Help! Can't find Astra 2 :-(

Got my Panasonic Freesat telly and wired it up to my dish, but it
can't find Astra 2 :-(. Shows signal quality as good, but won't tune
in as can't find satellite. I tried moving the dish and using my Sat
Finder found another signal, but still not Astra 2 (and it was weaker
than the other sat signal I found). It looks like it's pointing in
exactly the same direction as other dishes in the area. I'm just
wondering if I've got the LNB on right. You know the bit that pokes
in the end of the boom arm? Well, that isn't fully in, but the reason
for that is because there is a small 'bump' on this and that bump is
perfectly set into the 'hole' on the boom, so I thought maybe that is
the right position.

Marky P.

"Marky P" wrote in message
...
Got my Panasonic Freesat telly and wired it up to my dish, but it
can't find Astra 2 :-(. Shows signal quality as good, but won't tune
in as can't find satellite. I tried moving the dish and using my Sat
Finder found another signal, but still not Astra 2 (and it was weaker
than the other sat signal I found). It looks like it's pointing in
exactly the same direction as other dishes in the area. I'm just
wondering if I've got the LNB on right. You know the bit that pokes
in the end of the boom arm? Well, that isn't fully in, but the reason
for that is because there is a small 'bump' on this and that bump is
perfectly set into the 'hole' on the boom, so I thought maybe that is
the right position.
Marky P.


Have you got a sat finder meter?

handy video at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-PcEEkCJro

Steve Tery

On Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:28:32 +0100, "Steve Terry"
wrote:


"Marky P" wrote in message
.. .
Got my Panasonic Freesat telly and wired it up to my dish, but it
can't find Astra 2 :-(. Shows signal quality as good, but won't tune
in as can't find satellite. I tried moving the dish and using my Sat
Finder found another signal, but still not Astra 2 (and it was weaker
than the other sat signal I found). It looks like it's pointing in
exactly the same direction as other dishes in the area. I'm just
wondering if I've got the LNB on right. You know the bit that pokes
in the end of the boom arm? Well, that isn't fully in, but the reason
for that is because there is a small 'bump' on this and that bump is
perfectly set into the 'hole' on the boom, so I thought maybe that is
the right position.
Marky P.


Have you got a sat finder meter?

handy video at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-PcEEkCJro

Steve Tery

Yes. It has a VU meter and squeals a lot. I will explain exactly how
I did it:

1) Connected coax from receiver to input on Sat Finder.
2) Connected output of Sat Finder to LNB.
3) Needle shot up and thing squealed at me. Turned knob down til
needle pointed at '5'.
4) Moved dish until meter showed highest signal (and highest squeal).
5) Tightened all bolts and kept an eye on Sat Finder to check it
didn't go out of alignment.

And that's it. As I said earlier, I did find another signal that was
quite a bit weaker (dish twisted further southwards) and I gave that a
go, but still no luck. If I get someone in to align it, I will never
be able to show my face on here again :-(

Marky P.

Marky P wrote:
On Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:28:32 +0100, "Steve Terry"
wrote:

"Marky P" wrote in message
...
Got my Panasonic Freesat telly and wired it up to my dish, but it
can't find Astra 2 :-(. Shows signal quality as good, but won't tune
in as can't find satellite. I tried moving the dish and using my Sat
Finder found another signal, but still not Astra 2 (and it was weaker
than the other sat signal I found). It looks like it's pointing in
exactly the same direction as other dishes in the area. I'm just
wondering if I've got the LNB on right. You know the bit that pokes
in the end of the boom arm? Well, that isn't fully in, but the reason
for that is because there is a small 'bump' on this and that bump is
perfectly set into the 'hole' on the boom, so I thought maybe that is
the right position.
Marky P.


