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Astra 2E/2F Technical Thread


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That may be the simplest way to get the quality to peak and to see if the cable has a basic problem. The devices on the page I gave you connect to the LNB and directly so you don't need to decoder attached. (That is unlike either the cheap meters or light things which need to be in line as they need power from the decoder to make them work.) The meters in the link will give the power and quality levels for specific channels so you can check this horizontal and vertical thing . You can the re-attach the cable and go to the decoder end and connect it there to see how much signal strength and quality you have lost down the cable.

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For Open-Linux receivers (Dreambox, Xtrend, Vu+) there is a smartphone app you can use that shows (and speaks) the signal quality and strength of the receiver. Very handy and at no cost. Only the signal quality is important, always go for maximum quality and not for maximum strength.

20 meter good quality cable should be no problem, but I it is not advisable nor imho possible to put the innards of one lnb into another.

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[quote user="Jako"]For Open-Linux receivers (Dreambox, Xtrend, Vu+) there is a smartphone app you can use that shows (and speaks) the signal quality and strength of the receiver. Very handy and at no cost. Only the signal quality is important, always go for maximum quality and not for maximum strength.

20 meter good quality cable should be no problem, but I it is not advisable nor imho possible to put the innards of one lnb into another.

[/quote]

Personally I didn't think so either but then I am out of field of expertise in this matter so I have to believe what he tells me.

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@ Tarrot:   this is quite a good compromise

http://www.tvnt.net/forum/la-tnt-sur-le-satellite-t18685.html#p478156

(SF500 - post 6).

Not perfect but I use one and it's pretty good.

@ Quillan - sorry.   Should have kept my mouth shut.

Agree that taking the giblets out of one LNB and putting it in another sounds a bit dodgy,  although I've never tried.   My hunch is that the Amstrad wasn't the most sensitive receiver but again I haven't kept tabs on that for a while.   But could the installer lend you a FTA generic box and see how it fares?

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  • 2 weeks later...
No, that would make reception weaker everywhere, including in the UK and that is not the case. Au contraire, on my location the signal quality goes up at night. That makes more sense as the earth blocks that big source of noise and warmth  (the sun).   It is an atmospheric phenomenon only experienced in fringe areas where the already low energy gets more or less dispersed. Without help of the atmosphere the signal would probably always be lower  in the affected areas.

The effect of depleting batteries and degrading solar panels does exist on older satellites, but is compensated for by simply using less transponders.

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I've just been home for a while and had a chance to do some tweaking.

Tarbes dept 65 

I have a Humax and a Sly Box with a Zinwell quad LNB.

I changed the 80cm dish to a 1m dish.

All channels have 95-100% strength and quality...EXCEPT ... the usual suspects as mentioned above, ITV1 HD etc are there but not of a quality that gives me a picture (sometimes it works first thing in the morning).

One thing more. I am changing the Zinwell LNB. This is optimized to be used with a Sky dish, it has inbuilt skew already and makes adjusting for a -19 degree skew a little difficult to adjust. As the dish I have just put up is a circular dish I am replacing the LNB.

I will report back in a couple of weeks once I've swapped that to see if it makes a difference.

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I had a look at where your department is, to the west of us (in line with the Isle of White) and a tad further north. Based on my experience so far and the time we had a 1M dish you should get C5 etc at least for around 3 to 5 hours per day.

Another thing I can tell you from my recent experiences is that 19 deg may not be correct. When I used my LNB (Black Ultra single) it has a line on the back to help set the skew. I used a plumb bob and protractor to set it to 19 deg and I got it spot on. When the engineers came they adjusted the skew which resulted in much better signal quality but hardly and change in strength. This is what I meant earlier, the bigger the dish the harder it is to get a perfect alignment and why you really need one of these clever boxes that show both power and more importantly signal quality. Hope that helps.

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The best test transponder is 11024 H 23000 2/3 dvbs2 8psk with BBC red button HD, BBC one Scotland HD and BBC one Wales HD.

You need a better signal for 8PSK in comparison to 'simple' DVB S QPSK that is currently used on all other channels.

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[quote user="Jako"]The best test transponder is 11024 H 23000 2/3 dvbs2 8psk with BBC red button HD, BBC one Scotland HD and BBC one Wales HD.
You need a better signal for 8PSK in comparison to 'simple' DVB S QPSK that is currently used on all other channels.
[/quote]

Don't you mean 11023? Thats what I set on the Humax to get BBC HD Regions as it is the only (UK) frequency on 2F that transmits only HD and not SD/HD. It is the only one also that is DVB-S2 (for UK TV that is). I tried 11024 tonight and get nothing but it all works on 11023 so I am wondering (and I am no expert) that you might be 1 out.

