Problem with a new digital satellite system

r_keates

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Hi all,

first post here, and first satellite, so please be gentle with me!

Bought a FTA digi satellite kit the other day, comprising a 58cm dish, universal LNB, Comag SL35 reciever, 20m of cable and a satellite "beeper".

Been installing this today. Very bad freeview reception in this area, hence the decision to go with FTA satellite. Anyhow, lots of sky digital dishes around to use as basic reference points as to where I should be pointing the dish.

Mounted the dish in approximately the right position, hooked up the sat finder/bleeper and fired up the receiver... it bleeped away, and so I adjusted the horizontal and vertical angles until I had the highest pitch and loudest bleep I could find, as per the instructions.

Disconnected the bleeper and hooked the coax directly back into the LNB, happy that the dish was in the right place.

However, the signal strength meter and quality meter on the reciever had not changed at all... faulty box perhaps, I thought...

So, went to my friend's house up the road who has Sky, and hooked the box onto his coax line... and it downloaded all the channels no problem with around an 80% signal... so I know the box is good.

I've connected the bleeper unit to the box end of the coax, and found it's getting no signal at all from the satellite / LNB.

Also measured and i've got a 6 volt drop between the box and the dish (it's only around 12 metres of cable), so I reterminated the F Plugs, but it's still exactly the same.

The coax runs through a galvanised steel ventilation duct for about 4 metres of its length, don't know whether this could cause problems?

So now i'm stuck completely... I know the box is good when hooked into someone else's sky dish... I believe the LNB is fine, as the sat finder was beeping away higher and lower as I moved the dish around...

The only thing I can think of is a cable problem... i've tested it with a meter and there's no short on it, so i'm stuffed.

Any of you guys got any suggestions of what I can try? Only other thing I can think of is buying some CT100 or 125 cable and trying that instead, just don't really want to spend out on that to find there's no difference!

Thanks very much in advance for your time,

Rob :-worship
 

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Welcome to the forum r_keates

Well I am sorry to hear that you are having problems, I cannot say I know what the effect of the conduit would be but I would have thought it would not really matter. The only way is to take it out of the conduit temporarily. I would suggest based on what you have said that you are simply looking at an alignment problem. The dish has to generally vertical as per the picture and the signal path has to be clear of trees and obstructions.
 

Park Royal

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You might even be lined up on another satellite. Set your receiver to 19east and see if you can scan in any channels.
PR
 

r_keates

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Cheers for the replies guys, I think you're right, i've most likely pointed it at the wrong satellite... didn't realise quite how accurate the alignment has to be, what with it being my first install!

I'll take a compass up there tomorrow and have another go.

Cheers

Rob :)
 

2cvbloke

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r_keates said:
Cheers for the replies guys, I think you're right, i've most likely pointed it at the wrong satellite... didn't realise quite how accurate the alignment has to be, what with it being my first install!

I'll take a compass up there tomorrow and have another go.

Cheers

Rob :)

Easy mistake to make if your new, everyone's done it at some point... :)

I remember when I was moving my old indoor minidish and accidentally picked up Atlantic Bird 3's analogue channels... :D
 

Gausie

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Don't forget to do the magnetic north subtraction....
 

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Gausie said:
Don't forget to do the magnetic north subtraction....
Well don't leave us all hanging there, please explain to us all how....:p
 

2cvbloke

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Just a little technique I tried out a while back, using Google Earth I took a screenshot of above where I live, then overlayed a compass image, then using MSPaint I drew out the approximate direction of each satellite I want (only one was out of reach, which was Astra 2), and printed the image out, sat it in my windowsill aligned with the road outside, then got my indoor dish aligned a lot faster than usual (with the aid of my alignment meter, the needle display type), it's a lot easier than waving the dish about hoping to get the right satellite... :)
 

r_keates

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Thanks for all the replies guys...

IT'S WORKING!!! :-balloons

Turned out to be my bad alignment, had another go today, starting it parallel with the sky minidish next to it... then a degree or two's fine tuning and we're up and running!

Thanks again,

Rob :D
 

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Well done, see that wasn't very painful was it, it took no time at all compared to some people's previous attempts, with them it was more like :-deadhorse they went on for weeks :-rofl2
Welcome to the wonderful world of satellite TVM:W :-dancer1 Oh keep it quiet down the pub otherwise they'll all want one O-no
 
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