Satellite Installation

Dabooka

Firslty, don't confuse signal strength with quality. You can get a massive signal but with poor quality it's worthless. Also, most of the sat finders I've seen include a gain control of one type or another which can inflate the reading. It might also be the LNB that's faulty (the thing at the end of the arm).

Looking at the dish alignment and direction, I'd get a few quotes for a simple motorised system. It'll give you access to the Astra sats plus others. You'd need a new decoder, but you can pick up half decent ones for less than £100.

I managed to set mine up with a mate, and I've got a HD sytem in for about £300. Better than the £30+ a month to Sky!

stephen25uk

Dabooka wrote: »

Firslty, don't confuse signal strength with quality. You can get a massive signal but with poor quality it's worthless. Also, most of the sat finders I've seen include a gain control of one type or another which can inflate the reading. It might also be the LNB that's faulty (the thing at the end of the arm).

Looking at the dish alignment and direction, I'd get a few quotes for a simple motorised system. It'll give you access to the Astra sats plus others. You'd need a new decoder, but you can pick up half decent ones for less than £100.

I managed to set mine up with a mate, and I've got a HD sytem in for about £300. Better than the £30+ a month to Sky!

dont know how you can tell by looking at the pic the dish alignment,when i install dishes which i used to do for a living,the dish alignment can be as precise as 5 mm right or left to get the strongest signal,also how can you tell the direction from a pic,it may be as far east or west you dont know the position of the house,also the op only relly wants german channells so her dish was probably pointed at 19 degrees east ,this sattelit also still broadcasts some german channels in analouge format as well as some digital,snowy picture seem to tell me that she was watching annalouge chanels as sowy pictures is something you dont get with digital tv,you either get a signal or you dont,a poorly aligned dish may result in blocking on digital tv but a snowy picture on analouge,advising the op to spend 300 quid on a motorised setup is just wrong,especially if they are alligning there current one witha broom

cherryredcutie

stephen25uk wrote: »

the op only relly wants german channells so her dish was probably pointed at 19 degrees east ,this sattelit also still broadcasts some german channels in analouge format as well as some digital,snowy picture seem to tell me that she was watching annalouge chanels as sowy pictures is something you dont get with digital tv,you either get a signal or you dont,a poorly aligned dish may result in blocking on digital tv but a snowy picture on analouge,advising the op to spend 300 quid on a motorised setup is just wrong,especially if they are alligning there current one witha broom

Your right, we're just getting the annalouge channels as we only have an old annalouge receiver, no remote either which doesn't help, but the channels have been tuned in. I am not going to spend £300 on a motorised setup, I'd much rather get this one fixed as we get our TV from Virgin Media anyway, just would like my German TV back lol.

Any ideas anyone how to get on the conservatory roof without breaking it?

Thanks!

deppo

might it be possible to temporarily remove a pane from the conservatory roof and stick a ladder up through the resulting hole? or buy another dish and put it where you can get at it easily?

macman

Looks to me like (with care, long wrench and reasonably long arms), it should be possible to remove the wall bracket from a ladder by reaching across (about 4 bricks wide). Cable feed comes from the left hand side anyway. Unplug cable, reposition bracket where more easily reachable, reroute cable.
I presume the casement window above (bathroom?) will not open to allow access from above?
Just buying a replacement dish and reclipping the cable would be a quick fix, but not the tidiest solution.
Ridiculous place to site the dish, so I'm assuming it was there before the conservatory was added.

stephen25uk

macman wrote: »

Looks to me like (with care, long wrench and reasonably long arms), it should be possible to remove the wall bracket from a ladder by reaching across (about 4 bricks wide). Cable feed comes from the left hand side anyway. Unplug cable, reposition bracket where more easily reachable, reroute cable.
I presume the casement window above (bathroom?) will not open to allow access from above?
Just buying a replacement dish and reclipping the cable would be a quick fix, but not the tidiest solution.
Ridiculous place to site the dish, so I'm assuming it was there before the conservatory was added.

i wouldnt advise doing it that way,dishes are not as light as they look,you would need to hold the dish with one hand the try and slacken the bolts with the other....your not holding the ladder,your over stretching and you run the risk of the dish going through the conservatory roof,most of these roofs are made from a poly carbonate plastic and not strong at all

Chippy_Minton_2

cherryredcutie wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I would like to install a satellite dish to receive some German TV

German TV? Nudge nudge, wink wink say no more.;)

GBY

stephen25uk wrote: »

dont know how you can tell by looking at the pic the dish alignment,when i install dishes which i used to do for a living,the dish alignment can be as precise as 5 mm right or left to get the strongest signal,also how can you tell the direction from a pic,it may be as far east or west you dont know the position of the house,also the op only relly wants german channells so her dish was probably pointed at 19 degrees east ,this sattelit also still broadcasts some german channels in analouge format as well as some digital,snowy picture seem to tell me that she was watching annalouge chanels as sowy pictures is something you dont get with digital tv,you either get a signal or you dont,a poorly aligned dish may result in blocking on digital tv but a snowy picture on analouge,advising the op to spend 300 quid on a motorised setup is just wrong,especially if they are alligning there current one witha broom

Stephen25UK has summed it up very well, the symptoms can only be caused by a weak analogue signal coming in and out, sounds like the dish has been moved by the wind, a bird etc. whilst you were away. Attempting to move it yourself would be like looking for a needle in a haystack and potentially dangerous, from risk of falling. To correctly repoint a receive antenna(dish) to the required satellite would be extremely difficult without the correct sighting tools and experience.

If it doesn't cost too much I would advise getting someone in to steer it to 19 degrees east, the position of the required satellite in the sky, and then to lock it down at that position.

KeithP

Is it possible that the 'dubious' German tv channel has (been) closed down for some unknown reason?

shown73

The German channels are hardly "dubious." We still get about 35 analogue German channels, and picture quality is really good. Our remote has also had it, but we've got a universal remote for a few quid that does most of the functions. For the most part, its the same mindless drivel that we get on Sky, but at least its a different slant on things, and there is the occasional gem. If you got someone in to align the dish, would it not be up to them how to access it, and hopefully they would be insured, if anything went wrong.