Astra 2E/2F Technical Thread

[Quillan]

Your absolutely right, I had enough trouble with my original dish and the bigger you go the more difficult it becomes which is probably why a good 120cm and above dish comes with fine adjustment ability.

When I watched the guys set my dish up I was amazed at how much you had to adjust like not just the angle of the lnb but distance from the dish and the difference it made. Just by pushing on the dish lightly you can see the changes so it really pays in my book to get a professional installer in to do it properly.

[crabtree]

[quote user="Gardian"]Forgive me for being blunt, but isn't there another solution to this 'tweak a bit here, left hand down a bit, right hand down a bit more' ???

Employ a professional, who knows what he's doing. If it doesn't work, then you come to a discussion as to how to proceed.

No messing around on dodgy roofs, no re-ordering better quality dishes, no agonising on here.

Sometimes, we have to know our limitations![/quote]

I was gently suggesting that with a professional installer a little tweak may alleviate the need for a larger dish.

[basquesteve]

Sounds expensive a 130cm dish here....

http://www.satenco.com/en/satellite-dish/3696-triax-atf-130.html...is 139 euros why change the cable, as for installation eek

[Angie]

Thanks for the info. Will have to install it ourselves as we couldn't justify spending over 300 euros on a new dish (only had the previous one installed last summer!) - cabling should be OK I hope. We may be able to install it on our upstairs terrace so no scrabbling around on roofs for us!  Thanks again

[PaulT]

And what is wrong with a DIY install to see if you can get an acceptable signal and if not take one of two options:

Employ a professional to adjust the dish for optimum results

or

buy a sophisticated meter to enable you to DIY?

As for larger dishes is there still the possibility that SES will do some tweaking so whilst a particular size dish is OK today it may not be tomorrow.

 

[PaulT]

Still think it a great shame that Martin has not reconsidered and started posting on the forum.

Always helpful and copious amounts of advice from him which has certainly helped me in the past and I assume a great many members.

So, if you are still looking in Martin please reconsider.

[crabtree]

[quote user="PaulT"]

And what is wrong with a DIY install to see if you can get an acceptable signal and if not take one of two options:

Employ a professional to adjust the dish for optimum results. 

[/quote]

Exactly what I did, 5€ for the minor adjustment, now all channels at 100%/100%.

[quote user="PaulT"]

 As for larger dishes is there still the possibility that SES will do some tweaking so whilst a particular size dish is OK today it may not be tomorrow.

[/quote]

I can't be certain, but from what I have read elsewhere (specific satellite forums) 2E (and 2F) and now fairly stable, so major changes unlikely.

[Quillan]

I am fairly lucky because whilst my house is on two levels they are staggered which means I can exit a window on to the roof where the dish is located.

When I installed my 90cm dish I used one of those meters you put inline between the decoder and lnb along with the satfinder software on my mobile phone. It was actually quite easy to align the dish and get maximum signal strength although I still had a problem with C5 in that it would disappear at certain times of the day. This was I should point out when only 2F was launched last year.

I called out the professional installer to have a look thinking I had got it wrong. I was able to stand right next to him when he checked the dish. It seems I was actually spot on with the alignment for signal strength but there was a problem with quality, something these inline meters cannot show.

He then went on to align the LNB by both turning it and moving it back and forth. This did not seem to affect the signal strength but it made quite a difference to the signal quality especially when you consider I am in a fringe area so even a one db addition can make quite a difference when it comes to the decoders ability to lock on to the signal. Now I don't claim in any way to be an expert, I have said before I am out of my depth with this but I do have a background in electronics and I am a trained observer.

It therefore seems to me that when we are dealing with these dishes especially in fringe areas the way to get the best out of your dish is to align it properly, not just the strength but quality as well which is why I advise getting somebody to do it who has the right (expensive) equipment. Personally I have seen the 'cheap' equipment on Amazon that sells for a hundred or more pounds but they are nothing like the box the installer brought with him which was far more sophisticated (you can actually watch the program on it) only to use the once, seems a bit of a waste of money really. These are my thoughts and of course people are free to whatever they please.

[Quillan]

[quote user="crabtree"][quote user="PaulT"]

And what is wrong with a DIY install to see if you can get an acceptable signal and if not take one of two options:

Employ a professional to adjust the dish for optimum results. 

