My tiny Hispa dish (through window!)

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Here's the setup I'm currently playing around with. The upside down dish is a Technisat Digidish 45 (which is a bit squarish shaped) with a Smart Titanium twin LNB it's pointing towards 30w. Next to it you can see the infamous Lidl Porty dish and it's currently pointing towards 13e - it also has a Titanium twin.

The Digidish is almost a match for the shape of the middle window - certainly when offset in this manner! It's getting pretty good signals on most European Hispa transponders - I'm even getting some SCPC feeds everyday. Unfortunately the problematic transponders with my old setup are still problematic, but I don't think I ever got a Hispa signal through the middle pane before - so next step is the narrower right pane.

The Porty with the Titanium makes a bit of a difference. It helps lock on to transponders that previous were flaky and gives occasional reception of other transponders that weren't available before.

 

[kamaleon]

hey skip how dare you call a porty "infamous"???
i resent that, that dish is the dogs bollox man
i've just been messing with a 85 dish in the countryside where i can allow myself too, and on a lot of transponders i don't get a signal any stronger than my porty on my flat ;)

 

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I meant infamous in a good way! ;)

Oh, I forgot to say one feed I stumbled upon earlier today was called (get this..) 'LA EMISION PIRATA'! It was on 12037 H 5632. Unfortunatley, despite it being a "TV" channel (video PID as well as audio) I could only hear it. My Spanish not being all that I wasn't able to make out anything being said but I don't really think it was a pirate transmission!

 

[kamaleon]

funny ;)

what about your new lnbs then, do they rock?

and the choice for a square dish, doez that hav to do with the shape of your window, or is it a really performant dish besides that? how does it perform compared to your mesh minidish (have you tried both outdoors?)
And, something that makes me curious, what is mounted onto? how did you get the metal pole to be bent the right angle? many questions me got ;)

 

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The LNBs aren't outstanding but then I wasn't expecting miracles. They do make a difference though, even if slight. It's more a case of holding on to weak signals more and giving me a bit of rain fade protection.

Yeah, the square dish was chosen so as to get the most reception through the window. A much larger (and much cheaper) round dish would've done the same job but a lot of it would be wasted and it would've taken up too much space!

Haven't tried the square dish outside but did try the Sky mesh dish back in September. I've not got a garden so I'd look a bit strange with fiddling with a dish and a telly in the communal areas! I tried the mesh dish out at my parents' garden before - but at that stage my dish alignment skills hadn't been honed!

As for the metal pole, it's a special upside down mount from Sat Europa. It's designed for the Digidish 45 (and a few other models). Unfortunately it looks like I can't use the mount for a right-way-up dish - but I'll try if need be!

 

[thamon]

Good work Skip I have almost same setup but my problem is that I am not getting any vertical channel almost 100 horizontal channel with my 40cm dish behind doubble glass. Between 10am to 14pm these four hours I can also get vertical channels if sun is shining. I think it is because of glass temprature ( maybe ). I have used thermometer to measure glass temprature if it is under 25 degree no vertical signal. I am living in Denmark.

 

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thamon, have you tried a different window/pane of glass? I get very different results depending which of the three the dish looks through. For instance - low frequencies come through stronger on the left hand side whilst high frequencies come through stronger on the right hand. The middle pane is a mixed bag and would be a lot better if it was taller!

Also, on the right hand pane I noticed that if I put the dish higher up (by about 4-5cms) I get a better result. I'm guessing it's to do with minute differences in the make-up of the glass.

Never thought about the temperature of the glass, could that really make a difference? I've got no idea!

 

[kamaleon]

gee, sat reception through glass, not an exact or orthodox science in any way whatsoever...

much respect you lot that are compelled to do it ;)

 

[kamaleon]

skipo, is it this http://www.sateuropa.co.uk/product_overview.asp?id=1051&catid=1&subcat=2
?
but how the heck can you adjust the elevation on it?

i'm always interested on unusual and unconventional reception techniques ;)

btw, great link, sat europa, it's full of weird unusual stuff. Technisat seem like doing loadsa wicked stuff (i've got two of their babies, skystar 2 pci & usb)

 

[Skip Channel]

Yeap, that's the thing. Not exactly the cheapest metal pole in the world, should've just blagged some scaffolding and befriended a welder!

Adjusting the elevation? You do it in much the same way as if it were the right way up. I use trial and error as opposed to mathematics! I'll take some close ups tomorrow of the back of the dish.

 

[kamaleon]

oh say i must be really daft... of course you do it on the dish, not on the pole... cor blimey whatever was me thinkin of...

 

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Cor Blimey indeed! ;)

Here's the closeups anyway, plus a birdseye view of what the dish "sees"!

 

[Yeshi]

May i ask is all this through double glazed glass. as i tried on a porty and got nothing

 

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Yep, all through double glazing. I've tried it out on double glazing at my parents' and it worked there as well. Also setup my brother-in-law's system and that worked through their double glazing too. I did have a problem setting up a friend's dish indoors but that was because he had really old windows - so I guess the glass was uneven.

 

[kamaleon]

What??? the porty is missing from your picture!!!

 

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Well spotted! It's still around, just out of shot. I've been playing around with a signal meter so took the step of moving it off the window sill.

The meter seems pretty good on Hispasat but it gets overloaded on the eastern satellites. It can sniff out a signal on Hotbird even when you think you're on Sirius and when it peaks on 8w you have to move it away from the strongest signal or you get 5w swamping it!

I get the feeling these aren't meant for fine tuning!

 

[kamaleon]

indeed, the best is to use them along a laptop with a skystar usb ;) like I

 

[spiney]

Well, my dish is through window too, but only 40cm Sky minidish with standard lnb, so mainly astra2/1 Hotbird, can get a few transponders other sats too ...... but I've got enough to watch already, and there's also lots of trees, so I don't bother much.

Window glass is a supercooled liquid, with no crystalline or other "long range" structure, so in theory ought to pass everything up to about 25 Ghz with no problems. But actual results vary, presumably due to various impurities added for all sorts of different reasons.

I've got a choice of 2 windows. One is 50 years old, a single pane with added "secondary glazing", results are poor on that with hi band attenuation. The other window is a modern sealed unit, which is fine. Could it be that older type window glass is usually worse, for some reason?

 

[kamaleon]

Say skip, do you think a multifeed on a 45cm technisat like yours would be any good? I've seen some around on ebay, i wonder how they perform...

 

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Well, I'm in impressed with the results I get with the dish upside down and looking through double glazing! I'd imagine the reception outside and right-way-up would be pretty amazing. Over the summer I might try it out at my parents' place as they have a nice south facing garden and are used to my dish exploits!

I know the dish is up to doing a good job, and I know my Smart Titanium LNB is doing a grand job, but - I have no idea what Technisat's Multytenne LNB is like. Although obviously it's designed for the dish whereas my LNB isn't.

It would be good if someone in the UK or outside of Germany gave it a go and could share with us their findings but I guess most of these sell in and around Germany because of the choice of Astra 3 as one of the four satellites.

Back to the dish itself, mine is currently pointing at 13e and is getting most transponders with ease. All the TPS ones are good ATM, Sky Italia are all nice and strong (shame I can only watch the FTA!) but about 5 not coming in at all and a further 5-10 breaking up or coming in only at certain times.