Have you got a sat finder meter?

handy video at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-PcEEkCJro

Steve Tery

Yes. It has a VU meter and squeals a lot. I will explain exactly how
I did it:

1) Connected coax from receiver to input on Sat Finder.
2) Connected output of Sat Finder to LNB.
3) Needle shot up and thing squealed at me. Turned knob down til
needle pointed at '5'.
4) Moved dish until meter showed highest signal (and highest squeal).
5) Tightened all bolts and kept an eye on Sat Finder to check it
didn't go out of alignment.

And that's it. As I said earlier, I did find another signal that was
quite a bit weaker (dish twisted further southwards) and I gave that a
go, but still no luck. If I get someone in to align it, I will never
be able to show my face on here again :-(

Marky P.

ISTR reading something about this recently somewhere. Apparently, the
Freesat EPG is transmitted from Eurobird at 28.5, not Astra2 at 28.2. If
the dish is slightly out of alignment so that Eurobird isn't 'visible'
the Panasonic panel can't see the Freesat EPG and therefore won't try
and scan for channels.

I dunno if that's the issue here but it would seem that proper alignment
of the dish for both satellites would be the first thing to look at. You
could confirm viable reception by sticking a $ky box on the dish feed
then using Lyngsat to identify a Eurobird channel. if the $ky box can
'see' Eurobird via the (ahem!) professionally aligned dish then it's
probably not that, but if it can't then correct alignment (or lack
thereof) might be the key.

HTH


Clem

In message , Marky P
wrote


. If I get someone in to align it, I will never
be able to show my face on here again :-(

Probably a duff TV. That's the problem with buying electrical goods at
the bottom end of the market

Hasn't your new TV the ability to tune into non-freesat channels
(possibly via another menu)? If you have a strong signal try getting
your TV to tune into whatever satellite you are pointing at.

Try turning your TV off at the mains to reset it before attempting to
search for channels again.

--
Alan
news2006 {at} amac {dot} f2s {dot} com

On Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:34:43 +0100, Alan
wrote:

In message , Marky P
wrote


. If I get someone in to align it, I will never
be able to show my face on here again :-(

Probably a duff TV. That's the problem with buying electrical goods at
the bottom end of the market

Cheeky bugger ;-)

Hasn't your new TV the ability to tune into non-freesat channels
(possibly via another menu)? If you have a strong signal try getting
your TV to tune into whatever satellite you are pointing at.

It does have the facility to tune into other sats, but I can't find
anything in the instructions on about doing this.

Try turning your TV off at the mains to reset it before attempting to
search for channels again.


Good idea. Thanks.

Marky P.

Yes. It has a VU meter and squeals a lot. I will explain exactly how
I did it:

1) Connected coax from receiver to input on Sat Finder.
2) Connected output of Sat Finder to LNB.
3) Needle shot up and thing squealed at me. Turned knob down til
needle pointed at '5'.
4) Moved dish until meter showed highest signal (and highest squeal).
5) Tightened all bolts and kept an eye on Sat Finder to check it
didn't go out of alignment.

And that's it. As I said earlier, I did find another signal that was
quite a bit weaker (dish twisted further southwards) and I gave that a
go, but still no luck. If I get someone in to align it, I will never
be able to show my face on here again :-(

Marky P.

Marky - you did adjust declination (up/down) as well as east/west didn't
you? And the LNB should be rotated slightly for best signal. i.e. not dead
vertical ...

On Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:07:51 +0100, "Vic"
wrote:



Yes. It has a VU meter and squeals a lot. I will explain exactly how
I did it:

1) Connected coax from receiver to input on Sat Finder.
2) Connected output of Sat Finder to LNB.
3) Needle shot up and thing squealed at me. Turned knob down til
needle pointed at '5'.
4) Moved dish until meter showed highest signal (and highest squeal).
5) Tightened all bolts and kept an eye on Sat Finder to check it
didn't go out of alignment.

And that's it. As I said earlier, I did find another signal that was
quite a bit weaker (dish twisted further southwards) and I gave that a
go, but still no luck. If I get someone in to align it, I will never
be able to show my face on here again :-(

Marky P.

Marky - you did adjust declination (up/down) as well as east/west didn't
you? And the LNB should be rotated slightly for best signal. i.e. not dead
vertical ...

