Hi there.

We live in the South East of the UK.
We are trying to get a good reception for MBC 4 & One Tv on Nilesat 07' W but there seems to be a fluctuation that I cant stabalies.

Our system (Listed below) will give a good picture and sound at 66% which is obtainable in the late evening but during the day it drops to 63% which is not watchable.

Origionaly we had an 84 cm dish but We changed that for a 104 cm dish, giving us an increase of 25% of the surface are, which I was hoping that it would give us our 3% that we were looking for. But nothing has happed except that 63% used to fluctuate & now its stable????

So my questions are thus:-

The dish was white but it has been hand painted matt black (Thats how it came) Will this affect the Microwaves path and should I stip it back and repaint (Spray) with an appropriate paint type?

Ive heard that its not possible to get a 0.2lnb, because it would have to be cooled to such low temps making it impractical. If this is true, why have We got one that says it is? and if its not up to the job then which one should I buy?


We have an amplifier.... Should I fit it and where? Between the LMB/Motor or Motor/Reciever?

Our specs are :-
Technomate 1000ci reciever
Technomate H&H 1.2 Motor
Smart TSX Titanium 0.2dB Lnb
104 cm Dish
Lat  51.885798
Long 0.915281

Some kind soul please help us as we are new to this & its driving me nutts.

Yours
Josh

Paint:  Unlikely to be the problem.  Resistive semi-metallic anti-static stealth paint could be a disaster however as it may absorb the signal.  

0.2dB LNB.  Unlikely to be the problem.

Amplifier:  Not needed unless you have an exceptionally long cable run, in which case half way along the LNB - receiver cable is the right position.  

I am suprised you get any signal at all.  If you are using a polar mount you may need to optimise the pointing  for this particular satellite.

Satellite TV forums (see search box at top right) may be a good source of alternative and additional advice.

Best regards, Eric.  

Hi there
Sorry for the delay in comming back . I work very hard at the weekends so im to knackered to do anything.
I have now got a Meter to get the dish angles lined up correctly Tomorrow I will hopefully re-paint the dish. so if I dont kill myself in the process then Ill let you know what a differance it will make. I dont hold out much hope as 35% increase in dish size did bugger all....
Thanks again for all your help and Im sure it wont be the last time
Yours
Josh

I was up on the roof last night and I found to my amazement that the LNB looked out of allignment, so after about 2 hours of wiggling and adjusting we mannaged to get 69/70% quality, full picture and sound no losses at all. Also the nomal time that the signal qulity dies off is arround 8.00 am GMT of which the signal quality dropped to 65/67% wich was still watchable at 10.30 am.

So me tinks with a realy good quality LNB, Top speck cable and connectors, new paint on the dish that should do it??? Me thinks???

So it is possible to get Nilesat 101/102 with MBC4 & One Tv during the day as well as the night.

Thanks Eric for your help.

Yours
Josh

Ps I did not put those smilies there.
JJ

You can go back and modify your own posting if you want.  I quite like faces however.  I don't mind, it lightens think up a bit.   How did you manage to put them there ?  Did you insert some special character ?

Best regards, Eric.

Hi Eric

Errr I think I did this " ??? " without the quotes and spaces.
3 or 4  question marks.
Then I forgot to click the box below

As for nilesat
Well its almost a success...
We turned off at 11.30 am, set the DVD R to 2.30 pm, but allas we ended up with a fuzzy picture, but thats better than no picture at all, and there is more room for tweeking.

Im going to get a new LNB as I do not believe that this one is realy 0.2 dB as Ive read that it would have to be super cooled to be a 0.2 ??

Am I waisting my cash, should I go for some top grade cable as well/instred, would all these factors bring the singnal up by a couple of percent?

Its raining tonigt so Im not going anywhere neer it till its dried out, I hate getting a wet bum....lol

Thanks again and Ill keep you informed.

Yours Josh

LNB: You are wasting your money.  The LNB you have is fine.

Painting:  Waste of time.

Cable:  The end connectors must be perfect and waterproofed with tape.

The signal is obviously marginal.  The way to improve this is:

Larger dish
Perfectly aligned dish
No distortion of the dish.  Any bending of the dish is bad as at 11 GHz you need a shape accurate to about 1.5mm for best performance.
Correct assembly.  The feed must be at the focal point and point towards the centre of the dish.

Best regards, Eric. I am going to try 3 question marks also ???

Hi Eric

Ok, so that has saved me some time and cash. I had come to the conclusion that my LNB is not in the correct position.
So how do I find the focal point of the dish? Do I have to go back to school and actually listen to the Maths teacher...lol or is there a simple way to calculate it?
I have mannaged to get this far with a sat finder, but trying to find the focal point with that is at best , frustrating.
Is there a simple formulea that I can apply?
Is there a list of smilies, as we both seem to have stumbled on something that might possibly be remotley ammusing...lol
Yours
Josh

Josh,

          is there any chance that you can use a portable television, at the moment i have 2 sat dishes on poles on the ground and i take the portable tele in to the garden to get a perfect alignment for turksat with 88cm and  astra and hotbird with a 1.1 dish. At the moment i am putting in a 3rd pole and i am nearly finished doing that and i will be putting a 1.6mtr dish on the end of it and i will be bringing my tele into the garden to hopefully get a decent signal. When i say decent i am speaking from the northeast of uk (hartlepool) and i will not be sure how good the signal will be, but i am hoping for something decent.



         regards     john