Setting up a satellite dish

[dor]

As it appears that the problem is the finder is not getting power, check that there isn't any stray braid causing a short between inner and outer. When the plug is screwed on, the inner insulation should be hard up against the inside of the plug so that the inner core can't move and touch the outer.

 

Also make sure the cable ends are kept dry. Use self-amalgamating tape to make it as waterproof as possible.

[bag 'o' bones]

I bought the Aldi/Ross kit the other day. Quite impressed with it for the price. Used some ready made coax cables from an unused cable tv connection kit I had lying around. Ready made cables are far better than the DIY screw on jobbies supplied in the kit.

 

Not sure how successful the satellite will be on the cut though, the Astra satellite is very low on the horizon!

[mattlad]

Boggles I think he means a link to the product

 

Those links are screenshots

Try Satfinder:- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.esys.satfinder

[blackrose]

.

Edited May 17, 2013 by blackrose

[keble]

It's at the top of the post.

 

HERE also

 

https://lh4.ggpht.com/nivTZBmoBgZOaUFWxTz9TAUXXIfXXJX97MFcUcqBjtXzfjLP5i7zZQHcIbw_SRam4DY

Biggles - those links don't show the app's name, just a snapshot of the screen.

What's the app called please?

[blackrose]

Hi.....let me know where you are and when I'm passing next I'll come and sort it out and get it working...

 

Martyn ring me on 07914 401 036...

 

Thanks Martyn,

 

I'll have another go this evening and if I can't get it going I'll be in touch.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[leeco]

I use this app when I occasionally need to as I can mostly do it without

 

 

When you get the phone crosshairs facing the spot in the sky the circle turns green.

 

This is overlaid on a image from the phones camera.

 

Simply brilliant.

Whats this app called?

 

I hate trying to find a signal.

[Biggles]

Sorry Peeps.

 

SatFinder

 

Linky

[keble]

Sorry Peeps.

 

SatFinder

 

Linky

Thanks!

[Kwacker]

I ran out of patience waiting for Aldi to put the Ross kits on sale, so bought an unused (?) kit off Ebay for £40.

It did look pristine when I unboxed it, but I wasted 4 hours trying everything to get a signal, from 3 different locations, not just the boat. I even changed the cable to a better grade than that supplied in the kit .... nada! The tuner and the satfinder both seemed to be working, just couldn't pick up any signal.

Worst part was people telling me that you need an hour or so to set it up .... you don't if it's working correctly!

 

Having failed to get a signal, I saw on the forum that Aldi had put the identical kit on sale from last Sunday (grr!!) for £59.99, so I bought one.

 

It took all of 5 minutes to set up and get brilliant reception, The dish needs to be practically vertical (indicator just below 30), with the LNB rotated so that the wire exits at about 7 o clock viewed from the front. Then just point it slightly east of south and adjust the sat-finder until the red lights just go off.

I had an Astra satellite finder App on my phone, but didn't need it, If it is working properly, by slowly swinging the dish left and right, you will find the satellite very easily. I didn't have to do anything with the tuner, just connect the Aerial cable, HDMI and power, all the stations were pre-tuned.

Once I found the satellite, I experimented a bit with the tolerances, I could violently rock the boat with no loss of signal ( although the wife's reception to that wasn't too good), tweaking the LNB a few degrees either way made little difference.

By substitution, I found that the LNB in the original kit was not working, but as they are only £5 or so, I have just replaced it to restore it to proper working order ... wanna buy it?

As other posters said, take great care fitting the connectors to the cable, don't let a stray bit of the braid contact the core, but I didn't find that the connectors needed to be tightened beyond hand tight just for setup, once done and dusted, and all cables tidied, I did pull them up with a spanner so that they can withstand those diesel engine vibrations.

Best of luck

[Ex- Member]

Nice one well done. I would claim back of the ebay seller. I think you'rte right about aps you don't really need them. On that same site as br has posted if you know where you're moored and translate that to the satellite map, then finging general direction is easy that way anyway. As long as when you moor you know what direction you're facing on the canal, you can just put the search icon anyway near your location and the Green line shows you where to point the dish. Like it!

[Kwacker]

Nice one well done. I would claim back of the ebay seller. I think you'rte right about aps you don't really need them. On that same site as br has posted if you know where you're moored and translate that to the satellite map, then finging general direction is easy that way anyway. As long as when you moor you know what direction you're facing on the canal, you can just put the search icon anyway near your location and the Green line shows you where to point the dish. Like it!

He gave me a £10 refund, and the new LNB was only £4.95 .... It would have cost me £12.95 to send it back, so I preferred to keep it, as it is to all intents and purposes brand new, and I genuinely think the seller thought it was working.

I may use it at home, or show off by having one at either end of me bote.

