Freesat advice Cologne Germany

[stu]

Hello there,

I have been researching on installing Freesat, I believe for all weather conditions an 80-100cm dish should be OK.

However I am unsure on what LNB I should buy! Can anyone recommend one? Any tips for installation would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers
Stuart

 

[Topper]

Welcome to the forum stu

well you are in the West of Germany but you should not need anything special in the way of lnb, just make sure you get any universal one that has the correct collar diameter for your dish. If you may need or do need more than one stb connected then think in terms of a dual output or quad, are you using sky + box or twin tuner?

 

[Robbo]

Hi,

Reading a few reports for that area, an 80cm seems to be the general consensus as the minimum size needed.

Cologne is inside the published Astra 2D footprint, so you shouldn't have too much trouble. Go for one of the run-of the-mill LNBs to start with, there's no point spending the extra if you don't need to. I have always found the Inverto Silvertechs to work the best out of the few i have tried, and they are nice and cheap.

Set up tips:-

Go to dishpointer.com , to check which way the dish has to point.

Find somewhere that you have a clear view of the sat

Mount the dish firmly.

Use a Receiver as a signal meter, to tweak the dish, and remember to adjust the skew and the in and out position of the LNB for best signal.

Or use a professional meter if you have/can borrow/hire one.

 

[stu]

Thanks for both of the replys!

Answers to your questions I will have just a normal Freesat box not Sky+

Umm it all sounds "too easy" I will experiment this weekend!

Do the cheap signal meters actually work?

Robbo - What do you mean by "remember to adjust the skew and the in and out position of the LNB"

Cheers
Stuart

 

[Topper]

Robbo is referring to firstly the in and out, the neck of the holder is narrower than the neck of the lnb thus allowing backward and forward movement to allow you to obtain the best focus of signal on the lnb. In the same way as a torch beam would be concentrated on the lnb from the front assuming the dish was a mirror
The skew has to be altered according to the satellite you are aiming at. If you were aiming at your due south satellite at the top of the arc for where you are, you would have zero skew. Any satellite East of that is rotated slightly clockwise looking at the dish from the front, so the amount of skew increases the further east the satellite is you are viewing. The same applies to the westerly satellites, only the skew is anti-clockwise looking from the front of the dish and again increasing. The lnb is actually rotated in the holder by those few degrees. On a motorsed system either horizon to horizon or a polar mount, the skew is achieved mechanically and automatically by clever geometry of the mount or motor

 

[Robbo]

Do the cheap signal meters actually work?

Well, the problem is that they don't tell you which satellite you have, and they just give you an 'untuned' signal level.

I have used one a few times, but the cheap one I had broke after using it a few times, so I used a 'spare' receiver coupled to a small portable LCD TV instead, and found it much more reliable and easy to use.