Receiving Astra2, Astra1 & Hotbird on 80cm dish in French Alps

[christophe]

Hi

We are looking to receive Astra 2D ‘spot’ footprint (28.2E), Astra 1 (19.2E) and Hotbird (13E) in the French Alps (La Clusaz 74220 Haute Savoie) using an 80cm dish with diseqc switch, with the 28.2E Astra 2D focused on the centre of the dish, as the location is on the fringe of the Astra 2d footprint for a 75-80 cm dish.

Is is possible to receive the Hotbird satellite channels (in addition to Astra 1 & 2) as well, even though the LNB for the Hotbird satellite would be offset quite a bit from the centre of the 80 cm dish?

Your advice would be appreciated....thanks in advance.

N.B. We wouldn't like to increase the size of the dish for aesthetic reasons and also the conditions of us installing means that we would have to spray the dish brown to help disguise the dish on the wall.....would this make a difference to the signal quality?

[Robbo]

Hi,

Painting the dish won't affect its performance at all. You must not use a paint with any metal content though, and it is advised that you use a matt paint to avoid cooking the LNB.

I would imagine that an offset LNB for Hotbird would work OK, but don't know, as we would always do it the other way round, or focus on 19E here. Does it have to be a fixed dish?, as motorising would be an option if you can't get the Hotbird offset to work.


I would suggest that you try it and see.

[christophe]

Hi Robbo,

Many thanks for your reply. Had thought about installing a motor, but the location of the dish would effectively be on someone else's wall in the apartment block as we are facing the wrong way for Astra2 (hence the brown spray!) so I wouldn't like the noise generated by the motor to be transferred to their living space (we have a TM-2200 motor here in the UK and you can hear it moving from A-B)....just trying to keep the neighbours happy!

The reason for the focus on 28.2E is because it is on the fringe of the footprint.....maybe I could try shifting the three LNB's to the left slightly, so the centre of the dish is somewhere between 28.2E and 19.2E to give Hotbird 13E more of a chance of a quality signal?

I'll try this and see what happens.....and post the results after our next visit in the summer...

[eurofan]

your trip to Haute Savoie sounds good. Do you need anyone to carry your bags

Wow, look at that!
This post of mine made me a "Senior Member" Time for a glass of celebratory wine.
I'll bet there's some nice red in Haute Savoie.