Satellite reception
 

Being new to satellite reception, I believe that my freesat dish might be
slightly out-of-alignment, as the reception is poor when it rains (I am in
Sussex with a 60cm dish), but is generally ok on these channels when the
weather is good.

This is true of the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 channels, plus many others. But
why do some channels always seem unaffected by rain? These include such
oddities as Vegas Elvis on 11508H, Shop on TV on 11546H, PCNE on 11623H,
plus a number of others.

Do I need to realign the dish, or could there be some other reason for the
poor reception in rain?

--
Jeff

Satellite reception
 

"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...
Being new to satellite reception, I believe that my freesat dish might be
slightly out-of-alignment, as the reception is poor when it rains (I am in
Sussex with a 60cm dish), but is generally ok on these channels when the
weather is good.

This is true of the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 channels, plus many others.
But why do some channels always seem unaffected by rain? These include
such oddities as Vegas Elvis on 11508H, Shop on TV on 11546H, PCNE on
11623H, plus a number of others.

The channels that you get good reception on are on Eurobird at 28.5E, the
others are on Astra2 at 28.2

Do I need to realign the dish,

I would think so, it needs to point a fraction more to the south.

or could there be some other reason for the
poor reception in rain?


Maybe, but checking the alignment would be my first step.


--
Michael Chare

Satellite reception
 

"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...
Being new to satellite reception, I believe that my freesat dish might be
slightly out-of-alignment, as the reception is poor when it rains (I am in
Sussex with a 60cm dish), but is generally ok on these channels when the
weather is good.

This is true of the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 channels, plus many others.
But why do some channels always seem unaffected by rain? These include
such oddities as Vegas Elvis on 11508H, Shop on TV on 11546H, PCNE on
11623H, plus a number of others.

Do I need to realign the dish, or could there be some other reason for the
poor reception in rain?

--
Jeff




A satellite alignment meter costs under a tenner (numerous examples on eBay)
and a well worthwhile purchase.

Is it a new dish, or an old "inherited" one? If the latter a new 0.2dB LNB
might well improve matters even further.

D

Satellite reception
 

On Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:48:32 -0000, "Michael Chare"
wrote:

"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...

This is true of the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 channels, plus many others.

The channels that you get good reception on are on Eurobird at 28.5E, the
others are on Astra2 at 28.2

Do I need to realign the dish,

I would think so, it needs to point a fraction more to the south.

or could there be some other reason for the
poor reception in rain?

Maybe, but checking the alignment would be my first step.

Yes, I'm sorry that you are having problems Jeff, after all your help
to me, but Michael's explanation rings true with me.

I would suggest that you select the station that gives you the worst
problems &/or the one that you most want to be good, and examine its
signal characteristics on the receiver as you adjust the dish, trying
to get the BER to a minimum and the SNR to a maximum, giving
preference to the BER if there's a discrepancy in the corresponding
positions.

Also don't forget to fine tune the dish elevation and skew in the same
way.

It should be possible to get 'perfect' reception off 2D, I get very
good reception, despite the extra inaccuracies introduced from ...
1) Using a rotor, which in turn also means that ...
2) The non-standard skew will cause my system some losses (rotors
assume that all skews are standard, and cannot allow for individual
discrepancies such as Astra 2).

Satellite reception
 

Michael Chare wrote:
"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...
Being new to satellite reception, I believe that my freesat dish might be
slightly out-of-alignment, as the reception is poor when it rains (I am
in Sussex with a 60cm dish), but is generally ok on these channels when
the weather is good.

This is true of the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 channels, plus many others.
But why do some channels always seem unaffected by rain? These include
such oddities as Vegas Elvis on 11508H, Shop on TV on 11546H, PCNE on
11623H, plus a number of others.

The channels that you get good reception on are on Eurobird at 28.5E, the
others are on Astra2 at 28.2

Do I need to realign the dish,

I would think so, it needs to point a fraction more to the south.

That makes sense. It was a bit of a rush job as it was -3°C and rather
windy when I first set it up - not ideal for trying to make small
adjustments.


or could there be some other reason for the
poor reception in rain?


Maybe, but checking the alignment would be my first step.

Will do when we have the next warm, wind, and rain-free day (July?).

--
Jeff

Satellite reception
 

Java Jive wrote:
On Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:48:32 -0000, "Michael Chare"
wrote:

"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...

This is true of the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 channels, plus many others.

The channels that you get good reception on are on Eurobird at 28.5E, the
others are on Astra2 at 28.2

Do I need to realign the dish,

I would think so, it needs to point a fraction more to the south.

or could there be some other reason for the
poor reception in rain?

