More Satellie Nightmares!!

[Litespeed]

Here we go again. First trip away this year, everything set up, now its time for the satellite dish!

All sorted in about 4 minutes and recieving all stations.

Next morning nothing! Ok maybe it got knocked by the kids - no problem I'll align it again.

2 hours later still no joy! Driving the family mad with the beep of the sat finder.

I finally got it to work it showed good signal strength and good quality but I could not get any ITV or BBC channels.

Can anybody shed any light on this?

Also does anybody know of an accurate Sat finder that actually tells you what satellite your are locked on to as the Astra2 and Hotbird are stupidly close to each other?

 

[Tony A.]

Litespeed,

Been there nearly got divorced, can`t shed light on your prob, but solved mine by saving up and buying the auto locate dish for the top of the van, brilliant ,not cheap but worth every penny, England ,France, makes no difference, fget one mate you`ll never regret it.

Tony A.

 

[Litespeed]

Hi Tony A,

Seriously thinking about doing the same. Ive been looking at the Oyster range.

What did you buy in the end and if you dont mind me asking approx how much did you pay?

Regards

Simon

 

[Robert_374242026]

Had the same problem the last fortnight with our 40cm dish, we have got all stations before in Holland but as we were near Dresden in Germany i thought we must be out of the " footprint".We got very good signals up to 78% but these were German and other countries east of us, it would not get ours.Talking about the other half, last year in Brittany it took me over 2 hours to get the signal and what with it being hot i i said something to my wife and she got upset to the point we did not speak until 3day's later which involved a silent journey home!!.Lucky me, this year she understood about the footprint story i gave her so we enjoyed our stay even though she missed her Corry and Eastenders .

 

[Mark_sat]

For the price of the automatic or semi automatic dishes you can buy a meter that will tell you exactly what satellite you are on, along with signal strength. Plus you have the flexibility to use a larger dish if needed in other countries.

It takes no longer than a couple of minutes to align the dish after practise.

I have supplied a few of the Maxview Omnisat 66 Manual dishes to motorhome owners and they have been very pleased with them.

Personally it's not for me, BUT considering I put aerials and dishes up all week, I don't find alignment a problem.

 

[Litespeed]

Hi Mark,

I think I have seen the product you are talking about. Is it a yellow box thing that the professional installers use? I would be willing to buy one of these as its a lot cheaper than an automated system. If you could give me a make and a name I would certainly give one a try.

Regards

Simon.

 

[Mark_sat]

There are a few alternatives you can use dependant on price of course.

The cheapest one is a Pointsat, this is both a compass with the satellites marked on it along with an inbuilt beeper. You just clip this on the dish (lnb arm) and turn until the compass is inline , then peak the signal with the audible tone. Thes are only around

 

[Litespeed]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the advice.

Ive just bought a Wolsey Lacuna 2 Satellite finder for

 

[Tony A.]

Litespeed,

it was about three years ago now, we got the oyster system, it was about 1,800 quid. i see conrad anderson is doing a deal 1,634 quid fitted, it`s a lot of money, but what price luxury?

bite the bullet mate you wont regret it

Tony A.

 

[john_374300030]

 

[Litespeed]

Mark_sat, if your out there I need help!

Ive now bought the Lacuna satellite meter and set the settings to Sky 28E,

I can align the dish up very quickly and get excellent signal and PQ readings. But, when I swith the TV on I still cannot get BBC or ITV Channels plus a few of the others like Discovery etc. I do however get the majority of channels but not BBC or ITV in the main.

I then plugged the meter in to my home / wall mounted dish and found that the signal and pq strength is less than the Omnisat reading yet in the house I get all the channels......so I then put the Omnisat dish on to my home box and found that again BBc and ITV were not available, despite the strong signal.....The on screen message says - No Satellite Signal is Being Recieved - yet I get all the other SKY channels, Eurosport etc.....so it cant be the wiring in the caravan.

Could it be the LNB but surely if you are getting a strong signal that should be all thats required, or by some freak of nature am I still on the wrong Satellite? Could I be on Eurobird?

