Help cant tune in my satellite,please help!!

[fuzzy21]

HI can anyone please, please help me with this problem.I recently purchased a 60cm ISS dish with a dual lnb monoblock in the hope of receiving hotbird 13 degrees east and astra 1 19 degrees east.I carefully planned my site for the dish using dishpointer.com and mounted the dish on an east facing wall pointing 165 degrees(magnetic).After carefully setting the correct elevation and seting the azmuth with a compass I plugged in my digital satellite finder which gave no response untill I gently tapped the dish a bit to the right and the satellite finder came to life registering 100% so i then turned the meter down to fine tune the signal it then went to 53%.I then moved the dish left to right and changed elevation and lnb skew and i could not possibly get the reading above 53% ??.I have also the lnb in the feed horn focused on hotbird with the offsett lnb been astra.There is nothing in my line of sight.And when i do a scan on hotbird and astra 1 on my Technomate 500 super it only gives me a signal strenght reading of about 24% and signal quality of about 18% on both satellites and cannot find any channels when scanned??. Could this be a weak signal do i need a larger dish if so what size.I have also selected in the setting to receive Hotbird and astra through diseqc switching with hotbird A and astra B and tryed hotbird only and it still picks nothing upwhich confuses me because the hotbird footprint only requires a 50cm dish???.my location is lon -1.7 lat 54.9.Please help me someone

[Nutsandbolts]

Hi. When looking for HOTBIRD have you got it on a valid frequency?? Best thing to do is the following:
1) Forget the sat meter.
2) Put the receiver on a channel like RAI 1 Freq 10992V s/r 27500. or channel 4fun TV freq 10718V s/r 27500.
3) Make sure receiver is connected to TV.
4) Loosen the dish a bit and move it around until you get a picture on a channel. Move the dish slowly left and right and up and down. When you are near a signal the tv should go blank( ie the No SIGNAL message will disappear). When it does try to make a mental note of the position of the dish . Try to fine tune it to the picture.
5) When you have a picture tighten the dish up.
6) Check in Installation menu for signal strength.Then do a scan and blind search to tune in the channels.
If you require further help let us know. Nb your 60 cm dish is adequate for HOTBIRD and ASTRA. Also unless you have a motor dont worry about the azimuth setting or your location latitude etc. Just concentrate on getting a picture from HOTBIRD then it will all fall into place. Regards.

[fuzzy21]

Hi and thanks for reply.I am a little confused in the setup on my box I can select hotbird with the 10992/27500 frequency which gives me the SNR / AGC /BER page.when on this page moving my satellite left to right and up and down does not alter these percentage bars any??? The only way I know I am actually pointing at the satellite ,( presumably hotbird according to my compass) is because the signal meter is responding.Also a little unclear with the dish elevation situation because by dishpointer.com it tells me my elevation is 25 degrees which I have set according to my scale on the bracket but the dish is pointing lower than my sky dish ??? But this elevation is the only elevation I get on signal finder so it must be right????

[ramjet]

when looking from the front of the dish with the lnb sticking out towards you , hotbird is the right hand lnb so cover the left hand one up , then you have the problem of deciding which is hotbird in your receiver , its usually the simple diseqc option , and is option 2 normally

try loading a valid channel list onto the box and look for an fta channel like al jazeerah or bbc world or euronews and select it

have a tv connected somewhere near the dish so you can see what is going on and also get the signal and quality bars onscreen too

now bear in mind that all satellites use similar transponders and will give signal readings , so the only definite way to know you are lining up is by viewing said fta channel , like euronews or al jazeerah

so by covering the left hand lnb only the right one will be active , looking into the dish from the front

now try moving the whole thing up/down/left right until you get that fta channel , and fine tune to peak the signal

then uncover the left hand lnb , tilt the monoblock up on the left a touch , and try for an astra 19 east fta channel like a german fta channel like dsf or arte , and tilt up or down to fine tune

the monoblock will be inclined a bit meaning the left hand lnb will be higher than the right

when both are giving good signals and quality , and you are happy , tighten everything up , and test other fta channels , both V channels and H channels

if its all ok you are good to go

note that a magnetic compass points to magnetic north , not true north or true south , hotbird is at 13 east from true south , not magnetic

hope that helps

[Nutsandbolts]