Maybe, but checking the alignment would be my first step.

Yes, I'm sorry that you are having problems Jeff, after all your help
to me, but Michael's explanation rings true with me.

I would suggest that you select the station that gives you the worst
problems &/or the one that you most want to be good, and examine its
signal characteristics on the receiver as you adjust the dish, trying
to get the BER to a minimum and the SNR to a maximum, giving
preference to the BER if there's a discrepancy in the corresponding
positions.

I'll get SWMBO to shout out the sig strength and quality!


Also don't forget to fine tune the dish elevation and skew in the same
way.

That is one thing I will have to sort out. I originally set the skew
according to Dishpointer at -13°, but from your site (and others) it should
be -21.


It should be possible to get 'perfect' reception off 2D, I get very
good reception, despite the extra inaccuracies introduced from ...
1) Using a rotor, which in turn also means that ...
2) The non-standard skew will cause my system some losses (rotors
assume that all skews are standard, and cannot allow for individual
discrepancies such as Astra 2).

I have to get a new sat finder/meter as the original one was faulty and was
returned. As I noted in my reply to Michael, I will wait for a decent day
before setting it up again. I can make do with Freeview for the time being,
as I won't be upgrading to an HD receiver until I am certain that the tree
leaves will not affect reception when they appear in a few months.

--
Jeff

Satellite reception
 

On Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:57:42 -0000, "Jeff Layman"
wrote:

That is one thing I will have to sort out. I originally set the skew
according to Dishpointer at -13°, but from your site (and others) it should
be -21.

No, that was before I adjusted the code to allow for the non-standard
skew, my site now should give a value pretty close to Dishpointer's.

Incidentally, I've emailed Astra about the non-standard skews on many,
I suspect all, of their satellites, and the absence of useful
information regarding this on their website, and would they like to
confirm exactly what the correction values are for each, but have had
no reply. As this was over a week ago, I fancy I'm not going to get
one, though, just not to give up too easily, I've just resent it.
Customer Relations just ain't what they used to be.

I have to get a new sat finder/meter as the original one was faulty and was
returned.

The sat meter is very useful for initial alignment, and often will be
sufficient in itself, but given that you've achieved initial alignment
but are still having problems, I would concentrate on what the
receiver tells you.

Satellite reception
 

Java Jive wrote:
On Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:57:42 -0000, "Jeff Layman"
wrote:

That is one thing I will have to sort out. I originally set the skew
according to Dishpointer at -13°, but from your site (and others) it
should be -21.

No, that was before I adjusted the code to allow for the non-standard
skew, my site now should give a value pretty close to Dishpointer's.

-13.82°. Close enough!

Incidentally, I've emailed Astra about the non-standard skews on many,
I suspect all, of their satellites, and the absence of useful
information regarding this on their website, and would they like to
confirm exactly what the correction values are for each, but have had
no reply. As this was over a week ago, I fancy I'm not going to get
one, though, just not to give up too easily, I've just resent it.
Customer Relations just ain't what they used to be.

I have to get a new sat finder/meter as the original one was faulty and
was returned.

The sat meter is very useful for initial alignment, and often will be
sufficient in itself, but given that you've achieved initial alignment
but are still having problems, I would concentrate on what the
receiver tells you.

Thanks. If the weather is decent tomorrow, I'll nip up and move the dish a
tad south. A nice locking rack and pinion would be of help, but that would
be a bit outside the acceptable manufacturing price of sat dishes,
unfortunately.

--
Jeff

Satellite reception
 

"Java Jive" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:48:32 -0000, "Michael Chare"
2) The non-standard skew will cause my system some losses (rotors
assume that all skews are standard, and cannot allow for individual
discrepancies such as Astra 2).

Bring back the old mechanical polarisers, eh?

Bill

Satellite reception
 

Jeff Layman wrote:
Java Jive wrote:

The sat meter is very useful for initial alignment, and often will be
sufficient in itself, but given that you've achieved initial alignment
but are still having problems, I would concentrate on what the
receiver tells you.

Thanks. If the weather is decent tomorrow, I'll nip up and move the dish
a tad south. A nice locking rack and pinion would be of help, but that
would be a bit outside the acceptable manufacturing price of sat dishes,
unfortunately.

Just completed the realignment, without the help of a sat meter. What a
difference! Signal strength up, but more to the point Quality is well up
(30%+). Also V polarised signals now received where almost nothing was
watchable before. Heavy rain forecast tomorrow, so it will be interesting
to see what happens.

Thanks to all for all the very useful advice.

--
Jeff