Satellite dish connection

[OldGoat]

31 minutes ago, blackrose said:

Great, thanks for explaining that. I'll get myself a few of those. Cheers

          !! Success !!

 

Fplug haters of the World  - Unite

[Old Son]

3 hours ago, blackrose said:

Ordered, thanks.

Let us know what you think of the finder. I'm needing one myself.

[Rambling Boater]

46 minutes ago, Old Son said:

Let us know what you think of the finder. I'm needing one myself.

I’d also be interested in whether the sat finder or adaptor helps seeing as you managed to find the signal before you moved the boat. 

 

Just another tip regarding obstructions. You can look down the line of where the dish is pointing to make sure nothing is blocking the signal in azimuth (bearing) but bear in mind that in elevation the satellite dish should be lower in line of sight to the satellite as the signal bounces off the dish and back into the LNB. Good luck. 

[OldGoat]

14 minutes ago, Rambling Boater said:

I’d also be interested in whether the sat finder or adaptor helps seeing as you managed to find the signal before you moved the boat. 

 

Just another tip regarding obstructions. You can look down the line of where the dish is pointing to make sure nothing is blocking the signal in azimuth (bearing) but bear in mind that in elevation the satellite dish should be lower in line of sight to the satellite as the signal bounces off the dish and back into the LNB. Good luck. 

I have an aged Garmin GPS (whci I bought aeons ago to counter those wo shout "you're going too fast" from the bankside). I has a compass display so that I can see whether there's a reasonable chance of a signal - before I moor....

[GUMPY]

24 minutes ago, Rambling Boater said:

I’d also be interested in whether the sat finder or adaptor helps seeing as you managed to find the signal before you moved the boat. 

 

Just another tip regarding obstructions. You can look down the line of where the dish is pointing to make sure nothing is blocking the signal in azimuth (bearing) but bear in mind that in elevation the satellite dish should be lower in line of sight to the satellite as the signal bounces off the dish and back into the LNB. Good luck. 

Easy way to get rough elevation of the Sat is to do a nazi salute and your hand will be pointing at the sat

Edited February 2, 2020 by Loddon

[Rambling Boater]

14 minutes ago, Loddon said:

Easy way to get rough elevation of the Sat is to do a nazi salute and your hand will be pointing at the sat

Has that ever got you into trouble?

[Rambling Boater]

18 minutes ago, OldGoat said:

I have an aged Garmin GPS (whci I bought aeons ago to counter those wo shout "you're going too fast" from the bankside). I has a compass display so that I can see whether there's a reasonable chance of a signal - before I moor....

He he, well it certainly used to be the case that when planning a mooring  (in priority order) :

 

1) Gap big enough

2) Gap big enough (for Sat)

3) Pub

 

How things have changed. Now WiFi is a consideration. 

[OldGoat]

2 minutes ago, Rambling Boater said:

He he, well it certainly used to be the case that when planning a mooring  (in priority order) :

 

1) Gap big enough

2) Gap big enough (for Sat)

3) Pub

 

How things have changed. Now WiFi is a consideration. 

Boating used to be so simple....

[blackrose]

1 hour ago, Rambling Boater said:

I’d also be interested in whether the sat finder or adaptor helps seeing as you managed to find the signal before you moved the boat. 

 

Just another tip regarding obstructions. You can look down the line of where the dish is pointing to make sure nothing is blocking the signal in azimuth (bearing) but bear in mind that in elevation the satellite dish should be lower in line of sight to the satellite as the signal bounces off the dish and back into the LNB. Good luck. 

 

I've been managing fine with the satfinder app, sometimes it takes 10 mins, but if this device helps me to check the connection at the same time that might reduce the doubt in the back of my mind of not knowing whether the connections are good, while searching for the signal in vain.

1 hour ago, Loddon said:

Easy way to get rough elevation of the Sat is to do a nazi salute and your hand will be pointing at the sat

 

At exactly what angle should a Nazi salute be performed Julian? You seem to know a lot about this stuff. ?

Edited February 2, 2020 by blackrose

[Rambling Boater]

22 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

I've been managing fine with the satfinder app, sometimes it takes 10 mins, but if this device helps me to check the connection at the same time that might reduce the doubt in the back of my mind of not knowing whether the connection is good, while searching for the signal in vain.

A sat finder meter (with annoying squeaky tone reminiscent of a program I used to watch on TV as a child but can’t name here) definitely helps in the learning process of being a Ninja in finding  crap to watch on TV. Always good to have confidence in connections and cables especially outdoor ones. 

[GUMPY]

1 hour ago, blackrose said:

 

I've been managing fine with the satfinder app, sometimes it takes 10 mins, but if this device helps me to check the connection at the same time that might reduce the doubt in the back of my mind of not knowing whether the connections are good, while searching for the signal in vain.

 

At exactly what angle should a Nazi salute be performed Julian? You seem to know a lot about this stuff. ?

31.2 degrees from the horizontal 

 

[Rambling Boater]

So the dish may look like it’s pointing slightly downwards to get into the beam.

[Hudds Lad]

i use an app called Dish Align on iphone, you can specify exactly which sat you’re after, and with satellite map view turned on you can easily see if theres any obvious obstructions before bothering to twiddle the dish.

