Here goes nothing . . .

[RobH]

Hi all!

Lots of people here gave me really helpful advice when I was looking into a satellite setup to get the German language stuff on 19e. I ordered over the holiday break, and everything's here. I thought I would post my experience as I get on, putting it here in the "newbie" section so that if anyone has advice, I can get some more of it (I'm greedy that way ). I'd also like to take a second and thank the folks who sent me PMs, and apologize to satsid for not ringing him when he left me his phone number. I can't send PMs yet, so I couldn't let him know that I was pretty sick just around the time he sent that, and by the time I was feeling better and up to things, was a bit embarassed that I hadn't called sooner ops:. Apologies for that, the help was much appreciated.

Okay, so, here goes: I ordered the following off of eBay (by the way, I have questions about some of what I got, but the seller has more than 3,000 transactions with not one single negative, so keep that in mind!):

Technomate 1000 D (advertised as super, but what showed up was the TMS-1000D; we'll see whether it's super once everything's up )

Gibertini 60cm dish (I ordered black, got grey, and it doesn't say "Gibertini" on it? Should it? If so, I've been cheated > )

350 mm galvanized wall mount (so I can increase dish size later if I want to - and do a monobloc)

30m sat cable

5 F connectors (got 6 )

Edition II Twin LNB (so I can later get a cheap analogue receiver for the bedroom )

I had already ordered a sat finder with compass, but the darned compass has an air bubble in it and the reading just moves around all over the place. So, I used Google maps, drew a straight line down from my house (which makes that south), drew another line past a potentially problematic tree, measured both, used math (okay, found an online angle calculator), decided that the 21.5 degrees I got between south and the tree would mean I would be able to get 19e with no problems.

Went today to the astra sat assistant page (here: http://www.ses-astra.com/consumer/az...p?locale=en_GB) where it says that the azimuth should be measured from north (not south) at 157 degrees and which puts it at about 22 degrees east of south (smack dab in the middle of the tree); but it's a little tree (not taller than my house) so the sat assistant page says I'm okay. We'll see in the end! :|

Next step: take the wall mount out, climb the ladder, get up on the small piece roof below my first floor window; feel very unstable and very unhappy; am glad that I've left the wall mount on the ground. Climb carefully back onto the ladder. Make a strategic decision to put the dish close to the edge of the house, where I can reach whilst still staying on the ladder to both install and adjust.

Take the wall mount up and mark appropriate holes. Things look good. Take drill up ladder. Turn drill on. I would say, "start to drill," but after trying six different types, I realise I don't have the appropriate drill bit to drill into brick. Stare at the brick. Curse. Climb back down the ladder, put the rest of the dish elements together (LNB arm, bracket, dish, LNB, etc. etc.). Everything else is together. Will go tomorrow to B&Q or another local place and buy an appropriate drill bit. Once the holes are drilled, will put the mount up, put the dish/bracket/lnb on, and start wiring.

Here are things I need to find out:

Sat assistant says my lnb should have a polarisation angle of 5.9 degrees; I see no way to measure this on my LNB in relation to the bracket; does this matter? I have no idea, but I think I'll turn it a tiny bit in the right direction and see what happens!

My dish has a bracket with an elevation indicator on it, but it's crap; I can kind of guess that the elevation will be right (and this assumes my house is built vertical, not something I'm completely confident of on the whole), but I can't get exactly 27.7 degrees (I'm going mid-way between 25 and 30, so that should be 27.5); how much will this matter? Still not sure . . .

Do I need to have my receiver wired and plugged into the sat finder to find sat signals? The sat finder says it works between 13 and 17 volts, but where does it get it's power? I can't find the instructions, and there was a disk manual with it that I also can't find, so this will again be a trial and error type thing (or a searching for the instructions again thing).

So, as of today, that's where I am. They're only calling for brief showers tomorrow, so hopefully I can just get the drill bit I need and put the stuff up tomorrow. Then I'm off to wiring and we'll go from there!

Wish me luck, thanks for all the help so far, and offer advice as you wish!!

Rob H.

[Analoguesat]

Hi Rob - make sure you take some pics once the dish is up and post them in the my dishes section. LNB skew (twist) is just needed to peak up the signal. Just put it vertical to begin with then knock it round a bit once you are operational. With the ultra high power satellites you dont really have to bother with it much.

BE CAREFUL when you are putting the dish up when you are up the ladder - DONT try it if the wind gets up - theres more than enough surface area on that dish to pull you off the ladder!

The dish face should be more or less vertical to begin with - as long as the dish is within a degree or so of the right direction it will be ok so dont worry about exact half degrees. Im not a great fan of exact measurements - I point the dish in the right direction and waggle it around until I get a signal (Honest - thats how I found Astra 1C at 2E last week!)

The sat finder will get its input from the lnb output of the receiver

receiver ---> sat finder ---> lnb




The

[Analoguesat]

Oh yes - triple check you have tightened all the mounting bolts up! If you can use nylock lock nuts as well to keep the main nuts in place so much the better.

