Help Required Poor Freesat reception - advice and anybody in the CT10 area that could check dish alignment etc.

Ron-ski

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Triax TMP 5x24 Multiswitch Part No:305376. Titanium 0.1dB 40mm Quatro LNB on a transparent 60cm dish. Webro White WF100. TV Server with TBS 6985 Quad Satellite DVB-S2 HD PCIe TV Tuner Card, using Mediaportal 1.
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Hi,

Back in 2011 I installed a multiswitch and changed the LNB to a Quattro LNB. When I put the dish (transparent 60cm) up originally I just used a cheap meter to aid alignment, meaning to get a professional to adjust it properly, but I never got around to doing this, apart from trying one guy who wasn't interest.

Over the years we've had the odd times where reception has been bad, lot's pixelation, this has got a little worse lately. The dish is mounted on a south facing wall just above the upstairs windows, it has clear line of sight, although there are some tree's which are higher than the houses but these are about 50 metres away

There are various switches and adjusters on the multiswitch, I have no idea what these should be set to and they don't seem to make any difference, at least not on the signal strength/quality in Mediaportal . I estimate that the cables from the TV server to the multiswitch are roughly 17 metres. The switch to the dish is roughly 8 metres.

We used to have a couple of PC's with DVB-S tuners, and the TV's plugged in, and I wanted to have sockets in most rooms, hence the 24 way multiswitch. But we now only use 6 connections on the switch. There are quite a few connections not connected, and a lot which go to unused sockets. I read that these should be terminated with a 75 ohm cap, but then I read on here that most don't bother.

I've used screw on F connectors, rather than crimps, they are a tight fit, and all the cables are WF100.

Where should I have the level control set on the multiswitch, it has the option of 0dB,6dB or 12dB?
There is also a gain adjustment for each of the four inputs, I've twiddled these all the way but signal strength/quality in Mediaportal didn't change, but I've no idea how reliable an indicator that is?

I'm quite happy to pay a good professional to align the dish, and check the rest of the system, so is there anybody in the Thanet (CT10) area that could check the system, and adjust the dish as required - we only use Freesat, mainly HD, but some SD channels?

Equipment details:

Triax TMP 5x24 Multiswitch Part No:305376.
Titanium 0.1dB 40mm Quatro LNB on a transparent 60cm dish, mounted on a heavy duty mount.
Webro White WF100 cable used throughout.
Windows TV Server with TBS 6985 Quad Satellite DVB-S2 HD PCIe TV Tuner Card, using Mediaportal 1
 

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ozumo

te wo tsuite
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Do certain channels pixellate or is it random?

What are those bird spikes made from? I'd remove the ones on the arm of the dish. Did you skew/rotate the LNB for maximum signal? I'm not experienced with switches but I'd turn all gain adjustments to zero and begin from there.

A cheap satellite meter is all you need to align a dish but be aware the dish can move when the bolts are tightened up. One option would be an 'octo' LNB with eight outputs and remove the switch.
 

Analoguesat

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The lnb needs skewing more - looking at the dish the lnb outputsd need to be pointing at "7o'clock ish"

Check the cables for corrosion at the lnb connectors and any sign of water ingress. I had one cable that filled up with rain water after a join waterproof failed - when I disconnected it about half a pint dribbled out!

Double check for tree growth in the line of sight onto 28E as well - you dont need much encroachment to kill signals
 

Ron-ski

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Triax TMP 5x24 Multiswitch Part No:305376. Titanium 0.1dB 40mm Quatro LNB on a transparent 60cm dish. Webro White WF100. TV Server with TBS 6985 Quad Satellite DVB-S2 HD PCIe TV Tuner Card, using Mediaportal 1.
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Thanks for the replies, the bird spikes are polycarbonate, chosen as I thought it shouldn't affect the signal, but could well be wrong.

I can't remember whether I skewed the LNB or not, its too long ago.

I'll have to see if I can find my meter and if the weathers good next weekend, I'll try skewing the LNB a bit more and check the connections are good, unless somebody in the mean time knows of someone local who can check.