Yes, I did move the dish both ways and also tried the 'skew' in
different positions. I'll play around with it again tomorrow.

Marky P.

This sounds like your problem. The sat clusters are only 2 to 3
degrees apart! "Looks like it's pointing ..." is not likely going to
be accurate enough. The dish has to be aligned accurately both
horizontally (azimuth), vertically (elevation), and the LNB has to be
given the correct skew, all to within at most a degree or so,
preferably significantly less, to be sure of picking up the best
possible signal from the correct sat.

First, you will likely need a geographical compass and a geometric
protractor.

You will also need to determine the three parameters named above. If
you need an explanation of these terms, they can be found in the same
place as they can be calculated - go to sat calcs site such as this
one ...
http://www.satsig.net/
.... or ...
http://www.dishpointer.com/
.... enter your location, and note the values.

The latter of the two sites is an innovative idea, but imperfectly
executed - you can get it to display an indicator of the target sat
position, but depending on whether it falls conveniently onto a
distant local landmark, this may be very helpful, or not in the
slightest! Thus the site may be noticeably more helpful than the
first, or just waste a lot more time waiting for the correct bits of
map to load at a likely scale, only to find in the end that the
compass will still be required after all.

If you need the compass, then you will also need to know your local
magnetic declination (difference between magnetic and true north),
which you can find out from the details given in the margins of your
local OS map (try the local library, if you don't have one). When
sighting with it, you will also need to be aware to stand away from
metal objects that may deflect the needle, such as, rather
inconsiderately, the dish itself!

Allowing for local magnetic declination, note a point on the distant
horizon at the correct azimuth, and aim the dish at it. Two plumb
lines off the arm can make a sighting mechanism.

Alternatively, I suppose, if you can't find a compass, you could ask
your nearest neighbour with a working dish if you can hang your plumb
lines from his/her arm (I would include the word 'lines', 'satellite',
and 'dish' to avoid being arrested), note a distant point on the
horizon from his/her dish, and site yours to that. If your houses
aren't too far apart, the parallax error from doing it that way will
probably be less than the error in sighting a compass anyway.

If the dish has a scale, then use that for the elevation, but some
don't. In that case you have a problem. There are two possible
solutions, but they are both quite involved, so I won't start on them
unless I need to. Come back to me here if you need.

Then set the skew with the protractor.

ONCE you have the CORRECT sat, THEN the Satellite Finder will let you
make minor adjustments to optimise the three settings (so, actually,
it's a misnomer, as you should only be using it when you have already
found the sat!).

HTHs

On Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:44:07 +0100, Marky P
wrote:

It looks like it's pointing in
exactly the same direction as other dishes in the area.

In message , Java Jive
wrote

http://www.dishpointer.com/
... enter your location, and note the values.

The latter of the two sites is an innovative idea, but imperfectly
executed - you can get it to display an indicator of the target sat
position, but depending on whether it falls conveniently onto a
distant local landmark, this may be very helpful,
or not in the
slightest! Thus the site may be noticeably more helpful than the
first, or just waste a lot more time waiting for the correct bits of
map to load at a likely scale, only to find in the end that the
compass will still be required after all.

Just drag the end of the line showing the direction of the satellite to
the exact position where the dish is to be fitted and you don't need a
distant landmark or compass. Pick a point along the line where it
intersects with a local building or landmark, say, 50 to 100 metres
away. Just make sure that the dish LNB arm is pointing to this reference
point.

This is the method I used to roughly line-up the dish and then it took
me around 10 minutes with a the help of a cheap satellite finder meter
to align the dish and to tighten the bolts.

On the aerial photograph from dishpointer.com you could just measure the
angle between the wall where the dish is to fitted and the direction of
the satellite. Maybe make a A4/A3 size cardboard template of the angle.
Place one edge of the template against the wall and make sure that the
is LNB arm points along the other edge of the template.


--
Alan
news2006 {at} amac {dot} f2s {dot} com