Skew problem with Fortecstar LNB FSKUVN and Icecrypt 0.1db single LNB

Wish i'd read this earlier. In february this year i spent the best part of a freezing cold saturday up a ladder at my mates place with one of these...wasn't til about 6pm(pitch black) that i decided to turn it the opposite way and straight away - quality signal. Bought a few more since but i know now...
 
Thanks a lot pic will be very useful. Mine is the 4VN but I should think the problem will be the same. Anyway for-warned is for-armed.

John
 
Sorry, which picture are you looking for?
 
Newbie here..... suffering with ladder ankles after spending a long sunday setting up my new dish and passion hd+. Pity I didnt find this site first. Thanks to all for the advice. Anyway feet up now enjoying the idea of calling UPC to cancel my account.
 
jamesfrwther said:
Does your fix work on Fortec Star 40cm mini dish?
Click to expand...

The fix (as you call it) is in relation to a specific lnb with the reference as quoted and not related to any particular dish
 
would you know the required lnb skew for London 0.04W 51.48N please?
Thanks

rolfw said:
Here's a couple of pictures of how it needs to be skewed for Astra 19.2 from Berkshire.

The skew for that satellite from this location should be 15 degrees clockwise, but as can be seen from the photo, what is actually required is around 40 degrees anti-clockwise.

The LNB does have a feint scale on the top, but many users will miss this and assume that the cable connector should be at the bottom and more or less vertical.:)
Click to expand...
 
lewishamse said:
would you know the required lnb skew for London 0.04W 51.48N please?
Thanks
Click to expand...


exactly as shown in the photograph, in very general terms skew alters dependant upon the longitude of the satellite you are aiming at from the UK
 
After I buggered about all weekend setting mine up around a year ago its all still fine! I had a good moan to Maplin about this issue and a couple of others over their service and got some money back, I did tell them all this information and the poor quality of the wall mount, suggested they even have an information leaflet regarding LNB skew, I doubt they will take any notice! Looking at these dreamboxes now but not sure if I need a degree to get the best from it!
 
Hi Topper...just seen your response...thanks and Happy New Year! :)
Mine is a motorised dish.
Best wishes
Lewishamse

Topper said:
exactly as shown in the photograph, in very general terms skew alters dependant upon the longitude of the satellite you are aiming at from the UK
Click to expand...
 
i agree...more and precise info is vital....especially when one is doing this as a hobby as i am and therefore wanting to get as many channels from all possible positions with my dish as possible :)
Lewishamse
 
Please could someone tell me whether this LNB (LNBF FSKUVN) should be as close to the dish or as far from the dish as it can be (see pictures attached). The dish is a 90cm motorised Fortec Star Maplin kit.
 

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Hi, I'd say shouldn't be too much in it, but adjust for best signal on meter or receiver signal screen.
 
I had a play with it today. I couldn't detect any difference it signal strength or signal quality either way so I left it about in the middle.
 
If anyone has come here because of problems with this Fortec Star, then I might be able to re-assure you. I have a Sky fixed oval dish of about 10 years age. The card which I acquired after one years subscription gave me 9 years of free channel viewing. I used Freeview to record time delayed programmes. The Sky card stopped working recently losing Five (no great loss, but annoying). So I decided FreeSat was the way to go. I bought the Humax Foxstat-HDR 500Gb. Connected it to the Sky LNB and dish and it worked just fine. As it has two tuners, I re-cabled with twin cables in a more direct route round the front of the house and bought a Quad LNB, the dreaded Fortec Star FSKU4VN. I found it very frustrating to get any signal worth having from the FreeSat satellite. Very temperamental.

So after a frustrating day up the ladder, I gave up and spent a day looking on the net for a solution. What was I doing wrong? I came to the conclusion that this thread had the answer. I did not realise how important the skew of the LNB was. But when I thought about it,as an ex BBC engineer, the skew is similar to the horizontal and vertical polarisation used on other terrestrial transmissions. The bars on a UHF aerial have to be horizontal because the transmissions are horizontally polarised. The old VHF 405 line transmissions were vertical. But satellites could be twisted in any plane and use vertical and horizontal polarisation anyway to prevent cross channel interference.

So a day later and with your helpful advice about the odd internal skew, I tried again. I discovered that the best ploy was to check the Sky transmission signal strength (not difficult to get 100%) and the maximum Quality figure (I got 100%) and then FreeSat would find its channels properly. Although I get 100% signal strength on FreeSat, I found it difficult and very temperamental to get more than 60%, however on the Diagnostics screen on the Humax it shows nearly 90% on both Tuners. I am convinced that the oval dish not matching the shape of the LNB aerial (round) is the reason why the results are not perfect. I am sure a round and larger dish would improve matters. I come to the conclusion that Sky transmissions are more powerful than FreeSat, albeit from the same satellite. Am I right?

I had used the SatLex site to calculate the correct skew. At my location it should be 15.33deg to the right (clockwise). But if this thread was right it would be in the completely opposite direction. However, my FSKU4VN does NOT appear to have the problem on the rest of this thread. It got the best Quality reading at about 15deg clockwise. So the manufacturer must have sorted it out! The cable outlet is at the correct predicted skew.

So if you are having problems with this LNB, it is more likely the extreme sensitivity to the physical movement of the LNB is causing the signal to be very variable, rather than an offset angle error.

Just thought I would let you know that....

If my old oval dish proves to be a problem with lost channels or signal break ups, I will change to a round one, say 60cm.
 
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