Advice needed with sky dish please.

kelou

Hope someone could give me some advice. Our sky box is showing no signal at all, and this has never happened before. I have gone through the help page on the sky website but still no joy. The only thing I think it might be is, yesterday we had some logs delivered, and they used a tip up truck to put them on the drive, I cant be sure but it looks like the dish has moved. I was wondering if this is this something we could re-allign ourselves, or do we need to call someone out with the specialist equipment? Any advice gratefully recieved as having one of those days! Should mention we only have freesat from Sky so dont think will get any help there.

spike7451

On your Sky remote,press;

Services
4
Signal test? (Cant remember what it's called...old age!)

You should see 2 bars,one for Signal Strength & one for quality?
What are they reading? You should have at least 75% quality & 50% strength.
Then try turning off the box at the mains for a minute & turn back on at the mains,wait another minute before powering the box up with the on button.

That might cure it.

spike7451

You can realign it yourself if you can reach it,all you need is a cheap satalite meter which cost's around a tenner as opposed a £75 for Sky to come out..
Meters can be bought from Maplins.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/search.aspx?menuno=13049

scotsbob

In true Moneysaving style it is not too difficult to realign it yourself. There are numerous videos on Youtube showing you how to do it.

Basically you need to align horizontally to 28.2 degrees east of south and then align vertically to get the strongest signal. One person moving the dish and another person inside checking the signal strength is ideal.

It's just like aligning an indoor aerial but on a larger scale.

kelou

spike7451 wrote: »

On your Sky remote,press;

Services
4
Signal test? (Cant remember what it's called...old age!)

You should see 2 bars,one for Signal Strength & one for quality?
What are they reading? You should have at least 75% quality & 50% strength.
Then try turning off the box at the mains for a minute & turn back on at the mains,wait another minute before powering the box up with the on button.

That might cure it.

Hi, Signal strength and signal quality are both blank! Assuming thats not good!

kelou

scotsbob wrote: »

In true Moneysaving style it is not too difficult to realign it yourself. There are numerous videos on Youtube showing you how to do it.

Basically you need to align horizontally to 28.2 degrees east of south and then align vertically to get the strongest signal. One person moving the dish and another person inside checking the signal strength is ideal.

It's just like aligning an indoor aerial but on a larger scale.

Could send my hubby up a ladder while I stay in the warmth! Its the 28.2 degrees east of south that confuses me! Does it need to be exact or is it just a case of fiddling with it till the signal comes good? Thanks for both your replies, we have never had this happen before and as yesterday my car refused to go I could really do without any further expense!

scotsbob

kelou wrote: »

Could send my hubby up a ladder while I stay in the warmth! Its the 28.2 degrees east of south that confuses me! Does it need to be exact or is it just a case of fiddling with it till the signal comes good? Thanks for both your replies, we have never had this happen before and as yesterday my car refused to go I could really do without any further expense!

Up a ladder? I am wondering how a delivery of logs could affect a satellite dish so high up, I assumed that you had a ground level dish as I have.

I installed my dish with only a compass and a spanner.

Align to as close to 28.2 as possible, then tighten the horizontal bolts. Then align vertically until you get the strongest signal.

Then it is a matter of fine tuning. The important thing is to adjust horizontally and vertically separately.

If successful you have saved money and if you have to pay an installer you are no worse off than you are now.

Good luck!

spike7451

kelou wrote: »

Hi, Signal strength and signal quality are both blank! Assuming thats not good!

Nope,your dish has moved or the LNB (boxy thing on the end of the arm) has moved or popped out. (Some installers are to lazy to fit the retaining pin!:mad:)

kelou wrote: »

Could send my hubby up a ladder while I stay in the warmth! Its the 28.2 degrees east of south that confuses me! Does it need to be exact or is it just a case of fiddling with it till the signal comes good? Thanks for both your replies, we have never had this happen before and as yesterday my car refused to go I could really do without any further expense!

Yep,it has to be exact,best bet would be to get one of those little satalite meters,a lot of larger electrical shops sell them) but you could try doing it just by nudging it gently.
The LNB has an 'offset' on it so you can twist it from side to side,so I'd try that first to see if that will do it.

kelou

The two young lads delivered my logs in one of those tip up flat bed trucks! The dish is on the side of my house where the driveway is so think they must have reversed in and lifted the bed up and hit the dish! You couldnt make it up really!

I cant be sure but I think the dish used to face the other way altogether, but its not something I paid too much attention to before.

The only problem with going to get a meter is that I live in a small village with no electrical shop and now the car has decided to go kaput I have no means of getting to one. I suppose I could order one of the internet but it just may take a while.

Maybe I shall send hubby up the ladder first and see if he can fiddle with it a bit, and if nothing happens then will either get one of those meter things or call someone out. I am thinking that I should be able to contact a local engineer rather than sky? Dread to think what the charge would be though!

Thanks again chaps.

kelou

Oh and sont have a compass either so it will be well and truly guess work! Maybe I should call that engineer after all!

victor2

Quick way to check if the dish is completely pointing the wrong way now is to just look at a neighbours house with one. They all point in the same direction.
You'll probably need someone to align it anyway. Local TV and aerial shops can probably do it for less than Sky would charge.