Help with Hispasat 30w

[sunnyz1]

Hi everybody, I cant seem to find many of the west satellites, mainly hispasat because it seems to be quite popular. Is it because my dish is too small or is there some other issue that I have not thought about. The only sats I have found with decent quality is 15w and 1w. I do find some others with only 10 or so transponders but my box does not identify them. Also could the lnb frequencey make a diiference because my box has a choice of universal 1 9750/10750, universal 2 9750/10600, single sl 5150/5750,
single sh 5150/5750 and standard 9750.

My dish is 75*60cm oval with clear view of 30w with normal sky lnb

Thanks in advance

Sunny

[BGonaSTICK]

Your LNB should be set up as "universal 2 9750/10600", and yes, your dish is plenty large enough for Hispasat from the UK.

Your problem may be the Sky LNB (is that really what you have?)

The 'Skew' (the amount of twist on the LNB in the LNB clamp) may well be pre-set (for 28E) inside the LNB housing if it's a Sky LNB.

You're going to need to twist the LNB maybe 60 degrees anti-clockwise when viewing from the front of the dish to re-set the skew correctly.

I'm not surprised you're getting nothing if you haven't already done this.

Can you post a photo?

[sunnyz1]

Thanks for the reply. The lnb came with the sky dish, it says on in it Thomson single LNB. I have no idea what skew is but the coax cable on lnb can be moved to 5 positions if thats what you mean. I can get photos of my sat setup on swivel chair but I have no idea how to post them.

Sunny

[Analoguesat]

You CANT skew the sky lnb successfully on some sky lnb's - the plastic casing doesnt allow the lnb to twist in the right direction unless the casing is trimmed back!

[sunnyz1]

I'll trim it back, not a problem cause I am going to get a new lnb anyway when I set my motor up, I just dont know what am supposed to end up with when I do change the skew.

Sunny

[nanochickin]

Go for a Wistron (WNC) lnb as it fits into its holder like a normal lnb. It comes with a normal type holder, You can turn it 360 degrees in its holder should you need to

[BGonaSTICK]

The 'skew' is literally the amount that the internals of the LNB are rotated relative to the LNB arm (or the vertical axis of the dish face, if you like).

With Sky LNBs the casing always looks vertical, but the internals are twisted a little more or less for each of the 5 notched positions which you mention.

With Sky being at 28.2E the internals are twisted a fair amount from the vertical. 30W basically requires a mirror image in the way the LNB is twisted. Due south (zero degrees) would require the guts of the LNB to be exactly vertical and 30W needs the LNB to be twisted as much as it was for 28.2E, but in the opposite direction.

Does that make sense?

[sunnyz1]

Starting to understand it now, prob open lnb tomorrow to twist it. How do I know what position to twist it to (are there any markings) or is it just trial and error. I dont understand how a motor manages to twist the lnb when it changes satellites.

Sunny

[Jimdefruit]

You dont need to open the LNB, just adjust the mount. If it is the fixed mount type you are stuffed and will need to get another LNB.

[BGonaSTICK]

Motorised systems don't twist the LNB - they twist the whole dish!

Attached is a picture of my motorised dish parked a 42E. You can compare it to the Sky dish above it, which doesn't appear to have any LNB skew, but actually does.

If you want to calculate what skew you require, check out the SMW Link software. There's a link to it in our utilities section.

If you don't need to keep your Sky LNB, just cut off the entire casing except where it's mounted in the clamp, or take it off completely and just wrap some duct tape round it. This will work until you can get a 'proper' LNB, or you can do as Jim suggests and just twist your whole dish and mount!