Help needed with understanding alignment of dish and LNB for Sky Q

[MrM83]

Dear All,

I am in need of a little help and very much a novice so please bear with me. Due to various reasons I self installed a Sky dish when we moved property using a Satlink WS-6933 finder back when we had Sky+. Back then I bought a hybrid EL010 LNB and an 60cm dish and had no issue migrating to Sky Q when the time came. I have had to relocate the dish a few times and have always managed to find a signal. I seem to recall that the last time I did this a few years back I need to change a frequency setting in order to get it to work, having had a quick search online for someone that had the same finder at the time.

Wind forward to today and a couple of kids TV channels no longer receive signal so I thought I’d have another go at alignment except this time, despite getting signal on the finder, when I connect the co-ax cables, the Sky box registers no signal at all and I’m starting to pull my hair out about the situation in frustration.

Despite using the finder with success before, this time it’s eluding me and having done more extensive research online I’m left feeling even more confused. I’m now aware of the engineers menu settings on the Sky Q box but in truth I’m not sure what relevance they have to the dish alignment process or what the impact is of changing them. It’s not something I’ve needed to adjust before to get signal.

Previously I had selected Astra 28.2E on my Satlink finder, which then has some predefined settings (which I can edit), tune the dish and LNB to the strongest possible signal, which for me was strength around 93% and quality at 60% for what it’s worth, and all worked fine. Alas, no more. I understand my “smart” LNB means it shouldn’t matter which point I screw the two coax cables into, please correct me if this understanding is wrong. I am uncertain if I can have these plugged in if I attach my SatFinder to another input to save time on checking my signal on the Sky Q box?

If anyone could please outline the dish alignment process and what settings I need to optimise to, I would be most grateful. I can’t rule out hardware failure but I think very unlikely.

Thanks so much for any help,

MrM

 

[rolfw]

Depends which Hybrid it is as to which connectors you use for the wideband ports, on the later versions it's the pair of ports, rather than the four in a line. so use the four in a line to align the dish and then the two ports for connection to the receiver. I'm a little confused as to whether you've moved the location of the dish and are again setting up from scratch, or wereb attempting to fine tune an existing setup. If you were attempting to fine tune, adjustments would be very small and possibly a little LNB skew adjustment.

 

[Mickha]

Do you have to keep moving your dish due to growing trees, or other obstacles?
Which transponder, are you now using, to align your dish?
Many satellites have similar transponders so you could be picking up a different satellite.
Check sites like lyngsat, flysat, or other for transponder details, and any changes providers make, although I should imagine Sky Q receivers would automatically update, without you needing to alter any settings.

 

[MrM83]

Thanks for your replies. I am very grateful.

My LNB is what I have now learned is a “smart” EL010 and my understanding is it doesn’t matter which inputs the cable are connected to, there is some tech wizardry that enables them to work with widenband and indeed, they were working until I fiddled with it, effectively loosened the securing nuts which is the equivalent of starting again.

Our building is listed so I cannot put a dish on the house. It has been attached in the last to a pole, then an outbuilding and now relocated to a redeveloped barn, which is why it has moved around a bit. This is the first time I have struggled to get signal. There are trees around but not been an issue before and no reason to think they will be now.

With my Satlink finder connected I dial in Astra 28.2E and the predefined settings on the SatFinder are Frequency = 10847, Lo/Hi Freq 9750 / 10600, SR 23000, LNB = Universal, polarity = V, 22k = Auto, LNB power 13/18v and as such I presume I am on the correct satellite. The dish position hasn’t moved significantly.

I can edit these. I’m a bit confused about what the “right” settings are to adjust the dish and LNB to, such that I obtain the strongest signal.

There are a host of pre defined transponders and associated details in my SatFinder for Asta 28.2E, but I am not sure what relevance these are to me. Some show some signal, others none. Bottom line is sky box still shows signal error and no signal received at all.

The settings in the Sky engineer menu have different values for Frequency and SR, but this hasn’t been a problem before.

Hoping someone can point me in the right direction

 

[ozumo]

If you choose 10714 H 22000 from the predefined list does the meter show any signal? As Mickha said it's possible you are pointing at another satellite that uses similar transponder parameters.

 

[MrM83]

If you choose 10714 H 22000 from the predefined list does the meter show any signal? As Mickha said it's possible you are pointing at another satellite that uses similar transponder parameters.

Im not sure how the digital sat finder works, but I (would) hope if I select Astra 28.2E then any detected and locked signal would be for that satellite, but I could well be wrong. I will try for these settings later. Is 10714 H 22000 unique to 28.2E?

With regards to transponders, is there a specific one I should be optimising to? And at risk of sounding stupid, I assume I need signal for all the transponder parameters listed on lyngsat (as Mickha mentioned) where I want to (and should be able to) receive those channels?

Thanks again.

 

[ozumo]

Im not sure how the digital sat finder works, but I (would) hope if I select Astra 28.2E then any detected and locked signal would be for that satellite, but I could well be wrong. I will try for these settings later. Is 10714 H 22000 unique to 28.2E?

P

I have the same meter, unfortunately it is not able to identify which satellite the dish is pointing at. Therefore if you are pointing at the wrong satellite and it uses similar transponder parameters it will show signal and lock as all it is looking for are the frequency, polarity and symbol rate.

If you are pointing in roughly the right direction then it is possible you are on 19.2°E, 10714H is not active there but 10847V is. It is also a strong strong satellite so it's easy to mistake it for 28.2°E.

 

[MrM83]

Thanks, for the insight, very helpful. Looking at the DishPointer website, 19.2E would be obscured for my dish location so I wouldnt have thought Id be aligned to that.

 

[rolfw]

Thanks, for the insight, very helpful. Looking at the DishPointer website, 19.2E would be obscured for my dish location so I wouldnt have thought Id be aligned to that.

10 degrees is not a big margin, so if 19.2E is obscured, 28.2 may also be partially obscured. some pictures of what's in front of the dish may be helpful. this page may be of use. DishPointer - Align your satellite dish

 

[MrM83]

Pleased to say I’ve got it sorted! Ozumo, your suggestion to use 10714 H 2200 worked well. I optimized to this and tweaked to 11509 V 2300. An unplug of the main Q box was needed to pick up signal and all is well again.

I am indebted to those who replied to me here, thank you so much!