[BGonaSTICK]

Yes, Analoguesat is right here. It's nice to get the maths right, and to have all the numbers add up - but this is only an aid to finding the signal in the first place.

Ultimate adjustment has nothing to do with maths - only skinned knuckles and four-letter words

If the Google resolution of your house is good, then you could use the 'measure' function to draw a line from your house to a point on the equator labeled 19.2E. This is where the satellite is actually located - at 19.2E longitude, at a height of roughly 22,300 miles above Earth, and directly over the equator.

Turn on the Lat/Lon grid in the view menu, and find the measure function under the tools menu.

Draw the line, and then zoom in on your house to see if you'll miss the tree.

In fact, this won't (mathematically) give you the exact position of the satellite, but it should be close enough.

Other than that, I think everything sounds fine, but PLEASE be careful up the ladder. No satellite system is worth falling even a few feet off a ladder. Get some help if you're not feeling safe up there.

[RobH]

Thanks, guys, today was a wash. I didn't just have the wrong drill bit, I had the wrong drill. I didn't have a hammer drill. Went this morning to B&Q, bought a masonry/brick bit, brought it home, climbed the ladder in the morning sun. Nothing. Nothing at all. Okay, the tiniest little bit of progress. But really, nothing. Back to B&Q. Found a helpful man. Bought a £10 hammer drill. Returned home to rain and wind. Not going anywhere on a ladder today.

Now it's dark, so we'll give it a go again tomorrow. And yes, I'll be careful on the ladder, but it's well place (fence at its base so it can't slip, in a corner for good leverage). I'll get help if I need it.

One question for Stick; are you referring to using google earth? I just used "http://maps.google.co.uk" to get the picture of my house, and I don't see a "measure" function there . . . :?

Thanks again!

Rob

[nanochickin]

Watch out for those £10 B&Q drills. They go too fast for drilling through the tougher brick like the ones my house is made from. > The bits burn out very quickly if they are running too fast (I got 3 holes from each bit)

These were £6 Bosch drill bits not the 3 for a £1 ones from the market. >

I ended up borrowing my dads drill which has variable speed on it. Once the drill bit was slowed down a bit i managed to drill all the other holes ( approx 15 holes) with no problems with one drill bit. Once i had finished the end of the bit still looked like new

The cheaper drills which don't have variable speed on them are just false economy when you get through bits that fast

[chavslav]

rob, if your using google earth, press " ctrl" and press l on the keyboard, should bring up all your long/lat lines.

also use these to see if you will avoid objects. it all depends where you are in uk, you might not get the resolution on the picture,i was lucky......

[BGonaSTICK]

Originally Posted by RobH

One question for Stick; are you referring to using google earth? I just used "http://maps.google.co.uk" to get the picture of my house, and I don't see a "measure" function there . . . :?

Ah, yes - sorry.

The basic Google Earth is a must-have though if your computer will run it. The best freebie I've ever found on the 'net.

[RobH]

Originally Posted by nanochickin

Watch out for those £10 B&Q drills. They go too fast for drilling through the tougher brick like the ones my house is made from. > The bits burn out very quickly if they are running too fast (I got 3 holes from each bit)

These were £6 Bosch drill bits not the 3 for a £1 ones from the market. >

I ended up borrowing my dads drill which has variable speed on it. Once the drill bit was slowed down a bit i managed to drill all the other holes ( approx 15 holes) with no problems with one drill bit. Once i had finished the end of the bit still looked like new

The cheaper drills which don't have variable speed on them are just false economy when you get through bits that fast

Well, I only need four holes, and I have an extra long bit (which may or may not last longer, I guess), as I was hoping to go through the wall into the house, but now am going to go through a window frame, methinks.

Won't be doing anything today, though, as it's crappy, rainy, windy weather again. Dammit. Missed my window of opportunity yesterday morning by not having the right tools. I want to watch already!!! That TMS 1000D under the Christmas tree is mocking me here! I wonder what would happen if I plugged it into my NTL feed (joking).

Did the google earth thing, as suggested by Stick and Chavslav, and I miss the tree (to the left), and with the vertical angle that the signal comes in at, I doubt that tree will ever trouble me (if it gets big enough to, they'll take it down as being too big too close to the street, or at least keep it cut back). Also have an excellent point of reference for starting to point the dish. That measuring function was perfect, Stick, thanks for that suggestion. I now think I'll have absolutely no problem finding the Astra group (and I'm even a bit peeved I went for the twin lnb instead of the monobloc to get hotbird; might switch that in the future, but we'll have to see how it all goes).

So now it's just the mounting and installing, once the weather improves in Norwich (I'll keep an eye out today for a break; it would be great even to have the mount up today, at least). We'll see.

In any event, I'll take pics and keep this thread updated on my progress.

Thanks again for all the help!

Oh, one more question: should a Gibertini dish say Gibertini on it somewhere? Gotta get back to the seller if he's sent me the wrong thing . . .

Best,

Rob

[BGonaSTICK]

Not sure about the badging/naming on the Gibertini dishes, but you should be able to compare it against the product photos at the manufacturers website:

http://www.gibertini.it/en/frameset....n/prodotti.top