South of France

[Gordyrat]

Hi to everyone, i am new to the site so please forgive my ignorance
as i aren't very technical at all, i hope someone will be able to help, friends of mine live in the south of France during the summer and take their sky box with them whilst they are there, they are having problems with the reception freezing, they have been advised that this may be something to do with the lnb and have been told by one of their neighbours that they fitted a new lnb for on the fringe reception, is this correct or do they need a signal booster, they live between Nice and Antibbes right on the med coast, could anyone help and possibly tell me what they need and where i would be likely to get it from as i visit them next week from the 17th August.
Many Thanks
Gordon

 

[satelliteman]

Welcome to satellites forum,

Whilst a better quality & lower noise LNb may improve signals, your problem may well be somewhere else. You've not supplied any info regarding their system ie. dish size so it's difficult to comment. The cause could be a number of things like dish mis-alignment.

Note, when changing an LNb, the correct Skew needs to be applied in order to get the maximum cross polar rejection. In other words, the rotation of the LNb in it's holder needs to be set to the correct angle. In fringe areas this is very important.

Hope this helps

SatMan

 

[Gordyrat]

Welcome to satellites forum,

Whilst a better quality & lower noise LNb may improve signals, your problem may well be somewhere else. You've not supplied any info regarding their system ie. dish size so it's difficult to comment. The cause could be a number of things like dish mis-alignment.

Note, when changing an LNb, the correct Skew needs to be applied in order to get the maximum cross polar rejection. In other words, the rotation of the LNb in it's holder needs to be set to the correct angle. In fringe areas this is very important.

Hope this helps

SatMan

Hi Satman,

I have spoke with my friends in France and it seems that quite a lot of the owners down there are having problems with freezing so i am presuming that it must be a better quality lnb they are needing or if you can think of anything else, i know they have to keep their dishes quite low and they do get plenty of foliage on the trees round the campsite there during summer.

 

[Robbo]

Hi Satman,

I have spoke with my friends in France and it seems that quite a lot of the owners down there are having problems with freezing so i am presuming that it must be a better quality lnb they are needing or if you can think of anything else, i know they have to keep their dishes quite low and they do get plenty of foliage on the trees round the campsite there during summer.

What size dishes do they have?

A normal Sky minidish is probably too small in the south.

Also make sure that the dish is of sufficient height for the trees to not cause an obstruction.

dishpointer.com will tell you the elevation angle for 28ºE for the geographic location.

 

[Gordyrat]

Hi Robbo,

They all seem to have the old large solid sky dishes that they took down there from home.

 

[Robbo]

I don't know what size the old Sky dishes were?

Looking at the footprint, it seems that they are right on the edge or slightly off the published footprint which says 65-85cm. I would have thought that a 1m would suffice with plenty to spare.

By the way the elevation angle is 35º for Astra 28ºE there, so quite high.

Have a look at the last post here.

_http://www.astra2d.com/france.htm

 

[Gordyrat]

many thanks for this information Robbo, i will forward this info to my friends and see what they come up with, i feel that they do have the solid 1m dish set up there.

 

[Gordyrat]

Hi Robbo,

I have just learnt that the problems the folk are having down there normally occurs after around 4:30 pm (3:30 our time) i don't know if this is of any significance.

 

[satelliteman]

Hi Robbo,

I have just learnt that the problems the folk are having down there normally occurs after around 4:30 pm (3:30 our time) i don't know if this is of any significance.

yes, it's when the children's programmes start

 

[rolfw]

This may or may not be relevant, as there is no information as to which boxes thay are using, but my Sister's Sky+ (one of the later models) started freezing after a few seconds on every channel and a forced update cured it, as it did for another Sky+ receiver a day or so ago.

 

[Gordyrat]

Hi there,
Thanks for the info, i have been told by one of the expats down there that they have bought a new LNB, she couldn't remember the name or make, all she could think it was something like on the edge or on the tip or something of that ilk, she probably meant she got it off the tip maybe.
If anyone knows of a LNB which may be referred to by something like that name i would appreciate it.

 

[jimbo]

Not a tiptanium is it?

 

[Topper]

she couldn't remember the name or make, all she could think it was something like on the edge or on the tip or something of that ilk, she probably meant she got it off the tip maybe.
If anyone knows of a LNB which may be referred to by something like that name i would appreciate it.

Well we could make this into a game
some edges are sharp that is one make
also a lemon could be described as sharp
any more

 

[satelliteman]

how about Alps (mountains sharp at top)

 

[Gordyrat]

The box they have is a Grundig what model i dont know sorry but would you know if there is a certain LNB that is recommended for edge of footprint reception.

 

[rolfw]

Grundigs are renowned for power supply failures, symptoms being gradual loss of channels, not so much "if" it will happen, but when.

 

[PaulR]

If the problem is on all channels, not just the Astra 2D channels like the BBC, ITV and C4, then it's probably a fault with receiver.

If it's the 2D channels then it's probaby down to signal strength. While a new LNB may help matters it probably comes down to dish size in the end. It is REALLY important to find out what size dish they are using. If they took an old $ly analogue dish down with them this will probably be 60cm and ok for non 2D channels. If it's an 80cm dish then this will be better and will give you 2D channels for most of the time but for the Cote d'Azur you really need a 90cm or even a 1m dish.