Newbie first system setup?

[blackpudding]

Thanks in advance

I'm completely new to satellite, so to dip my toe in I blagged a Pace MSS 300 for free (seen working on a friends system) and I've just bought a S/H 70cm dish complete with a cambridge AE19 9.750 (LO) LNB for a £5.50 (not seen working). However so far I'm bereft of pictures!

I've no instructions so for a basic setup I've pointed the dish roughly in the direction of astra and set the box like so:

AFC: ON
LNB: ON
Tone: OFF
Band: 9.750

The default channel 1 reads as 'sky 1' (defunct?) so I changed the freq to 11421 H for MTV2 (from www.lyngsat.com) and tried to home in on the satellite. As I can't get a picture and I've never used a satellite receiver before could anyone give me a clue as to what I'm doing wrong? Alternatively is there an easy way to test the LNB (multimeter?) to see if its bust; indeed can these break??? I may just have missed a step but its all very new to me and I can't find a complete guide to installation anywhere. If it matters, the dish and LNB came with an attached cable (7M) but as I haven't had time to buy a connector for the receiver end I've just been sticking the centre conductor in the socket and wire tying the screen to the thread - not ideal but surely not the cause of no signal at all? I live out in the Peak Park so it might be a day or two until I can get to town to get a proper (F?) connector.

Confused but becoming hooked!
BP

 

[rolfw]

You should certainly be able to see that channel, are you aligning the dish while you can see a portable TV? Being roughly in the right direction is not enough, you need to be pretty well spot on, but it isn't difficult if you can see what's going on on the portable.

 

[blackpudding]

Hi,
I roughly aligned the dish then went outside to fine tune it whilst looking at the TV. I found a Pace manual online last night and although it wasn't for my model it does seem I've got the settings right for the receiver.

Could it be the S/H LNB do you think? Also is there a way to test them? Would the receiver be giving an error message if the LNB was faulty?

Stilll without a clue or a picture!
BP

 

[rolfw]

The first thing I would check is whether you are getting a voltage at the LNB end of the cable BP, you can test this with a volt meter or a light bulb (12v) or bigger.

I can't remember whether the MSS300 has a signal strength meter, but if it has, try putting your hand on the and of the LNb, or pointing at the sunlit ground and see if the strength increases, if it does, then the LNb is probably working.

LNBs are pretty cheap, so even if you need to replace it, it won't cost the earth.

 

[blackpudding]

Thanks for the advice, the receiver doesn't appear to have a meter (?) but I perservered and finally got a picture! Now I've got an extra 40 odd Astra channels (mostly German!) for a measly £5.50, including 4 music channels It probably needs a little fine tuning to get a really clean signal but for now I'm one happy bunny. I'm already thinking of adding a sky dish for the extra bbc channels (no on-digital here) and possibly seeing what other satellites are out there?

Cheers
BP

The first thing I would check is whether you are getting a voltage at the LNB end of the cable BP, you can test this with a volt meter or a light bulb (12v) or bigger.

I can't remember whether the MSS300 has a signal strength meter, but if it has, try putting your hand on the and of the LNb, or pointing at the sunlit ground and see if the strength increases, if it does, then the LNb is probably working.

LNBs are pretty cheap, so even if you need to replace it, it won't cost the earth.