 

as a finetune i use a Primesat SF500 Mk2, which again can be set to look for specific satellites only. not the cheapest but its had a 100% success rate for me so far if theres a signal to be had.

[Alan de Enfield]

15 hours ago, Loddon said:

Easy way to get rough elevation of the Sat is to do a nazi salute and your hand will be pointing at the sat

Like this ?

 

[Sea Dog]

9 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Like this ?

 

Not exactly like that - the picture is still blurry.

 

[Bee]

Whenever I get strange problems I just lop an inch or so off the cable and remake the joint. Water gets into the connectors and every year or so it gets corroded.

[Dr Bob]

3 hours ago, Hudds Lad said:

i use an app called Dish Align on iphone, you can specify exactly which sat you’re after, and with satellite map view turned on you can easily see if theres any obvious obstructions before bothering to twiddle the dish.

 

as a finetune i use a Primesat SF500 Mk2, which again can be set to look for specific satellites only. not the cheapest but its had a 100% success rate for me so far if theres a signal to be had.

I use Keeping up's sundial and then fine tune with the Primesat SF700. Great piece of kit but expensive. It has worked 100%. It only registers on the sat you want ie Astra 2 so no confusion wotsoever when there are some trees around. It is usually easy with the cheaper 10 led type ones but they do not tell you which sat you are looking at. With no trees or obstructions it is easy to see the 3 sats near each other and pick the left one (which is the astra 2) but if there is a tree blocking one of the 3 sats then the 10 led jobbie can let you down. In our 2 years using the 10 LED one we had 3 instances where we just couldnt pick up the sat where I thought we were free enough from trees.

The primesat SF700 is soooooo much better. 100% everytime. Its worth it to us as April - Oct we are usually in a new place every night.

[Hudds Lad]

11 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

I use Keeping up's sundial and then fine tune with the Primesat SF700. Great piece of kit but expensive. It has worked 100%. It only registers on the sat you want ie Astra 2 so no confusion wotsoever when there are some trees around. It is usually easy with the cheaper 10 led type ones but they do not tell you which sat you are looking at. With no trees or obstructions it is easy to see the 3 sats near each other and pick the left one (which is the astra 2) but if there is a tree blocking one of the 3 sats then the 10 led jobbie can let you down. In our 2 years using the 10 LED one we had 3 instances where we just couldnt pick up the sat where I thought we were free enough from trees.

The primesat SF700 is soooooo much better. 100% everytime. Its worth it to us as April - Oct we are usually in a new place every night.

do you mean the FS-700 ? https://www.satellitesuperstore.com/satellitemeters.htm#sf700 ours is further down the page and a fetching purple in colour  

 

I did look at that, but was a bit overkill for my needs I thought, and obviously being a Yorkshireman the SF500 at half it's price appealed

 

the things with little LEDs or a meter with a needle are awful, have tried about three different variants with little to no success, they'll just bleep at any old signal.

[Jen-in-Wellies]

On 01/02/2020 at 14:05, blackrose said:

I moved my boat this morning and I've spent an hour with a satfinder app trying to get a signal without any success. Usually it takes me 5 minutes. There are no obvious obstructions so is there an easy way with a multimeter to quickly check if there it a connection all the way through to from the dish to the TV so I know I'm not wasting my time moving the dish around and searching for a signal?

No one has asked this question yet. Just how far did @blackrose move his boat? Perhaps it went off the edge of the satellite transmission and there was no signal to pick up. ?

Jen

[Dr Bob]

4 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

No one has asked this question yet. Just how far did @blackrose move his boat? Perhaps it went off the edge of the satellite transmission and there was no signal to pick up. ?

Jen

Yep, he must be tied up in Unst.

I know the harbour he must be in quite well.....only one safe one at the top end!

[Rambling Boater]

Well just moored up again with no branches and leafs in the way of Mr Beam. Turned up TV loud, no sat finder, found Mr Beam in 1 minute. 

 

Nice sunset too.

[Sea Dog]

24 minutes ago, Rambling Boater said:

Well just moored up again with no branches and leafs in the way of Mr Beam. Turned up TV loud, no sat finder, found Mr Beam in 1 minute. 

 

Nice sunset too.

Pop round and show me how to do that will ya?!

 

[blackrose]

On 02/02/2020 at 16:22, Old Son said:

Let us know what you think of the finder. I'm needing one myself.

 

Well, first impressions are not good. I haven't tested it but despite what it says on the box "Made with Pride & Care in the UK", several things are rattling around inside the sat finder and the overall quality seems cheap. This sat finder just shouldn't cost £30. So much for British quality. If it was Chinese you'd expect to pay about £8. Nothing should be rattling around inside so I'm not going to bother testing it and I'm sending it back for a refund.

[Old Son]

Not a great start!!

[Dr Bob]

13 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

Well, first impressions are not good. I haven't tested it but despite what it says on the box "Made with Pride & Care in the UK", several things are rattling around inside the sat finder and the overall quality seems cheap. This sat finder just shouldn't cost £30. So much for British quality. If it was Chinese you'd expect to pay about £8. Nothing should be rattling around inside so I'm not going to bother testing it and I'm sending it back for a refund.

Yep.

Get the primesat. Far better.

How is Unst?