And now the fun begins....

[alcina]

Woot...finally all the goodies are amassed!

Having suffered a severe financial blow I've had to stop all purchases of non-essential items, which means I had to stop with the purchasing of Satellite goodies However, not one to let a little thing like no money stop me from embarking on a new hobby I decided to acquire the kit through free, second hand, and low-cost routes...it just takes more time and you can't be as choosey. ops: As of today they're all assembled in one place! Taking the copious advice from this board I have acquired:

Technomate TM-1000D (was patched but will be out of date by now!)
Sat Finder
100m of H109F black digital coax cable
MTI Blue Line 0.3db single universal LNB
Pack of 10 F connectors
Self-amalgamating tape
Short piece of "flat" cable to go under a door
60cm analogue Sky dish

The work colleague who generously donated his old Sky dish also donated his old analogue Sky receiver and the old analogue LNB...so I could have watched the fading days of analogue satellite with only the cost of cables, connectors and tape...but I'd already bought the Technomate so I thought I'd go digital! :

The keen-eyed amongst you will notice the deplorable lack of fixings, this is because eventually, come the return of a positive cash flow, I'd like to motorize the dish in the back garden. So for the moment it's the Heath Robinson car tyre mounting approach, with manual positioning. The same work colleague, who is somewhat of an accomplished dumpster diver, is keeping an eye out for a scaffold pole...methinks this will come in very handy! :spite:

So, now, all I have to do is put them all together! 'Tis forecast a fine weekend...wish me luck!

P.S. Can I just say that this board is the friendliest, most helpful, most tolerant of newbies I've ever come across! You guys really are The Best! :clap: :clap: :clap:

Alcina

[BGonaSTICK]

Aw gosh, them's mighty kind words ma'am! ops:

Hey, great news. You're going to have a lot of fun. Your analogue receiver would actually make an excellent satellite finder in it's own right. Assuming there is at least one good strong analogue transponder at the orbital location you chose and you can see your telly from your temporary dish mount. You can even use your new LNB.

The patch on the Technomate will indeed now be pretty much useless, but there is nout open at the moment (for the first time in ages) anyway. A little patience is now required by all of us on that front

Anyhow, best of luck and keep us posted!

We need some more pictures of dishes mounted on tyres anyway :roflmao:

People will think we are all mad here!

P.S. Now you understand that people that brake hard for no reason and then jump out of their cars to retrieve scaffold poles from skips aren't scaffolders at all, but satellite nuts!

[Mickha]

Hi alcina,
the one important piece of equipment you need is a null modem cable, to update your Technomate receiver. If you already have one I have heard that there is a new patch for your receiver, from Darkman, that has TPS AU, which means you have a lot of new channels available on Hotbird 13E, it might be worth your time to have a read through the Technomate section on this forum.
Best wishes
Mickha

[Analoguesat]

Ahah - another sighting of the fabled car tyre mounting.

Seriously - just make sure you make sure it cant blow over with every minor gust of wind that blows through the garden - its most frustrating getting a good signal then having to dash outside every 10 minutes to stand the damn thing up again! Use a couple of laths of wood jammed into the ground and lodged up against the bolts on the back of the dish.

And if the wind gets up you must make sure its anchored down securely - you could be looking at a major compensation claim if it comes adrift in a storm and hits someone in the face.................. On mine I lay the dish flat and drop a second tyre gently over the arm of the dish.

You could also bang a couple of fence posts into the ground and secure the dish to these . Ive got my 1m dish on such a contraption and it survived last winter with only 1 minor re-alignment required. The dish is a bit bouncy but it will do for now. (The lnb bounces up and down in gales - imagine a braless woman striding down the road..... :roflmao: still works though!)

[alcina]

Tadaaaaa!!!

Well...that went well...thanks to all of you guys!

First...assemble everything on the patio...
[img width=400 height=299]http://www.alcina.org/pics/sat1.jpg[/img]

Open all the boxes, remove the old LNB, follow the instructions for putting on the F connectors, connect the sat finder, connect the receiver and wedge the dish upright approximately facing south...
[img width=300 height=400]http://www.alcina.org/pics/sat3.jpg[/img]

Wiggle the dish to roughly 20 degrees East...oh...the sat finder beeps (wails actually!)...I take this to be a good sign. Lemme check the receiver (elevator music whilst it searches)...zut alors...c'est TV Français!
[img width=400 height=299]http://www.alcina.org/pics/sat2.jpg[/img]

It's a bit blowy today and the dish keeps falling over...so a small amount of garden twine and a brick later....
[img width=400 height=299]http://www.alcina.org/pics/sat4.jpg[/img]



I'm not expecting the dish to stay there on anything other than the calmest of days! I've done a distinctly dodgy run of cable into the living room so that I don't have to sit on the patio to watch tv...and I'd like to explore the other satellites...time to start scouting for that scaffold pole and saving pennies for a motor...

It's all so easy thanks to all your advice! The hardest part is wiggling the dish but with a proper mount that should get easier!

Woot! Thank you all so much! :clap:

Alcina

[Analoguesat]

:clap:

Until you get a proper mount sorted find a car tyre - it makes moving the dish much easier

[BGonaSTICK]

HeHe.

Congratulations!

Heath Robinson is my best mate :roflmao:

A tyre is a good choice, or bang a stake into the ground until your pole turns up.

Once you know where the satellites are, and you can relate them to a reference in your own back garden, it's usually quite quick and easy to find them again.

Welcome to the sat-club. Your adventure starts here

[alcina]

Actually, I'm rather impressed with the Wickes Mortar Mix and the bricks! It tipped down last night and is very windy today. The plastic greenhouses have both blown over and several plants have toppled from their perches...but the dish is still aligned to Astra1. It hasn't moved Still...I live in SE London...there has to be a "lost" car tyre around here somewhere if not a whole car! :roflmao:

Ah...last night I watched a program on the Medici's (seems the French are as keen as the British to keep their actors in work with "reconstructions" in documentaries!), and this morning I watched Aida in Italian with French sub-titles. (can you tell I'm not really into sport?!). I feel so European! 8)

Getting to grips with the Technomate menus...and looking forwards to sticking XP on a box somewhere to experiment with patching...

This is fun! Why do people go with Sky?

Alcina

[Jimdefruit]

Sounds like you are really getting the bug alcina.