Help please: I know just enough to mess things up

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Help please: I know just enough to mess things up

(18 posts)

grahamlthompson

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Looking at the photo of the dish it looks as if the elevation is set too high.

The offset angle of a Sky-Dish is 22 degrees . With the arm set horizontal using a spirit level the dish will be looking up at 22 degrees. Your's looks a lot more than that. You need 23.5 degrees elevation. So it needs to rise at 1.5 degrees from horizontal. If you have mobile phone with a inclinometer app or a adjustable angle with a spirit level if you set this up it will help a lot in aligning the dish.

If you sort this out and adjust the arm so it points along the arm we have a good place to start.

Can you now get the box menus and see them on a TV ?

| Mon 12 Apr 2021 16:40:39 #11 |
REPASSAC

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I agree - remember on a watch each minute (60 mins) is 6 degrees - so a small adjustment.

| Mon 12 Apr 2021 19:53:46 #12 |
grahamlthompson

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I have a new neighbour. He has a newly installed SKY-Q install.

His dish is about 5ft from mine. Our elevation is 24 degrees. A minute difference to yours. Both point approx SE along a roughly 5ft gap between my 3 storey house and his bungalow, both dishes are near exactly the same height. The elevation refers to the top and bottom of the dish being vertical. But the angle of the arm is also fixed in the same relationship. It's a small MK4 dish.

I will take a photo tomorrow and post it.

| Mon 12 Apr 2021 20:59:09 #13 |
grahamlthompson

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Photo as promised
Attachments
1. Mk_4_Sky_Minidish.jpg (732.8 KB, 0 downloads) 3 years old
| Tue 13 Apr 2021 8:59:15 #14 |
marshalld

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Thank you, to you all.

| Sun 18 Apr 2021 11:14:50 #15 |
marshalld

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I continue to get false postives:
My Foxsat HDR was reset to 'working properly' by returning it to my friend who lives two miles away (mid-Wales). It works well for her, using a SKY 1 satellite, with a strong signal and high quality, rendering 130+ tv and radio channels. So I can now use the menus.
Using the Diagnostics page, I can see the last software update was Jul-2012. Both Signal strength and quality score zero.
DishPointer assures me I pointing in the right direction. I appreciate margins for error are small. I have set the LNB arm to horizontal, and then raised it a degree and a half, using an inclinator on my smart phone. I think I am using decent cable. My Maplins 2010 Satellite finder supports my feelings of progress with the loudest signal.I have used one cable in each of the four LNB ports. The LNB horn is sitting in the bracket as far away from the dish. As you look at the horn (away from the dish) the strongest satellite sound is after the horn has been rotated clockwise. Am I missing a single point of failure fault?

| Sun 18 Apr 2021 14:53:41 #16 |
REPASSAC

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DishPointer will give you the correct clockwise rotation (Skew).
I would select a BBC channel (UK beam - strongest) and see it pressure on the rear of the dish increases the signal or not - this should allow you to see which direction is needed.

| Sun 18 Apr 2021 15:22:56 #17 |
grahamlthompson

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Can you now access non-Freesat mode menus ? Have you someone who can shout out the signal quality and strength ?

If yes best place to start is locking on to the freesat home transponder. I can post how to display the numbers step by step.

Hopefully the elevation is close enough to find 28.2 E

Press Menu Settings - Change STB mode to non freesat. Press right and OK - press exit.

Press Menu again - Move to Setup - select manual tune and press right and OK

Keep pressing right until you see 11426 H 27500 2/3.

Note the signal quality Strength bar chart at the bottom. My correctly aligned dish shows 100/100.

Mark the dish azimuth scale with something like a chinagraph pencil. Start by moving the dish to the left in tiny increments. Stop and wait for the box metering to respond. If you have gone few degrees and nothing is found return to the chinagraph mark and repeat the other way once and if you have locked on. keep nudging till the signal quality starts to drop. Go back to the highest point and lock down the azimuth lightly. If you press gently on the back left centre of the dish and again on the right. And the quality goes off you are dead on.

Now repeat to get the elevation dead on. Up and down in tiny increments till you find the sweet spot. Repeat the test pressing top and bottom till quality goes down pressing top and bottom.

Now slacken the lnb clamp and push slightly towards and away from the dish to find the focus sweet spot.

Cycle through a few more transponders confirming signal test and quality. Lock off all settings. Return to Freesat mode, utter a silent prayer

Start a freesat tune. If your postcode is accepted you should be good to go.

If you have a cheap beeper meter you can use that just keep reducing the gain and find the next spot you can reduce the gain till it stops and so on.

| Sun 18 Apr 2021 15:55:46 #18 |