Pulling my hair out, can't get satellite to work.
Set up system obviously with dish, sky receiver and tv but not getting a signal.
To check that everything is ok we have tried the following;
TV has been set up to our existing home sky system, it works so we know the tv is ok.
We have also substituted the sky box with our existing sky system, it works so we know the box is ok.
However, new portable dish doesn't work with our existing sky system, so the problem must be there.
We have used a signal meter and believe we have the dish facing correctly we are in Birmingham, compass bearing 145 degrees elevation 26 degrees and this is borne out by the noise from the meter and looks correct compared to dish on house.
So can't see what I'm doing wrong, any ideas?
Have you set the system up before without issue, or are you new to setting up a portable satellite system ?.
It could be that you are just not getting line of sight to the Astra2 satellites, your meter could be registering a signal from another satellite which will only result in the no satellite signal message on your Sky box.
An easy way to overcome this issue is to use a none Sky FTA satellite receiver, at least then you can do a scan and whatever satellite you have found will be displayed on your TV, from that you can determine which way to adjust the dish to home in on the Sky satellite (Astra2).
Without having a pukka satellite meter that tells you that you have found the Sky satellite, it's always going to be a case of hit or miss, as most sub £200 sat meters will only tell you that you have found a satellite, but not which one, and that could be any of a 100 or more satellites!.
I always thought it was a bad move for Sky to move from Astra1 at 19.2 East to Astra 2 at 28.2 East as it means that the satellite is now slightly lower down on the horizon than it was before.
But of course this move had to happen when Sky switched from Analogue to Digital.
In the early days of Sky DIgital at 28.2 East, the satellite was real easy to find, as they kept an Analogue transmission going, with just the Astra symbol for a still image.
This was done as at the time, many installers were still dealing with Analogue kit, so did not have digital meters, like they all have now.
Fact is back then you could find Astra2 using an old Analogue receiver, with the Astra 2 Analogue channel pre-stored.
Oh it was so easy, once you had got that Astra symbol up on your TV, you just disconnected the Analogue receiver and connected up your Sky Digi-Box.
Using the Analogue receiver you could be a clog out, and still get the Astra symbol, even if it was all sparkly, but once found you just adjusted the Dish for the best picture, and or strongest signal.
And that's the problem finding a Digital signal, if your not spot on with your Dish alignment you simply won't get a TV picture.
It's just a pity that they could not have kept that Astra Analogue signal going on Astra 2, even though it was gobbling up the capacity of 8 Digital channels.
It would have meant for a much easier time finding the satellite, for both campers and home owners alike.
Have you set the LNB skew, which I think is -13.5 degrees for Birmingham. You may already have done so but check dishpointer for the correct azimuth, elevation and skew settings for your postcode.
Personnally I have never found signal meters to be of any use at all. They seem to respond to anything !
I always set the dish nearly vertical, point it roughly towards the south and slowly turn it towards east whilst looking at the signal strength indicator on screen. Has never failed yet. If you still have no signal, incline the dish slightly and start again.
The only time I ever had a problem was with a purpose bought lead that had a faulty connection at the plug. Suggest that may be worth checking.
The problem's likely to be your elevation. If you're using an elliptical dish (like Aldi's) your dish should be more or less vertical in the U.K.
Get your compass bearing as accurate as you can then experiment with your dish elevation, starting at vertical.
Edit: Didn't see the earlier post saying the same thing!
Thanks for all your assistance.
After isolating each bit of equipment it appears the problem was a tree so far away we didn't expect that to be the problem. What is surprising is the degree of accuracy needed when pointing to Astra2. Anyway, I know it wasn't the equipment but the kn*b using it. Thanks again for you assistance.
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Topic: Satellite Problem
