Fortec Star setup - Please help!

[mrtomato]

Hi everyone. I'm helping a mate set up his freesat, he has a Fortec Star Lifetime Ultra box, FS LNB and new cable. We are using an old Sky dish (was once analogue so It's a big one). We've got 50% signal strength, but we can't seem to get better Quality. We've checked on dishpointer, skewed the LNB and all the tricks I've used in the past. Please can someone offer some advice as we're getting mad and it's snowing!!
Cheers.

 

[Lazarus]

The Skew for that FSUKVN LNB is misleading. Zero skew actually occurs with the connector not at 6 o'clock, but at 4 o'clock.

See this Thread

As for alignment, Dishpointer is useful, but often people misinterpret how to implement the required elevation: Because the LNB arm is offset by about 25 degrees, the dish face itself should be nigh on vertical.

 

[mrtomato]

OK. The dish is vertical. We've also skewed the LNB to match the thread picture. We still read only 15% quality however. No matter how much shifting we do there seems to be no change. Any more ideas?

 

[Lazarus]

Well that 50% Strength and 15% Quality is actually zero Strength and Quality, in effect - try pointing the dish at the ground and you'll find the reading remains the same - so clearly either you've got nowhere near any real Satellite position or there is another issue such as the wrong LNB setting in the Receiver.

Are you using a meter, or are you relying upon the Receiver's own "metering"?

 

[mrtomato]

Using box's meter. Thed dish is an old analogue jobby. I'm right to be on the 'Antenna Config' menu? LNB Freq UNI - DIseqc OFF - 0/12V switch OFF - all correct

 

[Lazarus]

Looks ok.

Dish is plenty big enough - I have one and it is about the same size as my (alleged) Orbital 80cm!

I'm sure you're well aware that box metering can be slow to respond to changes of incoming signal whilst aligning, so continuous dish movement is not good: Needs to be done in small increments, with a pause between each.

You might benefit from a cheap needle meter connected at the dish ..............

 

[mrtomato]

I have an old Lidl Sat meter - that should do the job? I'll probably try again at the weekend, but I'm so gutted I can't make it go! The dish is now angled virtually vertical. Should I aim to get the arm horizontal?

 

[Lazarus]

No!

Dish vertical corresponds to a "look angle" of around 25 degrees, which is what you want for Astra 2.

If you arranged it so the Arm was horizontal, you'd be looking at about zero degrees, which is no good at all.

And yes, the Lidl meter should be fine.

 

[mrtomato]

OK. I really appreciate all your advice. We've given up now and will start again on Saturday - mate will have to make do with 4 analogue channels until then! I'll do some more research - I just find it odd that whatever angle we pointed the thing at nothing seemed to change. Would it be worthwhile trying my old SL65 box to double check?
All the best and thanks again.

 

[mrtomato]

Would it be worth plugging my mate's Fortec Star box into my Sky connection to test it?

 

[Lazarus]

Yes, of course: But I think your problem is not aligning correctly.

But it may help you to know for sure where the problem lies.

 

[mrtomato]

I'm having another go at this today. Still having major problems pointing the dish however. We have a lidl sat meter attached, but still there's no life. We also appear to have matched the angle as shown on dishpointer. Please can someone lend a hand? Cheers.

 

[mrtomato]

How can we boost our quality bar? We have a reading of 78% signal strength, but even when we twist the lnb we can't get a quality of more than 16%. Please can someone suggest a solution?
Many thanks.

 

[Analoguesat]

The quality bar will jump up when you find a signal.

At the moment it sounds very much like you arent pointing at a satellite.

 

[mrtomato]

So is the signal meter just a red herring? We are tearing our hair out here!!! We are using an old sky dish and I've made sure the arm is parallel with the ground. My lidl sat meter is screaming away, but still no luck. Very annoying...

 

[Lazarus]

The arm shouldn't necessarily be parallel with the ground!

The arm is "offset"

Forget the arm.

Instead, set the dish face vertical and use that "elevation" as your starting point ...............

Edit: Looking at my "Sky" dish, the arm is very slightly tilted so that the LNB end is a tiny bit higher - but this depends upon the designed offset, which varies between different makes/generations of this dish (and any offset dish, for that matter).

As for the Meter screaming away, what you are after is a marked change in the screaming.

 

[mrtomato]

Cheers for your reply. The dish face is vertical now and the lnb is set at 6 o'clock. Is it possible because it's an old analogue dish that it was originally pointed at 19.2? The bracket on the wall prevents me from turning it any further east....could this be the problem?

 

[Lazarus]

Certainly could be - were you able to move the dish eastwards from there at all?

Sounds like you may need to re-mount it.