I'm pretty sure the tree's are not an issue, dishpointer says the satelite dish should have an elevation of 26.1 degree's, so if I'm understanding correctly that means the dish should be pointing upwards at 26.1 degree's. So tree's 50 metres away would need to be in excess of 29 metres tall to obstruct the signal of a dish mount at about 5 metres high, which they are not.
 

Channel Hopper

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Thanks for the replies, the bird spikes are polycarbonate, chosen as I thought it shouldn't affect the signal, but could well be wrong.

I can't remember whether I skewed the LNB or not, its too long ago.

I'll have to see if I can find my meter and if the weathers good next weekend, I'll try skewing the LNB a bit more and check the connections are good, unless somebody in the mean time knows of someone local who can check.

I'm pretty sure the tree's are not an issue, dishpointer says the satelite dish should have an elevation of 26.1 degree's, so if I'm understanding correctly that means the dish should be pointing upwards at 26.1 degree's. So tree's 50 meters away would need to be in excess of 29 meters tall to obstruct the signal of a dish mount at about 5 meter high, which they are not.
Polycaronate has quite a dielectric constant from memory, so you need to trim the ones that are closest to the LNB.

I would also check the dish reflector since the seethrough designs have a tendency to weep after a few years in the sun.

Try taking a 'quality' picture or two from absolute side on and somebody here should be able to verify if it is warped.

Somebody may have also nudged the dish when fitting the festive lights......
 

Ron-ski

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Triax TMP 5x24 Multiswitch Part No:305376. Titanium 0.1dB 40mm Quatro LNB on a transparent 60cm dish. Webro White WF100. TV Server with TBS 6985 Quad Satellite DVB-S2 HD PCIe TV Tuner Card, using Mediaportal 1.
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Thanks, weather permitting I'll get up there at the weekend, adjust the LNB and try and take some better pictures. Unfortunately I go to work at 7 and by the time I get home it's dark again.

The festive lights have been up two years now, much easier than putting them up and taking them down every year as I used to :cool: I think I may well have checked the connections then.
 

ozumo

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Regarding the bird spikes on the LNB arm did you have a problem with birds before installing them on the arm? We have a bird table and several feeders with everything from sparrows to sparrow hawks visiting, the birds have never sat on the LNB arms of any of my dishes. They only sit on the top of the reflectors, and even then it's not a common occurrence.
 

Ron-ski

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Triax TMP 5x24 Multiswitch Part No:305376. Titanium 0.1dB 40mm Quatro LNB on a transparent 60cm dish. Webro White WF100. TV Server with TBS 6985 Quad Satellite DVB-S2 HD PCIe TV Tuner Card, using Mediaportal 1.
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@ozumo Yes, we have decking across the back of the house, and always had a big pile of bird droppings under the dish right where our bifold doors open, problem cured now.
 

Ron-ski

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Triax TMP 5x24 Multiswitch Part No:305376. Titanium 0.1dB 40mm Quatro LNB on a transparent 60cm dish. Webro White WF100. TV Server with TBS 6985 Quad Satellite DVB-S2 HD PCIe TV Tuner Card, using Mediaportal 1.
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I checked all 4 connections to the LNB, they are all dry, and no sign of corrosion either. I also removed the bird spikes from the arm. As far as I can tell the dish doesn't look warped, I've attached a photo as best as I can get side on.

I couldn't find my meter this morning, no idea where that's ended up. So I got the misses to sit in front of the TV with it showing the signal strength, with a What App video call, whilst I went up ladder with my phone and twiddled about with the dish (left/right/elevation & skew), trying to gauge the mid point on all adjustments. It did end up with the dish being in slightly different alignment and a full green bar of signal quality on the TV, but not in Mediaportal.

I've noticed that we get no problems on the TV (Panasonic TX-P46G15B Feesat HD), but the TV server still suffers with a lot of interference/pixelation. So I checked the cables connections both ends, and the four cables from the wall sockets to the tuner card, and there's no problems there either.

