Gradually being driven mad!

JM99

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OK, slowly losing the plot.

Wife decides she would like to access TV from 'back home' (or possibly make contact with former KGB handlers)...

I have bought a kit from Sateuropa - Technomate TM-5400, 80cm dish, Moteck diseqc 1.2 motor - seems good value, and straightforward.

The previous owners had Sky (with a dish mounted at the back of the house) - we moved on to cable when we arrived, so never needed the sky setup, and most of our neighbours have sky (or at least the dishes), and all pointing roughly the same way... and of course means the cable is already in situ and runs round to the front terminating neaqr our TV in the front room - all good.

Checked out dishpointer online - worked out where true S was, and discovered that Thor at 1W was just about spot on for us - we live west of london just off the M25, so about 51.5N, 0.5W.

Removed weedy Sky dish, stuck up new bracket (about as plumbed as I can get it - I admit it might not be 100% - the bracket supplied sticks out from the wall and is kind of S shaped making it difficult to be totally sure - but it has to be close - like 98-99%).

Stuck up motor, set elevation (well latitude) to 51, set dish angle to 22-and-a-tiny-bit (the scale is not that accurate, at least not down to 0.1s) , aligned it manually to true S, plugged in cables etc, turned on receiver, did the USALS quick setup - input co-ords as above, looked for Thor 1W.

On the 'motorised setup' screen on the receiver I get Level 97%, Quality 21%. The quality jiggles around between 19% and 22%.

I use the fine adjust on the motor to go a little bit W and the E. Nothing. Nada. Level 97%, Quality 21%.

I try to point at hotbird 13E, and half a dozen in between. no change. 97/21%. sometimes 97% jiggles around a bit - 87 - 90 - 97. sometimes as it swings around the quality rises to 23% or drops to 19% - never higher, never lower.

OK, I think, maybe I've screwed up on the elevation and somehow I'm way out - maybe I've missread the scale on the motor or the dish bracket - or may be the chart in the motor guide is way off. This morning I pointed it back at Thor 1W, and sat outside whilst the wife watched the screen. I moved the angle by 1-2degrees, up, down - I started at the bottow and worked my way up, so at one point the dish was pointing at the ground, and at the end pointing at the moon - no change 97%/21%.

Ahh, maybe the cables (possibly the old cables from the previous sky system), or maybe the new extension cables I'd picked up in Homebase to go from the living room to the receiver or from the motor to the LNB. Of course the cables must be sort of OK, since the motor works - but maybe the motor is less sensitive to cable faults. or maybe the motor is the problem.

I tried another cable dangled across the living room, dining room and out via the patio doors - and direct into the LNB, bypassing the motor.

With no cable at all, I get Level 10-20%, quality 21%. With the new cable and no motor? yup. level 97%, quality 21%.

I put all the cables back the way they were. I'm back on Thor - I've swept as W as I can go, and E out to 19E. The screen says 97/21%. It appears to be able to scan for channels, and on Thor it came back with a list doing a scan, but obviously I can't actually watch anything because it then says Bad or No Signal.

What is going wrong? Am I stupid? Have I missed something? Is my LNB or receiver broken? Surely even if I was way out on direction, you would expect that as I swung the dish around the signal quality would vary - even if that was downwards (to like 1%) or upwards (to 30+) - it doesnt seem to matter where it points - it just comes up with 21.:confused

I'm assuming Level just means reception quality between the LNB and the receiver? Whats going wrong!!!???

Help would be most appreciated!
 

rolfw

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JM99 said:
What is going wrong? Am I stupid? Have I missed something? Is my LNB or receiver broken? Surely even if I was way out on direction, you would expect that as I swung the dish around the signal quality would vary - even if that was downwards (to like 1%) or upwards (to 30+) - it doesnt seem to matter where it points - it just comes up with 21.:confused

I'm assuming Level just means reception quality between the LNB and the receiver? Whats going wrong!!!???

Help would be most appreciated!

You will get an upswing in Strength and start to see a viable Quality reading only when you are very close to the required alignment. It requires precision and small movements. You are looking for a small box 24,000 miles above the equator so if you are more than a few tenths of a degree out in Azimuth or a couple of tenths out in Elevation (or both) you will get zilch (Other than the base readings you've already got, which indicate little more than that you've got an LNB connected and powered up).
 

