Yet another satellite question.

[norman_374478717]

Having bought the cheap sat outfit from Maplin last year and struggled to understand how it all worked, in the end I managed to get it working.

The biggest problem I found was once the dish was pointing to the correct spot of sky, you then have to remove the sat finder. The cables are fiddley to unscrew and then replace the main cable in the LNB. This causes the dish to be moved and then more alignment to fine tune back onto the signal.

This past week we went away for 3 nights and got the sat working on the second night. I lost the will to live when I thought about removing the sat finder, so I thought what harm could it do and left it in place. Next night the sat finder was dead, no power at all. No amount of fiddleing with the cables and plugs will induce power to be restored.

Is it so wrong to leave the sat finder in place or is the lack of power another issue?

Does anyone use the dishes with the coloured lights that go from red to amber and then green when the signal is found?

I think staying with satellite tv is the best idea, I just want it to be easier to set up each time we go away.

 

[kopite]

hi Norman i bought mine from the same place i also lost the will to live so over the winter i invested in a tripod a sat finder with gauge and a hook up for home.So i now have set it up many times should be ok for our first trip next weekend if not i`m going to get one fixed to the roof by someone who know`s what there doing,i must have spent about 3hrs each trip with the poxey thing and all i got was snow or german porn maybe such not a waste of time afterall.good luck

 

[John_374564913]

Duplicate Post

 

[John_374564913]

First Norman let me say I am no expert but I will try and help.

Do not leave the signal finder connected to the satelite (in fact I would go as far to say they are a total waste of time anyway)

It is a good idea to download from the internet a Sat Map this will give you the angle anywhere in the country or europe as what you need to set the hieght at.
Rmemeber astra 1 and astra 2 are in the same direction but at different angles.
Once you have set the angle I tune mine using the receiver I click on info and two bars appear signal strength and signal quality.
Both lines are green when I move the dish they go up from about 30% to around 80% changing colour to a yellowish then fine tune the angle and direction and the two lines will go blue and the signal strength will read around 90%.
If you have any further questions or if anything I have written is not clear let me know

John

 

[senetor34]

http://www.dishpointer.com/

 

[senetor34]

http://www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk/

 

[Reg]

To overcome the problem of disturbing the dish whilst removing the meter I use these -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Connector-Quick-Release-Adaptor-electrosmart/dp/B003BJWI66

They convert a standard sat. plug (F Type) into a quick release push on pull off.
I even use them at home......... so much easier

 

[norman_374478717]

Kopite...I know how you feel, I too have spent ages trying to get it to work. In my case it must be that I am technology challenged. Even the ******** radio gave problems tuning in the FM bands. All we wanted was the local Radio Norfolk, took me ages to get it tuned. The point I'm making is, I am sure many people would just turn up, press a few buttons and away it goes, but not me. Tweaking the dish, back inside the van, countless menu pages, outside and more tweaking, my wife offering helpfull comments, such as, 'Why is it doing that'?

If at first you don't succeed.....read the instruction manual.....but they are often written for people who it is assumed to have a certain amount of knowledge.

John...you have reminded me to use the coloured signal strength bars, they came up last time and I did indeed use them for tuning.

Reg...I had heard about these plugs, I will try and get some.

I will persevere with the sat, but may go and get a less obtrusive? dish and tripod. The Maplin dish is large and it does stand out on site. Neighbours may well think that Jodrell Bank has just turned up.

Many thanks for the replies.

I

 

[Philspadders]

i have a maplin grade b system and it takes all of ten minutes to set up. all you need is a spirit level and a compass,some smart phones have them built in these days. Set the dish at 0 degrees ( ie the top and bottm of the dish are vertical- use the spirit level). then using the compass set the rotate the dish so that it is point 28.2 degrees east of south.(make sure there is a clean line to the sky- not large trees or walls or caravans in the way.
Now turn on the receiver, set the channel to bbc1 london and make sure the astra 28.2 satellite is selected, then press the info button and 2 bars will appear on the screen. signal strenght and signal quality. the strength needs to be at least 65% and the quality 70%. This may mean that you have to make very small, and i mean small vertical and horizontal adjustments to the dish. Dont forget that 1mm of movement could have the dish pointing at a satellite 1000 miles from the one you want.
Sometimes i have found the small maplin dish needs to be elevated off the ground by around 4'. i bought an £18 rotary clothes drier from a camping shop, drilled holes in the tripod legs for pegging and use a small exhaust clamp to mount the dish to it.

i did have an electronic sat finder and found it next to useless.

i now use an bush HD satelllite receiver and still have few problems setting it up.

 

[norman_374478717]

Phil...thanks for the info, will give it a go in a couple of days, when I have built up some more patience.

Reg...had a look at the plug converters, am I right in thinking that they just push over the male thread of the existing plugs?

