Advice Needed Hotbird

[Terry Sharp]

I Live in Russia 500 miles east of Moscow I have a 2.0M dish in line with Hotbird 6 13 east, My problem is during the winter months I get a fantastic signal, but loose it completely in the summer months, does anbody know how to correct this?

 

[Captain Jack]

My first guess is that there's a tree in the way. Leaves grow during the summer and block the signal. The signal returns as they fall off come autumn.

 

[Terry Sharp]

My first guess is that there's a tree in the way. Leaves grow during the summer and block the signal. The signal returns as they fall off come autumn.

Maybe but we are 20mts form an apple treeee and the dish is slightly higher [by eye] I remember we set it up late September 2 years ago and was a bitch to get the signal, I wanted astra but no chance I was told a 3m dish would be needed, to me it points to atmospheric? when temperature is below +5 it is good by +8 intermittant by +10 gone today +16 the signal on my technomate was 85 and the quality 10 I also get issues when it rains? [not snow] maybe the angle need to be adjusted between the seasons?
Thanks Terry

 

[Analoguesat]

Hiya Terry, a warm welcome to the forum.

It could well be atmospheric, or changing illumination on the solar panels of the craft in the winter, or the lnb could be electrically unstable and its local oscillator frequency is drifting in the higher temperatures, or.........


Rain and water vapour in the air absorbs the microwave frequencies transmitted off the craft so its no surprise you have problems when it rains - the only fix is to install a bigger dish.

The tree may be causing problems even if its not physically blocking the line of sight onto the satellite. Trees release water vapour into the atmosphere via transpiration. It may be enough to kill your reception, but you would need to move the dish to see if its affecting things - with no guarantee of success.

 

[RimaNTSS]

Terry Sharp! Welcome here.
Could you show some pictures of your installation?

 

[Terry Sharp]

Terry Sharp! Welcome here.
Could you show some pictures of your installation?

I have some pictures but to big to load here!!

 

[Lazarus]

Shrink them using PixResizer ................

 

[Terry Sharp]

Terry Sharp! Welcome here.
Could you show some pictures of your installation?

Picture attached. Las night when the temp dropped to +11 I started to get a weak signal from some channels in Italy but nothing else?

 

[Captain Jack]

That doesn't look like a 2m dish... 1m at best.

 

[rolfw]

Yes, certainly not a 2m from looking at the picture, perhaps a a 1.2m. One thing I would mention, if you are 500 miles to the east of Moscow, then you will have a longitude of around 50 degrees east, so your LNB should be skewed to between four and five o'clock (22 degrees) as you look at your picture for successful reception of Hotbird. As you have it now, will dramatically reduce the quality of the signal. Also, that looks like an old Sky quad LNB, if it is, it is not really ideal for the job, get yourself an Inverto Black Ultra.

 

[hexah]

From that angle it does look like a generic 1.2m. The hotbird footprint suggests that a 1.2m is ok there but it is still out towards the margins so the Inverto Black Ultra should deliver a notable improvement.

It would help if the height and width could be measured with a tape measure, plus a photo of the LNB and its label.

 

[timo_w2s]

I would also make sure the coax cable is decent double shielded satellite grade stuff. If it is single shielded TV coax it's not going to work well at all.

 

[Analoguesat]

Get the cable anchored down properly as well - if its swinging in the wind it could break the inner conductor.

 

[hexah]

A photo of the mount and bolts into the wall would be useful as it could turn out to be dodgy and a hard hat type falling hazard if it is not done properly.