Can a satellite dish 'not work'?

[karandjon]

hi, we have a satellite set up, where, before the winds.rains the other night, worked fine. afterwards there was no signal.

the guy came out (he came out 6 weeks previous to adjust to 16 degs east for me) and said it is in right position but my box (brand new) was no good. i proceeded to get old box out (functions perfectly well), and he couldnt get signal strength on that either thus proving my new box is fine.

he then said he has had to replace the whole thing ont he roof (dish, arm and lnb).

My question is.....can the dish really need replacing? it is only 4 years old. i have seen rusty dishes annd all sorts in working order. I feel he may be trying it on!

Thanks.

[v.dubber]

Im not an expert, but would suggest that maybe water has got into the connections at the lnb. Cant see it being the dish unless its got severely bent. Maybe he's taking the p***?

[satandpcguy]

a bit more info on what system are you trying to receive may help......?
however...if you are on 16 east, that you say your dish was aligned to, and you have recently lost channels, then presumably you are trying to watch digitalb....?
well, bad news. digitalb moved most of their channels to a new satellite at 16 east, and one of those beams on that satellite is harder to receive than its previous beam...I think the changes happened late wednesday / early thursday....so (without realising why he needs to replace the dish) he may be right in that a new replacement dish may be required...but for replacement read bigger...but what size for digitalb where you are i dont know...i am still trying to work out what they need where I am...

[Beachcomber]

The main reason for dish failure is the loss of its parabolic properties due to strong winds. LNBs are also prone to failure after a period of time.

Why was he trying to use your satellite receiver as a signal strength meter? Most professional installers have something like this for installing or checking satellite systems.



I would seek a second opinion before buying a new dish.

[biribiri]

After all the recent frequency changes I am still receiving all the digitalb channels strong and clear here in Sevilla on a 1.3m motorised dish.

Latest active transponders/channel list for16e can be found here.
http://www.flysat.com/eutelsatw3c.php

[satandpcguy]

After all the recent frequency changes I am still receiving all the digitalb channels strong and clear here in Sevilla on a 1.3m motorised dish.

Latest active transponders/channel list for16e can be found here.
http://www.flysat.com/eutelsatw3c.php

I am sure that a 1.25m dish in my area will also pick them up.
(dish sizes in Spain are soooo confusing - many installers in spain dont use the proper conventional way of measuring dishes - which is horizontal across the face of the dish, not including the outer rim of the dish - which is how a 1.8m dish is advertised as a 1.9m dish...some people say they have a 1.35m dish, yet that is a more oval dish and that measurement is taken at is maximum length - vertically, and not horizontally which makes the dish 1.25m!)

the 80cm dish used to work fine for digitalb, but nothing now.

digitalb reqs:
http://en.kingofsat.net/pack-digitalb.php

[gretch]

I would seek a second opinion before buying a new dish.

I’d go with that.

[Julie]

Can I ask what is digitalb ? and are we exspected to loose our freeview uk tv now they are messing with the satellite ?

Karen I would def get a second opinion,I was told the same and ours was ok, my tv went off the other night,no signal, no bad weather but just came back on and has been ok since

[knowal]

Can I ask what is digitalb ? and are we exspected to loose our freeview uk tv now they are messing with the satellite ?

Karen I would def get a second opinion,I was told the same and ours was ok, my tv went off the other night,no signal, no bad weather but just came back on and has been ok since

I think that digitalb is Albanian?

Our "freeview" UK TV, (I know that you mean Freesat of course) was never intended to be used outside of the UK, Julie. Enjoy it while you can.

[fyfin]

Beachcomber "The main reason for dish failure is the loss of its parabolic properties due to strong winds"

I wish I had thought of that definition when I posted about our problem but as the man says it definitely causes loss of signal. I couldn't work out what was wrong with ours and the Sat TV person we called out tried to say it was the box (it wasn't) then the lnb (it wasn't) and finally knocked the dish about a bit (not terribly scientific) but got all the channels back eventually by restoring to a certain degree it's parabolicy (bet that's not a real word!)

However, he never suggested a new dish, although we may well consider a sturdier one as the high winds can certainly bend it out of shape.

[Julie]

Yes I meant free sat Lol !
So do you think uk tv will disapear in time? hope not or hubby will never want to be here, for me I don't mind either way, one good thing I realised that was good, is you can watch uk tv on the laptop when the weather is bad and it doesn't work by the dish, so maybe we would have to do it that way in the future !

[Beachcomber]

It would appear, at the moment, that the UK 'spot' beam of Astra 1N gives better coverage in Spain than Astra 2D (from where all of the BBC and ITV programmes are transmitted) however, this cannot be confirmed until 1N takes over definitively. Even if this is so the problem is that 1N is subsequently due to move to another orbital position to make way for a permanent replacement (Astra 2E, 2F, 2G?) from 2012 onwards. If I have got this wrong I'm sure someone will tell me!

