bad reception from uk

[Puca]

Anybody having the same problems as me.I have 75% signal strength and 55% quality strength (more important)but the screen keeps pixelating.Is it the weather as the signal has to go up from the UK to the sat and then to here in France or do I need to tweek my dish for the seventh time again.

[Jazzer]

If you have heavy rain, you may well have pixelation.

[WendyG]

Any weather extremes including storms and heavy rain can cause break up of picture.

If you are getting without atmospherics then probably your dish needs an adjustment.

WendyG

[Martin963]

Is it a Sky box Puca?

If so the readings you get are for one frequency only (one used by Sky!) and don't accurately reflect say the BBC situation.

So I wonder if you need also to look at skew,   which is the twist of the LNB from its symmetrical position (ie the cable hanging straight down) clockwise (as viewed when standing south of the dish,  ie in front of it) by about 20 - 40 degrees).

If you haven't done this whilst doing your other tweeks this might well improve things,  particularly BBC/ITV/C4/C5 and possibly on Sky channels too if you've got a sub.    55 out of 100 for quality is low if you've done several positional tweeks,   even a little dish should get up to 70 in all but southern France.

You need to loosen the collar a bit to do the skew adjustment.

[Anton Redman II]

How big is the dish. Which Department in France are you in ? . Roughly how long is the cable run from dish to receiver. Is receiver a Sky digibox, a UK freesat box or a French purchased digital receiver.

[Puca]

thanks guys for your response .I have a 80cm dish (nothing blocking it)sky box and the the box is 10m from the dish.For the life of me I do not know why the quality is not better as I am in the middle of the footprint Practally.

One more question I am thinking of changing the sky box for a freesat recorder will this be better

[Anton Redman II]

Using an 80 cms dish in the Gironde I have 95% strength and 90% quality. On the dozen or so set ups I have done over the last 15 years, moves friends etc, I have always ended up at 80% plus. I take a portable TV, power, digibox and a short lead up to the roof or leave them on the ground so that I can see them. You need to move the dish by the thickness of a piece of paper and count to 20 each time you move the dish or skew.

Can you check your box at a freinds house

and vice versa ?

Can you try another co ax cable ?

[Jazzer]

Just one thought,nothing impeding the dish-like a ladder or a tree?

[Puca]

Thanks for the advice Martin963.Skewed the LNB like you said et voila 95% strength and 95% quality,seems that has been the problem all along as I knew I had the dish pointed right .Again many thanks

[Martin963]

Glad it worked.   Thanks for reporting back too.

Skew is one of those funny things that gets forgotten,   particularly by French installers;   mainly because it's far less critical on Astra 1,  and negligible on Hotbird and AB3.

It's because Astra 2 is relatively far east that we Brits have a problem (including in Britain!);  the same applies to Hispasat at 30 deg W.

The effect is the same as if one watches the moon (when it's not full) rise and then set.    If you look carefully you'll see that it changes its skew as well,  ie the horns will point (on a waxing moon) slightly down towards the eastern horizon as it rises but by the time it sets they'll be pointing more upwards (ie the moon will now be more on its back).    Of course the moon hasn't really changed at all,   but it's how we see it from our position on earth.....