[dor]

Glad you got it sorted - see I told you it was easy!

As someone mentioned above, the real pain is undoing the connection to put the sat finder in line. I've got some BNC connectors and I'm going to try those next time I go to the boat. Should make it a lot easier.

[nicknorman]

Glad you got it sorted - see I told you it was easy!

As someone mentioned above, the real pain is undoing the connection to put the sat finder in line. I've got some BNC connectors and I'm going to try those next time I go to the boat. Should make it a lot easier.

You can get pushfit F connectors like here http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/page7.htm#fconn to make it easy to insert the finder

 

However we never use a finder, apart from anything else it finds a satellite. Any tv satellite and probably not the one you want!

[blackrose]

I managed to get the dish set up and found the ASTRA 2A/2B satellite last night - more by chance than anything else! I'd almost given up as I couldn't get a signal and then swung the dish about an inch to the west and the TV suddenly showed I'd got a really good signal. The thing I don't understand is that the instructions say that even a movement of 1mm of the dish will affect alignment, yet the quality of the mounting brackets is so poor that even fully tightened there's a huge amount of play in the joints. How's it supposed to stay aligned in strong winds?

[nicknorman]

Small dishes are less well focused and hence less directional than large ones. We find getting on for 10 degrees ( +-5 ) misalignment still gives a picture with Martyn's fairly small dish. It only becomes more critical if there is something impeding the signal such as light foliage. Significant foliage of course means no signal at all.

[Guest]

Small dishes are less well focused and hence less directional than large ones. We find getting on for 10 degrees ( +-5 ) misalignment still gives a picture with Martyn's fairly small dish. It only becomes more critical if there is something impeding the signal such as light foliage. Significant foliage of course means no signal at all.

 

When we used satellite on the boat (we rarely do now - in fact the dish is at home in the shed now!) I was pleasantly surprised at how tolerant the whole thing was of boat movement, and that was just with a bog standard domestic type Sky dish.

 

That said we don't even have to bother aligning our TV aerial now as it seems to get a picture now no matter where it points or even if it's just laid on the roof! - the signal is so good now where we do most of our boating that I've even ordered on of these to try, and do away with the bulky log periodic aerial.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007JPOX8O/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I've never been a fan of omni-directional aerials but they may have come into their own since the digital switchover - we shall see......

Edited May 18, 2013 by The Dog House

[OldGoat]

I managed to get the dish set up and found the ASTRA 2A/2B satellite last night - more by chance than anything else! I'd almost given up as I couldn't get a signal and then swung the dish about an inch to the west and the TV suddenly showed I'd got a really good signal. The thing I don't understand is that the instructions say that even a movement of 1mm of the dish will affect alignment, yet the quality of the mounting brackets is so poor that even fully tightened there's a huge amount of play in the joints. How's it supposed to stay aligned in strong winds?

 

 

I've mostly given up joining these threads - but seeing that it's you - I'll try again.

When I suggest that folks get a decent quality dish (I use Triax 'cos the arm can be made to fold for stowage, and the bracket is well made more importantly the adjusting bolts don't slip) - I get rubbished by folks on here who say the suitcase stuff is excellent...

 

You get what you pay for.

 

IME the LED type of satfinder works well (good ones are adjustable for sensitivity), whereas the meter pointer variety don't.

Whichever one you use, you need a supply - normally supplied by the receiver - however the feed doesn't start until the receiver boots up. For my boxes (ex Sky or Humax), these take a couple of minutes before the LNB supply becomes available - could that have been your problem??

 

It is very important that the mount to the dish is absolutely vertical in all directions or getting a signal will be a pain.

[nicknorman]

It is very important that the mount to the dish is absolutely vertical in all directions or getting a signal will be a pain.

Absolutely vertical only if it has an offset LNB. If it has a central LNB then of course it has to be pointed up.

[keble]

Absolutely vertical only if it has an offset LNB. If it has a central LNB then of course it has to be pointed up.

Nick, for satellite virgins like me could you please explain this? I've tried googling, honest!

What do you mean by offset?

[Guest]

Nick, for satellite virgins like me could you please explain this? I've tried googling, honest!

What do you mean by offset?

 

Offset is as per your 'normal' lnb set up like on a Sky dish - 'offset to the centre' so that the signal from above reflects and is collected by the LNB below.

 

A dish with a central LNB (or 'prime' dish) faces the satellite fully face on, the signal being reflected and 'collected' by a centrally mounted LNB, they were common in the very early days of Satellite TV (pre BSKYB 'n' all that stuff).

 

eg -

 

 

You can still get 'Prime' dishes for mobile use too - Towsure sell this one for example -

 

 

http://www.towsure.com/product/Multimo_Mobile_Camping_Caravan_Satellite_Dish

Edited May 18, 2013 by The Dog House

[nicknorman]

Nick, for satellite virgins like me could you please explain this? I've tried googling, honest!

