Fortec Star FS4200 and 1.8m Dish

[jimcosta]

Hi,

I am totally new to setting up a satellite system and therefore have very minimal knowledge.

I live in Spain on the Costa Blanca just south of Torrevieja. I want my own satellite system and so while in the UK I bought from Maplins a 1.8 petal dish, Invacom uni.single LNB (the only one they sold for the dish) and a fortec star FS 4200 receiver. I was told that although it was a cheap system it would work here in Spain.

I have set it up ok and after a few false starts picking up the wrong Astra Satellite at 19.3E. I found what I presume is the right Astra 2 at 28.2E. I did this with a satellite finder made by Metronic.

I think I am on the right satellite as I get the English channels of home shopping such as QVC and Bid up TV along with many other English sites. But no mainstream TV such as BBC and ITV etc.

I select the main frequencies for the ones with BBC in such as 10773 H
but although the meter seems to record a good signal, the signal and quality bars on the fortec do not move from 45% and 5% which seems to be the lowest they ever go. As I said if I scroll down the preset list of frequencies I can get a lot of other UK programs.

I notice that the lists of frequencies also mention a FEC no. mostly of 5/6 these do not show up on the fortec receiver and I cannot see anywhere to add these, are these important or does the receiver select these automatically.

I know the dish is not ideal but others in the area seem to get away with a 1.4 metre dish with SKY boxes.

Does anybody know if it's the dish, the receiver, LNB or all three.

Thanks

Jim

[hibees04]

i am no expert but i will give you my opinion. if other people are getting it in your area then you should too. I will tell you that the receiver you have bought is one that i have had in the past. I had a lot of problems with it freezing etc...... Anyway you could try turning the skew bit slightly on the lnb as it can help but it seems a bit odd that you cant get the bbc+ itv channels yet you can get the other ones. the fec number is not really important as i think it works that out its self. I had the same problem here in the Uk with bbc /itv channels too and i done a factory reset on the box. The dish may be slightly off line or the elevation could be a bit off. im not an expert just trying to help you.let us know how you get on.

[Pittsey]

My father in-law is on the costa blanca. A 1.8m dish isn't large enough to receive all chanels. It only gets the ****ty 1's. He has a 2.4m at his place and a 1.8 in a place he rents out. I remember FiveUSA being the best channel he could receive on that 1.8m. No BBC.

In summary a1.8 is probably too small.

[jimcosta]

Hi,

Before I bought the dish, I looked at others in our area and there are several 1.4 metre dishes, we are in Villa Martin. These are admittedly better quality solid dishes but they do get sky programs via their sky boxes with this size of dish.

I was wondering if the Fortec 4200 receiver was perhaps not good enough on the fringes. The sky boxes on the 1.4 metre dishes are the Thompson boxes, which I have heard are better in fringe areas.

Regards
Jim

[River-Rat]

hi guys im of to spain at the weekend and looking to help my mate with his dish, but seems u can only get freeview channels on a dish out there unless u pay for sky as no way round it yet

[Robbo]

It has been posted many times on the forums, that the Fortec petallized 1.8m dish, performs very poorly if not set up properly. Unfortunately I don't know how it shoud be set up to work as it should, but it is to do with getting the dish to be straight, and getting perfect alignment of the petals, plus some strengthening.


Take a look on this site:-

The Sat and PC Guy - BBC ITV Sky Freesat Satellite UK TV Systems & Installations for Costa Blanca Spain

There was a reception map on there when I looked this morning.