Sat Newbie: First results, and LNB question

NickPGSmith

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Hello. I never played with Sat stuff until an impulse buy the other week: I got a 57cm oval dish with Technomate TM1 LNB, and rigged it up to my Sony TV with built-in DVB-S/S2 decoder. I ordered a cheap Chinese sat finder - which arrived broken in transit, so my first job was to fix it (smashed knob and potentiometer had torn away parts of the PCB .

From south London, I picked up good signal from 28.2E and 19.2E. After moving the dish halfway down the garden to avoid the shadow of a large tree, I picked up 13E too. I struggled to get 16E - here the SatFinder was useless, and in the end I just had to point midway between 13E and 19.2E and hope for the best, This was all with the dish resting precariously on a garden chair. Still, I got borderline reception of a couple of Romania channels and a German one.

I don't think there is anything else I am likely to be able to pick up on this size of dish, right? A lot my view is blocked to the west and I couldn't immediately pickup anything further east.

Anyway, I am planning some kind of multi-LNB holder thing, and I have to work out exactly where/how I am going to mount to the wall.

Now, I am considering whether the TM1 is a good choice. I am concerned it is not designed for an oval dish. If it's "seeing" over the top/Bottom of the dish, I assume it's just raising the noise floor. Are there better options? Is the difference marginal or significant? I expect I will get some signal reduction by off-axis LNB positions anyway (and by inclusion on a Diseqc switch), so wonder if it's worth choosing a different LNB.

Thanks
 

Analoguesat

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Hiya, welcome to the forum & the wonderful and often exasperating hobby!

A 60cm dish is a bit on the small side for many birds , although you should get 42E west beam easily enough. The dish face will need to be tilted well forward for this. You might get 53E 12594V although thats going to be marginal. The Turkmen channels on 52E should be achievable on a good day. SES4 at 22W is worth a try if you can get a clear line of sight - go for the Reuters feed frequency. Further round 30W is a fairly easy catch too.

16E is an odd bird. the power levels are often below what you would expect - many frequencies need a 1m dish to get a decent lock.
 

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@NickPGSmith

Welcome! :D

For a 1st attempt, that's not too bad - but, otherwise, I basically agree with @Analoguesat about what you are likely to be able to receive in the London area.

If you can get decent signals from 42E, then you might also get some from Hellasat on 39E as that's quite strong (although, TBH, most channels are somewhat "rubbish" - unless you like Greek folk music :D ) without moving the dish.

BTW, having a few TM LNBs (as well as a number of others of various brands), I don't think that your choice of LNB will a real issue as there is little real difference between most reasonably modern ones unless you then get a rather larger dish.
 

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You can get 23.5E, but there's not much FTA, Free To Air, channels available.
 

ozumo

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23.5E is worth it for the music channel TV Rebel, if heavy metal is your thing. Assuming the dish is a zone 1 Sky dish 28.2e/19.2e/13e may be possible but it will be a squeeze, LNBs with small feed horns or even narrow LNBs may be required. For example:
Inverto Green Eco = small feed horn LNB
Inverto Multiconnect 23mm = narrow LNB
 

LeBelge

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Anyway, I am planning some kind of multi-LNB holder thing, and I have to work out exactly where/how I am going to mount to the wall.
A multi feed is a good idea.
 

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NickPGSmith

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Thanks for your comments/suggestions.

Will certainly check out that narrow LNB.

Last night I captured Astra 23.5, although marginal as I think I was looking through the large tree that covers most of my SE view. Not much there but the Ocko music channel looked like it was worth keeping.

Will keep looking between trees/buildings :-)
 

astra19

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Hi! I have an even tinier dish and I've managed to get a lot of sats from it. Check my setup on the left for guides on what's feasible for you too.
 

NickPGSmith

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Hi! I have an even tinier dish and I've managed to get a lot of sats from it. Check my setup on the left for guides on what's feasible for you too.

Ah, that's impressive list. I'll keep working on it.

But I assume you have fewer trees than me :-)
 

astra19

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Yeah I'm really lucky with the angle my balcony faces. The only trouble I have is anything east of 42e.
 

sonnetpete

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Laminas 1.2M fibre dish with an IBU, on a Clarke Tech USALS motor, covering 57E - 24.5W to an Octagon SX88. Displayed on a 20" Dyon LED TV.