JM99

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Have more or less followed exactly what is in the guide - found south by taking the green line from Dishpointer and picking landmarks (as it happens the true S line is dead on to the corner of the shed at the bottom of the garden) - then used USALS to aim at Thor - must be about right because the dish hardly moved (I'm .5W, Thor is 1W, so therefore almost my due S - yes?).

I will head up and have another go today - have friends coming around for a BBQ, so will enlist their help to watch the TV and shout! - I guess I must just be way off for some reason on azimuth - elevation must be right having followed all the guides...

Cheers for the advice! I'll let you know when it works (and I lose my wife to 24 hrs of moscovsky saga)
 

rolfw

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Yes, but how did you make sure that you were on Thor?

Dishpointer is a good aid to establishing roughly where to point your dish, it is not an exact dish pointing tool, we have many threads on the forum with frustrated people who have tried to use it as such.

You have to use either a meter, or the gauges on your receiver to fine tune the declination of your dish and the and the azimuth of the complete rig by moving it around the mast..
 

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Even when 1w is one's due south satellite, it can be easier aiming initially for 5w which is virtually unmissable using either the 11591 or 12543 transponders (or indeed one or two others). Once located , especially using USALS, it should then be relatively easy fine-tuning on 1w.
 

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JM99 said:
elevation must be right having followed all the guides...

The clue is the word "guide": Setting precisely to the theoretical Elevation value is nigh on physically impossible and in any event you will have to alter it slightly whilst aligning to cater for cumulative errors in the rest of the system. eg 1/4 of a degree in pole plumb may not be obvious: Add that to possibly half a degree lack of precision in the Motor Latitude setting: Add (or subtract!) small amounts due to clamps shifting as you tighten ..........
 

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I found my TM5200 receiver came with lots of dead transponders which caused me same problem as you have. When you are in the satellite setup menu check what transponder the receiver is currently using. Go to lyngsat.com and check that the transponder is active or post here and someone will tell you.
 

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Specifically, use 11325 H 24500 7/8 on Thor: That is a nice strong TP carrying BBC World.
 

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Having mucked about a few times trying to do it all by hand, and getting friends/the wife to stand looking at the screen - I've decided to do the proper thing and go buy a meter.

Even with USALS pointing 'roughly' at Thor, and using Tivu's settings (which I picked up off another thread on this site), I still don't seem to be able to pick up a reading. I figure if I buy a meter at least I'll get it right without fiddling about, and the meter can be used next time we move house/decide to buy a bigger dish etc. etc.

Hey ho, serves me right for trying to be too clever or take short cuts. As an IT professional I should know better!

Thanks to all so far - will post when I am successful (or fallen off the roof)!
 

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If you are an IT expert, have you tried closing the windows and then starting again! he! he!
 

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Ho Ho bleeding ho!

Very cheap I thought.

At last - working! I bought some £30 kit in Maplin as I was passing - And discovered that I had Thor almost spot on - a few mm out. The problem was I can't/couldn't pick up any actual channel signals on Thor, on any transponder. don't know why - i have an absolutely clear view of it.

I only realised this because the sat finder was absolutely whistling on Thor, but the receiver gave me the same 21% quality signal. Moved on to Hotbird, got 9 on the scale, checked the receiver and on a couple of transponders got 90-96%

So, finally, we have sat TV! Still can't get all the Russian channels, the main broadcaster is 40E, a Russian sattelite, but unfortunately it seems to be very low on the horizon and is blocked by nearby buildings and trees, the furthest round I can get is about 28E.

Still we have 4 or 5 Russian channels so thats OK - One last question I have is, with my receiver i can scan and pick up lots of channels, but I only am able to get a signal (i.e. pick up the transponder - is it frequency?) on some and a fairly limited set at that - I can see other channels that are Russian but are on transponders where I get nothing (worked out that on my receiver 21% is equal to nothing, why I do not know).

Do I need a better/different receiver to get those channels as well? Or are they just not accessible in some way? I realise some you have to ahve a card and pay for, but i can see which those are because my receiver puts a '$' symbol next to them, and tells you what kind of card you need.

Thanks everybody! Happy watching...;)
 

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JM99 said:
Ho Ho bleeding ho!

