Silvercrest, Isle of Man, help please!!!!

[buffy]

Hi to all members on here...
I am in the Isle of Man, and getting a 'normal' tv signal here is a challenge so i thought (foolishy maybe) i would get a cheap portable camping system on e-bay, for FTA, i now have a Silvercrest? SL65 RX and a white 35cm dish with LNB... stop laughing now ops:

Anyway i plugged it in and tried to get a signal - but alas not a sausage.... i tried using a Satellite finder but it just makes a squeling sound, i have no idea how too use it. I took the cable out of the reciver and the tone from the reciever is excatly the same (low tone) 38% and 10% (not a clue) help have i bought a big paperweight?? or is this an OK system?? there are a lot of sky sat dishes here - so surely it should work?

I live in Douglas Isle of Man - is this a bad palce for FTA satellite?? can anybody help me to get a signal on this... thanks
Buffy
PS i did see something called pays tv? fpr a second or so???

[BGonaSTICK]

Hi there Buffy. Your troubles are over. You are in the house of the satellite fix-it nerds!

You'll be fine, but you're going to find this a whole lot easier with a larger dish, that's for sure.

That receiver will do you proud for FTA, but have a shop around for a mid-priced dish of maybe 60cm diameter (plus a strong mount, not a cheapo 'L' bend job) if you just want FTA channels from 'Sky' at 28.2E, or 90cm if you want all the free movies and sport available on other satellites as well.

Ooh, sorry that was just a teaser, and will require a receiver upgrade too

[buffy]

Oh no i have bought a 'toy' dish eeek!!! the funny thing is - when i unplug the cable at the LNB thingy, the tone on the digibox stays the same - low, so its like there is no dish at all (it came with 1, million metres of white cable) could it be the cable faulty?? i have been looking around the interweb and found some stuff about the footprint of the satellite - it should work here at 22 degrees??? anyway thanks...

As i said i have never had satellite at all.... i used to get freeview in london with a piece of wet string - but the IOM is still in 1965!!!!

Buffy

[buffy]

OK put my grown up head on now.... I have just tried again, and the following applies with the LNB plugged in elevation is set to 23 degrees (OK its indoors) pointing the same way as the neighbours (roughly) the signal is 37% intensity and 11% quality..... now i unplug the LNB lo and behold the same readings are on the display!!!! and the tone is still low. I assume the cable is OK coz the signal finder makes noise... so HAVE i bought a 240 volt doorstop? this is set on to Astra 28.2E I have tried scanning all the sats, and its the same - any ideas? Sorry to be a pain - but i am a real newbie, newbie to this lark! Is it worth getting a nice man round with his install kit or am i wasting time and money i dont have
Cheers
buff

[BGonaSTICK]

If your dish is indoors, you can forget it!

You need to be outdoors. Your dish size is going to make this pretty hard. You can struggle on, or buy a new dish. Your receiver will be fine as long as it's not fritzed.

You have no signal, because the dish isn't pointed at the satellite, and it's too small.

It's no good pointing it roughly. It's got to be spot on. And outdoors. And bigger

The cable should be fine, at least for some initial testing.

If you don't have much cash to spare, invest it in a dish instead of an installer. If you still can't get it to work, it's time to call in a few favours, either to pay the installer or just to give you a hand.

It's perfectly possible to do this yourself, but it helps if you have a friend to help you align it.

Try this for some basic settings:

SES Dish Installation Assistant

STICK

[ltmltm]

a 35cm dish isn't really of any use unless

1: the satellites your pointing it at are really strong and

2:its a perfectly clear calm day

as stick says having it indoors wont work at all(well it might but it will be utterly ****e signal with such a small dish)

a bigger dish really is probably the best option and a 60cm can be obtained for peanuts or even for FREE

if you want to use your 35cm for the time being then provided its outside you'll get 28.2 very well unless it raining then you'll get it not so well

[BGonaSTICK]

I've seen these little dishes work on Hotbird in Scotland fairly reliably, but it's just a pain in the bum for the complete beginner.

[ltmltm]

indeed the polish people down the road use one for polsat, its actually held up with sellotape aswell

[Analoguesat]

The 35cm dish may be a bit on the small side but buffy should get *something* on it - especially during nice sunny afternoons. The 28E transmission powers are so high that almost any dish will give some pictures.

buffy - the most important thing to remember is that the dish has to be accurately pointed to within a degree of the satellites. If you are a couple of degrees off course then you are pointing the dish hundreds of miles away from the satellites (they are 20,000 miles away so small errors in pointing lead to big deviations from the satellite you want!)

Work out approximately where your neighbours sat dishes are pointing.

Set the dish up so the face is more or less vertical. Then move it SLOWLY in one direction. If you dont get anything try adjusting the elevation slightly and try again.
Repeat until you are successful!

Its MUCH easier if you can put an old portable tv in a workbench in the garden whilst you are aligning.

[BGonaSTICK]

Originally Posted by Analoguesat

especially during nice sunny afternoons

What are they?