Installing Dishes In Spain for 2E Chit-Chat

[archive10]

Brian.....you mentioned the "Goobay" LNB was good a while back.......anyway..... I ordered a Goobay Quattro to test.......wow...what a brill little LNB.....the best I've ever tested ...even better than my trusty Opticum LNB........But the signal strength is too high for my Panny Freesat.....but thats easily fixed with a signal Attenuator.....Thanks Brian for the top tip....
Cheers......Steve in Munich.....with Gibby 150..............

Sounds very interesting. Might be worth trying out just to test.
Do you get markedly better quality (probably S/N and perhaps separation), or is it mostly stronger signal?

 

[Menorca Man]

The skew is now more important than it ever was, due to a data signal from 2C at very high level causing interference with signals from certain spot beam frequencies. Suggest you view the " Costa Blanca 2E / 2Fseasonal fluctuation thread " and " Astra 2C now back to 28.2 ......" for more info

I've been following those threads Brian but I still wonder how sensitive the LNB skew setting is supposed to be. As I said in my previous post, On my dish I have been rotating the LNBs approximately 2 graduations (markings on the LNBs) in either direction before the signal quality starts to degrade. Is that about normal or should it be more sensitive?

 

[archive10]

I've been following those threads Brian but I still wonder how sensitive the LNB skew setting is supposed to be. As I said in my previous post, On my dish I have been rotating the LNBs approximately 2 graduations (markings on the LNBs) in either direction before the signal quality starts to degrade. Is that about normal or should it be more sensitive?

The specific reception conditions may be different up here north, so the exact experience may differ.
BUT, if you stick a meter on the LNB, even the tiniest skew adjustment is reflected in the signal to noise ratio. Actual picture degradation starts at a certain threshold, so until you reach that, it may seem that there is not so much effect on picture.
But what you may lose is the headroom that allows you to better survive things like light rain, interference from microwave ovens, dect phones etc that occurs sporadically.
So best thing is get the skew spot on, then you can expect highest so called quality of service.

 

[Archive4]

I've been following those threads Brian but I still wonder how sensitive the LNB skew setting is supposed to be. As I said in my previous post, On my dish I have been rotating the LNBs approximately 2 graduations (markings on the LNBs) in either direction before the signal quality starts to degrade. Is that about normal or should it be more sensitive?

Guess it could depend on your exact location, but on my FTE a very slight skew adjustment meant the difference between a good signal and no signal for BBC Scotland HD ( Also BBC News HD ) as that is one of the frequencies the 2C data signal affects the most. I seem to recall Huevos stating that even one degree out could make a very big difference.

 

[Menorca Man]

Hmm, interesting. I've tried optimising the skew either side of DishPointer.com's recommended 18.6 degs using my Satlink 6930 meter and also over the phone with a mate watching the sig. and qual. readings on my Sky HD digibox. In both cases I am able to slowly rotate the LNB a fair number of degrees in either direction before seeing any difference. I wonder what it is in my dish setup that could account for such poor skew sensitivity?

 

[Archive4]

I wouldn't take much notice of the sky box readings, I personally don't trust the read outs from most boxes as they don't really reflect the true signal, many jump in large amounts or seem to stay pretty much the same once they have a lock. My Sagemcom always shows HD much stronger and better quality than SD which I know is not true. Satlink should be more accurate. With regards to being less sensitive to skew I would think that is a bonus, not a negative

 

[Archive4]

That said, not sure if your focus is out could that lessen skew sensitivity? Will have to take a dish slightly out of focus to test, unless of course someone advises us first.

 

[Archive4]

Have just got home, but test will have to wait.
Primary reason: Emmerdale, if the dish goes offline now, I´ll never make another post again!
Secondary reason: Per bucket on the terrace I can catch two cats and one dog every 15 minutes!
Test must wait!

 

[Archive4]

No Emmerdale today, so was able to play with my dish and another one I went to adjust.
Take the focus off to degrade the signal, then adjust the skew. As I thought the effect of skew is not affected by the focus. When out of focus, the same skew variation has the same effect on signal, ie too much "left or right" and signal degrades. re-focus, approx the same turn of the LNB has the same effect on s/n.

It would appear that on most frequencies the skew is not of major importance to most stb´s ( within margin ), but in the case of 11023H, being affected by the 2C data signal on 11008V it is very important.

I know most people already knew this, but I wanted to check myself!

MM the fact is , the skew is important to maximise s/n, but much more important when a neighbouring satellite has a much stronger signal that can influence the signal you are looking for.

Forgot to mention that I could skew the LNB by 5 - 10 degrees either way before the STB or the S1 saw any noticeable degradation in signal. So, you are not alone!

 

[woborny]

Had my first call about "our bbc has gone off at 11am" then a few minuets later " its back" -
On a "1.4m" famaval dish.
So kinda confirms the poorly installed dishes are being affected much earlier by the solar outage than better installed dishes.