[/quote]

Exactly what I did, 5€ for the minor adjustment, now all channels at 100%/100%.

[quote user="PaulT"]
 As for larger dishes is there still the possibility that SES will do some tweaking so whilst a particular size dish is OK today it may not be tomorrow.

[/quote]

I can't be certain, but from what I have read elsewhere (specific satellite forums) 2E (and 2F) and now fairly stable, so major changes unlikely.
[/quote]

I believe I am right in saying that CBS and Movies for Men (France 24 also) are still on Eutelsat 28. They certtainly seem to be coming in 100% on both strength and quality where as the other, more common channels, are coming in lower. With the tester we get around 9.6db for these as opposed to 6.8 to 7db on the latter. If they have moved then they must be on the wide beam although I can't find any information that says they have moved. We know Eutelsat 28 has to move so I can only assume that until these other channels have moved to 2E or 2F it would be pointless tweeking them.

[HoneySuckleDreams]

Quillan:

 

Was the meter something like this ?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-SATlink-WS6906-35-DVBS-FTA-Data-Digital-Satellite-Signal-Finder-Meter-UK-/121121675206#ht_4540wt_1176

 

I know it doesn't do DVBS-2 but seems reasonable for an amateur

 

 

[Quillan]

About four times the size and can be used for terrestrial aerial alignment as well. I didn't make a note of the make but I do know it is blue. Not much help I know. I saw something similar and that was £999 but I suspect the one they used was more.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Horizon-HD-STM-Combo-Meter-CREATIVE/dp/B004DINHLE

 

[Wils]

I have just bought one of these

https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B00A30XY50?keywords=SATLINK&qid=1383925720&ref_=sr_1_2&sr=8-2

99 euros delivered and you can see the programme being transmitted on the screen.

[crabtree]

[quote user="Quillan"][quote user="crabtree"][quote user="PaulT"]

And what is wrong with a DIY install to see if you can get an acceptable signal and if not take one of two options:

Employ a professional to adjust the dish for optimum results. 

[/quote]

Exactly what I did, 5€ for the minor adjustment, now all channels at 100%/100%.

[quote user="PaulT"]

 As for larger dishes is there still the possibility that SES will do some tweaking so whilst a particular size dish is OK today it may not be tomorrow.

[/quote]

I can't be certain, but from what I have read elsewhere (specific satellite forums) 2E (and 2F) and now fairly stable, so major changes unlikely.

[/quote]

I believe I am right in saying that CBS and Movies for Men (France 24 also) are still on Eutelsat 28. They certtainly seem to be coming in 100% on both strength and quality where as the other, more common channels, are coming in lower. With the tester we get around 9.6db for these as opposed to 6.8 to 7db on the latter. If they have moved then they must be on the wide beam although I can't find any information that says they have moved. We know Eutelsat 28 has to move so I can only assume that until these other channels have moved to 2E or 2F it would be pointless tweeking them.

[/quote]

CBS and France 24 are still on Eutelsat, Movies 4 Men is on the 2E Pan European Beam so will be a strong signal.

This site lists all the 28E channels and their respective satellites and frequencies.

[HoneySuckleDreams]

Friends have just visited their holiday home 100m up the road from us, and with their 80cm dish, can receive all the Sky sports stuff, no BBC or ITV though.

I was home for the weekend and had a play, some BBC stuff came and went during the day. We could get the BBC RB1 OK, and Alba (which pleased the kids as there was Rugby on)

Big dish is still on order (3 weeks and counting) so I will give another update in a couple of weeks

[Quillan]

I think thats is because they are on the European beam, their thinking being is that you need a card to view Sky and you can't buy one outside the UK. Just gos to show they really have no idea how many people take their card with them.

[andyh4]

You think so Q?

I suspect they have a fair idea of the number of subscribers who operate part or full time outside of the scope of the contract. As long as they cannot identify individuals, they do not have to do anything - and why should they, where is the benefit in reducing your subscription numbers by say 20%?

