Advice Needed New installation

[NeilH]

Hi I'm a new satellite dish user

I had a dish installed a couple of months ago on an outbuilding which has been converted to a garden room. At the time of installation, I couldn't test the installation - I had it installed then so that cabling could be hidden in walls. I've come to connect up a Freesat enabled TV and am receiving a message that "ASTRA 2 satellite not found"

If I try and tune the TV for other satellites, I get a bunch of German and Czech programs - such as Disney CZ and rmt_bl8 which seem to be broadcast from the Astra 3B satellite at 23.5 degrees east. I don't know whether the 3B satellite is close enough to Astra 2 to be able to pick up these signals even if the dish is correctly aligned to Astra 2.

The TV is a Panasonic TX-L42D25 which is about 6 years old. I believe it may need access to Astra 2 and Eurobird in order to complete setup.

I don't know whether I need to get the dish alignment checked, or whether purchase of a freesat set top box (which works out cheaper than a dish alignment check) would be a better next step and this is where I'm looking for advice.

I'd appreciate any help anyone can give.

Many thanks

Neil

 

[Analoguesat]

Hi Neil, welcome to the forum. Your dish is marginally misaligned - you are indeed on the satellite slot next door to 28E - 23.5E

Mark all the mounting points up with china pen, tippex, indelible felt etc then slacken the bolts of a little - you want the bolts loose enough to be able to move the dish without it slopping around all over the place. (Hence the marking of the bolts - you can quickly reset if you get hopelessly lost!)

Facing the dish swing the dish right about the width of the lnb and drop it down a fraction (half the width of the lnb will be plenty.) That will put you in the right general areas for 28E. If you can set the receiver & tv up so you can see the strength bars it will make it easier. Once you start finding a signal from the correct satellite you can tweak up the signal strength easily enough.

Styart on one of the strong frequencies (10714H 22000 5/6 which is the channel 4 multiplex is a good one).

 

[satelliteman]

Hi,
Yes, the installer has aligned the dish on 23east. Once you have found the satellite via the transponder screen 10.714 (ch4), try tweaking the dish final on 11.428 Horz for freesat.

 

[NeilH]

Thanks guys. I had a quick chat with the installer company who said that if this turned out to be a tuning problem, they would charge me a £65 callout. I wanted to try and work out if it did look like an alignment problem before I followed up on that. I'll post an update as soon as I have some progress to report.

Neil

 

[Lazarus]

It seems clear enough that the Installation Company have failed spectacularly.

A key element of their Trade must surely be to have the expertise to ensure alignment to the correct Satellite.

It is, after all, fundamental.

Do feel free to draw their attention to our comments if there is any quibble.

 

[Analoguesat]

Did the installers turn up on horses?? Because any reasonably competent installer should be able to tell the difference between 23.5E & 28E!

 

[Lazarus]

Riding a horse is far harder than dish alignment!

 

[william-1]

Them darn cowboys are everywhere you should have got a CAI Installer http://cai.org.uk/members/member-search

 

[rolfw]

Them darn cowboys are everywhere you should have got a CAI Installer http://cai.org.uk/members/member-search

View attachment 95179

Whilst there are many good CAI registered installers, some of the worst companies are also members, you only need to watch back issues of Rogue Traders.

 

[satelliteman]

Yes, agree. Choosing a CAI installer will not always guarantee you a competent installation co.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Most groups that claim tradsman professionalism are happy to swell their numbers rather than chase up on the cowboys, renewal of the annual subscription trumps maintining a good standard.

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