Fyfin, the best dish for surviving in high winds without warping and retaining its parabolic properties is the Andrews Channel Master which comes with an appropriate price tag. If you can manage with what you have for now it may be worth waiting before replacing the dish to see how it all pans out.

[karandjon]

Hi everyone, mant thanks for all the replies. Bad weather here yesterday meant i couldnt get any reception on my internet dongle to reply.

a bit more info on what system are you trying to receive may help......?
however...if you are on 16 east, that you say your dish was aligned to, and you have recently lost channels, then presumably you are trying to watch digitalb....?

We did have digitalb last year on our 80cm dish, no problem, but this year we have bought a subscription card for Tring, to watch the premiership footie. For the 6/8 weeks previously, it worked fine. Tring is also on 16 degs east. Eutelsat W2, Freq 11283, Polarity V, Symbolrate 27500.

It is sounding like maybe what was okay before on a 80cm dish, is not now?

maybe we will need 2 x 1.2m dishes on our roof now (already have one for sky)?

Thanks.

Karen

[satandpcguy]

Tring is also on 16 degs east. Eutelsat W2, Freq 11283, Polarity V, Symbolrate 27500.

Treing is on the same frequency - but it too moved satellites - it is no longer on the easy to receive w2, but the harder to receive w3c...and they too changed frequencies on the 10th...
http://en.kingofsat.net/pack-tring.php

It is sounding like maybe what was okay before on a 80cm dish, is not now?

Very true.

[karandjon]

Thanks for quick reply satandpcguy. much appreciated.

The only Tring channels we're interested in are the Sports ones, which are the pay channels. I can't see them listed on the link you gave me.

What would you suggest i do, if you were in my position? (sorry, i am useless with all this technical info).

I bought the Tring sports card which should show 3pm games but don't (apparently Tring renegaded on this promise). The other games are fine.

I have already had to buy a new receiver as my previous Head (conax embedded) receiver pparently wasnt up to the newly encrypted cards.

The new receiver worked fine.

Would it seem i just need to buy a new dish now, to receive these footie channels okay, ot is it a bit more complicated than that? And if so, what size would you suggest and how much should i expect to pay?

Many thanks for all your help, it is much appreciated

Karen

[biribiri]

I think that your problem re the 3pm games is that Tring have been blocking this service to some cards supplied by certain 3rd parties not based in Albania.

It would seem that lots of UK based subscribers are having the same problems.

[satandpcguy]

The only Tring channels we're interested in are the Sports ones, which are the pay channels. I can't see them listed on the link you gave me.

Thats because they dotn run 8 "spots" channels all the time.
They simply put the matches onto exisitng channels...
For example, Tring Max may become Tring Sport 1 for 2 hours on saturday pm...then revert back to Tring Max after the football..

What would you suggest i do, if you were in my position? (sorry, i am useless with all this technical info).

As suggested, a bigger dish will be required to get the signals now they have moved onto this new beam on this new satellite.

I bought the Tring sports card which should show 3pm games but don't (apparently Tring renegaded on this promise). The other games are fine.

Yes. Tring were one of the suppliers being used for 3pm games in the Uk.
It may be that more games will now be shown, as the signal may be reduced inthe UK, and thus keepnignthe FA happy about their cards being used in the Uk.
Liveonsat shows that all UK matches are on tring this coming saturday...but as always with tring...you never know...

Would it seem i just need to buy a new dish now, to receive these footie channels okay, ot is it a bit more complicated than that? And if so, what size would you suggest and how much should i expect to pay?

Like I said earlier, I have no idea what dish size i need in my area (I have not got a 1.25m dish up running yet), and would expect a bigger dish than I need for where you are (I am in Valencia, and thus the signal will be better where I am than you are, and so my dish will not need to be as big as the one you need).

[karandjon]

gosh, thanks so much for the info. It looks like we're just going to have to write it off then, as i already have one 1.2m dish up, and if we're gonna need a dish at least 1.3m or bigger, i think its best to just give it up as a bad job.

many thanks for your helpful replies. where are you based by the way? No-where near Sevilla/Huelva i suppose? We could do with a guy who knows his stuff over our way!

[fyfin]

Beachcomber "Fyfin, the best dish for surviving in high winds without warping and retaining its parabolic properties is the Andrews Channel Master which comes with an appropriate price tag. If you can manage with what you have for now it may be worth waiting before replacing the dish to see how it all pans out."

Just googled the dish and in fact we have spotted these in Turre and could see they were likely to be much more robust and less inclined to warp but didn't know the name. Will stick with existing until it becomes a problem as you suggested.

[karandjon]

well, satellite guy came back, and said as above, it is now on eutelsat w3 not w2. However, he reckons i will be able to get the Tring channels on a 90cm dish!! He quoted this website http://www.canalesparabolica.com

Before i go and buy a 90cm and not a larger one, do you really think this will work?

thanks,

Karen