Sky +HD box will not find channels

[sputnik virgin]

Having cancelled Sky and put in French TNT system(Only had Sky to get TV5), I am trying to use redundant Sky HD+ box with old 90cm dish and new single lnb to get UK freesat. I am receiving indications of strength and quality at 75%. Box reset to single input (saw that on here!) Signal meter ( Fortec Star) does not tell me which satellite I am on. The box seems to default to a frequency of 11778 and will not scan more widely or allow manual change. It seems Sky have disabled the record function on the box when we cancelled. I'm sure this must seem like an uterly junevile question but I'm spending hours on this and fear OCD is setting in. What can I do?

 

[Analoguesat]

The box will work fine for the free channels when the dish is aligned correctly. Chances are you are aligned to the wrong satellite if you are getting some indication of signal.

Yes the record function will have been disabled - you have to pay Sky a recording tax of £10/month if you want the record functionality back.

 

[Lazarus]

More often than not, people trying to find 28E hit 19E instead, so try moving the dish a little to the east and down a tiny bit.

 

[sputnik virgin]

Thanks guys. Gonna try that.....looks like in some positions I get strong signal but no quality....umm. Can you get meters that identify the satellite? Guess that would be expensive.

 

[Lazarus]

You can get meters that'll match up with specific Satellites, but they're not worth acquiring just for occasional use.

Strong "Signal Strength" and no Quality means you are not on a Satellite.

Point the dish at the ground and you'll get a reading .............. all it is telling you is you have an LNB hanging off the end.

The value comes when the reading changes as you get close to alignment, then you peak using Quality.

 

[sputnik virgin]

Breakthrough! 60% strength but about 40% quality.....but it works! Do these disconnected Sky boxes only pick up freesat? I took the old 45cm dish and original lnb to France and fitted to a regular sky box and it gives me good reception on UK freesat.

 

[satelliteman]

Do these disconnected Sky boxes only pick up freesat?

A Sky receiver without a card, will show all channels in 'clear' that are not NDS encrypted.

 

[Lazarus]

What your Sky box without a Card gets is all the Channels that are not Encrypted.

That isn't Freesat as such, as Freesat is a similar platform with it's own branded boxes that provides yet another way of presenting Free To Air Channels with fixed Channel numbers and a 7 day EPG.

But well done on your success ................ a few last tweaks, including optimising the skew of the LNB, should get you even better results.

 

[sputnik virgin]

Thanks for all of above. Patient tweaking has fixed the deal. And finally....on my meter there are 2 coloured indicators. A green one is labelled 22 KHZ and a red one labelled H/V.....Obviously the first relates to a frequency and the other to Horizontal/Vertical.????? I noticed that when I get the best signal the green one goes off..not sure about the red one. What are these lamps telling me? I only started all this to learn French. I bought the old motorised finlux about 25 years ago for this purpose.....

 

[satelliteman]

Transponder transmissions across the spectrum are transmitted in both horizontal and vertical polarisation, normally frequency staggered. The meter is switching between the two. The 22Khz tone switches the LNb to high band.

Nice fix anyhow

 

[Lazarus]

Sounds like you've done a good job, after a tricky start!