Sky Dish Realignment

flashinthepan

Howdy all

Having some issues with some channels such as

Channel 5

5 star

Great Movies

Been getting worse and worse so replaced the dish an LNB as they were quite old with a new dish and inverto quad lnb

Unfortunately this has not improved the situation

Still getting picture breakup connected directly to the new dish with a satlink meter

If You were to use 1 channel / station to try align the dish to

What channel would you use

Getting good signal 87% and quality 70% on most channels but the above mentioned channels show heavy pixellation or nothing at all with the signal strength and lock dropping

thanks in advance

swoofer

Can you say make of box and image and the frequency you are using? Can you reach the dish easily? I would say the LNB needs a tweak a twist for skew and a push towards or away from dish face for focal length but if you do that you have to check a few others. I have a quad on a triaz and get 84 % signal with a zgemma h7s openatv

Those channels are on 11307 H and V for great movies are vertical.

greasepalm

Opera Snapshot_2023-04-01_203718_192.168.0.165.png

On a Solo 2 and thinking you need a tweek.

An Octo on my Zone 1 sky dish

Dont forget movement of channels and dropping some sd channels and some are on HD

muffinhead

I'm in the same predicament as you, I've lost all channels on 11307 H and V. The Sky installer came out twice and replaced the dish, LNB, cable and relocated the dish but nothing. He called the technical team and they've concluded that local interference is most likely the cause, possibly a nearby DECT phone, CB radio or phone mast. Apart from that frequency all my other channels have great reception 80/90% strength and quality.

dxhound2005

The main channels like BBC are mostly on strong transponders. But not all the transponders are strong. My system reads in dB's. 10847 V with BBC One NI HD is 16.4. 11082 H with Blaze TV is only 6.3. I know Sky probably don't offer different dish sizes, but a bigger dish might possibly work.

When the Channel 5 family of stations moved to 11307 H this year, I noticed they were much weaker than on their other transponder. 9.2 dB which is OK for my dish size, but could struggle on a small dish.

flashinthepan

Many thanks for the replies :-)

Been trying again there today while the weather was ok

Twisted the LNB Left or right moved it closer / further a millimeter at a time waited a min or so in between each adjustment

Moved dish slightly left or right and up / down with meter attached trying to get better signal but no joy

Still getting break up on Great & Channel 5 :-(

The Box is a VU+ Duo2

Other Channels appear to be strong likes of BBC

ITV

Channel 5

dxhound2005

You said you got a new dish. What size is it? I think there is little doubt that a bigger dish would solve the Channel 5 breakup.

swoofer

this is with a 110cm triax and black ultra on duo 2

swoofer

this it with a 68cm triax and an inverto octo lnb. check dih setup is 100% straight. And say size of dish.

note first one is 307 and the second is 308.

flashinthepan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120431760#Comment_120431760

New & old dish

60cm high X 74 cm wide

We are on east coast / Wicklow Town

swoofer

this is with 306 so it is gettable. Any dect phones or cables down cavity and near electrical cables.

dxhound2005

I should say for information that my dish is also a Triax 1.1 metre. But it is not in perfect alignment. I used to max out the scale at 20 dB on some transponders, now the best is around 17 dB.

flashinthepan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120432819#Comment_120432819

Cheers

No Dect phones

No power cables

Dish is on the rear of our Bungalow cables go through the wall into the attic 2 of the cables feed the box in the living room

2 cables feed an amiko alien in kitchen both boxes suffer from picture breaking up on same stations

Also weird that the picture breakup is considerably worse during the day

I am watching Great! channel at the mo with no breakup

But during the day the signal flickers between about 50% and none and looses the lock every few seconds signal drops to 0% and stays there for a couple of seconds then shoots up to 50% for a few seconds

Only other thing I can think of causing issues is that there is a large bush / small tree growing in the opposite garden about 30 m away and their garden is up higher than ours so maybe blocking part of the signal but would have expected that to block signal on the strong stations too ?

swoofer

I should have said its with an Open Vix image 6.2.

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120432968#Comment_120432968

I wouldn't read too much into what you observe at any particular time. It could be affecting lots of channels, which you are not looking at. Just as a test, have you a signal on that weak transponder with Blaze UK. 11082 H.

swoofer

No a tree branch/leave can block some signal and not others. Can you raise dish higher? I have a low dish i.e I can reach it on a box, and hedge next door grew a bit, signal got bad and in the checking , I noticed the bar holding it in place had rusted and dropped a fraction, replace bar with new one, got it dead level, cut a few bits of hedge, job done, no more problems and that was 4/5 years ago.

