Satellite Dish

[Chris_374311745]

Just bought a Maxview dish and Zehnder DX65 Digital Satellite Receiver, tried it out for the first time on our recent visit to Rutland and quite frankly we never actually got it going at all. The instructions all seem so complicated

Can anyone help us concerning setting up the dish as I am sure this is where our problem lays.

Exasperated!!!!

 

[WatsonJohnG]

I always start from pointing south and move the dish to the east until I get a really strong signal on the meter.

I then move to the east further until I get another close strong signal (these are strong analogue signals)

I then drop the dish a degree or two and continue to the east until I pick up Sky digital

I have a compass with a line marked at the appropriate place for the satellite as well so that when it is on north the line is roughly where the satellite should be

Once you have the angle of inclination in UK its a matter of finding the satellite and playing the angle and direction off against each other.

As has been said before sometimes the box will lock up when it is on the satellite so you have to re-boot by unplugging for a few seconds

One thing that happened this time that has never happened before was that I got the signal strength bars on the services (6,4) but the transponder stream numbers were all wrong and it said 13 degrees east.

I took that to be Astra analogue so I lowered the dish (as I said before) and continued east until the right satellite was found

Just mentioned this in case it happens to you

Best wishes

 

[Chris_374311745]

I always start from pointing south and move the dish to the east until I get a really strong signal on the meter.

I then move to the east further until I get another close strong signal (these are strong analogue signals)

I then drop the dish a degree or two and continue to the east until I pick up Sky digital

I have a compass with a line marked at the appropriate place for the satellite as well so that when it is on north the line is roughly where the satellite should be

Once you have the angle of inclination in UK its a matter of finding the satellite and playing the angle and direction off against each other.

As has been said before sometimes the box will lock up when it is on the satellite so you have to re-boot by unplugging for a few seconds

One thing that happened this time that has never happened before was that I got the signal strength bars on the services (6,4) but the transponder stream numbers were all wrong and it said 13 degrees east.

I took that to be Astra analogue so I lowered the dish (as I said before) and continued east until the right satellite was found

Just mentioned this in case it happens to you

Best wishes

Cheers for that, I will put it in to practice next time we are away.

 

[Lutz]

It has nothing to do with analogue or digital as there are more digital transmissions on Astra at 19.2

 

[Colin_374311761]

Chris check out website www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk it's brilliant

Colin

 

[WatsonJohnG]

Hi Lutz

The analogue signal is much stronger than the digital and I was taught to use that as a reference point.

I now have a meter that is set just for Astra 2 digital but it was a method that worked for me for many years.

How do you find the satellite?

 

[Lutz]

I use a compass to get the approximate direction and do the fine adjustment with a meter. However, my dish is large enough (80cm) and the meter is sensitive enough to pick up further satellites in the same general direction - mainly Eutelsat on 13

 

[WatsonJohnG]

Hi Lutz

Agree totally with what you are saying and in my original posting I made the point that once you have the angle of inclination in UK etc

With the Maxview Semitronic it is easy to move the dish up and down on the buttons to fine tune the angle of inclination.

Maxview and others give a table of inclinations but 23deg is about right here in the midlands.This gets steeper(as you know!)the further south you go

Of course the pole etc that the dish is fixed to must be vertical or the reading will be wrong.

I was helping a friend in Brittany last month and my meter gave the information that I was on the correct satellite but the numbers that came up were wrong(13e) and were from the strong satellite you mention.The inclination of the dish was too steep

I was also in conversation with a couple of people with automatic dishes and they were having problems as they were picking up a new stronger signal and the dish was being fooled into locking on to that one

 

[JeremyClarksson]

The three strongest satellites are:

Hotbird 13 @ 13 deg E of S,

Astra 19 @ 19 deg E of S and

Astra 28 @ 13 deg E of S. (mainly English and Sky) some signals are carried on a Eurobird satellite on effectively the same bearing

If you only want English channels you are probably best starting at E and bearing south slowly.

Some will note that I have used the practice of using the bearing rather than the satellite designation after the satellite name, this seems to be the favoured method now and saves a lot of confusion as not all the satellites named (for example) Astra 1x are on 19 deg E of S.

Some kits already have the satellites loaded, if yours is not it is worth loading the above 3 satellites as this will ensure you get the right one next time - set all the kit up on say BBC2 Engand and just wait for the signal to come in.

As far as I am aware all of the satellite bearings will contain analogue and digital transmissions, the satellite finder is just indicating that there is a signal present and can not differentiate between the two types of signal.

 

[Chris_374311745]

Chris check out website www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk it's brilliant

Colin

Please dont shout at me, but I have already looked at this web site and it seems to be for Sky Receivers. Mine is a Zehnder DX 65. Does that pick up Sky stations? As you can guess I am new to this game and thought it would be so simple to use, but its not and feel like slinging it out the window,,,desparate user.