Advice Needed Trying to find Astra 28.2 and configure dish

[Deliveryguyuk]

Hi all

Complete newbie to satellite setup.

I'm attempting to set up a new dish out in the Campo of Spain. We're in Nonaspe, Aragon region of Spain.

I've bought an unbranded 2.4m dish from eBay.

2.4m 240cm KU Band Satellite Dish UK Europe Nilesat Arabsat Spain
2.4m 240cm KU Band Satellite Dish UK Europe Nilesat Arabsat Spain | eBay

I've also bought a brand new KU band universal Quad LNB.
I've got a single coaxial cable going from the dish to receiver. I've tried several receivers including a uk bush freesat receiver and a couple of region free receivers.

Despite using apps to locate the satellites etc I cannot get anything on my box.

Firstly how far away does my lnb need to be from the dish? It's a centre lnb, no offset etc. Once I'm sure that's right then I'll start again and try to locate the satellite etc.

 

[Captain Jack]

Oh dear.. this particular dish has very good reasons as to why it's cheap. It's very flimsy and difficult to get all the panels to align properly. It's generally fine for C band where tolerances are a lot more liberal but in Ku, it's a different ball game. With very careful installation and alignment, you can probably get it to work with the same efficiency as a good 1.8m dish but it's a big ask.

Which exact LNB do you have and did the dish not come with a bracket for it? If you have the bracket, then align the dish on a strong European beam channel on 28E and then go from there tweaking skew and distance of the LNB.

Pictures would help in troubleshooting as well.

 

[sonnetpete]

Is it possible to post some photos of the dish and your LNB?...we can probably give better advice with that to assist. As CJ says which LNB did you buy? For a prime focus dish as you've bought, you'll almost certainly need a C120 LNB with a suitable feedhorn..

 

[Deliveryguyuk]

Hey. I've just found a calculation and worked out I need to be 87.76cm away from the dish centre.

The LNB is a revez digital 0.1db quad LNB (QLP-4)
Input: 10.70-12.75 GHz
Output: 950-2150MHz
L.O.: 9.75/10.60GHz
Noise: 0.1dB
Gain: 60dB

I've tried to upload a photo directly off my iPhone but it says the image is too big. I'll work out another way.

 

[Deliveryguyuk]

Satellite System

 

[s-band]

From this: https://www.satellites.co.uk/forums/attachments/240cm-pdf.107157/ 912mm but it it will need tweaking and note CJ's & sonnetpete's comments

Edit: you need an LNB for prime focus prime focus lnb - Google Search

 

[Captain Jack]

The LNB is wrong for this type of dish. Needs to be of a C120 variety.

 

[Deliveryguyuk]

From this: https://www.satellites.co.uk/forums/attachments/240cm-pdf.107157/ 912mm but it it will need tweaking and note CJ's & sonnetpete's comments

F = (237)2 = 56,169 = 87.76
16(40) = 640

Hopefully that'll be right

 

[Deliveryguyuk]

Oh bum. Ok. So need to get on to the local satellite shop and see if I can get a c120 with feedhorn. Would this be a standard thing in spain or is it more specialist?

 

[Analoguesat]

Make sure you are aligning onto something on the Europe beam to begin with - the UK spots will be marginal at best on that dish

 

[Deliveryguyuk]

Make sure you are aligning onto something on the Europe beam to begin with - the UK spots will be marginal at best on that dish

Really? We tried a maxview dish when we first got here but that couldn't see anything either.

It's a 80cm x 58 cm oval dish which I'm guessing is no good for this area lol

Maxview 80x58

 

[Mickha]

Europe KU band:

http://www.lyngsat-maps.com/footprints/Astra-2G-Europe-Ku.html

UK Spot beam:

http://www.lyngsat-maps.com/footprints/Astra-2G-UK.html

Try the FTA channels on 11171 H 22000 DVB-S

https://www.lyngsat.com/Astra-2E-2F-2G.html

 

[Analoguesat]

Check the map in my sig - that will give you an idea of the dish success rate when the BBC & ITV moved over to Astra 2E spot a couple of years ago. Its a bit out of date now but will still give you an idea.

Remember these results are for well adjusted dishes, not the flimsy easily distorted sort of dish you have - which is almost impossible to keep set up accurately

 

[archive10]

Oh bum. Ok. So need to get on to the local satellite shop and see if I can get a c120 with feedhorn. Would this be a standard thing in spain or is it more specialist?