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I tried it again on the Humax, it is as before. Perhaps it is because I am using a French box (TN5000HD/FR) and I am going outside the normal use of the box that it only works on 11023 (which is what I got from the LyngSat although I notice that Kingofsat says it is 11024!). Anyway the object was to ensure the dish would also work in HD with Dolby Digital for future proofing for when my TV finally goes bang and I have to buy a new one.

So appologies to Jako.

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Yes, I took the frequency from Kingofsat. The last digit's accuracy should be irrelevant though as the tuner will try to tune in to the nearest frequency it can find. Do not forget that the tuner does not even receive this frequency at all, but the downmixed frequency. Downmixing is done by the LNB's local oscillator and the frequency of this L.O. will also be a little off if it is not an LNB with PLL (phase locked loop).

 Nothing is what it seems...[:)]

P.S.

LNB's with PLL are new on the consumer market (price going down) and might just be what is necessary to improve reception in fringe area's. If you can find one-give it a try.

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[quote user="Jako"]P.S.
LNB's with PLL are new on the consumer market (price going down) and might just be what is necessary to improve reception in fringe area's. If you can find one-give it a try.
[/quote] Jako,do tell more - prices and suppliers
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Yes, according to the specs.

Never tried one myself, but the improved frequency stability (Hohe Frequenzstabilität) due to the PLL should help especially with receiving  8PSK transponders.

edit:

If you can read German there is a testreport here (pdf). They claim the Inverto black ultra as 'winner', but the octagon best suited for 'weak satellite positions' because of the 'near perfect curve' due to the high stability.

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Hello people , not been on here for ages, interesting thread, I run a skybox (not $ly) and an old technomate TM1000 and a 1mtr motorised dish no problem at all with Astra, a little weak on 26E but there again it is aimed at the middle east 39E is good too (Bulgarian TV) and 5W for french TV is fine,

I 'm based 40 minutes south of Poitiers
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  • 2 weeks later...
[quote user="HoneySuckleDreams"]

I will report back in a couple of weeks once I've swapped that to see if it makes a difference.

[/quote]

An update..

I replaced the LNB with a new one without the inbuilt skew. 35quid. No difference. (however -19degrees did give the best quality)

Ch5 and ITV1 HD are OK in fine weather up to the middle of the afternoon. Sometimes blocky though. S80% Q50%. In the evenings I get diddly squat.  It's not a life and death situation, but I want to know how to get the 2F channels, especially when everything else is tip top and especially if more channels will be moving to 2F

However, as BT have just bought the champions league rights then that limits the stuff I wanted to watch on ITV HD. I just hope the 6nations doesn't go the same way !

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[quote user="HoneySuckleDreams"][quote user="HoneySuckleDreams"]

I will report back in a couple of weeks once I've swapped that to see if it makes a difference.

[/quote]

An update..

I replaced the LNB with a new one without the inbuilt skew. 35quid. No difference. (however -19degrees did give the best quality)

Ch5 and ITV1 HD are OK in fine weather up to the middle of the afternoon. Sometimes blocky though. S80% Q50%. In the evenings I get diddly squat.  It's not a life and death situation, but I want to know how to get the 2F channels, especially when everything else is tip top and especially if more channels will be moving to 2F

However, as BT have just bought the champions league rights then that limits the stuff I wanted to watch on ITV HD. I just hope the 6nations doesn't go the same way !

[/quote]

You are almost in the same 'place' as I was with the 1M dish (well slightly worse actually). At 1M and above the alignment needs to be absolutely spot on and any type of device that goes 'in line' between the LNB and the decoder is just not good enough. As I said before 'strength' is not the thing it is 'quality' and the two are different i.e. maximum strength does not mean best quality.

If you have used one of these boxes that just connect to the LNB, self powered and the dish (and LNB) is perfectly aligned then it is dish size which I suspect it is anyway. Looking at your approximate position you’re actually slightly further north than me and whilst a 1.2M dish should do the job I would go for a 1.4M because of the 'rain factor'. Talking of which it can come down like stair rods now and I never loose a non 2F signal, it is great while it lasts but when they move to 2E we will be back to where we were with the rain.

My other concern is snow, I don’t know what effect it will have.

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  • 2 weeks later...
No, the bird is still at 43.5 east. No testsignals have been observed for a week now and testing lasted a week longer than expected. Maybe they are testing Ka frequencies or there is a problem. This is all speculation as there is no official info available.

'Live' tracking of astra2e here

It is not really 'live'. The position of orbiting objects is updated by visual confirmation every 24/48 hrs, excluding weekends and bad weather, and then calculated. So when you see it has started moving, is has already been moving for at least 24 hours and later you will see it 'overshoot' the desired position, because the software will also miss the satellite hitting the breaks.

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Sky announced a brief outage on November 28 between 01:00 and 03:00 hours for 80 channels. As Astra2E is definitely not in place in time the new theory is that Astra2A will be emptied to Astra2F and/or 1N and then move away. Astra2E can then move into this abandoned cubicle.

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