Once again, many thanks.

 

[ProfAlGoogle]

I use a maxview sat finder, audible and visual with led`s, it is permanently kept in line with the dish. When we arrive on site a quick check with the compass, set the elevation, swing the dish in to the south, listen for the change in audio from the sat finder, hey presto normally up and running in under a minuet.

 

[senetor34]

http://www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk/badconnect.htm
have a look at the video it willshow the push on conector

 

[Reg]

Phil...thanks for the info, will give it a go in a couple of days, when I have built up some more patience.

Reg...had a look at the plug converters, am I right in thinking that they just push over the male thread of the existing plugs?

Once again, many thanks.

Hi Norman
The existing plug screws onto the back of the converter and the front end of the converter is a push-on connecter. It stays permanently screwed onto the existing plug.

Reg

 

[SirRogerFFS]

Hi Norman.
If you ask for Parksey he has my guide to setting up this system which is very easy to follow 10 mins is all it takes.
Parksey can give you my email address and ill guide you thro it.,if you are not sure
Good luck Sir Roger

 

[Dustydog]

Hi Norman
I had a Micky Mouse Sat Finder 6 year ago. It's gathering dust in a cupboard. .

A half decent compass, like the max view ones enables you to lock on to Astra 2 and get the Sky channels. Others before me have given you the steer to http://www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk/
That's all you need and some patience.
Moving the dish is not instaneous like an aeriel. Go very very slowly. Check the elevations from the databases. The Highlands of Scotland are barely 10 degs whilst Cornwall can be on 25 - 30 degs.

Smaller dishes need very carefull nurturing to lock on. I prefer my Maxview 66 cm semi elliptic dish which is very flexible in its tracking.

Never lose heart , you'll get there.

 

[Reg]

Dustydog wrote:-
"Smaller dishes need very carefull nurturing to lock on. I prefer my Maxview 66 cm semi elliptic dish which is very flexible in its tracking."

Actually its the reverse. The larger dish will give greater gain but need to be more precise when setting up.
A good comparison is a powerfull telescope and a small hand held one. The larger will give more magnification but the setting up is very precise.

 

[MikeyW]

Just wanted to say that Astra 1 & Astra 2 are not in the same direction as John states. Astra 1 is at 19.2 degrees east and Astra 2 is at 28.2 degrees east. Both are at different angles of elevation according to where you are, which was correctly stated.

Regards

Mike

 

[Dustydog]

Dustydog wrote:-
"Smaller dishes need very carefull nurturing to lock on. I prefer my Maxview 66 cm semi elliptic dish which is very flexible in its tracking."

Actually its the reverse. The larger dish will give greater gain but need to be more precise when setting up.
A good comparison is a powerfull telescope and a small hand held one. The larger will give more magnification but the setting up is very precise.

Hi Reg
What you say is correct but in practice I and others have found it harder to trace the Sky Astra2 satellite in the first place with the smaller dish. I agree there are trade offs between the sizes and the further south one travels the bigger dish that will be required to receive all the UK channels.
For us the 66cm Maxview dish works very efficiently and we never have problems setting up with just a decent compass and afore knowledge
of the approx angle of elevation.

 

[norman_374478717]

Many thanks for all who have taken the time to reply.

I could not work out why the sat finder was not working, no power at all. The cheapest option at £6.15 was a new one. It arrived and was dead. Trying a different cable, no change. Scrolling through the menu on the tv, almost the second screen showed an option that I had never seen before...LBN OFF. You have the option of turning off the receiver...why?

Anyway, I turned it on! Bingo, it now has power. I feel a right idiot.

As to using the sat finder, at first I picked up what I thought was the correct Astra, but it was around 70 channels of porn and no main channels. Not the sort of viewing that we want. Moving the dish a little more to the east and I picked up the correct Astra. It still tests the patience. I have marked the compass with the correct bearing.

Reg, I will be buying the plugs.

The satellite website is very useful, some good tips.

Once again many thanks.

 

[norman_374478717]

Senetor 34....excellent video...thanks.

Norman

 

[norman_374478717]

Just come back from 4 days in Suffolk and the sat-outfit worked a treat having followed the advice gleaned from this forum. Have now decided to buy a proper tripod, instead of the homemade one that I have been using.

Prices vary from £20 upwards, some look flimsy and slightly unstable. I have found a tripod that comes with a dish ( that I don't need ), but the tripod looks really sturdy and relatively unobtrusive for £27.

The ad says that it is a Sky dish, my question is...are some dishes tuned to Sky and others to free to view?

I know I really only want the tripod, but this dish looks a lot neater the my present dish.

Regards.

Norman.

 

[mullsy1]

The one thing never mentioned on these forums regards sat set up is the lnb skew.Once on your chosen satellite always give the lnb a twist in its housing to maximise the signal.