New here - need help please!!

[kerrywez]

Hi John,
Sorry to hear about your aerial, it is blowing here, but the rain has held of for the most part, but has been in other areas.

I am not really sure, but any box that I have ever had has taken well into the 20 Mins to scan all that is on 28.2E, with the exception of a dodgybox that is.

Can someone please let us know if it is possible to scan all that is on the Astra cluster of sats @28.2E? I am firmly of the opinion that it should take far longer to do a scan of all the transponders than the few minutes it is taking John's box.

Very best regards Wez

[Johniboi]

In my last message it was the signal i couldn't hold on to, not the dish!

I just tried my signal meter at the dish again i am now getting a signal wherever i put the dish. i.e. it is not varying upwards when i pass the positions i have been getting signals before. In fact, since the word go i have been getting a signal anywhere if i turned the knob too high. What i have been doing thus far is turning the knob as low without losing a signal and just turning the dish/altering the meter knob to try and isolate a particular signal. It has always been difficult to do this, however, since i have always got a signal, perhaps too far on either side of the high point and one satellite signal seemed to run into the next.

The dish mounting instructions said to point the dish north-south and turn it until hearing a signal at about thirteen degrees, another at 19 degrees and then the next one would be Astra 2. Should the signal completely die between satellites so that you only get a signal of any sort when you are on one? I appreciate that if you turn the meter knob right up you are probably going to get a response from anywhere, but i haven't been doing that.

Any thoughts guys? Dodgy LNB?. John.

[Johniboi]

By watching the screen and shifting the dish i now ALMOST have red tv and britasia, which are on 28.2 and three NHS channels on 28.5. I get a no signal message and very intermittent audio but when i tweak the dish the message goes away and i get a blank screen with the intermittent audio. I must be right on the sat but cannot improve the signal by dish tweaking..

Verdict - there is something funny going on! I think i should take the dish off in daylight and put a cutout 20 degree angle on top of the mounting post, using a spirit level. Then rotate it to the correct position and look along it to make absolutely sure that there is nothing in the way above that elevation, such as a tree on the far horizon. Other than that i can only think it is a faulty LNB or a faulty operative. I do have a replacement new receiver now of course.

Give me strength!

[Johniboi]

Well here i am again! I checked exactly where the dish was pointing this morning and there was a phone line a couple of metres in front of it, which i had thought wouldn't be in the way. So off to B & Q for some more fixings so i could move the dish lower down the wall to a place i now has a completely clear view of the satellite i am certain is well above the hilltop horizon.

No change. I found out, however, that the odd behaviour of my signal meter was due to one of the connections which i have been doing and undoing so many times - the central wire core wasn't sticking out enough. Then i went to Maplins and persuaded them to swap my LNB for another one. Then i tried it and am in the same old boat. I just cannot pick up signals from more than a couple of transponders at 28.2/5

I really have given up now as this past week has stretched my nerves to an unacceptable degree and i can take no more - satellite tv isn't supposed to make you ill is it?!? So I put the ladders away and rang a satellite/aerial company who are calling me Tuesday morning to arrange (hopefully) a same day visit. No call out charge and free estimate so let's see if they can sort it out.

All this has shown me one thing - that "God" (in whatever form he appears to some people) does actually seem to be omnipotent, because the bloody religious channels and Al Jazeera are the only thing i can get with any certainty - they are everywhere!!

One good thing is that i have been up on the roof to get the tv aerial down, which nearly snapped off in the wind last night. A bit of steel plate and some welding made sure that will last for a good long while now i have fixed it.

Thanks to you all for your help. I bet you can't wait to hear what conclusion the professionals come to when they arrive. You could start taking bets on the most likely cause - (probably that i am an idiot)!



John..

[Robbo]

We will probably never find out what was wrong, he'll probably be up there a few minutes and have it sorted, hopefully

Let us know what happens.

Robbo

[kerrywez]

John,
I am sorry to hear that you have given up, but I have been there in the past, though I never did get anyone in to do the job, but I can understand what you are feeling and how annoyed you feel because of the time you have put into it. One thing that I would do is ask the bloke what the matter was and be sure to be on his back to watch what he does, or does not do.

Very best regards Wez

[Johniboi]

Thanks fellas,

Of course, having said i have given up i promised a guy this week that i would go and see if i could position his dish in return for him lending me his box to try on mine. So it looks like i am up someone else's ladder in the morning! I think he has a Sky box or something that he has a CAM card or something for. He wondered if it was because i didn't have one of these that i was having trouble but i explained it wasn't that.

Well it will be interesting to see what happens and i will let you know.

[Robbo]

Well, good luck for tomorrow, I bet you get it working straight away.

[Johniboi]

Ok. So i went round to this guy's house and he had a ratty old Sky dish and receiver. He said he had spent two hours up the ladder and couldn't get anything. before i even connected the signal meter i had all the channels i have been looking for on the screen. This took me about five seconds to do what i have spent about three days trying to do at home. I put my meter on to get the best signal and locked the dish up.

I was amazed how easy and obvious it was to find and how much movement on either side of the signal peak was possible before losing the signal.

So i borrowed the box and plugged it in at home - NO SIGNAL message. I checked what i was getting on the screen with my receiver - about 12 channels, (Al Jazeera and the usual God stuff), so i knew the dish was pointing at something. I even tried taking a separate cable straight from the dish, through the house and plugged it straight into the back of his receiver - NO SIGNAL!

All i can think here is that his box only works with his old Sky dish/LNB - can anyone confirm that?

So there we are. Mystery piles upon mystery. I will await the coming of the men-who-do-this-kind-of-thing on Tuesday.

I am beginning to suspect Voo-Doo, witchcraft or similar. Or perhaps i have some kind of Star Trek force field around my house? Does anyone know a good psychiatrist?

John.

[Robbo]

The sky box will work with any universal LNB, and any ku band dish pointing at the correct satellite.

Yes, I agree there is some sort or curse on your system.


Can you try your receiver on his dish now?