Selfsat Flat Antenna (Problems)

J

jcia

Member
My Satellite Setup
Selfsat Flat Antenna
My Location
Freiburg, Germany
Hi I am new to the Forums,

I bought a Selfsat satellite last week (since a regular dish isn't allow on my balcony), and mount it on a base for garden umbrellas. The guy that sold me the antenna (a local Dish seller in Freiburg, Germany) told me that it would be the best choice for me. So I went back home assembled the thing and put it on my balcony on the base, I used dishpointer.com to know more or less to where I should point the antenna, anyway I just more or less pointed it towards the sky (clear line of sight) in the direction that dishpointer.com more or less told me to point it to. I connected the cable to the receiver and just as easy I had perfect signal and quality, I was able to watch all the channels I wanted (Astra 19.2). After a week or so of enjoying my satellite, I decided it was time to put make it a neat installation, until now the cable running from the antenna to the satellite was just across my living room so I wanted to run the cable close to the walls and then bought one of those dividers that can connect 2 cables and allows to close the window (this). So after I finished, I test again the signal of my receiver only to find out that is all gone, the bar is empty. So I thought it must be this divider, I tested again with no divider (a cable directly from sat to antenna, 4 mts), with the same result (no signal). I spent a day trying to get some signal to no avail, moving it a few mm in each direction (left, right) each time and even a few degrees on each direction (up, down) but no change on the signal.

Do these Selfsat antennas need really precise orientation?, I thought it was really easy since on my first try (with no tools except the dishpointer.com website and what I thought it was the right elevation to look at the sky (although it says that for Freiburg it should be ~34 degrees). I don't know if the Antenna doesn't work anymore or what, I even bought new coaxial cables just in case it was that, but no.

Anyone has any experience with these Flat Antennas? Do they need really precise tunning? What do you think I should try now? Hire someone who comes and install it? buy a signal strenght meter to fine tune the orientation of the antenna? Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks

Jcia
 
Hi jcia, welcome to the forum.

All antennas need to be aligned to within a degree or so of the correct direction to get anything - and you need to have both axes set correctly.

First thing to look at - Check all the connections carefully to see if theres any outer braid caught on the central connector.
 
Thanks AnalogueSat, I will give it another try once I get back home. Do you think I was lucky to get right the first time around? I just pointed towards the sky in the direction the website told me and got full reception. One other thing, at first I thought my cables were somehow damaged, so I went out to buy new ones and I got the same result. Does it make a difference if the outer braid of the new cables is thinner than the old one's? can the thicker braid damage the connection of the satellite or the receiver?.
 
Yes, you were lucky to get it right 1st time around, normally it would need adjusting. If all you did was to replace the cable I'm confused as to why you you adjusted the dish again?

You should go back to what you had originally, adjust to get it working, dont move the dish, then try your through window 'thingy'. TBH those things are quite bad and add in a lot of attenuation.
 
Thanks for your reply Robbo, Yeah I shouldn't have moved it but since I got it right the first time, I didn't think it would be hard to get it back, I actually was trying to put it somewhere else in my balcony (on a corner), that is why I moved it (shouldn't have). But now I got back to the place I originally had it. Anyway I guess I'll keep trying to get it right again.
 
What make of receiver? With some receivers a short in the cable will turn off the lnb power (short circuit protection)- which may still show in the setup menus as turned on and require turning off and back on to reset it. I assume you removed power from the receiver when changing cables around.
 
Hi Davemurgtroyd,

My receiver is an old one that I was given when I was a user of Digital+ in Spain, is a Sony TS3S. How would I go about turning off and on again the LNB power? Should there be an option in the receiver's menu or does it have to be done in Hardware (reset button)? Thanks for all your help.
 
As I am not home, I am unable to verify the settings on the receiver but I remeber the first option in the signal meter screen of the receiver is something like this

LNB: Yes

Signal:
<Meter>

Color codes:

The yes thing on the LNB option can be changed to No, is this the option to either supply power to the LNB or not?. I am sorry if my questions are really obvious, I've never installed any antenna before. Maybe I should've read more on the smaller details before hand (I just knew in which direction I had to point the antenna and more or less the angle), but as I said, it worked on the 1st try, that is why I didn't read up more.
 
Thank you for all your help. It turned out to be a matter of orientation and fine tunning. I guess I was really lucky to get right the first time. Anyway, you've been really helpful and I really appreciate it.

Regards,

jcia
 
Pleased to hear it! Getting the dish aligned based on dishpointer and luck is a rarity, had it a few times myself even on motorised, nice when it happens though.
 
hello,
there may be several problems.
check the voltage on the cable comming from the receiver.
check it by the dish is there is 18 v dc comming from the receiver by the dish the line is ok.
if there is no voltage it could be the cable connections or or the receiver went to protection.
unplug the receiver from the mains and it should reset itself.
if you have 18 or 13 v dc by the dish then the receiver is probably good and the cable is good but the dish may be out of alignment.

ralph
 
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