The satellite cables to the TV server quite possibly run close to power cables, but if that was the problem we would have had this issue all along. I did change the fly leads to the tuner card, this is when things got worse, but changing them back made no difference. So I wonder if its a card problem.

I may well get a local company to come and check things, just to make sure I'm not missing something.
 

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TJExcalibur

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Maybe another lnb is worth a try.
 

Terryl

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In your ""Dish Front"" photo, the LNB looks like it is slightly off centre, (pointing slightly to the right side of the dish) this may affect some transponder signals.

Or this may be due to the angle the photo was taken from.
 

ozumo

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Is it possible to move the Windows server to try it with the cable supplying the plasma?
 

jeallen01

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In your ""Dish Front"" photo, the LNB looks like it is slightly off centre, (pointing slightly to the right side of the dish) this may affect some transponder signals.

Or this may be due to the angle the photo was taken from.
That's due to the 7-9 degree skew angle necessary to receive the "best levels" of signals from Astra 2 @28E on a fixed "set-vertical" dish in the UK.
 

Ron-ski

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Triax TMP 5x24 Multiswitch Part No:305376. Titanium 0.1dB 40mm Quatro LNB on a transparent 60cm dish. Webro White WF100. TV Server with TBS 6985 Quad Satellite DVB-S2 HD PCIe TV Tuner Card, using Mediaportal 1.
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Thanks for the further suggestions.

Is it possible to move the Windows server to try it with the cable supplying the plasma?

You'd think it would be easy to move the server, well it's not hard, but its was harder than it should be, as Mediaportal wouldn't work - turns out it doesn't like a change of IP address, I had to use the 1Gbps port which is on a different IP than the 10Gbps port. Once that was sorted out I then found there was no difference in quality, with constant picture break up's.

So clearly it must be something to do with the card, I had changed the slot the card was in recently, but I was sure I did this after the more pronounced reception issues started, but it could have been before. So I checked the card for dry joints, all looked OK, and decided to move it up one slot up. This meant there was one free slot either side of the tuner card, my 10Gb SFP+ card was two slots up, and my Rocket Raid two slots down. The tuner was originally in the top slot, when I installed the SFP+ card I moved it down to the slot above the Rocket Raid card.

Once I'd coaxed MP back into life as it sees the card as a new card when it's in a different slot I found I had no reception issues, signal strength/quality levels didn't look any different but there's been no pixelation - usually it's apparent straight away. I can only assume that the Rocket Raid card was causing interference.

Now this does lead to another issue, I'm considering upgrading the server motherboard/CPU/Ram and PSU as it's now all ten years old, and I don't currently have any E-ATX motherboards on my shortlist, current options would mean the tuner ends up next to the other two cards. Actually looking at the motherboards I have in mind the tuner will be at the bottom, and would have a one slot gap above it as its a blank slot, so it may well be OK.

I may just get a DVB-T2 card, as I don't need satellite, just ended up with satellite as that was where the HD channels first became available, and to be honest it does cause issues with the EPG in MP, although I don't know how well our aerial performs with HD channels.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for their input, at least it looks like we have decent reception once again :D
 

ozumo

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Yes unlike Freeview there is no generic 7 day EPG on UK satellite. You should be able to add a terrestrial aerial to your multi switch and distribute it with your existing cables at the same time as satellite, though you'd need a diplex wall socket or similar to separate to the signals and send them to the appropriate tuner.
 

Ron-ski

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Triax TMP 5x24 Multiswitch Part No:305376. Titanium 0.1dB 40mm Quatro LNB on a transparent 60cm dish. Webro White WF100. TV Server with TBS 6985 Quad Satellite DVB-S2 HD PCIe TV Tuner Card, using Mediaportal 1.
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Luckily I installed all that when I installed the multiswitch, the original aerial is connected to the switch, and all wall sockets have satellite, terrestrial and FM. I know terrestrial works fine on SD, just don't know about HD.
 
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