well I can rarely get Balkanika on my (hopefully perfectly aligned) 80cm, but always can on the 1.1m, so getting Balkanika solidly seems to me to be a good test of your own alignment with that 85cm Penta - one that you are on the cusp of passing!

 

[satelliteman]

As a reference, Balkanika 11.138h receiving with 89% qual on TM.

 

[sonnetpete]

And to add my twopenn'th, Balkanika 47%Q and a_lsat 72%Q on my Manhattan XT F and Triax88. Would being in Northern France make a lot of difference re reception. (Only a light dusting of snow here!!)

 

[howc]

Sonnetpete. At 47% are you receiving Balkanika? Im showing 66% SNR on Balkanica and a black screen and 78% on a_lsat and a picture on the dreambox.

On the TM Balkanica is 10% Q (ie nothing) and A-lsat 23%Q with a picture.

Ok I think I can get some more out of the dish but I am still thinking that the problem still lies with the receiver. The DM500 is well known for having a crappy tuner and from what Ive read the TM5500 range wasnt upto much either despite TM saying otherwise. Certainly not comparable with the latest TM ranges anyway. I know the Dreambox can get 16E as I was (just about) pulling it in on my old setup with my Gemini 90 dish. The only trouble being that the dish was misalligned and 1W was impossible.

Il have another play at the weekend.........

 

[RaiUn0]

I remember setting up my motorised system with plenty of help and encouragement from members of this board.

I attached a £5 worth of sat meter between my dish and receiver and roughly faced it at believing to be due south, I got a strong bleeep! wooohoo! <At that point I was thinking of becoming a professional sat installer, with client base starting with friend circle>

Anyway, Delighted, I tightened all the nuts and bolts, climbed down the ladder, looked at the tele...with receiver tuned for bbc transpoder (Thor)? I saw.... BLANK! Gutted. It was getting dark so I decided to leave it for another weekend. I then took the receiver to my dads place to watch taquilla as he still had the old dish pointing at 19E.

Came back home later on that evening and plugged the receiver back in in order to find out what sort of signal strength I was getting from the dish I setup earlier so that I could post here for further help on finding Thor. As soon as I turned the receiver on I couldn;t believe my eyes....TAQUILLA!

It has been few years now. With the motor set to zero locked at 19E, I'm getting 100% picture quality from 19E and 28E. On 13E 80% and on 30W 60%.
I'm wondering If I should have another go at setting the motor reference to Thor. It will be a rusty job...

 

[howc]

LOL RaiUn0 I'd almost forgotten about Taquilla. Happy days ..............;)

As far as setting up the dish goes.....well whilst I might not watch 16E I like to know that I can if I want. I guess its just how I am. Anyway where would the fun be if I could just set it up in 5 minutes...job done? I like a challenge.

 

[sonnetpete]

Hi Howc,

Yes receiving good picture right now (about 50%Q) in a heavy snow shower! Al_Sat is showing 78%Q.

It might not be too good using me as a reference as I think even being slightly further south affects the results. However I haven't got the dish set up absolutely perfectly, as I've altered the USALS longitude by about half a degree rather than trying to move the motor until I can get a TV upstairs so I can see the signal readout as I move it!!

I have got H transponders from Nilesat by playing about with Diseqc settings while on 7W. However, I lost some Badr channels when I altered the longitude. I thought I might play around and 'create' a sat in the position where Badr reception is best. Although USALS is a great system I find it has a lack of fine adjustment necessary to bring in the more difficult sats. At least on the Manhattan - as a side note there appears to be no 'go to x' on the Manhattan USALS menu - just 'go to zero' - I am a relative newbie to this so perhaps I'm missing something!!!

Good luck,

Pete

 

[howc]

Hi Howc,

Yes receiving good picture right now (about 50%Q) in a heavy snow shower! Al_Sat is showing 78%Q.

It might not be too good using me as a reference as I think even being slightly further south affects the results.

Pete

No worries Sonnetpete. Im not using anyone as an exact reference simply because each dish and receiver gives different results but its interesting all the same. What I really need is someone with a Penta85 and a DM500 or at least someone with a DM500 and an 80cm or so dish. If they can get it then so should I. I still think its the DM500 which is the weak link here.

