Astra 2G: Scandinavia & Baltics Reports

[dmaavrigdo]

I

I finally had to get a bigger dish since the fringe area signals appear to be getting weaker on 28 E.

This from a location 200km's south west of Stockholm (Västergötland Sweden). I had to upgrade from the SMW OA-1600 to a PF 180cm petal dish.

At first I though maybe a PF 240cm petal dish was needed since the SMW was good enough to get those signals right up until October 2016.



Anyhow to cut to the chase the 180 petal dish did the job and pulled in everything (I think) including the C4's and C5's. I suspect the C5's are slightly weaker since I lost them after a snow fall which covered half the dish. (I didn't get PBS, odd)



I've posted images of a couple of HD channels BBC two (2) HD and Channel 5 HD. As you can see the BER is lower on the C5 than on the C4.

The basic Pace sky box appears to have pixelation on Channel 5 which suggest the receiver in my Philips TV (Built in SAT receiver) handles the weaker signals without pixelation.

The basic digi box pulled down 140 Free view (un-locked) channels and 22 radio channels. Unfortunately it didn't lock onto any C5's also confirming the TV’s better receiver.



The dish was fitted with a basic cheap LNB 0.6 db and roughly skewed in what worked for reception. I still have plenty of tuning to do with a better LNB from my old dish and also to find out what the optimum skew is. I also have a 30 meter pine tree obstructing the view which causes pixelation when the wind blows and when frost grows on the tree. (C5`s are temporary unavailable now). Things can only get better since I’m old school and don’t have any fancy equipment besides trial and error.

I think that you will be frustrated until you are able to move the dish east or west a fraction according to the satellite you want to watch.I have to move my 1.2m dish about 7mm at the LNB to peak BBC or C5.

 

[dmaavrigdo]

Below the LNB you can see the threaded rod anchored to the balconythat I use to make fine adjustments.Keeps it stable in high winds too.

 

[archive10]

I

I think that you will be frustrated until you are able to move the dish east or west a fraction according to the satellite you want to watch.I have to move my 1.2m dish about 7mm at the LNB to peak BBC or C5.

Agree.
Especially as the bigger the dish, the narrower the beamwidth.
And the difference between C5 and BBC is 0.2 or 0.3 degrees.
I can feel it on my CM180. It's pointing at 28.5 at the moment, and I have lost the high-FEC stuff on 2G during most of the day.
I would have to adjust like you do, but this is rather cumbersome without motorisation.

OTOH, as the Jonsa dishes are hard to assemble to achieve the same accuracy as a single piece SMC dish, the focal point is more akin to a focal cloud - so not so big a need to move LNB.
It may also mean that the beamwidth might be less narrow...

 

[archive10]

Now that I started thinking about current reception, I decided to quickly *check* current reception.
(Note that dish is adjusted to 2E/28.5E at the moment.)

Of the channels available on the (FreeSat) FoxSat HDR, I get most channels, but I have problems with the following:

1. ITV HD (London)
2. Channel 4 HD (London)
3. 4Seven
4. S4C HD

The first three seem to indicate that I have challenges with 2G high-FEC Vertical Transponders.
Nothing strange there as the dish is aimed at 28.5E.

The fourth is interesting, as it's horizontal on 2F.
Not sure why that in particular comes in bad, but I do notice that on the FoxSat I have no other 2F horizontals on the UK beam, so I cannot right now check if this is a pattern.

What's it like on those channels in Sweden (or even other part os North-East DK if anyone is reading this)?

 

[dmaavrigdo]

1. ITV HD (London) No
   
2. Channel 4 HD (London) No
   
3. 4Seven No
   
4. S4C HD No (but shows stronger than the others)

My Foxsat HD did not perform as well as the Technomate F3/5HD we use now.We change to the stronger vertical/regional channels when weather conditions require it.

Edit: pointing F/G at the moment.