Problems with Astra 1L and Astra 1H

[Saturn]

Hello,

I am trying to receive Dutch TV on Astra 1L and Astra 1H in the UK.

We recently had a 60CM dish installed. This connects directly into a Topfield 5510 PVR. The engineer who installed dish did not have much experience of the pointing at Astra 1 - but showed me his satellite finder that was displaying 19.2 E and a good signal strength of approx. 80%.

There are a number of FTA channels on Astra 1L - one being BVN (H, 12,574 GHz, 22000). The Topfield was preinstalled with a number of Dutch Channels - one of which is BVN. This appears to be setup correctly?

However - even though the Topfield shows signal strength of 80% on the BVN channel - there is no signal quality. The strange things is that I am getting a reading of signal strength of 80% and a signal quality of approx. 80% on other encrypted Pay channels on Astra 1H. However, I am unable to watch these as they are encrypted and I do not have an activated view card. The screen is just black on these channels.

The other strange thing is that I am getting a good picture on the standard UK channels such as BBC, ITV etc. I did not think that these were broadcast on 19.2E?

This leads me to the conclusion that dish is not actually pointing at the right satellite. My wife is desperate to get Dutch TV.

Do you think that we should try to re-align the dish ourselves - until we get a picture on BVN?

Your help / advice would be very much appreciated.

 

[satelliteman]

He's locked it up on the wrong satellite. Most installers should be able to find Astra1.

From astanding behind the dish looking out towards the sky, the dish needs to go 9° in a Westerly direction and elevation raised

 

[Saturn]

Thanks for that Satelliteman.

But what I don't understand is - why am I seeing a good strength and quality on Astra 1H? (even though I can't check this because the channels are encrypted?)

 

[rolfw]

Different satellites will use similar frequencies for their transponders, as there is only a finite amount of bandwidth.

Just move it to the West as Satelliteman says, have someone watching the signal meter or use a portable TV to monitor it, or alternatively get the installer back to align it to the correct satellite.

 

[jphili]

But what I don't understand is - why am I seeing a good strength and quality on Astra 1H? (even though I can't check this because the channels are encrypted?)

Because for example both Astra 1H and Astra 2B transmit on 12070 H. So you might think it is 1H, when in fact it is 2B.

 

[A nonymous]

I get it all the time when lining up Sky dishes on transponder 48 here in the UK. ( I always use transponder 48 on 10818 V for some reason, never figured out why, i just do !)

I always use the spectrum on my meter rather than the sat finder function and i can never tell 19.2e and 28.2e apart until i scan the transponder.

After i get a satellite lock if it comes up with BBC1 i know i'm on the right satellite i.e 28.2e , If i get Canal+ Accion+30 i know i'm on the wrong satellite i.e 19.2e.

This is what the guy who set your dish up has done !

Both Astra 1KR and Astra 2D transmit on 10818 V. Your receiver will think its on the right satellite because you've told it that is. It sees the frequency and the polarisation is correct so it assumes it looking at the right satellite.

Hope this explains it.

:-beer

Nano

 

[Saturn]

All,

Thanks for your help.

I got the engineer back to point at the right sat.

All done and working fine.

The engineer could not belive that he was pointing at the wrong dish. We was only convinced when my wife plugged the sky box into the dish and got a perfect picture.

The guy claims that it was due to a fault on his sat finder gizmo that had been updated with the wrong sat info during a recent update!!!