Finding Channel 4 in Spain

petert74

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Can anyone please direct me to or highlight how using a Sat finder meter, someone can find the weakest signal in southern spain. (for me this is Channel 4 and Sky three)

Basically I bought an sat finder from lidl here in spain, with no instructions to it what so ever except look out for the red lights and the high pitch sound.

Its easy enough to get sky news and five, but its a nightmare looking for channel 4 etc. The ITV channels also break up in the evening except for ITV central. Dont have ITV 2 4 or 4 nor men and motors :-ohmy-st

Is it correct to assume that you look for the strongest first then move on to the weaker signals?? or is it better to look for the weaker ones first then the stronger will follow.

Has anyone had any experience here in spain with these types of sat finders?? Can anyone share their personal experience on how its done.

I still have no idea and its getting embarrasing "playing" with the dish all the time infront of my spanish neighbours who pick up their Hispasat channels in minutes without any issues.

Apologies if this topic has been covered before.

cheers

p

ps have the usual 1.2m dish for this area!!!
 

irart

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I don't know what sort of satellite finder you have, but you place it close to the LNB and use it to find or fine tune your dish to the satellite, moving until you get the best reading on your meter. You will need a short length of cable and a couple of connectors to do this. AS you are already receiving some channels - you can't be that far out. It could be that you need a slightly bigger dish. The weather, time of day, and time of year can affect your reception.
 

woborny

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channel 4 (104) is on the north beam and so can be tricky to get especially in spain - as you dont specify what area of spain you are therefore your size of dish may not be good enough for 24/7 bbc and itv or c4 - and certain digiboxes just do not like channel 4 - and a lot of it depends on the skew (angle) of the LNB more than getting the best "high pitch noise"!

you can use a simple sat finder but it takes time - but if the embarrasment gets too much call an installer or borrow a proper meter!
 

petert74

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Many thanks for the advice. I have a 1.2/1.3m standard dish which everyone has for this area (campo of gibraltar).

I have, with various degrees of sucess, picked up most channels (no all at the same time), at various times, but never channel 4. in various locations.

There is a shortage of sky specialist in this area as most are on the costa del sol and wont come down here.

The only one available in the area (who I think has gone bust) wanted 80 euros for re alignment, which for a 5 minute job or less seemed alot.


My original question was with regards to any specific techniques or tricks in using this type of sat finder.

The main problem of the situation is that the dish is always very hard to get to as is always on the roof or very high on the wall.

The lidl meter has five red squares which I believe they have been selling all round europe so must be used by many people.

I know that to many of you out there this sort of job is very simple so I woudl appreciate your input/advice.

pt
 

dxsat

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Rotate the LNB in its holder. It should be rotated about 24 degrees clockwise, looking at the dish.
If this doesn't work, try a better LNB.
A better LNB may improve the ITV & BBC channels you get.
The sat finder takes practice to use. You can get a better result by using headphones and an adapter so you can hear in both ears.
You can fine tune more effectively if you can see the signal display on a TV.
I used sometimes to use a portable tv next to the dish before I bought a meter.
 

irart

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peter74. Further to the discussion about dish sizes, have a look at this this link http://www.astra2d.com/footprint.htm and scroll down to the bottom map. As you see Gibraltar is sort of on the edge of one of the circle rings. Have you checked with others in the area with the 1.2 - 1.3m dishes you mention that they receive all the channels?
 
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