Hi. As already explained you dont to need to worry about the elevation of your dish as you will be moving it up and down left and right until you get a picture. When you get a perfect picture you tighten the dish up. As you dont have a motor it dont matter how you mount the dish on the pole so long as you have clear line to the signals. Try the following:
1) Mount the dish so that it is central on the pole. The dish should be looking straight ahead.,ie so thats its not tilting to the left or right.
2) Tighten the dish still pointing straight. Make sure the dish is tight and does not move.
3)Make sure your LNB and cable is connected properly to your receiver.
4) Switch on Tv and receiver. Make sure that you can see the signal from your receiver to your tv.
5) On receiver press the SAT button and select HOTBIRD
6) Press the OK button on remote. This will give you your current channel list for HOTBIRD. Look for one of the channels which we have given to you ie RAI 1 or EURONEWS etc. Make sure the frequency given for the channel is correct ie for RAI 1 it should be 10992V s/r 27500. It is important to have the correct frequencies for the channels otherwise you wont get a picture.
7) When you have selected the channel and you get the NO SIGNAL message on your tv then slightly loosen the dish , not too much just enough for you to move it slowly to the left and right.
8) Again make sure the dish is central on the pole. Move the dish slowly to the right. As your moving the dish keep an eye on the tv (it might be a good idea to get a friend or relative to give you a hand.
9) If after moving the dish to the right for about 6 to 12 inches you dont get a picture then slowly move the dish back to the central position.Then move it slowly to the left for about 6 to 12 inches.
10) In reality you should get a picture when you move the dish for about 12 inches to the right or left. If you dont then move the dish slightly up and repeat the process.
Also remember as already mentioned that HOTBIRD will be to the right of ASTRA . Also make sure that your receiver setting for the LNB is set to UNIVERSAL. Also check if you have the DISEQC switch allocated to other satellites. To be honest i personally would never go for things like DISEQC switches . Unless you got a number of receivers you are better off in buying a motor. You get more satellites and its a lot cheaper. Have a go at finding HOTBIRD and let us know how you get on. Always be positive and you will get there. 2 years ago i knew nothing about satellites but i learned a lot from forums like this. In the last 12 months i have helped installed dozens of dishes and motors etc. And one thing you definetely need is PATIENCE. Good luckl.

[fuzzy21]

Hi thanks for the comments guys you're advice is appreciated.A few bits of confusion here , nowhere on my box can I find a channel list so I cannot select a hotbird channel and tune it to that, I presume you only get a channel list when you actually tune it in???? So without this list I am in the same situation.Also you say when looking at dish from front with lnbs pointing towards you the right hand one should be hotbird, should this not be the other way around because I am swinging my dish from east to south so hotbird is furthest away at 13 degrees from east therefore looking from the front the hotbird LNB should be on the left in the LNB arm and looking from behind the dish on the right??????

[andiewill]

Regarding the channles lists just load in a pre made list like Catseye motor bouquets using dreambox edit, and then you will have a set of channles lists to select from.....

[dick b]

if 13E is used as prime the lnb for 19E must be to the right When viewed from behind the dish.use the FTA Transponder 12.597 V 27500 to set up 13E its got bbc world on it.and 11.597 V 22000 on 19E FTA bbc world again.

[digicon]

Here is the latest E1 channel list for you and as andiewill said you will need to load this via DBedit.

This is a full multisat list so you can always edit out the sats you dont want

[fuzzy21]

Thanks guys I have a technomate 500 super can I still load channel list as described with your instructions????

[digicon]

Thanks guys I have a technomate 500 super can I still load channel list as described with your instructions????

Yes as its an Enigma 1 box

[ramjet]

as for the lnb issue , the signals travel INTO the dish at angles , so the receive lnb for hotbird is the right hand one viewed from lnb side of dish , and becomes the left hand lnb when viewed from behind the dish

then you look at the signals bounced off the dish for astra at 19e , which is further east which when reflected by the rear of the dish end up to the left of the hotbird lnb when viewed from the lnb side of the dish , or right hand side when viewed from the back

if you kick a ball towards a wall at an angle , it doesnt come back to you but bounces at an angle away from you , the same applies to sat signals

a lot of members can never get their heads around this , so take our word for it and concentrate on doing the job instead

yes you can use a premade E1 dreambox list on your tm image , and there are some that just have astra 19e and hotbird 13e , just make sure its the E1 and not the E2

[fuzzy21]

Thanks again guys. The next step for me is to load channel list with dbedit then when weather gets a bit better get up the ladders, swap the LNB around then try tuning a channel in. I will keep you all posted on how I get on.Thanks again

[Nutsandbolts]

Hi. Remember if you dont have a channel list thats probably because like you say it has not been tuned in although i am a bit surprised as TM usually give channel lists for HOTBIRD and ASTRA as standards. Of course you can always search for the satellite and tune it in yourself by doing the following:
1) Go into menu and select INSTALLATION.
2) Go into SATELLITE SETUP.
3) select HOTBIRD 13 EAST as the satellite. For TRANSPONDER select 10.992V 27500. (for the RAI channels).
4) Then move dish slowly left and right and look for the LEVEL and QUALITY signals. When you find the signal the LEVEL will turn yellow and QUALITY will turn blue.
5) When you find signal make sure dish is tightened and press RED button to scan. You will see the channels being tuned in . You can use this method to tune in other satellites but you will of course need to change the satellite name and frequency( transponder). Regards.

[fuzzy21]

Hey guys you are all absolute living legends managed to tune in astra and hotbird by pointing in general direction and rotating left to right in 5 degree elevation increments, then boom!! 95% snr and acg!!! Thanks a lot !!