What do you mean by offset?

Not sure if I should explain LNB - that the bit that actually picks up the signal (low noise block or something). If it sticks out of the centre of the dish as I have seen on some, that means that the dish focusses the signal onto it only when the dish is pointing at the satellite (ie it has to be tilted up).

 

With an offset LNB, there is typically an arm coming out below the dish with the LNB thing on the end (where the cable(s) plug into) and this positions the LNB not along the centre axis of the dish, but to one side (below, normally). This means that if the dish is pointing at the satellite, the signal is focussed to the centre of the dish where the LNB isn't! To focus onto the offset LNB, the dish must be pointed down below the satellite, then the signal bounces off the dish at an angle (as light would from a concave mirror) and onto the LNB - if the dish is at the correct elevation angle. To make life simple, dish manufacturers select an offset that pretty much amounts to the elevation of the satellite, such that its focussed onto the LNB when the dish is vertical. This makes life so much simpler because you just have to eyeball the dish to vertical and you will have the correct elevation, rather than trying to evaluate the 20-something degrees or whatever it is with an central LNB.

 

Ah - Martin beat me to it and his picture is worth a thousand of my words!

Edited May 18, 2013 by nicknorman

[OldGoat]

Not sure if I should explain LNB - that the bit that actually picks up the signal (low noise block or something). If it sticks out of the centre of the dish as I have seen on some, that means that the dish focusses the signal onto it only when the dish is pointing at the satellite (ie it has to be tilted up).

 

With an offset LNB, there is typically an arm coming out below the dish with the LNB thing on the end (where the cable(s) plug into) and this positions the LNB not along the centre axis of the dish, but to one side (below, normally). This means that if the dish is pointing at the satellite, the signal is focussed to the centre of the dish where the LNB isn't! To focus onto the offset LNB, the dish must be pointed down below the satellite, then the signal bounces off the dish at an angle (as light would from a concave mirror) and onto the LNB - if the dish is at the correct elevation angle. To make life simple, dish manufacturers select an offset that pretty much amounts to the elevation of the satellite, such that its focussed onto the LNB when the dish is vertical. This makes life so much simpler because you just have to eyeball the dish to vertical and you will have the correct elevation, rather than trying to evaluate the 20-something degrees or whatever it is with an central LNB.

 

Ah - Martin beat me to it and his picture is worth a thousand of my words!

 

Moy point (in your preceding post) is that the mount pole for an offset dish must be vertical and that tends to be critical when searching for a signal. I didn't mean the dish. For a prime focus dish the base plate has to be horizontal (the mounting part will then be vertical.....)

 

To explain an LNB - it's probably easiest to say it's an "amplifier" to help you pick up the signal. Not technically correct, but, hey the full answer is somewhat more complicated. It's only when you have multi port LNB's for recorders etc that a further explanation might be in order.

 

 

To the other poster extolling the virtue of a stick aerial - these are fine in areas of strong signal strength, but not otherwise. Freeview signals are very intolerant to interference and that means reflections and other channels.

If you cruise over wide areas retuning the Freeview box can be a complete pain.

[nicknorman]

Moy point (in your preceding post) is that the mount pole for an offset dish must be vertical and that tends to be critical when searching for a signal. I didn't mean the dish.

I knew what you meant but thought it best to explore the point for the benefit of others! In our case, we have a mag mount dish (plonked onto a curving roof when we are moored) but the fact that the dish just has to be vertical makes it easy set up even though it has to be moved in 2 axes.

[Guest]

To the other poster extolling the virtue of a stick aerial - these are fine in areas of strong signal strength, but not otherwise. Freeview signals are very intolerant to interference and that means reflections and other channels.

If you cruise over wide areas retuning the Freeview box can be a complete pain.

 

That is my point though - we do seem to generally cruise in a very strong signal area and can normally get a signal no matter where our aerial is pointing (or even if we don't bother setting it up and just leave it laid on the roof). Things got markedly better after analogue was switched off, even at home where prior to the full switch over we couldn't get any Freeview channels but now we can now get a selection, including all the main ones. BBC/ITV/4/5 etc.

 

I wasn't particularly 'extolling' stick aerials by the way, what I actually said was I was going to give one a try, as i know a few on here have had success with them on their boats, I will post back when I've had chance to try it. at under a tenner I figured it could be worth a punt, if it proves to be rubbish I'll post as such and toss it in the bin.

 

Lastly - re-tuning (if required) our cheap Freeview telly on the boat which we got from Asda is actually a breeze - something like - Menu/settings/first time install and we are good to go after about five minutes.

 

Edited May 18, 2013 by The Dog House