 

[handsomejackuk]

just to stick my comments in if its any help. I set my dish up with a laser strapped onto my lnb arm. You can usually pick up the cheap battery operated laser level types from poundshops or cheap tool shops. what you can do then is watch the dish move around from its lowest point to highest point, and watch the arc it draws.

I got loads of marks on my neighbours guttering to aid me manually finding directions of sat's

I bought a real powerful laser this year from dealextreme, and may buy a laser type module from them hopefully i can get my dish perfect then, as i am missing a few sat's..

Too cold to fiddle about with my dish at moment, i will wait until weather is a bit better....

Hope this inspires a few of you


Jak

 

[bigtee]

howc

Just to give my own experience with the Raven Gemini 90 in case it helps. Mine is set up with 13e as main focus; with that I get 1w on one extreme and 28e on the other. I use the slim Alps LNBs for16e & 19e because of proximity. On 16e, 11140 (Balkanaika) and 11149 (Euro football) are the weakest. All the other satellites are generally fine though 1w has a very low margin for rain/dodgy weather.

OT The 28e LNB is the temporary substitute for an on/off ambitious project to get something off 26e just for the hell of it. I did lock a transponder once while fiddling about with the LNB hand held basically but it was so finicky that it was lost with the slightest movement to try and properly secure the LNB.

 

[sonnetpete]

Hi Howc,

Just to say I've been able to improve my reception of Badr by creating a sat at 25E and doing a blind search. As I said USALS hasn't quite got the fine adjustment to do this. Perhaps you could try this to improve reception of 16E? It can only be a temporary solution, it is for me, until I can actually see the signal quality on a tv from the dish mount so I can peak it up!!

 

[howc]

Hmmm creating a satellite is an interesting idea. Im not sure it will help me though. I have tried using Diseqc to fine tune things but it hasnt helped. I think I need to look at lowering the dish elevation a bit rather than moving it east/west, but Im only guessing.

 

[sonnetpete]

Oh, okay, it's not an azimuth problem then. Guess you will have to look at elevation. I may not be able to contribute much during the next week, as I'm off to petsit at someones house about 40 mins from here. Just realised I'll have to go 'cold turkey' without my system. Sad or what??

Pete

 

[howc]

LOL Sonnetpete well at least you will appreciate your system when you get back have fun pet sitting.

As far as the dish goes, well it could be anything so Im happy to listen to any ideas. But I have some news. Whilst searching around I moved the dish to 28E (a rare visit I admit) Anyway the long and short of it is that I am unable to get 10729v (Channel4). So thats good news! Ok its not good but at least I know its something that I 100% should get so it gives me a reference/check. Now all I need is for it to stop snowing so I can get out there and have a play.

 

[howc]

Just a quick update following this weekends ladder antics.

To sum up...............I think Im going around in circles. Despite a number of adjustments to the dish elevation I am still unable to get most of 16E or even 10729v on 28E. Unfortunately I didnt have my neighbour to hand but using the satbeeper Im pretty confident I have the azimuth of the dish correct as by pulling the dish left or right results in a drop in pitch. Also I have tried aligning on 1W and 16E and even aligning the dish on Balkanika I am still unable to pull in anything else on 16E.

I am having more luck using my Technomate as this is easily pulling in 10729v but is no more successful on 16E. Unfortunatly the Techy is now having initialisation problems (Now I remember exactly why I replaced it) so Im trying to get that going now too Oh well.

Anyway I really dont think Im going to get anywhere and my thoughts are now turning to a replacement receiver. Its a bit of a gamble but nobody ever said this hobby was cheap.

 

[sonnetpete]

Howc,

Bear in mind I'm quite new to this, but if this is a dish issue it sounds like your motor declination might be off. I've found that the weight of my motor and large steel dish tends to flex my (French diy shop bought) wall mount away from vertical by about a degree and therefore puts out the declination.

I agree that using a beeper is not an ideal solution!! It always helps to have a friend on hand to tell you whats happening on the screen.

I'm a bit concerned about my system, as we've had very strong winds this evening and as I said, I'm not at home!!

Good luck,

Pete