Hotbird in Madrid

[Brit in Madrid]

Hi All!

I am seeking some advice on receiving Italian free to air channels in Madrid from the Hotbird satellite. I have done this successfully in the UK, and also previously here in Madrid, but now that I'm using a different set-up I seem to have lost all the channels.....

I have a approx 60cm dish that has been pointed by a pro and I have been using the same receiver box as before (and now a new box) but still can't get it to work. The strange thing is that signal strength is coming back higher than before - whereas before I got the channels I wanted and now none (RAI 1,2,3, Canale 5 etc.)

As I choose add channels on the box, I can select through the transponder frequencies the box tells me the strength and quality for each freq - which seems to be fine on almost all of them (80% ish) but when I get to the freq for Canale 5 (11919) they both drop off to about zero....?

I have been told the dish size should be ok, and indeed I am getting a bunch of German channels and various others, just not the ones I'm after.

Any ideas? Do I need to adjust any settings on the box? There's loads in there I don't understand like LNB freq and type, 22 KHz tone and DiSEqC ????? Or do I just need a bigger dish, or am I pointing at the wrong sat?

Help!
Thanks.

[wasp11]

Hi im no expert in receiving hotbird in madrid, but i would start with a larger dish, and may try a local pro to point it. Good luck

[Analoguesat]

If you are getting loads of German channels then the dish is probably pointing at 19E not 13E.

If so your pro installer is a grade 1 diddy!

[Brit in Madrid]

Thanks for the replies guys - much appreciated.

I suppose I have been harbouring a big suspicion that the dish was pointing at the wrong sat - and looking at the channels I'm getting I tend to agree it's pointing at 19E. In fact after this guy had pointed the dish for me I told him it seemed to be looking a bit 'left' of where I thought it should be - having myself had a look at dishpointer.com. He dismissed this though and said his meter excluded signals from all sats bar the one we were after - Hotbird......

I've just been up on the roof with my cheapo meter and pointed the dish where I think it should be looking and increased the elevation a touch and hey presto found a signal! I tried to maximise the signal by fine tuning and then rotating the LNB (which actually seemed to make no difference) and came back downstairs feeling rather proud of myself.

Just as I had lit the cigar and turned on the box and voila!
No signal showing at all!
So: I know I homed in on a signal upstairs that seemed to be coming from exactly where I expected to find it. Do these receivers tend to show zero signal until they are actually receiving a reasonably strong one?
I'm now thinking that (unless I'm completely useless at pointing dishes) I probably need a bigger dish than the one I've got up there.

The big question: Does anyone know what size dish one would need to receive a Hotbird signal in Madrid?
The one up there now is approx 60cm.....

Thanks again for the help - much appreciated.