What is the best choice (or the sensible choice !)

[BilboBoggins]

Hi

As a newbie I am currently struggling with what setup to go for !* I have done a fair amount of looking and reading but I am still stuck on whether to go for a fixed dish (80cm) setup with three LNB's to pickup 28.2E, 19.2E and 13E, ie the FTA channels (including ITV and C4) with two receivers, Sky DigiBox and another reciever, or go for a motorised system with a single 0.3db quad LNB ??? I'll probably want to go HD at some stage in the future as well

Have you any thoughts or advice that you can give.

BTW, I'm in Hampshire and have an RF and computer background so I'm ok with any techie replies*

Cheers

[BGonaSTICK]

Hiya Bilbo

Is that a Spectrum screen I see there?!?!

There is no right answer as you've probably worked out by now, but here's what I'd do and why.

Firstly my big assumption:

You'll not want to extend your reach to satellites wider apart on the arc, at least in the short term. If you did see this as a possibility, I would go motorised and have a separate Sky minidish for 28.2E.

I'd get an 80cm or 90cm dish, maybe the Triax TD88 or Gemini G90 as both can be supplied with factory multi-LNB attachment arms.
I wouldn't bother with the motor. Both dishes would happily motorise in the future if needed.

I'd buy either:

One twin LNB (for 28.2E) and two single LNB's (19.2E and 13E)

or

One twin LNB (for 28.2E) and a monobloc (for 19.2E and 13E).

Why?

Well the twin for 28.2E will be fixed, which is what you want for Sky. You don't want that moving away from 28.2E if you can help it. Why a twin? Because if you ever want Sky HD as opposed to anything else, you'll have to have the Sky HD box which has twin tuners like the standard Sky+ box, so this is just future proofing a bit. Whilst you're using a standard single-tuner digibox, you can use the second output to feed into your 'other' receiver.

The Astra and Hotbird combination is an excellent choice and can either be done with two singles or a 'monobloc'. If you go the former route, you'll have to add a DiSEqC switch as well. I actually prefer this slightly when compared to the monobloc, as although it's slightly more fiddly to set up, you could move one to another satellite in the future if you wanted. You can also choose a 4-way DiSEqC switch, and use the second 28.2E output as described above.

You would simply connect whatever Sky box you had independently of any other box to one of the outputs on the 28.2E twin LNB (not a Sky minidish LNB!) and your new receiver to the other two LNB's via a DiSEqC switch. You new receiver must obviously do DiSEqC 1.0 at a minimum, but get one that does DiSEqC 1.2 if you might motorise in the future. Most are 1.2 certified now.

That gives you a classy but flexible setup for your needs, and would be quite easy to DIY. For FTA-only there are a number of good basic boxes, but I would go for a branded one which has file support if you think you might patch it at some point.

You might also want to have a read of this, which tries to make some sense of the decision.

Hope this helps.

STICK

[BilboBoggins]

Hiya STICK* *

Wow ! you reconised the screen from the Spectrum adventure game* * I've still got my old Spectrum in the loft somewhere as I don't like to throw things out.... as my wife can attest too* *

Fantastic reply and you have really confirmed my own thoughts, I will be going for a fixed dish with the three LNB's, the only difference I might go for a quad LNB for 28.2E as I've two children and might want to feed some TV into their den at some stage.

My initial thoughts on equipment were:
PACE DS430N Digibox
Technomate 1500 CI

Any comments on those ?

I'll look at your suggestions for the dish

I will be installing and setting it up myself so I'll keep you updated !!

Thanks again* *

Bilbo

[BGonaSTICK]

Ahhh, those were the days... ops:

My Speccy is not two feet from where I'm sitting. Unfortunately the video chips are very tired, and the colour bleed is baaad!

I still play some of the games though on the PC using Spectaculator V6.25. I even have all the ACG games!

Getting back on track you have obviously done your homework, as both those boxes are top-notch.

Going for a quad is also a good idea, but just be careful when selecting a muli-LNB bracket as the quads can be quite heavy and it will be the furthest out on the arm. What I've trying to say, is that you don't want a droopy LNB!

If you want to save £40, then the Technomate TM-1000 D will do all your FTA, and can still be patched to receive subscription TV.