C120 is the feed-interface for a feed-horn.
It's not a type of LNB. So called "Universal LNBs" like the one you have have the feed-horn built in.
Unfortunately, the one you have is designed for a much shallower offset dish (in techincal terms an f/D of about 0.6).
It's all about how much of the dish the LNB "sees".
I have tried illustrating with a crude hand-drawing:



The "universal LNB" only sees a small part of your dish - your really need something to see the whole of the dish.
In other words, you really need a feedhorn designed for a 0.36 f/D dish.
This is what C-band LNBs used to use. Or have.
Ku band changed everything.
There are very few Ku-band LNBs with a built-in feedhornd for a 0.36 f/D dish.
There is one called GI-209, which you can find find referenced elsewhere on this site.
Alternatives are things like Inverto Blak Pro with a C-120 interface (has no feedhorn), and a suitable feedhorn from somewhere.
I have learned from experience that the Chinese manufacturer of your dish (Jonsa) don't make feedhorns.
So fro the choice of feedhorn, you need to look at ebay and elsewhere to find something that works.

Which is not to say that you can't get reception - there is no on/off of analogue reception characteristics.
Even Universal LNBs will work to some extent - you should be able to get stuff off the European beam, even with your setup.
So go forth and experiment!

 

[Deliveryguyuk]

Thank you all so much for your help so far.

Ok so last night managed to find EUTELSAT @ 35.9, been trying today and found ARABSAT @ 30.5 and then BADR @ 26.0

Working on BADR @26.0 I know the spec is:

Elevation: 35.57
Azimuth: 145.66
Lnb polarisation: -26.38

My records show Astra @28.2 is:

Elevation: 34.47
Azimuth: 143.02
Lnb polarisation: -28.15

So I need to point my dish slightly lower, further to the left and gently turn the lnb counterclockwise (looking at the front of it)

Still nothing tho... surely if I can see the satellite at 30.5 and at 26 I must be able to see 28.2 - or does it not work like that?

Also, one of the apps that I'm using for trying to work out where to point etc doesn't show 28.2, instead it shows 28.5

Can anyone confirm if I'm looking for 28.2 or indeed 28.5? What are the differences?

 

[Captain Jack]

For sake of initial alignment, there is no difference between 28.5 and 28.2. There are 3 satellites at 28E spot and all are sligthly in different locations but for those of us who can receive it with a saucepan lid, it doesn't matter.

If you can get 26E and 30E then yes, 28E will be right in the middle. What frequency are you trying to tune in to? Make sure it's on European beam and not one of UK ones, which are much weaker.

 

[Deliveryguyuk]

This is where I get slightly lost, the universal lnb that I'm using (I know it's not the ideal) is set to scan 09750/10600.

I've got no idea of frequencies.

The receiver screen is shown here
Optex box

You can see the list of satellites on the left and the details on the right, then the quality of signal underneath. When I hit the correct satellite that quality bar increases.

Once I get something on the quality bar I can hit the blue button and that then scans for channels.

 

[Captain Jack]

I don't know Optex box, I am afraid. The LNB setup looks fine though. There should be an option to look at quality of a particular frequency. You can find a list here - FlySat Astra 2E/2F/2G @ 28.2° East. Basically any frequency on "Europe" beam on that list will be fine.

 

[Deliveryguyuk]

I don't know Optex box, I am afraid. The LNB setup looks fine though. There should be an option to look at quality of a particular frequency. You can find a list here - FlySat Astra 2E/2F/2G @ 28.2° East. Basically any frequency on "Europe" beam on that list will be fine.

Ah ha. Ok so even though my box says I'm on the EUTELSAT @ 35.9 I'm seeing all the channels on the Europe system on the link you gave me. Does that mean I'm actually on Astra 28.2?

So I'm wondering now if we swaped to c120 if we'd have more chance of picking up UK channels?

 

[Mickha]

If you are on 28.2E check some of the channels, on the Europe KU beam, and post your signal quality readings.
Do you know anyone in your area, with a large satellite dish, that can get the UK channels, on 28.2E?
You can always watch some of them using an IPTV option.
Have you checked the satellite footprints, the links of which I provided earlier, and the map, in Analoguesat's signature?

http://www.lyngsat-maps.com/footprints/Astra-2E-UK.html

http://www.lyngsat-maps.com/footprints/Astra-2G-Europe-Ku.html

https://www.lyngsat.com/Astra-2E-2F-2G.html