Astra 2E: Scandinavia & Baltics Reports

[Captain Jack]

Time for that 2.4m to go up?

 

[mickwig]

Time for that 2.4m to go up?

It will help, but the problem will not go away entirely. I seem to be living in a similar spot, just further south east. My dish is set to 2E, ITV HD and Channel 4 HD are somehow affected more than BBC Wales HD and Channel 5 e.g. because of the strong EU beam TP close to them.

I started off with a 180 CM and after 1 summer of despair changed it for a 240 CM. In the summer month even BBC1 HD dissapears in the evening hours. Only BBC Wales SD and the ITV SD on 2E last through the night.

The thing is though, 30 miles west a 240 will give you 24/7 reception.

 

[archive10]

Time for that 2.4m to go up?

Yes, that would be a nice excuse to bring it up...
I just fear that the narrower beam focus of the Prodelin 1241 will be even worse than the CM180.

As an alternative, in the past couple of weeks I have been toying with the idea of keeping the CM180 on 28.5 (which it is tuned to now), and then have a CM120 on 28.2 for the low-FEC SD channels.
All well and possible with judicious DiSEqC switching, only I have the dish on the other side of a multi-switch.
And AFAIK, no multi-switches support an editable XML file for swapping between the feeds.
The compromise would be a dual sat switch, with 4 inputs from 28.5 and another 4 from 28.2, then each STB set up to swtich depending on TP used for each channel.
Great, except I have several Freesat boxes and Sky boxes, where access to anything that looks like a "satellites.xml" file is non-existant.

SO... will have to consider living with the lack of certain channels, or ditch the freesat boxes for some home-hack linux stuff.
(Not saying the latter won't work, just saying that it is way less convenient, especially as we are multiple persons in the household that use the solutions. Each time a new scan was required, the damn file would have to be edited again...).

 

[archive10]

As an alternative, in the past couple of weeks I have been toying with the idea of keeping the CM180 on 28.5 (which it is tuned to now), and then have a CM120 on 28.2 for the low-FEC SD channels.

Come to think of it, I'd probably re-tune the CM180 for 2F/G@28.2E for the HD stuff, and the CM120 for 2E@28.5 for the easier-to-receive stuff...

 

[timo_w2s]

Come to think of it, I'd probably re-tune the CM180 for 2F/G@28.2E for the HD stuff, and the CM120 for 2E@28.5 for the easier-to-receive stuff...

If I had the space and money I'd go for a two dish setup. Maybe overkill and expensive but at least you can track both positions accurately.

I'd thought about doing that in the past with two IBU singles as they seem to work better rather one dish and a twin/quad!

 

[4wd]

All well with 2 E\F\G uk's on the cm 180. All eu's blasting in at 17db on vu+

Have taken down the Famaval 125 cm, was ok for 2E uk most of the time, but F\G uk too weak in evenings.
Been a very good dish for the price, will find some future use for it.

 

[battenfan]

Anyone noticed weaker 2E Europe today?
I've had strong winds the last few days...

 

[Captain Jack]

Think the wind blew the satellite off course?

 

[battenfan]

Never mind. Dish out of alignment.

 

[skomedal]

Have a gibby 125, receiving bbc 1 NI until ~1830 CET winter weather conditions, am contemplating investing in a gibby 150, are there very big differences/signal gain to justify this swap?

Regards

 

[dmaavrigdo]

Have a gibby 125, receiving bbc 1 NI until ~1830 CET winter weather conditions, am contemplating investing in a gibby 150, are there very big differences/signal gain to justify this swap?

Regards

Can you get channel 5 when BBC1 NI drops out? If you can I would suggest nudging dish to the east. At the moment I am in BBC mode the sky is clear and am getting 71% on BBC1NI 63% C5. How do your levels compare?

 

[peeter3000]

you get 2dB more with G- OP150S ( but elevation angle 20° - 90°)
Gibertini SRL :: OP150S

 

[skomedal]

Can you get channel 5 when BBC1 NI drops out? If you can I would suggest nudging dish to the east. At the moment I am in BBC mode the sky is clear and am getting 71% on BBC1NI 63% C5. How do your levels compare?

BBC 1 NI HD @10847v on my spiderbox 6000 HD reading 805 qual 63%, channel 5 ( locked before ) not locking ATM. Clear sky and sun.

Regards

 

[dmaavrigdo]

BBC 1 NI HD @10847v on my spiderbox 6000 HD reading 805 qual 63%, channel 5 ( locked before ) not locking ATM. Clear sky and sun.

Regards

My numbers were SD but just checked HD and it's 71% BBC1NI HD.We don't bother much with HD due to watching/recording conflicts. I'll watch to see if my signal drops later.

 

[skomedal]

Signal lost 1745 CET @ 43% BBC1 NI SD channel @ 10818V.

Yesterday, Drama and Really are 58% qual ATM


Regards

 

[dmaavrigdo]

All working here, very slight drop,sky still clear. bbc1 ni sd 69%, hd 68%, c5 63%, hd 63%.
60% is my cut off so if it was raining or snowing I'd have to move the dish west for C5.
I'm biased toward my Technomate because it does perform better than the Humax Foxsat did. Don't know where your Spider box ranks for sensitivity. Do you have an fresh LNB ? I got a few percent by replacing mine even though it was only two or three years old.

 

[skomedal]

The spider ( out 43-44% ) knocks spots off my Techno 5402 hd mk2 ( out 53 % ) and the ageing Hummy ( out not measured ), not a motorised setup, max 10 meter coax run from dish to box ( will check it when the snow melts and the weather gets warmer ), LNB brand new last year
GI-212E twin LNBs
( surplus from Member Captain Jack ) better qual than both maximum, inverto black and numerous other LNBs ~3% gain ( from memory ).

Live close to the supposedly "" first null "" central southern Norway

Will not order the gibby 150 until present system checked

Edit Sold - 4x GI-212E twin LNBs

 

[dmaavrigdo]

The spider ( out 43-44% ) knocks spots off my Techno 5402 hd mk2 ( out 53 % ) and the ageing Hummy ( out not measured ), not a motorised setup, max 10 meter coax run from dish to box ( will check it when the snow melts and the weather gets warmer ), LNB brand new last year
GI-212E twin LNBs
( surplus from Member Captain Jack ) better qual than both maximum, inverto black and numerous other LNBs ~3% gain ( from memory ).

Live close to the supposedly "" first null "" central southern Norway

Will not order the gibby 150 until present system checked



Edit Sold - 4x GI-212E twin LNBs

Spider box going on my shopping list. Been dying to hear of a box that's been proved better than a TM.
Unless someone knows of a box that beats the spider?

 

[RimaNTSS]

I have just scanned 28,5*E position by Enigma2 receiver. Got 792 services. Hope there are not so many transponders are missing in the list. Vertical axis is dB reading.

 

[skomedal]

Spider box going on my shopping list. Been dying to hear of a box that's been proved better than a TM.
Unless someone knows of a box that beats the spider?

The spider appeared on the sat market in 2013 ( bought it from a site sponsor ) and has been superceded by other models, but still available on some auction sites.

Regards