Where to point an HDTV Dish

[SatelliteVirgin]

Be kind to me, I am the SatelliteVirgin!

Never had any kind of dish but have jumped in and bought a Foretec Star Passion from Maplin with dish after I saw my own TV with an HD source in a shop and I realised what I am missing. But I am a tight wad and will not pay for SkyHD (or Sky come to that), nor have I got Blu-Ray or HDDVD yet.

Now I see the thread on HD sats locations, but its all gobble-d-gook to me.

I am going to get an installer to fit the dish on the old bracket on an analoge dish which can see sky between south east and south west, but obscured in the south.

What I really want are just the standard UK freesat channels and any BBC HD and ITV HD channels. If there has to be a choice between SD and HD, then HD because I have freeview.

Where do I tell the man to direct the dish? It's a once only fitment, the dish is inaccessible. I am assuming the man is capable and understands satellite, but cannot assume he knows about HD Sat.

The dish is not motorised.

I'd be pleased if someone said point it where the old analogue sat used to be, but I guess that's hoping for too much!

 

[Analoguesat]

The old analogue dish points at 19E. You want the sats that carry Sky at 28E. The only fta HD channel at the moment is BBC HD.

 

[SatelliteVirgin]

The old analogue dish points at 19E. You want the sats that carry Sky at 28E. The only fta HD channel at the moment is BBC HD.

Ok thanks for that but ....

Is the BBC HD also at 28E?

Huh, hum. and what are 19E and 28E? 19 degrees East? And if so at what inclination? And do we use grid north or magnetic north?

(Yup - jail bait I am!)

 

[SatelliteVirgin]

OK found lygnsat and it appears that Mr Boring here needs 28.2E where I will pick up all the Free to View Sat for UK and what HDSat BBC has to offer at the moment (and I can see from their listings its not much !)

I guess I just tell my competant installer 28.2E, and I have home free?

I'd still like to understand whereabouts 28.2E is because I need to know if next doors house is going to block the signal before I get the man round. Can I assume that this is the same direction my neighbours regular Sky dish is pointing to?

 

[T_G]

Yes, a sky minidish points to 2D 28.2E

 

[Analoguesat]

The satellites sit on an inverted arc curving from an apex due south of you. To put it simply in the UK 19E, 28E etc is the number of degrees east of south from the Greenwich meridian (Actually its far more complicated than that but its close enough for a simple explanation)

This diagram (which is used in accordance with the authors requirements) should help:

_http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v510/Analoguesat/satarc.jpg

ANd yes BBC HD is on 28E along with all the other free to air channels

 

[Robbo]

This diagram (which is used in accordance with the authors requirements) should help:

_http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v510/Analoguesat/satarc.jpg

Nice diagram that, I think I will make a copy.

@ satellitevirgin
When Freesat from the BBC launches it is expected that there will be a few more HD channels also FTA.

Is the dish going to be really high up?, as you may be able to install the dish yourself if not and save yourself a little bit of money. Aligning a dish for 28E is very straightforward.

The satellite arc:- Especially for satellites.co.uk

 

[SatelliteVirgin]

Thanks for all the advice.

I have also learnt a whole lot more in the last 24 hours by trial and error and with the help of some other websites.

As there may be people as equally baffled as me, I'll try and explain it how I found it because there are a few things to do.

Start with this website:-

_http://www.dishpointer.com/ Gives you a google satellite photo of your house and the angle you need - probably as accurate as a compass.

As the guys have said, the 28E is the degress from south, but that's just one of 3 things to worry about.

Number 2 is degrees above the horizon (elevation)

Now I thought that relates to the plane of the dish, but on mine the dish is almost vertical for an elevation of 25 degrees, so I think its to do with the angle of reflection from the satellite to the LNB. So watch this.

The last thing is the skew (or rotation) of the LNB in the holder. This one caught me out.

Other things to be wary of:-

1 If you are to fit yourself, you need a satfinder (£10 from Maplin). You are pointing at a satellite 25,000 miles away - its a very narrow beam.

2 Be wary that there is at least one other satellite to the Astra 2B - just 2 degrees away in fact. You can get a good signal on your sat finder and still have no picture, because it does not know which sat the signal is from.

3 The skew is adjusted after you have got the dish set correctly, although you could preset it. Again, you can have a high signal on both your Sat finder and your STB and still get no picture until you rotate the LNB. The skew does not affect the signal level, but affects the STB's ability to tune to it. So you can have a good signal, good quality, right satellite and still no picture.

To answer Robbos question, yes it is going high up because its an old barn and we have a place hig up it can be invisible .

However, I am 1) impatient and wanted to see it work 2) prove it works and understand it so I am not bull's'd by the installer if he can't align it properly.

So its gone outside the back door on the wall temporarily!

Only one problem with BBC HD - soon looks the norm and going back to SD looks cr@p very quickly. HD only really "blows you away" on the natural history IMHO.

 

[Topper]

Well at least you losing your virginity was a positive event. You may have lost that but gained other things far more important, many do not get as far as you in one post. Congratulations and I really mean that, yes the dish angle often catches people out this is the approximate angle for the UK