Help is needed!!!

And thanks so far!

Litespeed

 

[giovanni_5060838]

I believe you will find that there is more than just 1 astra2

satilite. it usually says astra2 satilites, which makes sense

as i got bbc1 and itv 1 and 3 and my inlaws could not, even

though we had the dishes only 10m apart.

I believe the angle is critical [not the 28 degrees but the way

the lnb faces up.what you could do is get your degree angle,

then get the sat dish facing up at a silly angle and bring it

down slowly, seee if it locks on that way.

 

[Mark_sat]

Ok lets take it one thing at a time

Firstly you have the ability with your new meter to check the signal strength on both Horizontal and Vertical channels.

You say you are getting ALL sky channels... are you sure?

What area do you live in?

Have you tried to get any of the other ITV's or BBC channels from different regions?

You may or may not be aware that they are all on different frequencies with different polarities. (H or V)

BBC One London = 10773 H, whilst BBC One West Midlands = 10788 V

What I am trying to ascertain is if you are missing all the channels on a particular polarity, Horizontal or Vertical, in which case it almost certainly points to the fact that you LNB is faulty.

It appears to me that you are missing your channels on Horizontal Polarity (LNB fault)

Try channel 993, this is ITV London transmitted on Vertical.

Good luck and post back with your findings.

 

[Litespeed]

Hi again Mark,

Ive tried what you said, still with no joy!

I flicked down through every BBC channel inc London and W Midlands but still no signal.

I do seem to be getting the SKY 1,2,3 Channels but I dont subscribe to Sky Sports, even these channels say that the wrong card is inserted not - No Satellite Signal is Being Recieved.

I used the meter to check the LNB which read -

TN on 14V PASS

TN on 18V PASS

TN off 14V FAIL

TN off 18V FAIL

I dont really know what this means but maybe it seems to point to an LNB Fault???? But if so why cant I get some BBC / ITV Channels / Other Channels??

The dish is still under 12 months old so is still under warranty.

Sorry to be a pain in the neck, but thanks for your help so far.

Simon (Litespeed)

 

[Tony A.]

Bridgend Simon,

I would love to take your advice and walk with the wife, spend more time getting to know the neighbours, etc etc,

Unfortunately my wife has to spend 9 hours per day attached to a dyalisis machine, she chooses to do this in the evening so`s to get some decent sleep thro the night. I`m sure you don`t mind her watching a bit of telly whilst stuck to her machine, with the best will in the world after thirty years of marriage I can`t keep conversation going for 9 hrs, we tend to read books thro the day when others are walking the fells/mountains, we used to be up there with them, but my wife`s ill health now prevents this.

The kids are a bit old to come caravanning the eldest is 38 the youngest 34 they have their own families.

I`m sorry if our decision to spend our 1800 quid on a sat dish has upset you, but as we worked hard for our money I don`t think you have any right to critisise how we choose to spend it.

I find it dificult to accept your apology, you outburst was said without any thought as to others needs.

I hope your old age (when it comes) goes well for you, and you are able to do all things you wish, unfortunately that is not the case for us, but we battle on and make the best of a bad job.

To end I would encourage everyone to carry a donour card and make their wishes known to the nearest ande dearest.

Tony A.

 

[Litespeed]

Bridgend Simon,

I would love to take your advice and walk with the wife, spend more time getting to know the neighbours, etc etc,

Unfortunately my wife has to spend 9 hours per day attached to a dyalisis machine, she chooses to do this in the evening so`s to get some decent sleep thro the night. I`m sure you don`t mind her watching a bit of telly whilst stuck to her machine, with the best will in the world after thirty years of marriage I can`t keep conversation going for 9 hrs, we tend to read books thro the day when others are walking the fells/mountains, we used to be up there with them, but my wife`s ill health now prevents this.

The kids are a bit old to come caravanning the eldest is 38 the youngest 34 they have their own families.

I`m sorry if our decision to spend our 1800 quid on a sat dish has upset you, but as we worked hard for our money I don`t think you have any right to critisise how we choose to spend it.

