Revez STC 60, settings for use with Quattro LNB on Astra channels

Irish_Steve

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The set up here is a bit non standard, there's a Quattro LNB feeding a multiswitch that also has an aerial for Saorview, and that gets distributed around the house.
The Sat Side of things died recently, and there was no signal getting to any of the boxes, so some investigation ended up with the old multiswitch and LNB being replaced, and that restored sanity to the Sat signal, and in as much as I could, I got a reasonable satellite strength and quality signal strength indication on the Sky boxes, and after a lot of hassles, managed to get the terrestrial signal back so that the Ariva Box and smart TV's were getting a reasonable signal from Saorview.

That said, I noticed some pixellation on some of the free to air channels on the Ariva box, and there were some issues with the signal on the terrestrial signal, so I've bitten the bullet and got a reasonable (I hope) signal checker (The Revez STC60 ) that can be used for both sat and terrestrial signal checking. The Sky boxes all seem happy on the high use channels, but I've seen somewhere that the signal strength indicators don't actually change to always indicate the actual signal from the individual channels.

The issue I'm looking to get some guidance for is the checking of the signal on the Sat side, in that there's no real guidance about setting up a quattro LNB, and I'd like to make sure that the new LNB that went in is set to optimal position, but I don't know where to find out how to determine the relevant settings for the test meter to be able to check each part of the LNB to make sure that I've got all of the settings as good as they can be.

The Quattro has Low and High, Horizontal and Vertical outputs, and I need to find a way to work out what information I need to put into the tester to check each quadrant of the LNB.

I am presuming that the H or V is the polarity, and the 22 Khz signal determines if I am looking at the Hi or Low section of the device, and my first question is related to that setting, is 22Khz On the high or low segment, the two options are On or OFF.

On that basis, as long as I set the relevant parameters correctly, in theory, I should then be able to check the positioning of the dish and the skew, to try and make sure that it's in the optimum position for all of the channels.

The other thought that's in my mind is that Astra is a combination of a number of satellites, so I am guessing that I need to look at an appropriate site to get the transponder frequencies of each satellite, to ensure that I've not set the dish to the edge of the envelope, and thus upset the other satellites in the group, while it won't be a significant difference, I'm suspecting that there may have to be minute adjustments to the dish and skew to ensure that I'm in the optimum position for all 3(?) of the satellites that are in that location.

Fortunately for me, the dish is on the chimney of a dormer bungalow, so I can easily and safely get to the LNB fixings and connections from my roof ladder without having to indulge in anything outrageous, which is probably just as well.

My hope is that all the other settings for Astra (Sky) will already be in the settings of the unit, otherwise I could be back again to get the rest of the settings, but I'd be surprised if the Astra satellite is not in there.

Thanks for any pointers or appropriate advice.

Steve
 

ozumo

te wo tsuite
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13v = vertical, 18v = horizontal, 22KHz on = high band (usually 11700MHz and up)

What size dish are you using? If using a Sky zone 2 or one of similar size all three satellites will appear to be in the same location, only on larger dishes does the difference become more apparent, but as the signals are strong a large dish shouldn't be required.

If you can enter transponder details on the meter then it should select the appropriate voltage and 22KHz settings automatically. This is assuming you are connecting the meter between the satellite receiver and the multiswitch. If connecting directly to the LNB it won't matter, the output will always be the band/polarisation indicated on the LNB for each specific output, only the frequency will matter. As long as you know which output you are connected to, setting up a quattro LNB is the much the same as a regular universal LNB.

On a Sky HD box the signal meter always shows the readings from the transponders it is currently tuned to.

For transponder details see:
 

Irish_Steve

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Thanks, That helps considerably, in that if I can connect downstream from the Multiswitch, that's relatively easy, I have a spare piece of appropriate coax that can be put out of the nearby velux window, as the multiswitch is mounted in the roof void area, so very accessible.

The dish has been there at least 10 years, maybe longer, and from memory, which is starting to become slightly unreliable for specific details, I think it's an 80 Cm dish, at the time it was put up, the local recommendation here in Ireland was to put up one size larger than the Sky dish to ensure good quality in marginal weather, and in fairness, it's rare we get signal degradation in even poor wet weather conditions. The multiswitch that failed was a labgear 512, if that helps to date things a little.

I can have a session at this now, and using a spare feed from the multiswitch will make it a lot simpler, all I need now is a dry day, there's no fun going on a roof, even a roof ladder when it's throwing down with rain, which has been the case most days recently.

Thanks also for the link to Flysat, that's a site I've not seen before, and it will help with the specifics, which is even better.
 
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