Seperate 80 cm dish on 28E with a Humax Freesat for SWMBO.
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Check my setup on the left for guides on what's feasible for you too.

Aha...I assume you are using a Mk3 bucket with a wider reception angle and more gain...
 

NickPGSmith

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@NickPGSmith

Welcome! :D

For a 1st attempt, that's not too bad - but, otherwise, I basically agree with @Analoguesat about what you are likely to be able to receive in the London area.

If you can get decent signals from 42E, then you might also get some from Hellasat on 39E as that's quite strong (although, TBH, most channels are somewhat "rubbish" - unless you like Greek folk music :D ) without moving the dish.

BTW, having a few TM LNBs (as well as a number of others of various brands), I don't think that your choice of LNB will a real issue as there is little real difference between most reasonably modern ones unless you then get a rather larger dish.

So, I moved the dish to another part of the garden and was able to sneak some line-of-sight between a building and another tree, and got Hispasat 30W very strong. Unfortunately mostly encrypted. Some channels broadcasting colour bars called "Feed" - are these placeholders for upcoming continuous channels or are they used for some kind of intermittent signals?

Also got a weak SES4, and hence Reuters - although it was a strange broadcast for the 10 mins I had it on - just a long range broadcast of the White House for no obvious reason.

Cheers
 

jeallen01

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Hi! I have an even tinier dish and I've managed to get a lot of sats from it. Check my setup on the left for guides on what's feasible for you too.
@astra19

Might have even more success if you mounted a Zone 2 dish on one of these freestanding TV turntables instead of a bucket!

We've got a 42" LG TV on one that looks a bit like this, and it swings easily from side to side - the only issue I found was that the turntable I bought doesn't have any locking device to stop the TV itself sliding along the rails (but quite easily fixed with a couple of M6 bolts and nuts!). However, you wouldn't have that problem with Zone 2 dish, but you'd need to devise a method for mounting the dish on the turntable upright or rails.
 

sonnetpete

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Seperate 80 cm dish on 28E with a Humax Freesat for SWMBO.
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jeallen01

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A modified camera tripod might be even better... or a ready purposed camping set up...like this (but not in French)

Camping tripod
IMHO, a TV turntable like mine would be better because the TV/Dish sits much lower on a base that is, relatively speaking, much wider and is designed to safely support "wide loads" like those things - therefore the Tv/dish is much less likely tip sideways/forward than it would on a tripod (got a few tripods of various makes/sizes!) which is principally designed to support a "point load" vertically above the attachment point.

Also, given that the dish has to be mounted very "discretely" (or so I suspect), a dish on a TV turntable would probably lower than on a tripod, and thus less visible to "nosey neighbours (and so on).
 

astra19

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The balcony is very windy, so the upside down bucket on a heavy flowerpot was the best solution. I hate it on a table but even that wasn't stable enough. It's also very easy to adjust the dish so it's not a bother. There's also a flat surface I can mount it on when it's calm.
 

NickPGSmith

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Thanks to your suggestions, and general messing about, I can now claim:

53°E/52°E/45°E/42°E/39°E/28.5°E/28.2°E/23.5°E/19.2°E/16°E/13°E/10°E/9°E/7°E/5.2°E/4.8°E/22°W/30°W

And an ID from 43°W but no usable signals (I believe this is mostly CBand)

Anything between 5E and 22W is behind a large tree. If I run cable right to the end of the garden I should get a view, though...
 

astra19

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Great stuff! Settled on a permanent position for the dish?
 

NickPGSmith

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Ideally, I would have some little robot that can move the dish to see through gaps in trees/buildings from different parts of the garden.

Until that gets invented - I have one position in mind that's out of the way, and should be usable with 3 LNBs for Astra 1, 2, and Hotbird 13. The problem is deciding the 4th position - I might need a second dish further away from the house, but can't decide yet where I want to point it. Perhaps 42E, 45E or ...?
 

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Ideally, I would have some little robot that can move the dish to see through gaps in trees/buildings from different parts of the garden.

Until that gets invented -
Put it on rails.

Dish wallahs used to be in abundance, and there was something called 'the wife' , but they turned out to have an inherent reliability issue.
 
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