Aligning dish for Astra

[ericmark]

I realise that there is not just one satellite but a group and the dish is oval to allow one to receive the whole range.

It is not really practicable to scroll through all programs to find if one has the whole range so I really need to know which programs are one each edge so I can make sure both edge programs have a good signal.

My free to air box has a built in meter and buzzer to assist in aligning but of course it only monitors the channel it is tuned to. The stand alone meter/buzzer will pick up any signal so one just has to get it somewhere near centre with the stand alone which is all well and good when the box is not got any programs in memory but once it has the free to air box is better.

So can anyone help and tell me the edge programs and if to East or West please. Last attempt I lost Popgirl which has upset grand children.

 

[digitaly]

Are you trying to aligned a dish that was previous on astra? When you say astra you mean astra 1 19.2 east or 28 east (sky UK)??

Anyway I'll give a little tip on this. go to dishpointer here http://www.dishpointer.com/

put your postcode and your satellite that you wish to tune in and you should get longitute and latitude for your location. Now on the side of the dish You should have some number scaled (know as elevation). For my location (east London is evation: 28.4°

Now all you got to do is tune into a frequency that you know that works and turn dish left and right millimetre by millimetre untill you get the picture or hear the bip.

for knowing best frequencies google kingofsat

I hope this could help... Let me know

 

[Sam Gangee]

I realise that there is not just one satellite but a group and the dish is oval to allow one to receive the whole range.

Well, you got half of it right but the (Sky) dish is oval for purely aesthetic reasons. The satellites in the cluster are so far away (about 24,000 miles) that they appear as a single point to a dish, regardless of its shape.

I understand what you are asking but it isn't feasible because the satellites are moving around in a fairly random fashion within a cube about 100km across.

Align for the highest signal indication and you should be close enough. then adjust the skew.
http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/satmeter.htm

 

[ericmark]

It turned out I had aimed it correct. I selected a central position where a signal was received. What had made me think I had got it wrong was some stations like POPGIRL had gone. Since I don't watch this and only when the grandchildren are here do we look for it I had not realised it had moved.

So removed all stations and did an auto tune and all now up and running.

With my cheap free to air box took ages to move stations into some form of order but it was worth it.

I did not want to retune if I needed the station loaded into box to tune to. I know we had a big problem with my son-in-law who watches Turkish TV and to find the stations he had to take box to a friend then allow it to do auto-find then return with stations tuned in.

The little meters are useless as they don't show one which satellite one has found. Using the free to air boxes own built in meter and buzzer works a lot better but first it needs tuning in.

 

[Sam Gangee]

I used a "little meter" successfully just a couple of days ago, for a French neighbour who wanted Astra-1. I managed to get 16'E to begin with but soon realised my mistake and moved the dish a fraction further east. Those cheap meters are OK, provided that you understand what you are doing.

Using a pre-tuned receiver is also a good idea.

 

[Gees]

I realise that there is not just one satellite but a group and the dish is oval to allow one to receive the whole range.

Well, you got half of it right but the dish is oval for purely aesthetic reasons. The satellites in the cluster are so far away (about 24,000 miles) that they appear as a single point to a dish, regardless of its shape.

I understand what you are asking but it isn't feasible because the satellites are moving around in a fairly random fashion within a cube about 100km across.

Align for the highest signal indication and you should be close enough. then adjust the skew.
http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/satmeter.htm[/QUOTE]


a "standard" offset dish ( not those silly "sky" dishes) when wiewed from the satellite position appear to be exactly circular. Thats why they are that shape, Its the shape of a section of a full parabolic dish with the LNB poitioned so that it would be in the centre of the full dish ( if the rest of it was there. )this way there is no LNB shadow on the dish surface.

I run a fully motorized 1 metre offset here and have very little touble with any of the satellites from 30 deg west to 39 deg east.