Tuning in a new satellite

[crackle]

Well firstly hello to everyone.

And secondly the reason I signed up! I confess to not knowing much about satellites but I am slowly learning. My problem is I bought a campervan a while ago which came with a satellite reciever and a portable dish etc... I kinda toyed with it once but never really seriously looked at it until now.

The Satellite reciever is a small Maximum unit which has a number of satellites and channels already programmed in by the previous owner all on the German Astra satellite or Hotbird. I don't have a problem with them, if I point the dish right I can recieve what's programmed.

My problem comes in tuning in the Astra 2d satellite. The Maximum unit has the ability to add satellites and Transponders etc... So today I used the Lyngsat sight to add Transponder and frequency information. Once added I then ligned up the dish until, for the frequency added, it found a signal. Ha Ha I thought and then got it to do a channel search: Nothing; not a sausage. So I checked the other satellites to see if I'd pointed it at the wrong one. Nope no signal for any other frequencies so I'm pretty sure I was pointing at the 2d satellite, especially as I'd ligned it up with next doors FTA dish. So I appear to have done everything right and the reciever says I have a 70% signal, so anyone any ideas why I can't then find any channels for the frequency programmed in?

Incidentally all the dish and LNB stuff is the same for all satellites and the message I get at the end of the search says " Channel BE already searched" or something to that affect. I am slightly clueless on this, I thought I'd done all the hard figuring out when I added the new satellite and transponder frequencies and actually got a signal for them but now I'm stumped.

Thanks for any help

[BGonaSTICK]

Hi crackle. Welcome to the forum.

Sounds like you've done everything you should have done. All I can suggest is that you weren't lined up correctly.

You should get a big fat hit off Astra2 in the UK. You may have to adjust the skew (or 'twist') of the LNB to optimise the signal quality as well as strength.

You don't say where you are, so maybe you're outside of the recognised footprint?

What size dish do you have and where are you?

Try scanning a single transponder - one of the BBC ones listed on Lyngsat for example.

STICK

[crackle]

Thanks for the reply, only just got back around to looking into the forum after being away.In the end I bought a laptop USB reciever (not satellite) for my trip away.

I'm in Northern Scotland (near Fort William). The dish is a big oval one, not too sure of the exact size but larger than the Sky one's you see on peoples houses.

I did try tuning in just one transponder frequency and a few people I've spoken to seem to think I've done everything right as well so I'm wandering if it's the reciever. There is a reset option but of course I'll lose everything that does work if I go down that route with no guarantees I'll get any further.

My other option is to find a 12V box I could get cheap on e-bay and try that: Any suggestions as to make and model for a 12V box?

Somebody also told me digital recievers are more critical in the pointing of the dish than analogue but if you get a signal, you get a signal I thought!

Crackle

[BGonaSTICK]

Lidl are doing a cheap 12V version of the evergreen SilverCrest SL65, as do Maplin and Aldi I believe.

Other than that, I can only think that you are not aligned on Astra 2 properly, or have input the transponder frequency/polarisation/SR/FEC incorrectly.

For UK-only stuff, there is also the Pace "Javelin" Sky minibox (or Pace '1000'). No longer in production, you can get them on eBay.

Several other manufacturers make 12V boxes.