First DIY install - help/motivation needed

A

antmanbee

Member
My Satellite Setup
Comtel SA-R1
My Location
Worcester, UK
Hi,

I just spent a day trying to install a satellite dish at my parents house to receive Freesat channels BBC1, 2, ITV etc...

Unfortunately I haven't succeeded! My main issue/misunderstanding is that I see no change in signal at all.

I started with a 2nd hand Amstrad sky box that showed no signal strength at all, ever. Looking at 'www.satellliteforcaravans.co.uk' this seems to indicate a problem with the connector or box itself, so I replaced the hand wired cabling for one that came pre-connected, with no change. I was at least expecting *some* signal strength reading?:confused:

So I bought a new kit from Focus-DIY with 'Commatel SA-R1' box. This shows 45% signal and 5% quality on all satellites at all times no matter where I point the dish.

Now I'm guessing that the Sky box is faulty hence the no signal reading, and the Commatel box is correct and is effectively picking up just 'background' signal and the signal won't change until my dish alignment is absolutely spot-on? Is this correct?

I believe I've been quite thorough and precise in setting up the dish, dishpointer.com seemed to agree with my compass setting, the dish is set vertically and I've done azimuth sweeps at progressively steeper elevations. If just once I saw the signal flicker a change I would have the motivation to carry on, but at the moment I don't!

Also will a signal meter help?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Greg.
 
I take it your using the reciever as a meter. You need it to be looking at an active transponder, Try 10714H 22000 5/6, carries CH4, and line up the dish again.
 
You do NOT sweep the dish - you move it a fraction at a time and wait a few seconds for the receiver to lock on to anything received and its meter to react Try dishpointer.com for a starting point and move the lnb arm 1/2" at a time. With a standard offset arm dish the face of the dish should be very nearly vertical facing slightly downwards.
 
And to answer the last part of your post, yes a simple needle and tone meter would help. I've used one to align my own set up from fixed to motorised. When you get a signal make sure it is the sat you want by scanning for channels, otherwise you could spend time aligning on the wrong sat. Good Luck!
 
davemurgtroyd said:
< > With a standard offset arm dish the face of the dish should be very nearly vertical facing slightly downwards.
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As per the little piccy here (brazenly copied form elsewhere on the Forum, courtesy of Admin Topper, I believe .......... and very worthwhile it is too).
 

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Thanks for the help so far. I believe I've been doing everything mentioned so far apart from Rick's suggestion which I'll try.

Perhaps sweep was the wrong word to use. After aligning as per dishpointer.com didn't work I went for a more methodical approach, starting with the dish face vertical, pointing directly East I'd move it the tiniest amount I could ~1mm lateral movement, wait 10secs for box to respond then move a further 1mm etc, all the way till it was pointing directly South, then elevate the dish slightly and start again... Pretty tedious when you see no change in signal!

Unfortunately I can't go for attempt no.2 with a meter until the weekend. I'll report back, hopefully with success.
 
Tivù said:
As per the little piccy here (brazenly copied form elsewhere on the Forum, courtesy of Admin Topper, I believe .......... and very worthwhile it is too).
Click to expand...

Haha, as Admin brazenly copied this piccy some years ago I would suggest that it is now open season on this descriptive drawing, which many first timers are surprised by.
 
Thankyou, kind Sir ........... I shall now consider it open season to plagiarise (by copying into my "useful stuff for Satellite folder") any pics etc that I take a fancy to! :D
 
Check the LNb skew setting; some have a zero skew where the F connector isn't pointing down. If you've taken the skew angle from dishpointer, this would certainly throw you out.
 
The LNB has some kind of skew scale from 1 to 5, do these numbers relate to anything?
 
Not absolutely, they're just there so you can keep track of where you've tried so far.
 
antmanbee said:
The LNB has some kind of skew scale from 1 to 5, do these numbers relate to anything?
Click to expand...

Ah, sounds like a sky minidish LNb.
 
Success! :) Bought a meter and re-tried, nothing... nothing... nothing... 20 mins later HUGE signal! and that was that. A few little tweaks and the box was reading 90% signal, 72% quality.

A couple of things caught me out: I found the signal with a much higher elevation than I was expecting after reading that it should be near enough vertical, I wonder if this is anything to do with some tall trees ~80m away? And the LNB has a spirit level built in where it meets the dish arm, so I turned the dish assy until this was reading horizontal but the signal dropped dramatically, even after playing with LNB skew.

Anyway thanks for your help, now I know what to expect I'm sure I could do it a lot quicker next time. And I've no idea how anyone manages it without a meter, that's a skill!
 
antmanbee said:
Success! :)

Anyway thanks for your help, now I know what to expect I'm sure I could do it a lot quicker next time. And I've no idea how anyone manages it without a meter, that's a skill!
Click to expand...


It's like most things - after a bit of practice many of the unknowns are resolved by instinct.

Well done on getting it sorted.
 
Good job, persistence pays in the end
 
I've aligned dishes for years using the Digibox readings. I tried a cheap meter and found it worse than useless - much quicker without!

As Tivù says, it's down to experience.
 
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