Newbie - No signal

[Allen1066]

I recently moved house and it came with a $ky minidish installed. So I borrowed an Echostar box to try get FTA channels. Last night I attached it to the cable that comes into the house. The installation menus show that the signal strength is 0.

Is there something I need to do to get it working. The set-up menus have lots of details about LNBs and other things. Can anyone tell me what parameters I would need for using a standard $ky minidish with a receiver like this ?

Or is it likely to be the dish out of alignment, or problems with the cable ? I've nothing else to use that I can test it with, and I can only assume the people who used to live there used it. When we went to view the house they definitely had a $ky box plugged in.

Thanks,

Allen

 

[rolfw]

First thing to do is check the connector on the end of the cable, maybe they pulled it off when removing their receiver and didn't put it back on properly. The outer brais should not be touching the copper core, there must be a good electrical connection.

Then you need to make sure that you have selected the correct satellite Astra 2 at 28.2 East in the setup menu, if the box isn't set to that satellite, then you will need to do a scan. Also make sure that you have connected to the LNB input and not the loopthrough.

 

[Allen1066]

I'll have to check these when I get home, but the cable coming into the house had what looked like a good connector on the end. If definitely had the box set to 28.2 East. On the back of the box there was an IF out and an LNB in, so I connected to the LNB in. I would assume that is correct.

In the installation menus i selected Astra 2 and tried a scan, but since there was no signal, no channels were found.

I'll have another fiddle this evening and post more details as I find them.

Thanks,

Allen

 

[Allen1066]

I've had another go with the receiver. I've checked the cable and it looks fine. I'm just wondering could it be that the dish installed is for $ky analogue and I'm using a digital receiver ?

The receiver I'm borrowing is the Echostar D-2500IP. Should this work okay with a $ky mini dish ?

 

[rolfw]

It will work OK with a minidish, even if it were pointing at Astra 19.2. It may of course have become misaligned.

 

[Allen1066]

So is the most likely scenario that the dish is misaligned ?
What about the analogue thing. I'm new to this, so are there different analogue and disgital LNBs, or are they all the same?

 

[rolfw]

If it is a sky minidish, then it is a universal LNB, so suitable for digital transmissions. The older analogue LNBs were only single band, so couldn't receive all of the channels.

 

[Allen1066]

I got it working !!
You'll never guess what the problem was....
The previous owners of the house had 'kindly' CUT through the cable from the dish!!!!
No wonder I wasn't getting any signal!
Anyway, I fixed the 2 ends together and now I'm getting a signal and FTA from Astra 2.
Now I can look at building my PC based receiver and maybe getting a T90 for more satellites.....

 

[rolfw]

LOL, didn't think of checking the middle of the cable. Oh well, pleased you got it going.