[Quillan]

Who really knows what goes on in the minds of those in at Sky? Of course in reality it does not stop people from watching, we did when we had a Sky subscription. I wonder how many French are watching French TV in the UK considering you need a card and not just for the free channels. Just like us I suspect many of them use the same tricks like VPN's etc. Perhaps it is more along the lines of being seen to be doing something rather than actually doing something with Sky. I wonder also if you pay more to be on the UK beam but certainly to be able to get Sky pay to view and not BBC FreeSat etc does seem to indicate that they are not on the spot beam and a look at the King of Sat website it does seem to imply that they are not on the UK spot beam.

[PaulT]

Could not get BBC1, 2, 3 & 4 HD, then on Monday afternoon the hail was so strong it moved the dish to a great extent such that nothing was received. Yanked it back to about the correct position and lo and behold can now get the above HD channels.

[osie]

Had: 60cm dish/ Figeac/ No BBC HD or BBC 1 &2

Now: 85cm dish with between 90/100% on strengh and quality(often 100% on the lot), on a double LNB.

The dish (apparently made of resine rather than metal) cost 85€ from a local quy and with a stroke of luck it worked after a bit of manual movement and some sore muscles.

Shame there is nothing decent to watch ;-)

[Quillan]

I am now on what my dish supplier believes to be the final answer for us down here which is a Triax ATF 130cm dish which is actually 134 x 124cm oval shaped dish. Fitted to that is an Inverto Black Ultra twin LNB plus a new twin cable of 7mm per core.

Everything is working fine or so it seemed. I was watching TV at around 02:30 a couple of weeks back when I lost Channel 5 US and went on to discover that all the C5 channels plus BBC1 and 2HD, 4Seven had gone as well. I then looked at BBC1 etc and sortly after they went as well.

Later on that week I tried to record a film on C5 and towards the end the picture broke up then went with the old "No satellite signal is being recieved".

Doing some checking over the last three weeks it appears all the channels go at different times but basically it as if day by day they are going backwards in time as to when they fail. Currently it all seems top go at around 23:00.

This is proving to be a right pain because like others what with the time difference I often want to record something because in French time it is on or will end way after I go to bed.

The other strange thing is that it appears as if the Astra 2F channels go first followed shortly (say 10 to 15 minutes) after by the Astra 2E channels.

I have since heard through the grapevine that some others are experiencing the same thing in our area.

I guess that if you don't record stuff or stay up very late you would not see this happen although as this becomes earlier and earlier I suspect they will start to experience it at some time or another.

I have yet to find anyone who can give me an explination as to why this happens nor to give me a solution.

I should add that most of the day everything is OK and we get excellent reception in both SD and HD on all channels.

[plod]

I suffered the same fate with ITV4 and don’t know how “The Interpreter”ended! I also find I have lost my local BBC (West) but can get BBC 1 on other regions. BBC 2 is also breaking up. I am in the Tarn.

[PaulT]

From the info on lyngsat.com and the channels that either go or are unwatchable they are on certain transponders.

For example, the other night More4 had no signal but Mor4 + 1 was perfectly OK. A quick check and they are on different transponders.

Further investigation showed that those channels on the More4 transponder were unavailable.

So a list of channels on each transponder can be useful for when channels play up.

As the lost channels come back it must mean SES are still playing about.

On skyinmadrid.com it is reporting that the numbers viewing via the Internet is having an adverse effect on speed making unbuffered viewing not possible.

[PaulT]

skyinmadrid.com is reporting that it has had reports of reduced power on 2E and also a slight change of position.

We have an 80cm dish (will be replaced with a 1.2m dish) and lost soe channels and this morning all on the spot beam including C5 which is on 2F.

SIM reports that above 1.2m the dish can differentiate between the different satellite positions - seems an 80cm can also.

Motorised dishes - can they only be manipulated via a receiver or can they be controlled by other means and how finely can they be controlled?

[fisherman]

We are a half an hour north of Confolens. We had a 60cm dish that stopped working in February. Is there anybody in this area who can advise on the size of dish that they find works for them.

Many Thanks

[HoneySuckleDreams]

An update: 1.5m dish up and running and 90%/95% quality most of the time on all channels (both on a Humax and a Sky box). We had a snow storm here this morning as well but the S/Q remained steady.

I finally got a professional in to set it up as I've been rather poorly and didn't have the energy to lump the dish up a ladder on my own. His box of electronics has done the business as well as everything seems spot on. He did say that a 1.3m dish would have been OK but I explained that it might be OK today but SES might do more fiddling over the next few months.