freesat reception

The Donegal Man

Newbie here

Want to pick your brain's regarding my freesat reception. I only got the box a few weeks ago.

A few weeks ago, prior to putting in the FREESAT HD DIGITAL SATELLITE TV RECEIVER, I got an engineer out to put up a new satellite dish for me as our old one was quite rusty. Even though I had a sky HD box in at the time, I told him I would be getting a freesat box in.

After the new dish was installed we checked the reception on the sky HD box and one of the bar's was completely full while the other was maybe 95% full. He said it was very good reception.

I showed him briefly the freesat box which I would be putting in. It is a Sagem DS186 HD Freesat one. Here is a link to it http://freeukdigitaltv.co.uk/sagem-ds186-hd-freesat-receiver/.

I currently have the box tuned to a London postcode. Previously I had an Northern Ireland one. Virtually all the BBC channels and ITV channels have 100% signal strength and quality. The odd time they wil be around 90%.

Unfortunately the likes of the CBS channels or EuroNews wouldn't have a good a picture. Neither would any of the music channels.

When I check the signal of the box (it must be in general) both strength and quality are now on 60% each! At times the were 50% and 53%.

So now my questions -

1. How come when we checked the signal on the sky box when one bar was full and the other was nearly full, it is now just half full or just over half. It must be noted that I still get 100% in the BBC's and ITV channels.
2. Is the dish bid enough for here in Donegal? I'm just outside Letterkenny (around 7 miles North East). Our old dish was around 70cm I think, I didnt ask how big the new one is but I'm assuming it was/is the same.
3. There may not be much on the likes of CBS but it severly restricts your viewing if you have to stick to two sets of channels.I noticed the brightness of the screen kind of flickering, it has to be said no one elese noticed it but I do. The TV is only a new LG one. Would that be to do with the box? Surely it couldn't be the TV as it's only new.
4. Lastly on freesat's current advertisement, I'm almost sure they say you get 140 channels, yet I receive 120.

I will admit to being fussy and demand 100% even when it might be unrealistic

So finally, should I bother ringing the engineer again or is that the way most freeast boxes are?

Thanks for reading.

emaherx

Most sky/freesat channels are on Astra satellites at 28.2 degrees east.
CBS and a few others are on eurobird1 at 28.5 degress east.

Your dish may be perfectly aligned for 28.2 but ever so slightly off for 28.5.
signal meter on sky box only checks one frequency on 28.2 which is why it shows perfect reception. (unless in a hidden installers menu).

some freesat boxes show reception of current channel which is why it is much lower.
also accuracy of these meters varys hugely between manufacturers.

sounds like your dish needs a slight adjustmant, time to get the "Engineer" back as you paid him for this job already.

Its not fussy to expect the job done correctly.

ISAA

Donegalman,

There's a lot of 50cm triax dishes going up in recent weeks in your area, a good dish but a small dish, min should be 60cm, here is my examples, with a
explorer metre.

triax dish 54cm : 20 metres of cable on CBS transponders = MER 8/9db, strength = 68 db

triax dish 64cm : 20 metres on same transponder = MER 11/12db, strength = 75db,

Also a lot of cheap L.N.Bs out there now.

My advise as said above, get engineer back, pictures on all transponders should be 95% all the time.

Regards,

Gerry

excollier

I agree, if he used a 50cm dish, get him back and tell him to use a 60cm dish at least, should cure the problem.
If he did use a 60cm dish, then it needs to be aligned properly, ten minutes work!

watty

50cm is too small in Donegal
60cm is touch and go in the Rain in Donegal on 2A, 2B and esp Eurobird1. Astra 2D ok.

Also some transponders are lower power. An Installer with a spectrum analyser would soon realise this.

excollier

watty wrote: »

50cm is too small in Donegal
60cm is touch and go in the Rain in Donegal on 2A, 2B and esp Eurobird1. Astra 2D ok.

Also some transponders are lower power. An Installer with a spectrum analyser would soon realise this.

In my experience 60cm is plenty in Donegal, never any problems.
I have a spectrum analyzer, an Emitor Micro G2, but I rarely need it for Astra, I use the Lacuna for that sat, and no complaints yet.
I answered you earlier on this subject in this thread
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=69981643#post69981643
but yes, a 75cm dish would probably guarantee no rain fade at all!

Just checked Horror Channel (Eurobird 1) during this downpour at 17.38, and pq down to 65% on the Foxsat HDR readout, picture is perfect (as it can be for that broadcaster). From a 60cm solid dish. And it is really pouring down just now! Astra 2D channels steady @ 99%. Sorry my meter is on charge atm.

watty

Compare the level between the different transponders.

If you upload some photos it would be good. We can work out from frequency which transponders are which beam
So you need four images LV, LH, HV and HV. If the screen isn't enough resolution you might need 2 to 4 photos per setting of LV, LH, HV and HV

Obviously I can only compare them here In Limerick (My Spectrum analyser is Bench model and VERY heavy)!

The Donegal Man

Thanks for the reply's guys!

Just to clarify, I think my dish is a 70cm one.

If I do decide to call the installer out again and he adjust's it like you guys said, would it take away some of the signal strength for the like's of the BBC channels? I'm just think here if he did adjust it for some it could take away the good reception on the others.....

snaps

The dish really needs to be aligned to 28.4. Eurobird also is a little unstable and keeps drifting off its 28.5 slot and sometimes moves as far as 28.7e, which then really causes problems with dishes aligned on 28.2e.

I see a huge difference between my static 75cm fixed dish (great quality on all freq) compared to my 1.1m dish that when it moves it aligns to 28.2e (The Eurobird channels are much weaker than the Astra 2 channels)

nerobi10

house has tried every kind of digital, apparently somethings blocking much signal getting through
ive been on the freeview and .gov websites, cant see anything that isn't to do with the switchover or alternative options

The Donegal Man

On the booklet I received with the box, it's says it should be at 28.2, so it it already is and some of the channels are maybe 50% strength and quality, would a bigger dish be the answer? Like I already said, I think the one I now have up is around 70cm. It looks like a minidish.

emaherx

70 cm should be fine.
booklet may say 28.2 but as already mentioned it should actually be closer to 28.4
how can you be so sure it is already perfectly on 28.2 any way, if it was aligned for instance to 28.1 then Astra channels would be ok still but eurobird channels would not be watchable.

Problem still sounds like your installer did not set up correctly, assuming you have paid him, then he owes it to you to do job correctly.

watty

Yes, if it was at 27.9 the Astra channels on 28.2 would be fine and Eurobird 28.5 would be rubbish.

It needs to be at 28.25 to 28.45

The larger the dish the more accurately it needs pointed.