"check installation"

[RobinHood]

Hi everyone, this is my 1st post and Im completely new to this.
Ive been scanning through this forum for about a week now looking for tips etc as I planned to put a system together to recieve some HD channels having just bought a HDTV.
Yesterday I tried to install it without sucess. I have an Gemini 70 dish with inverto silver tech 0.2 lnb. My reciever is a DS810XE. All of this kit is new.
When I try to install on the reciever I get "check installation"message. I have checked the cabling and "F" connectors and all are sound.
As I have no meter to check for alignment, I set the reciever for Astra2 28.2 and the position of the dish similar to my next door neighbours, who has a sky mini dish.
Question? Should I get some sort of indication on the tv screen even though my alignment may not be correct or has it got to be spot on to get any. I have tried moving it around up, down, side to side but nothing! onlt this "Check intallation" which is now doing my head in, lol

[Analoguesat]

Originally Posted by RobinHood

Question? Should I get some sort of indication on the tv screen even though my alignment may not be correct or has it got to be spot on to get any. I have tried moving it around up, down, side to side but nothing! onlt this "Check intallation" which is now doing my head in, lol

Your dish needs to be correctly aligned within within a degree horizontally and vertically or you wont get anything. Trying to align the dish by eye by comparing your direction to a neighbours sky dish wont work due to parallax errors. Make slow and methodical movements of the dish, and give it a few seconds after each movements. If you can take a portable tv outside you stand a far better chance of finding the signals.

[RobinHood]

Thanks for the quick response. I was beginning to suspect something wrong with the DS810XE reciever as on the "Reception Screen" it doesnt even try to do anything just puts out that "check installation" msg.
Will it be okay to do these small movements while the "check installation" message is still showing on the "Reception Screen" or do I have to go back to the previous page, move it then go to the reception page each time I move it? Thanks

[Analoguesat]

No idea - never used one of them. If you can find a signal strength meter use that. Try connecting the receiver to a sky digital dish then at least you will know if its actually working or not.

[RobinHood]

Ok will do. Do most of you guys use a meter or something to set your dishes up initially then just tweak them a little or have a professional do it?
Ive just bought a cheap meter off ebay so will give that a try.
Many thanks..

[Analoguesat]

Never used a meter in my life! Ive got a 30 year old B&W portable tv which does nicely. It sits on my Workmate whilst Im doing dish alignments

[robbo71]

Originally Posted by RobinHood

Ok will do. Do most of you guys use a meter or something to set your dishes up initially then just tweak them a little or have a professional do it?
Ive just bought a cheap meter off ebay so will give that a try.
Many thanks..

I have used both a cheapo meter and my receiver ( see screenshot below)
but I don't bother with the meter anymore, as it is useless for the weaker satellites with a stronger one right next to it.

[RobinHood]

Is there a tutorial for fixed dish alignment for a complete beginner, taking it one step at a time?... stating what gear to use.. Ive spent most of yesterday and all of today with my reciever and portable outside with me but couldnt get passed the "check installation" message. I'd give my right nut for any sort of signal at the moment.....

[RobinHood]

Is there anyone out there who uses a Pace DS810XE and has a similar problem to mine ? It would be nice to hear from you.... So it looks like Ive wasted my money on the meter then...

[robbo71]

In order to align the dish you need to have some sort of indicator that goes up when you are closer and down when you are further away from the correct position. So the meter you have bought will do this, it just won't tell you what satellite it is, so you can use the receiver for this.

Your receiver should however have some sort of signal indicator like mine does.

Aligning a dish for the first time can be difficult. The way I set a fix dish, is to set the elevation scale on the back first, then gradually swivel the dish left to right until you get a signal. If I don't find anything I lower it a bit and try again, then higher it a bit, if I didn't find it by lowering it.

Try it first on a strong satellite like 28.2e, it is very easy to find.

If you could manage to post a photograph of your dish, when trying to get 28.2E, we might spot something obvious wrong.