Lost satellites & poor reception

Dogz

Member
Joined
Dec 16, 2003
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
Points
0
New to the world of satellite TV, i paid an engineer to fit a motorised system 1 metre dish, chipped humax 540 irc receiver so my wife could watch Thai TV5 at our house in Guildford Surrey. The dish is on a pole and after some heavy winds the reception is poor, we're getting RTL from hotbird fine but Thai TV is barely coming through from the same satellite now ? Not only that but i cannot find any of the other satellites which i had programmed in nicely beforehand.

Trouble is partly that when i try to locate the satellites again the humax reciever signal strength bar is so slow in displaying the signal that most often i have gone past the satellite without it registering at all, even though the motor i'm told is particularly slow, the engineer said it would take about 30 secs or more to go from Astra to Hispasat.

Will i gain anything from buying a signal strength meter ? or should i just get up the ladder and manually adjust the vertical alignment of the dish with the missus watching the signal bar on the telly. I say that becasuse i assume that the East West alignment can be corrected by the reciever with its built in 1 degree east and west increments which i have been using to fine tune / maximise the signal strength on the bar displayed on the tv. This bar is now only registering 20% of what it did before the winds came. Help please...
 

rolfw

Believe it when I see it Admin.
Staff member
Joined
May 1, 1999
Messages
38,292
Reaction score
1,615
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
Technomate 5402 HD M2 Ci, DM7000s, Transparent 80cm Dish, Moteck SG2100 DiseqC motor, lots of legacy gear. Meters: Satlook Digital NIT, Promax HD Ranger+ spectrum analyser.
My Location
Berkshire
It sounds a bit like your dish may have moved, that being the case, you should get the installer back to re-allign it, they shouldn't move unless there are exceptional winds.
 

Dogz

Member
Joined
Dec 16, 2003
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
Points
0
I have checked the pole, it is still vertical, but to get the engineer back is £75, so cant afford that for a while, plus i think this is going to be an ongoing situation and feel i have got to to able to sort this myself.
 

Channel Hopper

Suffering fools, so you don't have to.
Staff member
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
Messages
35,533
Reaction score
8,554
Points
113
Age
59
Website
www.sat-elite.uk
My Satellite Setup
A little less analogue, and a lot more crap.
My Location
UK
If the dish has moved and the installer supplied and installed the equipment for you, it sounds like you are owed a free callback, especially if its within three /four months.
 

cjgall

Regular Member
Joined
May 19, 2003
Messages
265
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Age
66
My Satellite Setup
Topfield 4000PVR with Aston 1.07 CAM, (canaldigitaal), dragoncam,
Sky digibox,
Bush HD Freesat,
Visiosat trisat looking at Astra1, Astra2 and Hotbird.
My Location
Netherlands & Central Brittany
You could try going into your receivers setup and move the dish East or West manually to see if the signal quality improves. If it does then do this for each satellite and store the new positions.
Bear in mind though, if your dish has moved then it may do so again, you could try tightening all the nuts and bolts of your installation.
 

Dogz

Member
Joined
Dec 16, 2003
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Would love to think i'd get a free call back but its not going to happen. When i select another channel from another satellite it doesnt find it anymore and this receiver's built in signal strength meter is slow it rarely registers the satellite even with the ultra slow motor i've got. O-no
 

Dogz

Member
Joined
Dec 16, 2003
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
Points
0
I was thinking that if i got a seperate strength meter and fine tuned the one satellite that i have got reception on (hotbird) then i'd be better equipped to find the rest.
 

cjgall

Regular Member
Joined
May 19, 2003
Messages
265
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Age
66
My Satellite Setup
Topfield 4000PVR with Aston 1.07 CAM, (canaldigitaal), dragoncam,
Sky digibox,
Bush HD Freesat,
Visiosat trisat looking at Astra1, Astra2 and Hotbird.
My Location
Netherlands & Central Brittany
A motorized dish should really be pointing to a satellite nearest south when setting it up, for me in the Netherlands it is sirius (5 east). If you are in the UK then you should probably use thor (1 west). Once you have alighned the dish to that then you can search for the other satellites. You can try aligning it to hot bird but you will not get as good a signal on the other satellites as you would if you aligh the dish to thor (or whatever), the further west or east you move the dish the worst it will be.
 

cjgall

Regular Member
Joined
May 19, 2003
Messages
265
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Age
66
My Satellite Setup
Topfield 4000PVR with Aston 1.07 CAM, (canaldigitaal), dragoncam,
Sky digibox,
Bush HD Freesat,
Visiosat trisat looking at Astra1, Astra2 and Hotbird.
My Location
Netherlands & Central Brittany
Almost forgot, as Channel Hopper said, you really should get the installer come and realign the dish properly and free of charge. He/she obviously didn't do it correctly the first time.
 

Dogz

Member
Joined
Dec 16, 2003
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Thanks for the help. The installer was a miserable so and so that blatantly refused to show me how to tune a satellite for myself and when he left he'd overwritten the satellites on the reciever so that i was satellite hopping all over the place when i went up the channels on the receiver. I know he was hoping to screw me for £75 for return visits, he told me that was what they'd cost ! I really dont want him back.
The question is : will a meter help or should i shout and scream at the missus using the strength meter on the tv. (would be fun she's Thai and her english isnt quite there :-) ) I could fine tune hot bird then hopefully i could get Thor (once again) and fine tune that, before starting on the others all the way to Hispasat. !! aaargh
 

cjgall

Regular Member
Joined
May 19, 2003
Messages
265
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Age
66
My Satellite Setup
Topfield 4000PVR with Aston 1.07 CAM, (canaldigitaal), dragoncam,
Sky digibox,
Bush HD Freesat,
Visiosat trisat looking at Astra1, Astra2 and Hotbird.
My Location
Netherlands & Central Brittany
A sat meter will help, I managed to set up my motor last year without a meter by aligning the dish to sirius, after that it was just a case of rotating the dish to the other positions I wanted and storing them.

What I said about tuning the nearest satellite to south from where you live is very important, especially if you want to receiver hispasat. Before you start you should also make sure that the motor is at its zero position.
 

Dogz

Member
Joined
Dec 16, 2003
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
Points
0
OK i'll buy a meter and give it a go. And i'll reset everything a 2nd time once i have Thor aligned.
Thanks for your help.
 

Channel Hopper

Suffering fools, so you don't have to.
Staff member
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
Messages
35,533
Reaction score
8,554
Points
113
Age
59
Website
www.sat-elite.uk
My Satellite Setup
A little less analogue, and a lot more crap.
My Location
UK
Im not far from Guildford, I could probably realign the dish and advise if its going to go wrong in the future from a simple check of the components

I might even be a bit cheaper than your last 'engineer'

Let me know if you get stuck.
 

Dogz

Member
Joined
Dec 16, 2003
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Channel Hopper ... I would like to send you an e-mail. Any chance you could e-mail me with your e-mail address.

Not a good idea to post your email address in open forum Dogz as it could lead to you getting spammed by all and sundry. CH will contact you via email or PM as your address is on the system but hidden.
 

Channel Hopper

Suffering fools, so you don't have to.
Staff member
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
Messages
35,533
Reaction score
8,554
Points
113
Age
59
Website
www.sat-elite.uk
My Satellite Setup
A little less analogue, and a lot more crap.
My Location
UK
Dogz

Got your PM

Ive already tried calling you (spoke with your daughter). I will try again later today
 
Top