Satellite alignment

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auntflo
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Satellite alignment

Postby auntflo » Sat Oct 01, 2011 7:32 pm

First, sorry, I am sure this info is available searching but we live remotely with very slow internet and searching past posts is difficult/nigh on impossible and at best very very slow!
We have had pretty bad sky (free stuff) reception after 8pm for a couple of months, which is worsening as autumn approaches. Decided to play around with dish early evening, which has always eventually worked but afraid this evening I have jiggled it too far and I can't remember the alignment it is supposed to have. :oops: Can anyone help?
Have a digital satellite finder which we have yet to use; a neighbour borrowed it ages ago when we first bought it and have only just asked for it back so any help very much appreciated. Thank you to anyone who can help x

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Julie
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Re: Satellite alignment

Postby Julie » Sat Oct 01, 2011 7:45 pm

When I do mine I either use a pair of mobile hand sets or 2 mobile phones, I put one in front of the tv and take the other one with me to the dish, that way when the sound comes on you hear it, save argueing and shouting with the other half :)
No soporto ver la casa sucia, ahora mismo me levanto y apago la luz.

auntflo
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Re: Satellite alignment

Postby auntflo » Sat Oct 01, 2011 8:04 pm

Hmmm good idea as we are now not speaking and so i have, nastily, put Footloose on as prime Sat night viewing, in revenge for lots of snappiness!

auntflo
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Re: Satellite alignment

Postby auntflo » Sat Oct 01, 2011 8:07 pm

ie dvd of footloose, still need alignment but dark and rather stroppy atmosphere so given up til tomorrow....

satandpcguy
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Re: Satellite alignment

Postby satandpcguy » Sat Oct 01, 2011 8:08 pm

Why not take the satellite box, and a TV down to the dish, and so you can see the picture on the screen as well as using the meter?

Start looking for a strong channels, like sky news, that at least gets you in the right direction, then all other channels will be almost there...
Move the dish gradually. Small movement, then stop, check the readings and pciure then omve again. the smallest of movement can make all the difference.
wwneh you have good picture, put marks on the dish and support just in case you decide to fiddle and lose things again.

Sometimes, with the small cheap "beeper" units removing them make make the pitures better also, as some of them have an adverse affect on the signal going down to the receiver.

It may also be that your poor reception down can be imporved with a ne / better LNB, and maybe check the cabling also - see if there any cracks inthe cable, or water ingress into the cable from joints or cracks (if so replace the whole cable)
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fyfin
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Re: Satellite alignment

Postby fyfin » Sat Oct 01, 2011 9:30 pm

I don't know if this will help but we were losing channels and I installed a new dual lnb , new cable as I only had a single lnb before and I was going to bring my sky+ box over at some point.

Anyway I still couln't get even sky news but some other free channels like movies for men etc and I changed the default transponder etc. The sky signal strength was excellent as was quality so I assumed it could not be the dish and gave up and called someone in.

They tried changing lnb - no diff, sky box - no diff, so had almost given up as well when they decided that maybe the dish was out of shape and by bending about a bit we ended up with all the channels bbc1 sky news itv etc. Didn't seem very professional, cost me 40 euros but Hey it worked.

Now that would have been a great ending except next morning we had lost bbc2 probably due to heat and cold causing expansion / contraction. We could still pick them up on the 992 channel etc. But I just couldn't leave it alone and tried a bit of bending myself - big mistake - lost loads of channels. Needless to say wife was not amused and 2 hours later after much aggro and shouting "Yes" "No it's gone again" I finally got most of them back again and lesson learned. :crazy:
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auntflo
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Re: Satellite alignment

Postby auntflo » Sun Oct 02, 2011 8:54 am

Thanks for the help, will definitely try your suggestions. My prob is mainly that I wiggled too far and it is now not locked on to a satellite so need to get back on first.
It always seems to need a slight adjustment after the summer and we usually end up with the channels better quite quickly,but was not really a good idea to start after a glass of wine on a Sat evening!
PS Footloose really is a naff film, not seen it since I was very young and very naive and it certainly does not live up to my teenage memory of it!

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Julie
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Re: Satellite alignment

Postby Julie » Sun Oct 02, 2011 9:00 am

How do you know its time to get a new dish ? Does anyone know !
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auntflo
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Re: Satellite alignment

Postby auntflo » Sun Oct 02, 2011 2:00 pm

Wahey! Finally done it!! Managed to get back on the satellite eventually but was still not getting any programmes, but inspired by the post above we have bent the dish back into shape and we are back! Think a new dish is definitely in order, it was obviously pretty warped and my efforts yesterday evening made it even worse.
Moral of the story, open the wine AFTER you have sorted the TV! :roll:

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fyfin
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Re: Satellite alignment

Postby fyfin » Sun Oct 02, 2011 3:01 pm

Hi Auntflo, Glad we could be of some help. It's a nightmare trying to sort it out and I have decided we need a new dish as well but apparently a 1.2 mtr dish costs about €300 and with extreme heat , cold and high winds - how do we know the new one is not going to get battered out of shape as well.

I have seen some with a sort of a honey comb effect at the back which Im suppose keeps them in shape better and I have been told than an aluminium one is better but I can't see how as I would have thought it was even more likely to get knocked out of shape.

We will be over in Feb and I will see if I still have most of the channels and decide then whether it is worth it or not. I know it is very stressful trying to adjust the damn thing and my wife actually went off for a walk as she couldn't put up with it last time. All my fault - of course! :lolno: :crazy:
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Alhaurincraig
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Re: Satellite alignment

Postby Alhaurincraig » Wed Oct 12, 2011 2:51 pm

Find your location on this map http://www.dishpointer.com & you'll see EXACTLY which direction your dish needs to point.

Don't wiggle your dish too much, find Sky news first then start tightening your bolts. Fine tune your dish by tightening/untightening each bolt in turn.

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Re: Satellite alignment

Postby Chunky Monky » Wed Oct 12, 2011 4:19 pm

Alhaurincraig wrote:Find your location on this map http://www.dishpointer.com & you'll see EXACTLY which direction your dish needs to point..
Looks like a very useful site.


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