Problems with 2D signals lately especially CH4 and BBC London

DishDick

Regular Member
My Satellite Setup
.
My Location
Gran Canaria
Having problem with 2D channels lately, especially CH4, BBC1 London and even sometimes BBC Scotland. Was ok until recently. Tried to relign dish. Tried different LNBs (and yes Inverto Black Ultra was tried), tweaked everything and the best I can get on CH4 is

Noise margin -0.2 db
MER 7.2 db
EVM 44%

Any other members in the Canaries who can give me their readings? (mine taken at 4pm)

Thanks
 
Badr 5 interference maybe? More and more tp's are being lit up at 26E.
 
Who knows?

Hoping for some comparable data. Measured one down the road, same dish, slightly better measurements (tiny bit better) but that is a multi lnb and mine is a multiswitch system so insertion losses etc. Just would like other data, offset and prime focus. Want to know if either I am wasting my time, or whether I am just useless. I even had to contact another installer who I have helped out in the past and am waiting for him to come and take a look - how embarrassing!
 
Theres also an outside chance your reception on a few frequencies is getting nailed by interference from the Pan Arabic beam from Arabsat 5A at 30.5E as well :D
 
Oh Joy! Thanks for that! I am going to get very depressed. Waisted two days on this dish. I take pride that I get more channels than anyone else here with no break up on the important channels (BBC1,2 ITV1, CH4 and 5 etc), up until now! Why don´t they bring out an mpeg streaming Slingbox, I could lose my dish then.
 
You do realise the currently widebeam ITV's & C5's are almost certain candidates to be Astra 1N spotbeamed in a few weeks time dont you ? :D

Looks like 30.5E could cause problems with frequencies around 10862V - thats the Disney tp on 28E - although 28E is on the opposite polarity
 
There's nothing on 26ºE or 30.5ºE that is going to interfere with Channel 4 reception.
 
Faling lnb(s) / weak tuner(s) ??

C4 uses the lowest frequency at 28E so will stress the lnb / receiver the most to get it.
 
No problem (yet!) with ITVs on 2D
big_grin.gif
. I think 1N won´t be a problem here (for us big dish owners), I don´t think we will have much luck with 2E when that comes, but broadband speeds will be better here by then and maybe there will be a HD MPEG Slingbox available by then!
 
No I tried new LNBs (though I haven´t tried a new Invacom - got one in stock somewhere). Might be worth giving it a go as due the the high temps and strong sun here (no rain in about six months, just glorious sunshine! :D ) they do tend to cook, The Black ultra everyone raves about gave a worse reading on my Rover meters (tried two meters in case meter wasn´t working), a technomate 0.1 Gold plated etc etc LNB didn´t even give a reading on BBC and CH4 (so that is in a kit of parts now) and an old baked Maximum also didn´t give a reading on those channels so is in the same state.
 
DishDick said:
The Black ultra everyone raves about gave a worse reading on my Rover meters
That's because the feed is not matched to the dish. What f/d ratio is the dish? Most likely thing is the dish is not perfect (distorted a couple of mm somewhere).
 
Analoguesat said:
You do realise the currently widebeam ITV's & C5's are almost certain candidates to be Astra 1N spotbeamed in a few weeks time dont you ? :D

Yes, interesting. It does add "will first provide interim capacity at 28.2° East for the UK and Ireland" but of course there are three footprints - UK spot beam, Pan-European Beam 1 and Pan-European Beam 2. Who knows what is planned ;)
 
Hi Huevos, F/D is 0.54.

Dish was working ok before. The fibre glass dish is well fixed and not able to move. I suppose I could get someone round to help me undo and re tighten the bolts whilst checking the signal, but its like opening Pandoras box. You start with something that’s not too bad, you try to improve it and end up with something worse!
 
DishDick said:
F/D is 0.54.
Black Ultra is for a 0.7 f/d dish. Is there not a matched feed for that dish.
 
Well Huevos the manufacturer of the dish recommends the Black Ultra (over their matched feedhorn), a supplier over here fits them on the dish I have and another poster on one of the other islands has fitted one and recommends it. I find the Black Ultra to be better than most I have tried but not as good as the C120 feedhorn and Invacom Quattro I currently have.
 
Right I have machined down the external ridges on the CM40mm spacer/adapter (up to now I have been using my own spacer made from a cutdown and packed out 40mm pipe) as the correct grove on the adapter was too small for my LNB clamp.

I am aso making thin spacers to try on each of the four points where the dish is anchored to the frame. Just in case dish shape can be improved.

I am also considering putting some sort of weight on the Feedhorn to counter balance the feedhorn and LNB assembly. Where the focal length is optimized the weight of the lnb downwards puts strain on the thin plastic clamp. So I though a weight at the other end would help (especially as it gets really hot here and plastic can soften). I would have wrapped lead around, but can´t get any. Any ideas what to use?
 
Can you post some pictures of this dish.
 
Here we are.

Just to clarify for UK residents the big shiny orange thing in the sky is the sun!
big_grin.gif
 

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Located in Fuerteventura and using a 3.7mtr DH dish with Invacom quattro and multiswitch. Have been unable to hold BBC1 London for some time. recently getting break up on ch4 and BBC2 scotland at about 7pm. New lnb and a bit of dish tweaking has improved things a little but do get ocassional pixellation from about 7pm - 10pm then funnily enough seems to improve.

current meter readings on Satcatcher are s/s 44 (36 after multiswitch) quality 58-60 (62-64 after multiswitch) Readings taken at 4.30pm

Also found that if maximise signal at about 9pm (which is when signal hits worst pixellation) then lose it completely the following morning!!
 
DishDick said:
Just to clarify for UK residents the big shiny orange thing in the sky is the sun!
big_grin.gif

Yes, but we only need a 43cm dish to receive 2D - even in the rain :D
 
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