Setting up first time

[confusedperson]

Hello.

I hope I am posting in the right place. Apologies if not.

I am in Portugal with a 1.2 m satellite dish. I last used it around five years ago and was connected to ASTRA.

I like to watch TV again and a Portuguese friend of mine said with my size dish I could buy a dual LNB which would pick up ASTRA 19E and HOTBIRD. He is doing it this way to and it works fine.

I bought this LNB and without moving the satellite and just slightly moving the LNB the inline satellite detector made a noise and the needle went quickly to the right and settle on the number 20, the highest setting.

The satellite cable goes straight into the TV as the LNB has an inbuilt DISqC switch.
I chose DISqC 1.0 switch setting on screen and that gave me a list of four satellites.

ASTRA4A/SES5 5 degrees E
EUTELSAT 7A 7.0 degrees E
HOTBIRD 13 degrees E
EUROBIRD 9.0 degrees E

The signal strength appears as zero. I can't remember what I did next but channels got downloaded and out of 500 only two were not scrambled. They were Romanian or Portuguese...B1 TV and Trinitas TV.

However, there is 100% signal strength for
EUROBIRD 28.5E (12168V29500) and
ASTRA2 28.2E (12168V29500) on screen

but when I download the channels they don't show up.

Would this LNB be the problem and I just need a single LNB which is what I did have but the sun damaged the plastic?

Also the TV under the other DISqC settings show different satellites, so if I chose DISqC 1.1 ASTR2 28.2E shows, but my LNB is a 1.0 one.

I'm confused. I would appreciate any thoughts on this.

Thank you.

Steve

 

[a33]

.B1 TV and Trinitas TV.

Would be on either 31.5E or 39e, I guess.

Astra 1G (31.5°E) - Alle uitzendingen - Frequenties - KingOfSat

nl.kingofsat.net

Hellas Sat 3 / Hellas Sat 4 (39°E) - Alle uitzendingen - Frequenties - KingOfSat

nl.kingofsat.net

But it is not clear whether you receive that with the centrally mounted LNB-head, or with the byrider-LNBhead; with diseqc 1.0, port 1 (or A or AA), I presume. You can check that by holding your hand (or some aluminium foil) in front of the central LNB: if you lose reception, that was the head with which you received those channels.
I guess I would first try to aim the dish right, again, at a (central) satellite.

Apart from that: I'm not sure what monoblock LNB (with two heads) you have? It might well be, that the heads are not far enough apart for 13E and 19E in Portugal, with a 1.2m dish... That has to be checked.

Greetz,
A33

 

[confusedperson]

Thanks A33. I am going to move it more west tomorrow. Good idea blocking each LNB to see which one is in use. I must be on 31.5 as I have downloaded ACASA GOLD.

 

[a33]

Yeah, I forgot:


WELCOME to the forum, @confusedperson!

 

[Terryl]

A dual LNB (mono block?) on that dish will not be able to pick up 4 satellites with a 26 degree spread. (Astra 5B at 31.5 E to Astra 4A at 5 E)

You would need a motorized dish or an elliptical dish with a 30 degree receive beam-width and a multi LNB mount holding 4 LNB's.

 

[a33]

Ah, I saw in your "about me" that you have the monobloc Metronic universal LNB monobloc, for 13E and 19E.

That would be a 6 degree separation monoblock, for (normally) a 80cm dish.
So with your 120cm dish, I guess the distance between the two heads is rather sub-optimal (but maybe not impossible?).

Does your portugese friend have this same LNB, and also a 120cm dish?

Greetz,
A33

 

[confusedperson]

Not sure A33. Will find out tomorrow and update how I get on tomorrow too. Good night.

 

[confusedperson]

Good Morning.
I got a signal!
After standing and moving the dish around for quite some time in the sun with no signal I thought the sat finder was faulty. I now realise that you need power to the sat finder. The TV was in standby but by switching the TV on and returning to the dish and tightening the connections the sat finder suddenly gave a noise and a light.
I assumed I had locked onto HOTBIRD and when I selected that satellite from the list it downloaded channels. Mostly Arabic ones. No BBC. Also the signal I think is coming from the outer LNB which disappeared when I placed my hand over it. Is the outer LNB specific to HOTBIRD and the inner for ASTRA?
I am going to do it all again today. I intend clearing the channels because I also selected satellites near 19.0 degrees and sure enough channels were downloaded but I think they are duplicate ones. I need to check carefully.
It didn't help that a snake had settled near the dish so I couldn't return to it.

Steve.

 

[rolfw]

Easy to check which satellite you are seeing, look at an individual channel on the TV and see which frequency its on, then go to Lyngsat.com, and in this case first check hotbird 13E on that frequency to see if it matches, if not and as you say they are mostlyy arabic channels, then look at 26 east and see if there's a match.concentrate on one side of the LNB at a time and remember that the dish is a reflector and the more Easterly LNB will be looking at the more Westerly satellite.

 

[a33]

Good that you found a signal!

Is the outer LNB specific to HOTBIRD and the inner for ASTRA?

