SKY LNB alignment - please advise

BigDee2

Hi

The LNB on my sky dish was broken by a football and the LNB was left hanging down.
I have bought another plastic holder and attached the LNB back onto the square pole.

I then checked the SKY receiver and got this:

Signal Strength: full, but occasionally reduces by one bar
Signal Quality: either none or only one bar (not good)

I can get some TV channels but lost them when it started to rain.

Can anyone advise me how I can set the dish/LNB alignment and if I get away without buying a meter.

What is the technique used to set the aligment for he best signal strength and quality.

I did notice that the spirit level on the dish pole was off-centre but don't know how long its been like that.

Thanks.
Regards.

manda1205

the lever doesnt matter that much but the rain issue is prob down to the F connector on the end of the cable not being covered properly

have someone watch the levels on the tv while you move the dish in each axis and you will see at somepoint it'll go up then you know which way to tinker with it

the lnb may need swapping out too, if you need 1 pm me, I can tell you wheres best.

if in doubt see a local sky van man and chuck him a tenner to line it up and fit a new dish

bryanb

manda1205 wrote: »

if in doubt see a local sky van man and chuck him a tenner to line it up and fit a new dish

Defraud Sky?

KeithP

bryanb wrote: »

Defraud Sky?

Excellent idea. :beer:

Inactive

Signal Quality is more important than Signal Strength, go in to menu, adjust LNB while someone watches quality level, only move LNB a very small amount at a time until an increase shows to at least 75%, tighten up LNB, check again.

Make sure that the joint where the cable enters the LNB is water tight, use self amalgamating tape to waterproof.

BigDee2

Hi Inactive,

This is what I have currently:-

LOCK INDICATOR = OK
NETWORK ID = 0002
TRANSPORT STREAM = 07D4

I assume this means that the LNB is working and my dish is aligned OK onto the correct satellite but the LNB needs a tweak to increase the signal quality ie the skew only? is this correct?

Do I need to make any other kind of adjustment?

I am getting some but not all channels.

I checked the cable and it's connected properly to the LNB with the self amalgamating tape and shows no damage.

Thanks.
Regards.

BigDee2

Hi,

I adjusted the LNB skew from 12'o'clock position to about the 1 o'clock position and I'm getting two bars now (and occasionally three).

I also noticed that about an inch at the top of the blue Signal Test Screen on TV, the picture looks a bit scrambled. Not seen this before.

These details remained unchanged:

SIGNAL STRENGTH = full or full minus one bar
LOCK INDICATOR = OK
NETWORK ID = 0002
TRANSPORT STREAM = 07D4

Any ideas what I can try next?

Thanks.

Inactive

Yes, you could try loosening the actual dish bolts and try moving the dish sideways/up/down, but only very slightly, each movement should only be a fraction at a time, allow a few seconds after each move to see if there are any improvements.

Make sure that you are not physically in front of the dish when checking.

Once you have an improved reading on quality, make sure that you tighten all bolts up fully.


Good luck.

BigDee2

Hi Inactive,

OK, I will try your suggestion but my query is.....if the signal is currently 'locked' to the correct SKY satellite, by moving the dish is there a possibility that I might put the dish out of alignment altogether?

I have no meter and am relying on the signal info from the SKY box.

Thanks again.
Regards.

BigDee2

Hi Inactive,

Update.....I think it's working now :j

I adjusted the dish side to side - no change.
Then moved it down a littl and I get all the channels.

Signal Strength = Full or full minus one bar occasionally.
Signal Quality = 50% or just below - occasionally and for a brief time only.

I have locked all the bolts now.

• Would you say this dish & LNB adjustment is OK now and leave it as it is?
• Anything else I need to do?
• If the signal strength is 50% now (nice dry day atm) will it worsen and lose signal if weather gets bad? The reason why I ask this is that before the LNB got knocked off, in bad weather I used to get the message that there was no signal on a blue screen ie. lose all channels.

Thanks a lot.
Regards.

Inactive

I would leave it that and see what happens when we have the next deluge of rain, glad you have improved the signal quality...:T;)

Oh, make sure the joint where the cable connects to the LNB is water tight.