Very cheap I thought.

At last - working! I bought some £30 kit in Maplin as I was passing - And discovered that I had Thor almost spot on - a few mm out. The problem was I can't/couldn't pick up any actual channel signals on Thor, on any transponder. don't know why - i have an absolutely clear view of it.

I only realised this because the sat finder was absolutely whistling on Thor, but the receiver gave me the same 21% quality signal. Moved on to Hotbird, got 9 on the scale, checked the receiver and on a couple of transponders got 90-96%

So, finally, we have sat TV! Still can't get all the Russian channels, the main broadcaster is 40E, a Russian sattelite, but unfortunately it seems to be very low on the horizon and is blocked by nearby buildings and trees, the furthest round I can get is about 28E.

Still we have 4 or 5 Russian channels so thats OK - One last question I have is, with my receiver i can scan and pick up lots of channels, but I only am able to get a signal (i.e. pick up the transponder - is it frequency?) on some and a fairly limited set at that - I can see other channels that are Russian but are on transponders where I get nothing (worked out that on my receiver 21% is equal to nothing, why I do not know).

Do I need a better/different receiver to get those channels as well? Or are they just not accessible in some way? I realise some you have to ahve a card and pay for, but i can see which those are because my receiver puts a '$' symbol next to them, and tells you what kind of card you need.

Thanks everybody! Happy watching...;)

Hi JM99

I have a channel list which includes lots of Russian and German Channels for a Technomate receiver. Send me a PM and I will send you my list if this helps.
 

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Lots of freebie Russkie channels:

_http://en.kingofsat.net/find2.php?pos=&cl=&num_pays=40&num_genre=&num_crypt=1&num_standard=&ordre=freq


If you want to look for 40E try for the Uzbek channels on 11096H 4000 5/6 - they are an easy catch. Some of the \Russian channels on 40E are fairly low power - Ive never picked up more than a couple of channels off 40E
 

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Analoguesat said:
Lots of freebie Russkie channels:

_http://en.kingofsat.net/find2.php?pos=&cl=&num_pays=40&num_genre=&num_crypt=1&num_standard=&ordre=freq


If you want to look for 40E try for the Uzbek channels on 11096H 4000 5/6 - they are an easy catch. Some of the \Russian channels on 40E are fairly low power - Ive never picked up more than a couple of channels off 40E

Hi m8..
I am more than a little curious about - Express AM1 - myself..
I've repeatedly tried to get the 2 RSS transponders on 10967 and 10995 V....but not so much as a squeak from them
Im guessing they are using a low power spot of some kind ...as Lyngsat shows the European wide beam as only requiring a 80cm dish ...
The centre of the footprint being located over the UK ..
Very misleading indeed..
rgds
VS
 

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LoMax said:
Hi JM99

I have a channel list which includes lots of Russian and German Channels for a Technomate receiver. Send me a PM and I will send you my list if this helps.

Hi LoMax - thanks, but I can't work out how to send you a PM - i think maybe I don't have the rights to do this?
 

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Analoguesat said:
Lots of freebie Russkie channels:

_http://en.kingofsat.net/find2.php?pos=&cl=&num_pays=40&num_genre=&num_crypt=1&num_standard=&ordre=freq


If you want to look for 40E try for the Uzbek channels on 11096H 4000 5/6 - they are an easy catch. Some of the \Russian channels on 40E are fairly low power - Ive never picked up more than a couple of channels off 40E

Thanks for the web address - however I cannot get 40E - sadly - I know it has loads of Russian Channels. This sat appears to be very low on the horizon from where I am and is blocked by local buildings and trees; I'd have to mount a dish on the roof to have any chance of getting it (which is not feasible).
 

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Just upload the list to rapidshare and provide a deactivated link to it, like _http://www.testlink.co.uk
 

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rolfw said:
Just upload the list to rapidshare and provide a deactivated link to it, like _http://www.testlink.co.uk

its actually from another forum (Darkman *****). Am I allowed to post links to it as there is some useful stuff there for Technomate Receivers!?
 

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LoMax said:
its actually from another forum (Darkman *****). Am I allowed to post links to it as there is some useful stuff there for Technomate Receivers!?


In short, No :)
 
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