O
owillingham
Hi, this is the first time i've posted on here but could do with a little advice. I appologise in advance as its a long post, but I want to give the full story so you can all understand my problem and how I have come to have it.
I'm a self employed electrician and am often asked to re-align satellite dishes whilst i'm up a ladder working on floodlights etc, granted its not that often but its happened a few times. I got given an old satellite reciever a few years ago and brought a new dish off ebay, used the signal test function of the reciever to align the dish. When i moved house I took the setup with me and brought a very cheap signal finder (little needle that fluctuates as signal gets stronger), I then later replaced the lnb with a quad lnb and used the same meter. Each time i've done i've had good results, all the free channels but often the music channels like the vault, chart show and some kids channels like tiny pop would be very pixelated, the main channels like bbc would be fine even in bad weather conditions. I've lived with the system like this for a long time because i dont generaly watch the music channels and my kids watch cbeebies and cbbc which dont seem to get affected. I recently brought a far more advanced signal meter off ebay, so that if I get asked again to align a dish I had a tool that would do it far more easily and professionaly, as i dont have a perfect signal at home I thought i'd try it out....
On the meter you key in your geographical location to the nearest degree so I put in 3W 53N as my post code is sy21 9ne, I checked online with a satellite alignment calculator using my postcode and it gave pretty much similar line up data for astra 2b (compass angle, elevation, lnb skew etc) as the meter did (the meter stores different satellites in its memory). I got onto my roof and plugged the meter in and it said that I had reasonable signal strength but no signal quality and s/n ratio was at zero. The only way of improving the signal was the lnb skew, currently it was near vertical but the meter said it needed to be rotated 21 degrees. As I rotated the lnb anticlockwise the singal meter burst into life, locked onto the signal and showed me the quality of the singal improve aswell as the s/n ratio. I reached the optimum level of singal, quality and s/n ratio when the lnb was approaching horizontal (at least closer to horizontal than it was to vertical). The best s/n ratio I got was 14.8, bearing in mind that it read 0 when i got up there with no quality bar at all I was really pleased, although suprised at the angle of the lnb. Me being a little too trusting I put all my tools and the ladder away, gave myself a pat on the back, made a cup of coffee and explained to my girlfriend that I really am amazing, and to prove the point turned the tv on. Of course it was at this point I proved that I was anything but amazing as we no longer had any picture and the signal test on the reciever had dissapeared. Thinking I may have disturbed one of the two f connectors in the lnb (its a quad, two in use and i used the third when i plugged my meter in) I got out the ladder again and got back on the roof. Everything was fine, meter still happy but no picture on the tv. I rotated the lnb back to where it was originaly and the signal was lost on the meter but the satelite reciever gave a picture and the signal test on the reciever showed about 80% quality and signal strength. I cant imagine the meter is faulty as it clearly found a signal, locked on and I could see the affect of my adgustments clearly and easily, what i dont understand is why my reciever wouldnt recieve a signal when the meter would and the meter wouldnt recieve a signal when the reciever would. The dish alignment was not altered at all, only the rotational angle of the lnb.
The meter came from china on ebay (otherwise it would have cost a fortune) but the quality appears very good, it appears to work as when i enter my geographical location and the satellite i want to aim for it pretty much gave me the same alignment details as an internet dish alignment calculator, and it appears to work as it locked onto signal and responded to my adgustments. I have followed the instrcutions that came with it but am wondering if theres some part of dish alignment, or something that i need to do that i'm not aware of. I just had a quick look on ebay, and this is the item number for the same meter (different seller, i brought it a while ago but only just got round to trying it out) 180677205401 Any help or advice in using a meter like this, or any tips n tricks i should employ to get better results would be very much appreciated! Thanks in advance.
I'm a self employed electrician and am often asked to re-align satellite dishes whilst i'm up a ladder working on floodlights etc, granted its not that often but its happened a few times. I got given an old satellite reciever a few years ago and brought a new dish off ebay, used the signal test function of the reciever to align the dish. When i moved house I took the setup with me and brought a very cheap signal finder (little needle that fluctuates as signal gets stronger), I then later replaced the lnb with a quad lnb and used the same meter. Each time i've done i've had good results, all the free channels but often the music channels like the vault, chart show and some kids channels like tiny pop would be very pixelated, the main channels like bbc would be fine even in bad weather conditions. I've lived with the system like this for a long time because i dont generaly watch the music channels and my kids watch cbeebies and cbbc which dont seem to get affected. I recently brought a far more advanced signal meter off ebay, so that if I get asked again to align a dish I had a tool that would do it far more easily and professionaly, as i dont have a perfect signal at home I thought i'd try it out....
On the meter you key in your geographical location to the nearest degree so I put in 3W 53N as my post code is sy21 9ne, I checked online with a satellite alignment calculator using my postcode and it gave pretty much similar line up data for astra 2b (compass angle, elevation, lnb skew etc) as the meter did (the meter stores different satellites in its memory). I got onto my roof and plugged the meter in and it said that I had reasonable signal strength but no signal quality and s/n ratio was at zero. The only way of improving the signal was the lnb skew, currently it was near vertical but the meter said it needed to be rotated 21 degrees. As I rotated the lnb anticlockwise the singal meter burst into life, locked onto the signal and showed me the quality of the singal improve aswell as the s/n ratio. I reached the optimum level of singal, quality and s/n ratio when the lnb was approaching horizontal (at least closer to horizontal than it was to vertical). The best s/n ratio I got was 14.8, bearing in mind that it read 0 when i got up there with no quality bar at all I was really pleased, although suprised at the angle of the lnb. Me being a little too trusting I put all my tools and the ladder away, gave myself a pat on the back, made a cup of coffee and explained to my girlfriend that I really am amazing, and to prove the point turned the tv on. Of course it was at this point I proved that I was anything but amazing as we no longer had any picture and the signal test on the reciever had dissapeared. Thinking I may have disturbed one of the two f connectors in the lnb (its a quad, two in use and i used the third when i plugged my meter in) I got out the ladder again and got back on the roof. Everything was fine, meter still happy but no picture on the tv. I rotated the lnb back to where it was originaly and the signal was lost on the meter but the satelite reciever gave a picture and the signal test on the reciever showed about 80% quality and signal strength. I cant imagine the meter is faulty as it clearly found a signal, locked on and I could see the affect of my adgustments clearly and easily, what i dont understand is why my reciever wouldnt recieve a signal when the meter would and the meter wouldnt recieve a signal when the reciever would. The dish alignment was not altered at all, only the rotational angle of the lnb.
The meter came from china on ebay (otherwise it would have cost a fortune) but the quality appears very good, it appears to work as when i enter my geographical location and the satellite i want to aim for it pretty much gave me the same alignment details as an internet dish alignment calculator, and it appears to work as it locked onto signal and responded to my adgustments. I have followed the instrcutions that came with it but am wondering if theres some part of dish alignment, or something that i need to do that i'm not aware of. I just had a quick look on ebay, and this is the item number for the same meter (different seller, i brought it a while ago but only just got round to trying it out) 180677205401 Any help or advice in using a meter like this, or any tips n tricks i should employ to get better results would be very much appreciated! Thanks in advance.