Try that tuner B and in the end get a black ultra.

flashinthepan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120433014#Comment_120433014

This is Blaze at the moment

flashinthepan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120433027#Comment_120433027

Cant really go any higher the dish is up at the Apex at the moment

Chimney is on right hand side if you were facing same direction as the dish and if I put the dish on that I think it might still catch the same bush

If I go on left hand side of the house it would be down lower as it is a bungalow

Will try attach a pic of the tree / bush

But I am stumped as to why same bush or tree does not seem to efftect picture as bad at night

Gerry Wicklow

If anyone wonders about possible obstructions, enter your address into this website https://www.dishpointer.com/ and select 28.2E Astra as the satellite. Click and drag the green marker to the exact location of your dish. There is also an obstruction feature to show the max height of trees or buildings that could be in the way.

flashinthepan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120433105#Comment_120433105

Thanks Gerry

Will give that a look :-)

flashinthepan

Said Tree / Bush

with the phone sitting on the arm of the dish facing the old LNB (

dxhound2005

This from your post yesterday:

"Been getting worse and worse so replaced the dish an LNB as they were quite old with a new dish and inverto quad lnb"

How far back did you notice there was a problem. And would the tree have been any different before that?

swoofer

We would need to know the distance to those trees but initially I would blame them. Any chance they will top them? they look spindly and will grow thicker if cut down very low😀.

Can you re do dish on a pole with T & K bracket, ie put it higher? A bigger dish and a black ultra may improve it but it will come back. Can you live without Ch5?

Storm 10

I had a similar issue with CH5 as well I changed Satellites to ASTRA 4F and its now perfect might be worth a try

flashinthepan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120433292#Comment_120433292

Couple of months ago I noticed the picture breaking up

Started trying to tweek the dish thinking it would be a poor connection or mis aligned dish

Would have been no leaves on the tree at the time so did not think it was that

No issues in the years up till now even removed the dish couple of years ago and repainted and reinstalled with no issues :-(

flashinthepan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120434485#Comment_120434485

Is that in the same group @ 28.2 or does it need another dish?

Cheers

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120436156#Comment_120436156

At least you have a possible solution, if something can be done with the tree. I had access to various satellites on my motorised dish, including 53 East, which is near the extreme of what can be got in Ireland.

It has free to air English Premiership games on exotic foreign channels. Until new houses were built behind mine, cutting off the signals. It is a 1.1 m dish, and I cannot relocate it easily. I still get plenty of others, but Murphy's Law and all that.

Gerry Wicklow

"No issues in the years up till now..."

That's the snag. Trees have a habit of growing. I can no longer access Saorsat on 9E because of neighbours huge trees easily 90-100ft high. I could probably relocate the dish to other side of the house but it would be a lot of work for very little reward.

flashinthepan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120433926#Comment_120433926

According to the dishpointer site Gerry linked to it says the Tree is 14M away from the dish and that it would need to be 5 M higher than level with the bottom of the dish to obstruct

The bottom of the dish would be about 1 foot lower than the roof of the shed in the piccy

Cant see the tree getting topped and I think if the tree is the problem raising the height of the dish on a pole would only be a temporary solution if the tree keeps growing

Looking at the dishpointer again there may be a chance if i put a dish on the chimney the dish would be about 4 ft higher and 10 ft to the right of where it is now I wonder would it be enough

But I imagine I would need to run new cables :-(

dxhound2005

Even putting a dish on a pole in the ground will work, once there is line of sight. I see plenty of dishes on chimneys, but you will see advice that they are not a great idea. Certainly take advice from your installer. Once up, access to do any realignment is not so easy. Big dishes like mine are a No No for going on a chimney.

https://blog.solidsignal.com/tutorials/can-you-mount-a-satellite-dish-to-a-chimney/#:~:text=Putting%20a%20satellite%20dish%20on,make%20something%20to%20help%20you.

Storm 10

Sorry that should be Astra2F I just looked for that satellite on my Ferguson Ariva set a scan and Ch5 was there in HD I could not get it perfect on the other Astra satellites