I wonder if anyone can help us please? When we bought our 2nd hand 'van we inherited a Maxview 54cm satellite dish and some coaxial cable. We hadn't bothered with it until our daughter offered us her redundant Sky box. We bought a Freesat card from Sky and now we have problems. No matter what my husband does he can't get even a glimmer of a signal. We have pointed the dish in the same direction as other dishes (trying it out at home) and used 'dish pointer' to get elevations etc. We are thinking that we might get a dish installed at home so that we can use the Sky in our bedroom when not in the 'van(we have Virgin cable downstairs). So, the question is : Do we buy a satellte finder, and if so which one? Or, do we find an aerial installer, get him to install a dish at home and pick his brains about our caravan dish? Does anyone have any thoughts?
Satellite problems
- Thread starter annierich
- Start date
As a general rule you need to point the dish at roughly 152deg, then nudge it a little left and right until you find a signal. If you don't get one move the dish tilt slightly - if you have started with the dish vertical or slightly below it then lift it slightly and again nudge left and right. Keep doing it until you find a signal.
Remember, a TV aerial has a beamwidth of perhaps +/- 10deg where you will get some semblance of a signal from a transmiiter maybe 30 miles or so away, whereas a dish is only about 1.5deg and you are aiming at a source that is the better part of 20,000 miles away, so dish alignment is considerably more critical.
If you want to buy a sat finder, wait until they come up on offer at Aldi or Lidl - cost you about a fiver.
I've been using sat in the caravan for about three years and I can now set it up 10 minutes on average.
Remember, a TV aerial has a beamwidth of perhaps +/- 10deg where you will get some semblance of a signal from a transmiiter maybe 30 miles or so away, whereas a dish is only about 1.5deg and you are aiming at a source that is the better part of 20,000 miles away, so dish alignment is considerably more critical.
If you want to buy a sat finder, wait until they come up on offer at Aldi or Lidl - cost you about a fiver.
I've been using sat in the caravan for about three years and I can now set it up 10 minutes on average.
Hello Annie,
Ive got a similar Maxview system which I had the same problems to begin with.
Once you get the knack of setting it up its a piece of cake,you have to persevere.The dish has to be turned extremely slowly,otherwise you will miss the astra satellite.You also need line of sight,so trees etc are a no no.Also make sure all connections are ok.The dish has to be fixed rigid to a tripod or jockey wheel.I use a steel coffee table from Ikea
On my sat receiver there is an installation menu,which shows the signal strength and quality so I dont need a sat finder.The wife watches the percentage readings on the screen whilst I move the dish.
Been using it for a couple of years now,pictures perfect.
Hope this helps,cheers Richard
Ive got a similar Maxview system which I had the same problems to begin with.
Once you get the knack of setting it up its a piece of cake,you have to persevere.The dish has to be turned extremely slowly,otherwise you will miss the astra satellite.You also need line of sight,so trees etc are a no no.Also make sure all connections are ok.The dish has to be fixed rigid to a tripod or jockey wheel.I use a steel coffee table from Ikea
On my sat receiver there is an installation menu,which shows the signal strength and quality so I dont need a sat finder.The wife watches the percentage readings on the screen whilst I move the dish.
Been using it for a couple of years now,pictures perfect.
Hope this helps,cheers Richard
Thanks for all your advice. How far away do buildings / trees have to be to impede your 'view' of the satellite?
Annie , providing there are no trees and buil;dings in line with the LNB you shouldnt have to worry about how far buildings are away.
As sad here previuosly the first time settring up does tend to take the micky a bit , next time easier and so on
I hope this helps
Sir Roger
As sad here previuosly the first time settring up does tend to take the micky a bit , next time easier and so on
I hope this helps
Sir Roger
Annie also take a look at a compass and get a rough idea the direction of the satellite and look and see if you have a clear shot for reception.
Remember the satellite is above the equator so aim highesh
Sir Roger
Remember the satellite is above the equator so aim highesh
Sir Roger
Annie, another tip is even though the signal strength and quality is good sometimes my box comes up with no satellite signal being received, unplug the box and plug back in and job done. Spent hours trying to work this out, may just be my digi box!!
