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Sat TV installation .. any experts in?

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By *uckscouple2007 OP   Couple
over a year ago

Bucks

Sorry not a swinging issue but as so many peeps from a variety of jobs here thought would ask a technical question in the hope an expert see's this...

We've just moved in to a rented place which has a Sat TV dish fitted,

It looks to be pointing in the correct direction (SE) and at a height on the side of the building which unlikely that anyone could have moved it,

Cabling to the property looks intact and the connector indoors looks fine,

Just picked up a FreeSat box and plugged it all in but when the main screen came up it said "No signal" . Tried running a manual scan but did not find any channels,

Guessing the dish was installed circa 10 years ago when landlord lived here but have no way of knowing whether any tenants in the past 7 years have used it,

so ...

- any way of easily testing if the dish itself is working?

- how do Sat dishes get their power - presuming they need a source of power - (through the set top box)?

- do the LNB's deteriorate if not used for prolonged periods of time?

- Any Sat TV engineers in the wycombe area (but no, that does NOT mean your services will necessarily be paid for "in kind" )

Cheers

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

It could be on Astra 19 (Old analogue) and you need Astra 28 (New digital)

But also it could just be a tad out of alignment - half an inch up down / left or right is all it needs - and you won't get a digital signal

The only way to be sure is to use a satellite meter and check the signal strength and the bit error rate

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

The LNB derives it's supply supply from the set top box and they do deteriorate over time - mainly due to water ingress, but once I did find a very strange signal reading - it was up, down and all over the place. The feedhorn on the LNB was packed with spiders !

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By *uckscouple2007 OP   Couple
over a year ago

Bucks


" The feedhorn on the LNB was packed with spiders !"

Cheers for the main info; have a good feeling that a techie at work will have a meter I can use but as for the above ... that wouldn't surprise me as they seem more rife these past few years (but thats for another thread lol)

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

If you do manage to get hold of a meter, make sure it's not one of the old analogue ones with a pointer - it won't work.

You'll need a meter which at the very minimum has Astra 28.2 programmed into it. These meters also provide the power to feed the LNB, so you don't need to have the set top box connected.

Don't worry too much about signal strength, its signal QUALITY (BER) that you are looking for. The higher the number - the better it is. Aim for anything above 60db. Anything less and you could have problems with break up - epecially on days with thick cloud cover.

If you find that the dish won't give that level of signal, and you are certain that nothing lies in the line of sight of the dish, eg trees, roofs, chimmneys, overhead cables etc, - then assume that the dish / LNB is faulty and replace it. Even a very slight dent or twist in the dish will result in a poor quality signal and will lead to all kinds of problems

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By *uckscouple2007 OP   Couple
over a year ago

Bucks

[Removed by poster at 19/10/10 21:03:15]

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By *uckscouple2007 OP   Couple
over a year ago

Bucks

just spoke with colleague from work; he reckons if it is the LNB then replacements can be bought for about 15-20 pounds ... does that sound about right?

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

If its just a single output standard LNB they cost about tenner, quads will cost about 20 - 25 quid, depending on where you buy it from

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By *-and-KCouple
over a year ago

Back of Beyond

you can pick up a cheap alignment meter at B&Q, 14quid. But to be honest its worth the 50 or so to get a professional in. I know one very well, he's on here, but unfortunately lives in Barnsley.

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By *arambarMan
over a year ago

swindon

Some very good information from redhotcouple... I was going to post some stuff, but there's no need as the info provided is excellent.

If you have an iPhone and you want to check alignment of your dish then you can download an app which will tell you which direction your dish is pointing and show whether it's aligned with any satellites.

Here's an example of one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSmO0eEaIKI

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Sometimes its best to try local tv installers, as some will align it for you quite cheaply, if the lnb is faulty you would probaly be best just replacing the whole dish as they can be bought new for under £20 delivered and thats including a new lnb, cable etc

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Be careful buying a Dish/LNB from Ebay or similar outlet, I've known of a few people get their fingers burned because, some - not all, are grade 2 dishes ... a grade 2 dish for all intents and purposes is a scrap dish because you'll never be able to peak it to achieve a good signal, usually because it is slightly of shape - thus the focal point is no longer in the correct position.

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By *arambarMan
over a year ago

swindon

redhotcouple, any thoughts on the efficiency of completely transparent dishes compared to the normal ones?

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By *atisfy janeWoman
over a year ago

Torquay


"redhotcouple, any thoughts on the efficiency of completely transparent dishes compared to the normal ones?"

