Manual tuning on a Satellite receiver ??

[joidevie]

Hi all - I'm having yet more issues with fine tuning my receiver here in Aude 11. On a previous thread I mentioned that my OPTEX box auto tunes to BBC & ITV but not C4 (poor signal though). Another box, a METRONIC ("Starcom") auto tunes on Astra 2A (after a factory reset) but only to CNN & the free pulp TV. No "proper" channels.

I'm thinking of manually inputting channels and getting up a ladder and tweaking the dish. I am however a little confused how to "tune" the box. The METRONIC setup window displays the following when I navigate to "manual tune" :

SATELLITE Astra 2A

TP freq 10.773 ghz(H)

Symbol rate 22.000Ms's

Polarisation Horizontal

Scan Mode all

Network search OFF

Below there are options - red button "TP scan", black button "PID scan", green button "TP Edit" and yellow button "Add one channel".

If I press yellow, I come to the following:

Satellite Astra 2A

TP freq 00.000GHz

Symbol Rate 00.000MS's

Polarization Horizontal

V-PID 0000

A-PID 0000

P-PID 0000

On a recent thread about C4, this was suggested:

Do a rescan on 10714 MHz and 10729 MHz.   H  and V respectively,  symbol rate 22000 kbps,  FEC 5/6.

Channel 5 can be had as well on 10773 MHz,  H,  same SR & FEC.  Carriage courtesy of the BBC!!

Can anyone give me a foolproof guide on how to MANUALLY input the main FTA UK channels so that I can then "Know" that they are entered correctly so I can finally get up that ladder and tweak the dish? This has been driving me insane for about a year now!

Many thanks indeed.

[Anton Redman]

I gave up on my Optex box having used it succesfully for both rdaio and TV for about a year and substituted a cheap second hand digibox because I became feed up with retuning when channels moved transponders. The Optex screens and manuel seem to have beeen translated from Korean via Gibberish

Broadly taking Channel 5 as the example :

TP Frequency 10.773 GHz ( should be able to type straight in )

Symbol rate 22.000 MSs type in

Polarization either input H or V or toggle with rt left arrows button.

Then Red Then Black buttons

Lyngsat has a list off all Chanels and indicates FTA by no encryption and the background colour.

Best of luck

http://www.lyngsat.com/packages/skyuk.html

 

[Martin963]

Well,  as a start try

Satellite Astra 2A  (I know it's 2d but that really does NOT matter at this juncture)

TP freq 10.714GHz

Symbol Rate 22.000MS's

Polarization Horizontal

V-PID 2315

A-PID 2317

P-PID 2315

for ch 4 London edition

I'm not entirely sure that the P-PID is correct,   but generally they are (were!) the same as the V-PID.

However,    in the absence of a ch 4 signal off the dish you're not going to be sure that what I've told you is correct are you??!!

To be honest I'd try fiddling with the green button.   PID's are often a pain even if they are right.

Generally to edit a Transponder you will get yet another menu with freq/pol/SR and possibly FEC.   So if you press green and then put in the details as per lyngsat

http://www.lyngsat.com/28east.html

for say a BBC transponder

10773 H 22000 (5/6)

there then should be an option to save this as a "new" transponder within Astra 2,   possibly it'll even give it a number like "12" or "31".

Once you've saved it,  I would surmise that pressing the red button might give you the option to scan individaul transponders which you would choose from a list,  this list now (it is to be hoped) containing the details of the transponder you've just saved.

If that works on a BBC transponder you can now add all the other missing ones (via green) by referring to lyngsat and adding tp's which carry the programmes you actually want.   I'd forget about PID's and just repeat the green button procedure using the  details of TP's involved. 

It's a nightmare trying to do this without seeing the box for real but please come back again and again if what I've suggested doesn't work!

Sorry,  Anton's suggestions crossed mine.

[joidevie]

Thanks again as ever.. I actually just auto tuned the OPTEX at a friend's nearby and it picked up C4, More 4 etc (only more4+1?) and I've twiddled the dish and have reasonable reception..

Interestingly, the METRONIC box didn't seem to tune into half as many channels.. Least of all Five or C4 ??

UPDATE

Skew, skew skew! I think I have finally solved months of trouble..! In previous attempts and reading many posts, I 'skewed' my LNB hoping to solve my reception problem.. However, I think I just skewed it too much! (to around 7.30pm, just a bit too much) So, if your reception 'quality' seems to jump up and down like a yo yo .. This could be your problem..

Still not sure why the METRONIC doesn't tune to C4 etc something about parameters?? How do I adjust those for an auto tune?

[Anton Redman]

Without your location cannot comment on Skew but

http://www.dishpointer.com/

will give you a figure. Negative indicates I think degrees in a clockwise direction from 6 pm, Positive toward 4 oclock etc. For Bordeaux mine points at 6:30. Autotune only searches for the transponders and frequencies which have already been set up in the box. It does not search everything. The signal strength and quality on a Sky box are buffered so you have to wait everytime you move the disk.

 

[joidevie]

Thanks for the link.. Although I did a search for 11000 (France - Carcassonne) and it couldn't find the location? Still, I'm set at around 7 o'clock and, fingers crossed,  it's working well. Hopefully this will be useful for other forum users..

Thanks again everyone..

[Anton Redman]

Glad its working tried - Carcassonne France

 

Latitude: 43.2126°

Longitude: 2.3561°

Name: 28.2E Astra 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D

Distance: 38286km

Motor Latitude:  43.2°

Declination Angle:  6.6°

Dish Elevation:  Elevation:  33.8°

Azimuth (true):  144.7°

Azimuth (magn.):  145.0°

LNB Skew [?]:  -17.4°

 

18 degrees out of 90 = just after 7 o’clock

[joidevie]

[quote user="Anton Redman"]

 18 degrees out of 90 = just after 7 o’clock

[/quote]

Thanks.. And 7.10pm is about exactly where I put it eventually!