New here - need help please!!

[Johniboi]

Hi Wez, I have reset the box to the factory settings many times. This deletes any new sats i have added, like Eurobird 1 for example - if i did a reset now then that satellite would be deleted. The box is very simple to set up and should work almost straight from the box.

when you are editing transponder info you can select DVB-S or DVB S2, whereas Lyngsat says just plain DVB for the Eurobird transponders, so i selected DVB-S. I don't think there is anything else i could have done wrong.


Cheers, John

[kerrywez]

Ok John,
Do you have far to go to return the box John?

At your first opportunity tanke the damn thing back and ask them for a replacement or a different HD box, as I cannot understand what the hell is wrong with it. If you can receive Eurobird1 then it is not possible that you can't get any of the Astra birds, they are at the same position in the sky, even a minidish can pick both the Astra2 and Eurobird1 satellites up.

If you can get them to try the box in Maplin, suppose that would not happen, you could be satisfied as to what it was or was not doing. At the end of the day we have tried everything that we can think of and there seems to be no way to get any of the Astra channels, very strange indeed.

Please keep us informed as to what is happening John, if I think of anything in the meantime I shall let you know.

Very best regards Wez

[robbo71]

I agree with Wez, We have probably exhausted all possibilities that we can think of.

Hopefully trying another receiver would reap rewards, alternatively trying the r Fortec receiver on an already setup minidish could confirm that it is working alright or not, and then we could move on from there.

The only other obscure thing I can think of is inteference from cordless phones. I don't know the details, but if you have one it might be worth unplugging it from the mains for a test, once you have Eurobird1 going ( to see if you can get 28.2e)

Robbo

[Johniboi]

Yeh i think u r right Wez. I rang Maplins and they said they could send it off to be checked which would take one to two weeks. Quite honestly that's no damn good as i should have the right in law to an immediate replacement, especially with all the time it has cost me trying to get it going. This has now literally cost me about three full days of my life which i could have spent doing the things that i should otherwise have been doing, had i not been buggering about trying to get the thing working. Not to mention the stress and maddening frustration i have gone through.

I was waiting for someone to get back to me, who was going to lend me a box but maybe he has decided not to bother after all. There is another guy who i am going to help with dish alignment at weekend in return for trying his box at mine. I don't know if i will get time to go back to Maplins before then. I bought the kit in Leeds but i can take it back to Bradford, which is nearer. I shall take a printout of all the replies on this thread too in case they try and fob me off with a check or repair job.

I would really like to line my dish up with another box first, however, so that if i get a replacement for mine i know that the dish is already spot on target. Then if i have any problems with a second box - well i would rather not think about it!

Many thanks to you and Robbo and everyone else who has given me such a lot of help and i will post again as soon as i know anything new.

Cheers y'all. Bugger technology - life was oh so much simpler in the sixties!

[kerrywez]

It is my pleasure John and you are welcome to have any support we can give you anytime. Tell Maplins that you have the statutory right to a replacement box or a full refund of your money, as the box was not fit for the propose that it was bought for, that is the law as I see it anyway. The thing about sending it away for testing is just bullsh!t, it never worked and that is all you need tell them and we are witness to that, the posts will prove you are not bulling them.

Do not move your dish in any circumstance, you will be able to see that it must be on the Astra2 cluster of satellites, when you get a box that works.

Very best regards Wez

[Johniboi]

Well i got another box from Maplins - and guess what - still no joy. I have had a few channels from a couple of sats but only ever from one or two transponders at a time

currently i have 8 channels on 11681 which is on Eurobird 1, I can move on or off this frequency when i move the dish extremely gently but no way can i get a signal on the other transponders by moving the dish. I just can't understand why, if i am pointing at a satellite and can get one transponder, I am not getting anything from the other transponders on the same satellite. I actually got a couple of programs that are on Astra 2 according to Lyngsat but no others. I think that was the first time i had anything from Astra 2 (or maybe not - i am losing it a bit). So if i got something from Astra 2 then why didn't i get the lot? It seems that if it is a matter of adjustment then it is a matter of microns of movement rather than millimetres.

I was worried i maybe wasn't far clear of the horizon since i live at the bottom of a steel hill to the south but i have checked the elevation from my dish and it appears to get a clear view

Could it be the LNB? Is it just me?

I guess i will have to give in and pay someone with state of the art meters to do it, or else take it all back and get my money back. I am getting just a bit ****ed off now. I wish i could just forget about it but it is a thorn in my side which needs fixing and it is really bugging me so much that it has become an obsession .

Oh well, nobody said life was easy did they? John.

[Mickha]

Check all the connections in the receiver and LNB, as it could be a LNB problem.
Can you please post a list of channels you are currently receiving, the frequency, name, polarity and if possible the Audio and Video PIDs.
Also try scanning in other channels from Eurobird:
_http://www.lyngsat.com/eb1.html

[Johniboi]

Maybe tomorrow Mick. Bedybyes time for me now as i have to be up early for work

Thanks, John.

[kerrywez]

Hi John,
Sorry to hear that you have not been able to get it sorted yet. Would you please tell me how long it takes for the receiver to do a scan of the sats at 28.2E please?

The reason I ask is because it usually takes a very long time to scan all the transponders on those sats, so if it is not taking around 20Mins, at the very least, then it is not scanning all the transponders, so there has to be something wrong with the way the box is set up, or it is just the box itself.

Very best regards Wez

[Johniboi]

Here goes with a list of what i have after the last scan: -
Encrypted:
Program 4840 11681V27500 Vpid2312 Apid213 Ppid 2312
" 4811 11469H27500 517 645 8190
TVei 11469H27500 521 649 8190
Program 4188 11469H27500 523 651 8190
" 4239 11469H27500 519 647 8190
" 4930 11469H27500 520 348 8190
" 5130 11469H27500 518 646 8190
" 5226 11469H27500 522 650 8190
" 5530 11469H27500 517 645 8190
Extreme Sports 11681V27500 2307 2308 2307
Islam Channel 11681V27500 2320 2321 2306
God Europe 11681V27500 2310 2311 2310
Peace TV 11681V27500 2322 2323 2322
Al Jaz English 11681V27500 2314 2315 2314
TBN Europe 11681V27500 2316 2317 2316
Hollywood TV 11681V27500 2318 2319 2305
God Channel 11681V27500 2312 2313 2312

I have i think 87 transponders listed for Astra 2 28.2 which seem to correspond in the main with the Lyngsat listing for Eurobird 1/Astra A/B/C/D and the box scanned all those in about 7 minutes. It gets programs on the 2 transponders shown above and a signal (up to 70% strength which comes and goes on a couple of other transponders, but which doesn't result in finding any more programs

Just now i managed to get a short-lived signal from 10714, which i have never had before. I tried just tweaking the dish without any actual movement on the post and then tried moving the dish a very small amount in either direction and up and down but i couldn't hang on to it

It seems to me that i am only getting the strongest signals for some reason, making it near impossible to position the dish exactly where its needed. I know it is a delicate business but it should not be impossible

Do any of you guys suggest i get another LNB from Maplins and try that, before i call the pro's in?

To cap it all, my tv aerial mounting has just 90% snapped off in the wind and i have been on the roof in the wind and drizzle (suitably attached to a safety rope) to tie it off until weekend. I shall have to make some sort of strong mounting instead of the weak galvanised bracket the aerial came with.

I look forward to hearing from you...