First time satellite set up

[Marcas]

Apologies in advance if this sounds totally daft as I am completly new to satellite TV. I was given a fairly new eliptical sky dish and bought a touchbox 4 receiver with the intention of watching French TV on Atlantic Bird. I rigged up the receiver to a TV and the dish outside the house. I tried putting in the codes for various satellites into the receiver and the names of the satellites came on screen. I then tried using a compass to turn the dish the appropriate direction but failed to pick up any signal. My questions are:

1. Is it daft to think I could get any sort of signal by simply proping it up and pointing it in the right direction? I had hoped to get something that would help me work out the most unobtrusive place I could put the dish.
2. Is there anyway of telling if the LNB is working and connected properly
3. Are there different types of LNB for different satellites

Thanks in advance for any help

 

[rolfw]

This might help a little Magnetic Variance Calculator, but your dish needs to be within a degree of the satellite, both in azimuth and elevation.

The best way to align your dish in the absence of any sort of meter, is to select a transponder on the satellite receiver for Atlantic Bird, then if possible, set up a portable TV outside and watch the on board meters as you slowly move the dish, you then need to scan the transponder to check that it is actually Atlantic Bird which you have found.

Investing in a small meter from one of our supporting advertisers would make the job a lot easier.

PS. one of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to align a dish for the first time, is to point the dish too high, the sky minidish is offset by around 25 degrees, so doesn't need to be much off the vertical to see a satellite at 30 degrees elevation, the second is pointing to the West, rather than 5 degrees West of South.

 

[cdtronix]

Atlantic bird on a mini dish, that reminds me! i did one of these for a customer around a couple of months ago, i really struggled getting a lock and that was using my horizon meter. It took me a good 40 mins to finally get a lock & decent quality on it. all fine in the end though. It just shows though its not always as easy you think, and its certainly not a case of just pointing the dish in a rough direction and hoping for the best.

 

[Marcas]

Thanks for the suggestions

 

[flashgordon1952]

i have my dish one metre one bolted to concrete garden post and works . not shure why

 

[Robbo]

Yes, I think it's a good idea to have the pole at least bolted to something. Something like a B&D workmate with a pole clamped in it would do the trick.

The other thing to be wary of is that the most of the minidish LNBs have a built in limited skew range for eastern satellites, so skewing for west is not possible without modification, or purposefully selecting one that can be skewed normally.

Robbo

 

[Marcas]

Thanks for the suggestions. I decided to buy a heavy pole and two brackets and have bolted this to the side of my garrage but haven't got as far as mounting the dish yet. The eliptical dish was given to me and from memory is about 75cm wide and 45cm tall. The lnb has Thompson written on it and appears to be adjustable to about 4 different settings. I have had a look at the dishpointer website and I'm certain I have a clear view of the Atlantic bird satellite and may be high enough to get the Astra satellite that broadcasts BBC,ITV etc. If Astra is easier to find I might start with that to make sure everything is working. Hope to get to it in the next few days