Why do I ALWAYS get at least SOME sparklies?

[dvmedia]

Why do I always get at least some sparklies?

I've used 3 different dishes and 3 analogue recievers in the past..

I can often get some channels, ie. CNBC without any sparklies, and Eurosport with very very few..

But most of the time I have at least a couple invading my analogue picture..

Now I'm not really complaining as I use digital, and even when I did watch analogue a couple of sparklies didn't bother me. - It's just all you guys seem to get near perfect reception!

I use a 60cm black mesh dish, and in theory I should be able to get sparkly free reception with such a dish, except on the weakest of the weak (ie. MTV)

I don't use a signal meter (is this the problem?), I just get my TV and Analogue stb in the garden and do it by whats on the screen...

I have adjusted the dish from left to right, and the elevation, and my optimum is still not perfect.

Something I did think of was the "Skew", which I've heard of, but I'm not really sure about this.

It would be nice to overcome this problem, because if I could get sparkly free reception then it would probably increase my 19.2e digital signal as well (which is about 70% strength and quality on most transponders)

Thanks guys,

 

[gameboy]

I don't use a signal meter (is this the problem?)

Sounds like you need to 'tweek' the dish if you're near a Lidl on 1st September they are selling meters for £3.99.

This will allow you to set the dish up without moving the TV into the garden.

 

[rolfw]

Plus, Skew is very important, a few degrees off and you have sparklies.

 

[Channel Hopper]

I would have thought the Pace Prima has a single bandwidth tuner, which is designed as a compromise of the 20/27 and 36 MHz transponders. So no matter what you have coming in to the system, the receiver is not processing it corrctly.

If you find CNN is particularly troublesome, there is also the possiblily of a knotch at this frequency in the IF chain, dodgy connectors, lossy cable run, iffy LNB, or again the tuner in the Pace.

 

[dvmedia]

Does a signal meter have any added advantage over getting out the telly and analogue box? is it any better? (aside form the physical work needed to bring them downstairs)

How would I go about skewing the LNB? How badly could I mess things up basically..?

 

[Analoguesat]

Skew just means twisting the lnb round in its housing or clamp a bit. Unless the dish is 40 feet up a wall you cant really b*gger it up. If its a circular dish with clamp fittings, slacken the bolts off a couple of turns and tweak away. If its a sky dish the lnb is in a plastic housing, just knock the lnb cable feed round a few degrees.

 

[dvmedia]

Skew just means twisting the lnb round in its housing or clamp a bit. Unless the dish is 40 feet up a wall you cant really b*gger it up. If its a circular dish with clamp fittings, slacken the bolts off a couple of turns and tweak away. If its a sky dish the lnb is in a plastic housing, just knock the lnb cable feed round a few degrees.

Thanks analoguesat! WIll be sure to give it a go when this rain goes away

Wish I'd done this last night when I was re-aligning then..

Ah well, so much for summer weather !

 

[PaulR]

When you come down to basics sparklies are down to (lack of) signal strength.

Just black or just white sparklies mean that the channel isn't tuned in exactly. If you've put the correct frequency in for the channel then have a look in the menu somewhere for for something called LNB frequency offset or suchlike. Tweaking this plus or minus should bring the sparklies down.

If you have a mix of black and white then this is purely low signal caused by one (or more) of the problems already mentioned.

PaulR

 

[greg-h]

my reciver has 4 diffrent lnb settings does it matter which one it is on 9-750mhz 11-500 12 750 etc. plus his reciver may have an afc in the lnb setings which automataicly finds the best signal

 

[Channel Hopper]

When you come down to basics sparklies are down to (lack of) signal strength.

Correctly speaking, its a low signal to noise ratio. There may be adequate power of the signal required, but if it is swamped by noise from any source (adjacent satellite, space/atmospheric/ground/thermal noise, terrestrial or cable intrusion, or internal LNB/tuner components) then the final picture/sound/data is going to suffer.

 

[T_G]

Just a pointer: If your sat is pointing to the east then your LNB needs to be turned counter clockwise if you are looking from the dish towards the LNB. If you are pointing at a west sat, then the lnb needs to be turned clockwise. (I hope this is right, because it wored for me...)