'Inner' or 'outer' refers to which of the two LNB necks is in the LNB holder, and that can be either one.
It is more a question of left and right, and from which side of the dish (front or back) you are looking at the LNB.

On the northern hemisphere it looks like this: Multi LNB 28.2/19.2/13.0 with 2 x 28.2 LNBs
So, in other words: The LNB for the more easterly satellite should be mounted more west (due to the mirroring effect of the dish).

Edit: Ah sorry, @rolfw had answered that already. I didn't read his post thoroughly enough!


In Central Europe I believe 13E and 19E are about the same strength; maybe in Portugal also. So it might be not very important which LNB head you put central.


The @rolfw method also works directly in google. Google Trinatas kingofsat (or trinitas lyngsat ), and you find at the first google result on what 4 satellites it is broadcasted.


Greetz,
A33

 

[confusedperson]

Afternoon.

After a break from this setup I have tried again.

There is something I am not sure of. I now understand that the satellite finder (SF) needs electricity to work and the TV would need to be off standby mode and be powered on. However, I do not always get power to the SF. I have just discovered the hexagonal nut was loose and that caused no power to the SF but I don't always get power to it when the TV is on. Do I have to be in the "satellite channel" area of the TV also? I have a SMART TECH TV Model 32HA10V3.

Under the "Channels" area there are four options......Satellite Re-scan, Satellite Add, Satellite Update and Satellite Manual Tuning.

Do I have to do anything in these settings or is something I do after finding a signal?

Thank you for reading.

 

[ozumo]

Having a satellite channel selected on the TV will ensure that power is being sent to the meter and LNB. The same should happen in manual tuning mode.

 

[Channel Hopper]

Having a satellite channel selected on the TV will ensure that power is being sent to the meter and LNB. The same should happen in manual tuning mode.

Unless that 'loose nut' is part of the connector to power the lnb and the centre pin has broken away from whatever it should be attached to

 

[confusedperson]

degrees E na Hotbird 13 degrees E
9

anks ozumo.

I had listed seven satellites under the "Satellite Manual Tuning" area before. There's power to the Satellite Finder now. I did not change anything and just exited the channel area and also switched the TV off and on. Still cant find a satellite signal yet. Lovely sunny day yet before it was easy to find a signal. These satellites are geostationary are they not? When I use an app to find satellites they seem to change about.

Because I can't find a signal I went into "Satellite Re-scan" option. Is this option for downloading channels after finding a signal? Under this option are the following...

Single
Tone Burst
DiSEqC 1.0
DiSEqC 1.1
DiSEqC 1.2
Unicable 1
Unicable 11

Under each of these options are further ones. So DiSEqC 1.0 shows four satellites... Astra4A/SES5 5 degrees E, Eutelsat7A 7.0 degrees E, Eurobird 9.0 degrees E and Hotbird 13.0 degrees E.

DiSEqC 1.1 shows eleven satellites including the four above.
DiSEqC 1.2 shows sixteen satellites including the four above.

Looking at the LNB for Hotbird 13.0 E there is something called DiSEqC Port and the options are "Disable", DiSEqC A, DiSEqC B, DiSEqC C and DiSEqC D. What are they for and which setting should I be using?

 

[jeallen01]

@confusedperson

Ref the DiSEqC settings: if you have a simple 4-way DiSEqC switch and you aim the relevant LNBs at 4 sats then you only need to use DiSEqC 1.0 (whereas I have a 16-way switch connected to 14 sats - with a couple of inputs unused - so I need to use DiSEqC 1.2, or actually "USALS"/"DiSEqC 1.3" protocols).

Neither you nor I need to use Unicable protocols and we can ignore them - at least until we start using the Unicable system as a whole

Nor do we need to select Single (which is the default anyway without a Switch!), or Toneburst which was a very old approach, and which are now actually subsumed within the DiSEqC system - so we can ignore both of those as well!

Therefore you should only need to consider DiSEqC 1.0.

 

[confusedperson]

Thanks jeallen01

The lnb I have is a dual one to pickup Hotbird at 13.0 E and Astra 19E. Astra 19E does not show up in the list under DiSEqC 1.0, but DiSEqC 1.1

This lnb is branded "Metronic" and I believe the DiSEqC switch is inside it.

 

[ozumo]

Leave the television on with a satellite channel selected. Does it have any signal meters and do they show anything? DiSEqC 1.0 settings for Hotbird and Astra 1 should be set to A and B although they may need to swapped around. Was the loose connection on the receiver or LNB side of the meter?

 

[confusedperson]

Hi ozumo.

The hex nut was on the receiver side of the satellite scanner. Tightened and working well regarding the satellite finder meter now. I have now removed those satellites I had placed in the "Satellite manual " area (because I still cant find a signal) and just selected one, being ASTRA 19.2E. I am changing the lnb Port options of this to try anything to get a signal. It was on "Disable", now trying the next one called "Uncommit 1".

 

[ozumo]

Set it to DiSEqC 1.0 port A or B.

 

[confusedperson]

Set it to DiSEqC 1.0 port A or B.

There is no Port called "A" or "B". Just "Disable" and "Uncommit 1", Uncommit 2, Uncommit 3 etc...