 

[Archive4]

Had my first call about "our bbc has gone off at 11am" then a few minuets later " its back" -
On a "1.4m" famaval dish.
So kinda confirms the poorly installed dishes are being affected much earlier by the solar outage than better installed dishes.

When, where, how and why? Most importantly ........ where?

 

[woborny]

when : today at about 11am I got the call....and channels came back when he was on the phone to me....
where : costa blanca north
how: probably a poorly installed dish (way too many of these around!) - as no one else has yet called and said anything - but it did happen at around the correct times...so many dishes installed quickly and aligned to 1n, and not to 2e or 2f which required a bit more precision...
why : see above
where: see above

 

[Archive4]

when : today at about 11am I got the call....and channels came back when he was on the phone to me....
where : costa blanca north
how: probably a poorly installed dish (way too many of these around!) - as no one else has yet called and said anything - but it did happen at around the correct times...so many dishes installed quickly and aligned to 1n, and not to 2e or 2f which required a bit more precision...
why : see above
where: see above

TTFFT not on my patch!

PS 1.4 should not have any problem there, unless an elephant has sat on it!

 

[joddle]

Was up on the roof today hanging out the washing when I noticed the LNB shadow was getting pretty close to the hole in the middle of our PF dish - it was a little lower then the hole but pretty close. Ah I thought, not long untill we get some outages but nothing untoward today. Also a bit off topic but I note here all the good comments on "Goobay" LNBs - are their multiswitches also to be recomended?

 

[Archive4]

Was up on the roof today hanging out the washing when I noticed the LNB shadow was getting pretty close to the hole in the middle of our PF dish - it was a little lower then the hole but pretty close. Ah I thought, not long untill we get some outages but nothing untoward today. Also a bit off topic but I note here all the good comments on "Goobay" LNBs - are their multiswitches also to be recomended?

Not off topic, that is why the "chit-chat" thread was devised, invented, ....? WHY WE ARE HERE

Cannot comment on the multiswitch as have never used one. Open to the forum!

 

[Menorca Man]

No Emmerdale today, so was able to play with my dish and another one I went to adjust.
Take the focus off to degrade the signal, then adjust the skew. As I thought the effect of skew is not affected by the focus. When out of focus, the same skew variation has the same effect on signal, ie too much "left or right" and signal degrades. re-focus, approx the same turn of the LNB has the same effect on s/n.

It would appear that on most frequencies the skew is not of major importance to most stb´s ( within margin ), but in the case of 11023H, being affected by the 2C data signal on 11008V it is very important.

I know most people already knew this, but I wanted to check myself!

MM the fact is , the skew is important to maximise s/n, but much more important when a neighbouring satellite has a much stronger signal that can influence the signal you are looking for.

Forgot to mention that I could skew the LNB by 5 - 10 degrees either way before the STB or the S1 saw any noticeable degradation in signal. So, you are not alone!

Thanks for the feedback Brian, particularly about your own experience regarding LNB skew. I'll be back up on the roof as soon as receive my new Goobay Quad and will make sure everything is adjusted for best reception on 11023H.

I had used dishpointer.com to calculate the skew for Astra 2F at 28.2E (-18.7 degs) but have just noticed that they now include Astra 2E at 28.4E in the dropdown list. The skew calculation for that bird is shown as -26.3 degs!! That's a BIG difference considering the close proximity of those two satellites. It makes me question the accuracy of the 2F calculation, particularly as the skew for 28A at 28.5E is shown as -26.4 degs and that for Arabsat at 26.0E comes out at -24.2. Therefore, unless skew angles are TP dependent, I would expect 2F's skew to be nearer -26.1 degs rather than -18.7!! What do you think? Is there another reliable website I could use to double check?

Regards
Tom

 

[Menorca Man]

I think I might have answered my own question!! After a Google search, I found an alternative dish alignment site at http://www.geosats.com/satpoint.html . For my location, it calculates the skew angle for Astra 2F at 28.23E as -26.2 degs. which is what I would expect, given dishpointer.com's skew calculations for nearby satellites. So, unless my assumptions are incorrect, it seems that dishpointer.com's skew calculation of -18.7 degs for Astra 2F is way, way off the mark!!

 

[PaulR]

Question.

As SES-Astra pre-skew their transmissions, does the skew recommendation from the various sites take this into account or is it a theoretical figure assuming no pre-skewing?

 

[MarkW]

As far as I am aware lnb skew is a function of satellite position,latitude and longitude of dish otherwise how would a motorised dish get the correct skew?Is does look as though dishpointer is way out on Astra 2F.

 

[Archive4]

Question.

As SES-Astra pre-skew their transmissions, does the skew recommendation from the various sites take this into account or is it a theoretical figure assuming no pre-skewing?

I have no idea if they take it into account or not, guess the best way would be to ask them, which I have just done for geosats.com

Will advise what reply I get