I find it dificult to accept your apology, you outburst was said without any thought as to others needs.

I hope your old age (when it comes) goes well for you, and you are able to do all things you wish, unfortunately that is not the case for us, but we battle on and make the best of a bad job.

To end I would encourage everyone to carry a donour card and make their wishes known to the nearest ande dearest.

Tony A.

I wouldnt worry about it tony A, I just put it down to jealousy!!

Our kids (4 & 6) love to watch a bit of TV last thing at night and first thing in the morning, I like to watch the cycling (when its on, which is not very often!) Each to there own, but I'm with you.

Litespeed.

 

[Litespeed]

Hi again Mark,

Just a thought, are you the same Mark that contributes on the 'My Bulgaria' forum?

See my detail posting above but also.....

I tried channel 993, no joy and as a note live in Cornwall.

 

[Guest]

Bridgend Simon,

I would love to take your advice and walk with the wife, spend more time getting to know the neighbours, etc etc,

Unfortunately my wife has to spend 9 hours per day attached to a dyalisis machine, she chooses to do this in the evening so`s to get some decent sleep thro the night. I`m sure you don`t mind her watching a bit of telly whilst stuck to her machine, with the best will in the world after thirty years of marriage I can`t keep conversation going for 9 hrs, we tend to read books thro the day when others are walking the fells/mountains, we used to be up there with them, but my wife`s ill health now prevents this.

The kids are a bit old to come caravanning the eldest is 38 the youngest 34 they have their own families.

I`m sorry if our decision to spend our 1800 quid on a sat dish has upset you, but as we worked hard for our money I don`t think you have any right to critisise how we choose to spend it.

I find it dificult to accept your apology, you outburst was said without any thought as to others needs.

I hope your old age (when it comes) goes well for you, and you are able to do all things you wish, unfortunately that is not the case for us, but we battle on and make the best of a bad job.

To end I would encourage everyone to carry a donour card and make their wishes known to the nearest ande dearest.

Tony A.

Tony A,

I made my comments based on the information available to me at the time. If your wifes situation was known to me before hand my response would have been completely inapropriate and insensitive. For that reason I wouldn't have posted, as I like to think I'm not that sort of person.

This is a public forum which will always generate a variety of views. We are all entitled to our opinions and I was voicing mine. At the time of posting I was concious that comments can cause offence which is why I added an apology.

Litespeed: We all like to watch a bit of telly. My children are the same ages as yours and they are no exception. This still doesn't change my mind about spending

 

[JeremyClarksson]

If you are not using a Sky box most boxes will let you store each satellite, I have Astra 1,2 and Hotbird all stored.

Locate a signal and the box will tell you what satellite you are on and then you fine tune or move to the correct satellite.

 

[cris_408518]

Ive posted this before, but really wonder what you guys get up to with your sat systems. We don't even use a TV in the caravan but many of my motor racing contacts have to provide Sat TV for their clients. As the clients and bosses are paying they have to have the Sat system up and working toot sweet. Few use sat finders or self seeking systems and rely on positioning of the dish for clear access to the satellite and a compass and correct elevation to line it up.

Most of the pro's I know have found the info at http://www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk/ good and accurate and the site has a links re reception for BBC and ITV in Europe and Coordinates etc.

 

[Litespeed]

No More Satellite Nightmares!!!

After many months of frustration, expense, arguments with the wife, shouting at the kids and problems it turned out that the LNB on the dish was faulty!

I bought a brand new one from Ebay for

 

[Mark_sat]

Hi Litespeed,

Sorry for the delay, we have had our first outing in the caravan, and I have been working all over the place. Today is the first chance I have had to look on the forum.

I see that you have already replaced the LNB, and the problem is solved. I am pleased you are sorted, and trust me, that meter will save you from any future arguments.

 

[woodbush]

This looks like a decent meter for sale on EBay at the moment Item number 230123097204.

Good information at the following website www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk.

Its often a problem if you have the compass too close to the LNB. I place my compass on the floor about 3ft from the dish to prevent interference, I use a 60cm dish with is far more forgiving that a 45cm dish