Transparent dishes?.....can't see that

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By *uton_coupleCouple
over a year ago

luton

i dont think theres much more i can add to the good advice allready given

but if theres a prob with the lnb , rather than buy a new one i recon it would be best to get a secondhand sky digibox , you can get the whole lot for £20 , and with those you dont need a meter

a very common problem is that the nipples are not fitted correctly on the ends of the cables

in certain parts of the country you can get a little more quality by rotating the lnb ( slightly )in its holder clockwise or anticlockwise / do this after alligning the dish

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By *ansue35Couple
over a year ago

yorkshire

Hi

We thinking of getting free sat .

Whats the cost and makes that are good!

On the swinging side of things can you get German / Dutch channels.

ian

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By *arambarMan
over a year ago

swindon


"Hi

We thinking of getting free sat .

Whats the cost and makes that are good!

On the swinging side of things can you get German / Dutch channels.

ian"

Getting foreign channels is possible, but I'm not too sure whether we can discuss it on here or not.

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By *uton_coupleCouple
over a year ago

luton

i dont think theres much more i can add to the good advice allready given

but if theres a prob with the lnb , rather than buy a new one i recon it would be best to get a secondhand sky digibox , you can get the whole lot for £20 , and with those you dont need a meter

a very common problem is that the nipples are not fitted correctly on the ends of the cables

in certain parts of the country you can get a little more quality by rotating the lnb ( slightly )in its holder clockwise or anticlockwise / do this after alligning the dish

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago


"redhotcouple, any thoughts on the efficiency of completely transparent dishes compared to the normal ones?"

To be perfectly honest I've only seen photos of them but never had one in the flesh so to speak.

I'd imagine they'd be no less efficent than the normal dish, provided they are designed not to warp or otherwise go out of shape - what are they made from ?

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By *uckscouple2007 OP   Couple
over a year ago

Bucks


"We thinking of getting free sat .

Whats the cost and makes that are good!

"

saw one in Asda for £80 which made us think about freesat, but was swayed in Sainsburys tonight when saw a Grundig for 49.99 (used nectar points lol) ... but cant tell if its good or not

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

They start from around £29 in argos

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By *urreyfun2008Man
over a year ago

East Grinstead

Digitalspy.co.uk has some useful forums for satellite stuff.

Most of what I've read makes good sense.

On the naughty channels, if into that internet is best, otherwise a motorised dish.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

My LNB on my 80cm dish went due to rain getting into it, so borrowed the one off the sky dish at the front, at them moment it's elastic banded onto the dish arm, i can get astra/Hotbird with no problem, there pretty easy to find, as their signals are pretty strong, however i can't get spanish Hispasat,that's not an easy one to tune at the best of times.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

why not just get sky, you can get packages that are only aroung £20 a month, i used to spend loads on set top boxes ariels etc till i relented and have never looked back.

then free new dish set top box etc

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Probably because you get stuck in a contract, and two years down the line its actually cost you £500 for a handful of channels you’d rarely watch, the rest are all free, would rather spend half that on a dreambox with access to nearly every channel available.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago


"

Probably because you get stuck in a contract, and two years down the line its actually cost you £500 for a handful of channels you’d rarely watch, the rest are all free, would rather spend half that on a dreambox with access to nearly every channel available. "

yes and thats true, but every time something goes wrong they fix it for free.

and its only a 12 month contract, or it was when we signed up, and after that you keep the box and dish

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Still is a 12 month contract yeah most of the stuff on the 20quid package is shite, and the rest of it overlaps with some of the free channels, but there are the odd few things that we watch which otherwise we probably wouldn't see. So 240 quid for 12 months ... not too bad in the great scheme of things - despite the fact that I hate SKY and all that the company stands for.

Sour grapes ?

Naaaaa not me

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By *ansue35Couple
over a year ago

yorkshire

Hi

Thanks for all the advice.

going to shop arounda bit and see whats on offer.

Aswe in brum this weekend.

thanks all Sue and Ian

Hope see loads of people at chams saturday !!!

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By *uckscouple2007 OP   Couple
over a year ago

Bucks


" .... but every time something goes wrong they fix it for free."

heard from few sky subscribers at work that what ever the problem ... be ready to pay the £80 call out charge

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago


" .... but every time something goes wrong they fix it for free.

heard from few sky subscribers at work that what ever the problem ... be ready to pay the £80 call out charge "

Not while the system is under warranty, ie 1st 12 months - unless of course the user has damaged it ... which is the same for any warranty

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