Probs with receiving hotbird.....any ideas please?

thewarrior

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Hi All,

I have been messing around today with my sky mini-dish and my 80cm dish in order to receive hotbird 13 east.

Started with the Sky mini-dish, couldnt receive much on here, weak signal, so l removed the LNB from the sky mini-dish and placed this onto my old 80cm solid dish. The signal level remained about the same, 70% but the Quality was down again to 10-15%. Satellite receiver is the Humax 5400.

This is puzzling the hell out of me now....I have been messing with the 80cm dish, with a new coax feed as well, but still the Quality remains very low.

I had noticed to my dismay, that the LNB arm seems to move a little bit, just by simply tapping it gently (can move slightly to the left or right, dependent upon the wind), thus the Quality Level then jumps between 0-5%, but more likely to 0%.

I am pretty hacked off at this stage as the weather was pretty bad today and l have some pictures on hotbird, until the next gust of wind comes and blows the LNB to the side..then will have no Quality Level...

Any ideas of what can be done would be gratefuly received....

Is a Sky LNB Sufficient or shall l buy another one.
How can the LNB bracket be secured?
Do you think that the dish is not aligned correctly, as in the past no probs have been observed with signal quality.

I would appreciate your thoughts,

many thanks,
tw.
 

BGonaSTICK

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I think the ovrewhelming response that you will get here, will be that yes, you should buy a new LNB - especially as they don't cost very much. I bought a realy good one on ebay a few weeks back for a quid.

You should then definitely check over your dish. If it's suspect, replace it. Again, only £20 - £40 for a reasonable make. Even less S/H. Look in your local paper.

Finally, you should borrow a meter and spend an hour aligning in perfectly. Waterproof your LNB connection, and sit back and watch some quality TV. :)
 

Analoguesat

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A Sky Digital dish LNB is not strictly compatible with a circular dish - its engineered for the oval shape of a sky digital dish. Buy a new LNB for under 20 quid.
 

gameboy

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Being a miserable Scot (thought I would say it before anyone else did) I would try with what I had to hand working.

It's only going to end up in the bin.

If the LNB was working OK at 28.2 deg then it should be OK now - you could be wasting good money buying a new one.

Try and fix the lnb arm so thet it doesn't move using anything you can - try super glue or screwing it to the dish. Once you have the LNB fixed and the arm working use a meter to get the best signal. If you don't have a meter borrow one or try using the receiver to get the best signal.

In this weather it will only improve as the weather does.

The 80cm dish should be OK for Hotbird at your location.

So, I think the LNB is OK the dish may need a slight adjustment and you should be able to secure the LNB with a bit of effort and finally this weather can only improve...
 

thewarrior

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thanks for the response guys.

much appreciated,

I will be having a look at this next weekend, l am unable to get hold of a meter, so l am just using the signal strength indications on the sat receiver

thanks again for your help
 

thewarrior

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I havent registered with ebay yet, but if you guys are confident using ebay, then I will buy the LNB from there...

Is the Humax 0.3 LNB any good or shall I just get a standard 0.6 Universal LNB,

cheers
 

eghamhigh

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I've got a sky minidish working with 13E (I'm in Surrey). It also works with 19E. I had to adjust the LNB skew. Search on threads started by closetosoton called "Mini dish skew adjustment". I would put the path in for you to follow but don't know how to do it.

I was able to get the signals from 13E and 19E by waving the minidish around in my first floor bedroom using a pace analogue receiver!.
 

thewarrior

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thats interesting, as l couldnt pick up much to be honest....


but people have commented about weaker signals transmitted on hotbird, thus requiring a bigger dish...
 

BGonaSTICK

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MTI Blue line 0.6db LNB is a real bargain. Top quality LNB for no money.
 

thewarrior

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thanks wil have a look on ebay for that,


what about the 0.3 Humax LNB? any good?
 

Analoguesat

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Hotbird is marginally weaker than 19E in the uk. I tried a 43cm dish last summer to see what I could get. Some of the 13E tp's were too weak to be successfully received, although most of the stronger ones were fine. 19Ewas fine.
 

gameboy

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thewarrior

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thanx alot, didnt realise that u could change levels by the skew,
 

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I am told that the new Invacom 0.03dB LNB is the best premium quality LNB on the market!
And at a cost of only £23:75 new (if you look hard enough) is an absolute bargain!!
I paid £3 for delivery.

Specifications:

Universal Single LNB 0.3dB Horn




snh-wlrg.jpg


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A high performance universal LNB with an integrated feed-horn and 1 output. Typically used with motorised dishes, or where the signal strength is poor.


Input Frequency 10.7 - 12.75 GHz

Output Frequency 950 - 2150 MHz

0.3dB typical

Gain 50 - 60dB

Interface 40mm clamp

Ideal dish F/D 0.6


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Online Now
 

thewarrior

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I have decided to go with the MTI 0.3dB LNB,

it has some good reviews,

cheers,
 

birdy1974

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I had the same problem. Tried to align the dish to hotbird, signal was on 85%, but the strength stayed at 15%. Even when I moved the dish the strength stayed on 15%. I think it must be the lnb. Did you ever get your dish to work?. Cheers
 
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