NoviceSat
Member
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2012
- Messages
- 35
- Reaction score
- 10
- Points
- 8
- My Satellite Setup
- Technomate 5300D M2 + 2600 + 80cm mesh dish
- My Location
- SW England
With all the snow in the UK I decided to try pointing my 80cm dish through a bedroom window and see if I could get any signal. (The Sky dish was covered in snow and I couldn't get to it to knock the snow off).
I attached the dish to a tripod and then balanced the tripod on a work chair (has wheels and can rotate). I used my simple satellite meter and just hunted for a high-pitch beep. I knew roughly which direction 28E was and soon enough I got something. However on trying to tune into any BBC/ITV/Sky channel I wasn't getting any picture.
I used Crazyscan, found a strong transponder and looked up the frequency/polarization on Lyngsat. It turned out I'd found 23E. Tuning in to one of the FTA stations I found some Dutch TV - I could see they had snow too :-)
So thinking that 23E for me is weaker than 28E I had another search. This time I found 28E and could receive BBC/ITV channels. What surprised me is that my dish at this point is 45 degrees to the window, but was still collecting above-minimum-level signal strength. What suprised me even more is that in the evening when I closed the curtains the dish setup still worked. I only lost 1% in quality/strength through the curtain fabric.
A bit more playing on the next day allowed me to find 19E through the window too - although the number of channels was lower as I couldn't receive all transponders. It was interesting to note that H polarity transponders were stronger than V polarity transponders.
Satellites further east of 28E weren't obtainable (I tried for 42E and 39E), but this might be due to trees being in the way. Anything west of 19E wasn't visible from the window as the brickwork was in the way. I wanted to try the satellite dish in the attic after this (then I would clear most of the trees), but I can't get the dish through the hole in the ceiling!
I attached the dish to a tripod and then balanced the tripod on a work chair (has wheels and can rotate). I used my simple satellite meter and just hunted for a high-pitch beep. I knew roughly which direction 28E was and soon enough I got something. However on trying to tune into any BBC/ITV/Sky channel I wasn't getting any picture.
I used Crazyscan, found a strong transponder and looked up the frequency/polarization on Lyngsat. It turned out I'd found 23E. Tuning in to one of the FTA stations I found some Dutch TV - I could see they had snow too :-)
So thinking that 23E for me is weaker than 28E I had another search. This time I found 28E and could receive BBC/ITV channels. What surprised me is that my dish at this point is 45 degrees to the window, but was still collecting above-minimum-level signal strength. What suprised me even more is that in the evening when I closed the curtains the dish setup still worked. I only lost 1% in quality/strength through the curtain fabric.
A bit more playing on the next day allowed me to find 19E through the window too - although the number of channels was lower as I couldn't receive all transponders. It was interesting to note that H polarity transponders were stronger than V polarity transponders.
Satellites further east of 28E weren't obtainable (I tried for 42E and 39E), but this might be due to trees being in the way. Anything west of 19E wasn't visible from the window as the brickwork was in the way. I wanted to try the satellite dish in the attic after this (then I would clear most of the trees), but I can't get the dish through the hole in the ceiling!