Kevin
Kevin
Annie
Assuming your tv is tuned to the sat box frequency I'd follow David Sullivan's explanations to the letter. See John L's earlier post.
Remember the angle of elevation will also play a big part in success.
As for trees , only once have they beaten me. Other times when I thought they would beat me I have won!.
Good luck and let us know how you get on.
PS. If you afre assembling the LNB onto the dish arm watch you correctly set the skew angle.
Cheers
Dustydog
Assuming your tv is tuned to the sat box frequency I'd follow David Sullivan's explanations to the letter. See John L's earlier post.
Remember the angle of elevation will also play a big part in success.
As for trees , only once have they beaten me. Other times when I thought they would beat me I have won!.
Good luck and let us know how you get on.
PS. If you afre assembling the LNB onto the dish arm watch you correctly set the skew angle.
Cheers
Dustydog
When I set up my Sky Freesat a few years ago you had to register the viewing card to get it activated by phoning them.
The number to call was with the card.
Have you done this?
Sky needed to know your postcode, make of digibox and its serial number.
The card had to be placed in a working digibox with an aligned Ariel and left for 12-24 hours for it to be activated.
The number to call was with the card.
Have you done this?
Sky needed to know your postcode, make of digibox and its serial number.
The card had to be placed in a working digibox with an aligned Ariel and left for 12-24 hours for it to be activated.
first you have call sky with your set up details , and they will activate your card via satellite , after that you can set your dish up using the recievers signal meter ,
Gafferbill - yes we have registered with Sky - all set up ok. We have bought a satellite finder and booked a 'man who knows - an aerial fitter' to come and possibly install a satellite dish at home - and on the back of that help us sort out our caravan set up.
Many thanks for all your help everyone - it's much appreciated.
Many thanks for all your help everyone - it's much appreciated.
We had an odd one at the weekend, set the dish up on Saturday and had a perfect picture all evening. Turned it on on Sunday evening and the colour kept fading out then coming back - eventually the colour disappeared altogether leaving us to watch Doc Martin in black and white. Tried tweeking the dish and the signal meters were up high and i was getting the high pitch tone that says the signal is good. Its not the tv, plugged that in when we got home and the colour was back. The only thing I could think of was that there were some trees in the distance and Sunday night, there was a bit of a breeze which hadn't been there on Saturday. Maybe they were blowing into the line of sight and disrupting the signal.
I've only just got a satellite system, I've only been on cable at home and previous to that the satellite I had was analogue.
I'm pretty sure though that fading colours won't be anything to do with the satellite signal as it is digital, a poor signal will normally cause picture freezing or "blocks".
Jimbo
I'm pretty sure though that fading colours won't be anything to do with the satellite signal as it is digital, a poor signal will normally cause picture freezing or "blocks".
Jimbo
here is a good site to check out...you can get a rough idea of which way to point dish and also height of any line of site obsticles that may be around.
http://www.dishpointer.com/
Depending on site it can be a hit and miss whether you get sky or not but I also carry a freeview box and just tune into other sats if i do not get ASTRA.
Currently I use a dish on tripod but I found out last week in high winds even this can loose signal so time has came for me to save pennies and get roof mounted sat dish which can be alligned from inside van.
Must add this is one of the joys of setting up - you get your water, electricity awning and everything else the last but not least time for tv which to begin with seems to take for ever but once set up the next time as long as the dish is on same level surface then elevation should not be a problem....
http://www.dishpointer.com/
Depending on site it can be a hit and miss whether you get sky or not but I also carry a freeview box and just tune into other sats if i do not get ASTRA.
Currently I use a dish on tripod but I found out last week in high winds even this can loose signal so time has came for me to save pennies and get roof mounted sat dish which can be alligned from inside van.
Must add this is one of the joys of setting up - you get your water, electricity awning and everything else the last but not least time for tv which to begin with seems to take for ever but once set up the next time as long as the dish is on same level surface then elevation should not be a problem....
Facebook
Twitter