STICK

[BilboBoggins]

Hiya Stick

Finally bit the bullet last Wednesday and ordered the following....

Triax TD88 with the 20degree 4 LNB kit, this came as a bundle with 4 0.3db narrow feed LNBs, one of which I upgraded.
Technomate 1500 CI+ Super
Pace DS430N
all the install stuff

As luck would have it the dish and Technomate arrived Friday (still waiting for the PACE) but it meant I could align all three LNB's with the Technomate* ... now to the nitty gritty, I'm having trouble picking up Astra 1, I've got Astra 2 (Level 95% Quality 70%) and HotBird (Level 96% Quality 77%) pictures have no breakup, what should I expect ??.* I seem to get a high signal level according to the small in-line diode signal strength meter about the right position on the mutli block bar for Astra 1 but the Technomate reports Red Bars for level and red 2-6% quality??. Ive done no fault finding as yet (it was getting dark !) ie: replace the LNB, (I checked the cables before I powered things up) but was interested in your thoughts before I went much further and de-tuned the dish again.

I've got the HotBird LNB on one side on the multi bracket and Astra 1 and Astra 2 on the other side, with the Astra 2 being right out as far as it could go, this meant I could bring the HotBird LNB nearer the centre postion.

Thoughts ?

Cheers
Bilbo

[Analoguesat]

Use one of the Astra 2 C frequencies when you are doing your alignment - it puts out one of the strongest signals in the sky - you literally cant miss it!

[BGonaSTICK]

With the reception figures for 28.2E and 13E that you report, you're obviously doing something right. The 19.2E LNB is either a long way out, or something else is wrong. Concentrate on peaking the quality bar, and not the signal-level bar.

You've obviously worked out that as Hotbird is physically higher in the sky, the LNB has to be 'lower down' on the dish boom arm than the 28.2E LNB. The 19.2E LNB will be pretty close to the 13E LNB, and just a little bit 'higher'. You can also peak the received signal by sliding the LNB backwards and forwards in the clamp. You must adjust the skew (twist) for each LNB as well. Are you doing this?

Have a look at our arc-tracking diagram here:
http://www.satellitehelp.co.uk/forum...hp?topic=403.0
to help visualise things if you need it.

My money's on either a duff LNB (as you say, a swap-out will confirm) or more likely a strand of the coax shield causing a short at the F connector or similar.

Are you testing with a DiSEqC switch in line, or testing a single output into the receiver at a time?

If the former, the switch could also be knackered. An annoyingly high percentage of cheap DiSEqC switches are faulty in my experience.

Anyway, you're winning, so good luck and keep us posted. You're going to have one great setup when it's all done

STICK

[BilboBoggins]

Hi STICK* *

Thanks for the reply.*

I was having a scan through last night after I posted and rather than looking at the satellite setup area of the Technomate I went to look at the channels, lo and behold they were viewable for Astra 1 quality about 71% :?* I went back and had a look at the setup page and that was still showing red for level and quality was showing 4% for Astra 1* *:?

I've done a bit more tweaking this morning an I've got quality levels approx* HotBird 80%, Astra 1 82% (this is looking at the info on a channel so does vary slightly for each transponder) and Astra 2 about 81%.* *Should I expect to any higher? although i realize there must be a slight compromise

So there seems to be some issue with the Technomate showing the levels in the satellite setup area as this still shows incorrect ?

Other than that everything else looks great*

Thanks for all your input

Cheers
Bilbo

[BGonaSTICK]

No problem m8. Glad you have it all sorted.

Any chance you could upload some pics into our picture section?

Every receiver has what is known as a 'default transponder' for each satellite. This is the one it uses for the menu. The one the Techno is using is clearly not sending a signal at the moment. There is a Technomate channel-management utility on the Technomate website which allows you to edit the channel lists and bouquets etc from your PC. You will just need a cheap null modem lead to connect the STB to your PC via the serial port.

If you can't find the program, let me know and I'll post it here (in fact it might already be in our utilities section ).

If your PC doesn't have a serial port, then you can get a USB to Serial converter, or insert a Serial port card into a free PCI slot.

You can of course also patch your box and get plenty (at the moment) free pay-tv channels on both 13E and 19.2E.

Cheers

STICK