Not sure what Satellite I'm pointing at !

[ChippyJoe]

Hi, I'm a beginner here so pardon my ignorance.
Am setting up my Spiderbox 9000 and dish system, bought new for self assembly - aimed dish to best of my knowledge to Astra 2D on 28.2deg - I wanted to obtain BBC HD channels via Freesat - have read that these channels may now be on 2E ? but should be on same satellite Astra 2 ?
Having pointed my dish that way and scanned for stations, it seems over 300 stations have shown up but no BBC etc - for example station 001 is EinsPlus, 002 istagesschau24, 333 is Eurosport Deu etc etc. Seem a lot of German channels, no English, so I'm confused. Have I pointed the dish wrong ?
I used to have an old Sky system but cancelled the subscription some years ago - I could still pick up a number of free channels on that before it finally broke down recently and wonder where they are now as well !
Any help much appreciated, cheers Joe

[ABA]

you're on the wrong satellite m8 there are no German Chanel's on Astra 2
you are on ether hotbird or Astra 1 my echostars bust so carnt check
keep moving the dish round to the east

[ChippyJoe]

many thanks for quick reply - I will twist it a bit more
Joe

[Mickha]

Hi ChippyJoe,
welcome to the forum.
What size dish are you using? Are you setting up a motorized system or just a fiaxed dish system?
As already pointed out you are more than likely on Astra 1, 19.2E, check lyngsat.com, or kingofsat.net, to confirm which satellite you are pointed at.
You have a receiver capable of getting a lot more channels, and satellites, than the FTA channels on 28.2E, and there are a lot of satellites available.

[ChippyJoe]

Gosh, thanks Mickha for another reply - this is really useful help - by the way have tried to press the 'thanks' icon for you both but seems maybe I've not been on here long enough to be able to do that.
Got the system with motor(ised) as was told it will give me options and some future-proofness. It is a 80cm dish, technomate diseqc hh motor. I'm reasonably technically minded but the instructions are not as clear as they could be. I haven't got around to setting the motor up yet, starting with just trying to get the initial dish position facing Astra 2. I'll be getting up the ladder again a bit later when the winds die down a bit !
Cheers, Joe

[Mickha]

Since a forum upgrade some browsers can no longer use the thanks button.

While you wait for the weather to improve why not play with the Spiderbox.
First you need a USB Stick, if you have one, which needs to be formatted to FAT 32.
You can do this using your Spiderbox, connect the USB stick, to the Spiderbox, go into the spiderbox menu, navigate to, and select, USB and press the yellow button, on your remote control.

Did you get a USB extension cable with your Spiderbox? This can prove very useful for updating the Spiderbox.

Have you read how to patch your Spiderbox?
Do you have your router set up, so that your spierbox can connect to the internet?

Ensure you have the Spiderbox 9000 HD before loading the patch.
Once downloaded uncompress the file, using winzip, winrar, or another utility like 7-zip, then store the unzipped files on your computer desktop ready to transfer to your memory stick.
Once the unzipped files are loaded on to your USB stick connect it to your spiderbox, go into the spiderbox menu, select the patch, press OK and load it.
Do the same with the softcam.
Now go into the menu and press 1 1 1 1, the number 1 on your spiderbox remote control, pressing it four times will reveal the extended spiderbox menu options, but only after the patch is loaded.

[ChippyJoe]

Many many more thanks,
Yes it is a Spiderbox HD9000, and have USN extension cable and Stick, so will follow your guide, and look more closely now at the manual. Thank you for the patch, that will save me a lot of time. This will take me a little while amongst other 'instructions of the day' coming in my other ear at the moment, but hope to do as you say today. The dish realignment may have to wait to Monday when I have a day off to do odd jobs. I will report back progress.
Cheers again, Joe

[Mickha]

If you get your Spiderbox set up, and working, Astra 1, 19.2E, will provide a lot of viewing opportunities, you might not want to move your dish, until you get around to fitting the motor.

[ChippyJoe]

Hope I won't become a pain to you Mickha but every time I go that little bit further into IT stuff life gets muddled !
Got the USB extension cable plugged into the back of the Spiderbox and plugged in a 4Gb USB Stick - the Spiderbox menu under USB did not respond saying 'not inserted' - I then googled how to format a stick to FAT 32 and did that via my PC and then plugged back into Spiderbox which still didn't seem to recognise - hmmm ?
I then thought next I will download your patch on the PC onto the stick - had to register on box.com and then the link you gave seemed to say that this was either deleted or not available to me so I've come to a bit of a halt ...
When you say Spiderbox patch and 'softcam' I'm confused as to what softcam is/or when that part of procedure is. That's where I've got to.
Out all day tomorrow but Monday is the day that I can spend much more time on this.
Your mention that Astra 1 19.2E will provide a lot of viewing is interesting - if that is where I am pointing at the moment then I seem only to be getting those 300ish/German-mainly channels.
The motor is all up there (ready to go I think) on the new dish - I think the motor is presently set in its mid position where I believe is where I have to start pointing at 28.2E, that is unless I can leave it at the believed 19.2E now and let the motor do the rest once we get that working ?
Still feel a bit of an incompetant beginner here !
Cheers, Joe

[Mickha]

Strang I'm having no problem with the link, but try this one:

https://www.box.com/shared/5ahmqioyuq

Do you have another USB stick you can try?

If using Usals then you can set the motor up on any satellite, you go into the motor setup, in the spiderbox, enter your latitude, and longitude, then move the motor to 19.2E, install the motor, and dish, then align it manually to 19.2E.

Personally I prefer to do it the old fashioned way and align it to your nearest true south satellite.
Go to dishpointer.com, enter your postcode, then zoom in on the map provided and move the cursor to where you have the dish sited. You should now get your latitude, and longitude.
The longitude reading also provides your true south position.
Negative latitude readings are West, positive are East, so if you have -1.862 your nearest true south satellite is 1W, as this equates to 1.86W.

The softcam just contains keys for channels where the keys are known, so you can open a few channels without the need to connect the receiver to the internet.