Advice Needed Can’t find satellites, where am I going wrong?

B

Billygoatgruff

Member
My Satellite Setup
GeoSinc universal quad four LNB, cheap 80cm dish from Amazon, Humax freesat box.
My Location
South of Limoges, France.
Hello! New boy here, thanks for letting me in!

I have looked through threads and surprisingly not found my specific question (am I really the only person with a signal deflecting force field around me? )

A cry for help here please, can anyone tell me where I’m going wrong? I’m in SW France ..
I’ve replaced my ageing satellite dish and LNB and cannot for the life of me pick up the Astra satellites for Freesat. The old dish gave me Freesat perfectly until about two years ago.
This is on a rental property, I have Freesat at my home nearby despite hearing rumours of it being switched off

I started with the new dish at approximately 28.5° east of south (151.5° on the compass) and a vertical angle of 33°. (I’ve also used a sat finder app which asks for 144° on the compass so have tried both as starting points).
With a finder/meter connected directly to the LNB I’ve gently adjusted the dish left to right and up and down searching for the signal and found nothing. The meter stubbornly shows "no signal". Where am I going wrong? The strange thing is I’m not getting ANY satellites, not just Astra. I’ve tried a second LNB head in case the first one was a dud. I’ve tested the LNB, meter and cable on a different system and they work fine. LNB power is set to <auto>.
There must be something simple that I’m missing/doing wrong/not doing/don’t know about ….
Any suggestions would be welcome as I’m pulling my hair out here and it’s not only frustrating but also a bit embarrassing!

The new dish is fitted to the original wall fixing so in exactly the same place as the old one. There are no obstructions except for a church tower in the distance, which has always been there.

Thanks in advance for any help

Ps. I’m determined to do this myself without calling out a pro, on principle rather than to avoid paying!
 
A couple of photos of your dish and LNB would help, plus the satfinder.

First thing to do is check your LNB by putting the signal meter on and covering the LNB with your hand, the signal level should rise. If you use dishpointer.com on a laptop or PC it should give you pretty much the azimuth, the elevation scale on dishes is notoriously inaccurate, plus the offset on different dishes can vary, but in most cases the dish face shouldn't be too far off vertical and the LNB skew should be around 7.30 on the clock, but can be fine tuned once you've found the sat..

You have to be pretty slow when moving the dish for the satfinder to react, unless it's a satbeeper, or a more expensive meter.

PS. you may also find that 80cm is on the small size for some of the UK narrow beam channels on 28.2 East, but someone more local may be able to assist on that info.
 
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Hi Rolfw, thanks for your fast response!
Yes good point, I will post photos later today. Skew is something I have thought about, I read that it should be at about -24° which I guess would correspond with 7.30.
Covering the LNB is something I haven’t tried, presumably that is to test whether the LNB is working? I have tried it on my dish at home and it was fine. This is what’s so baffling to me, everything works ok at a different location, the only thing I haven’t tested elsewhere is the dish which is an 80cm. The previous dish was 60cm so I don’t imagine dish size is an issue
 
Sorry … I just re-read your last paragraph about dish size. 60cm & 80cm dishes seem to be the norm in my area …
 
Dont start with the BBC & ITV channels - see if you can find something on the European beam - they will be stronger in central France. once you have locked them in you can start tweaking your dish & lnb for the BBC & ITV channels.

Home - FlySat Satellite Chart

Follow the digital satellite frequencies on our daily updated site.
www.flysat.com www.flysat.com
 
I assume you are not far from Limoges (from your info). I am about 200km west of you, and I get a good 28°e signal on an old 60cm dish. My dish is very close to vertical - as said above.

I have done this before in other locations in France, and it needs patience, This one I set up on a temporary pole on the patio. Being low down, was able to make the small adjustments easily and quickly. Once I got the signal I knew how to align the dish when it was eventually put up high on the wall.

Hope you get something soon.
 
Billygoatgruff said:
I started with the new dish at approximately 28.5° east of south (151.5° on the compass) and a vertical angle of 33°. (I’ve also used a sat finder app which asks for 144° on the compass so have tried both as starting points).
Click to expand...

About 144 degrees true azimuth is correct (143 degree magnetic azimuth). See dishpointer.com, as mentioned above.

Elevation angle would be about 31 degrees, so that would be 31 degree on the dish elevation scale (is it an offset dish, or prime focus dish?).
When you measure the elevation angle along the dish face /dish front, the 31 degrees should be corrected with the dish's offset angle. Hence the mentioning of "almost vertical", above.

LNB skew is indeed -16 degrees (pre-skew correction inclusive), so indeed 7H30.

Greetz,
A33
 
Can you please post details of your satellite meter?
 
Burnham Beech said:
I assume you are not far from Limoges (from your info). I am about 200km west of you, and I get a good 28°e signal on an old 60cm dish. My dish is very close to vertical - as said above.

I have done this before in other locations in France, and it needs patience, This one I set up on a temporary pole on the patio. Being low down, was able to make the small adjustments easily and quickly. Once I got the signal I knew how to align the dish when it was eventually put up high on the wall.

Hope you get something soon.
Click to expand...
Thanks for this. Yep I think moving the dish completely and setting it up on the ground initially is something I’ve been putting off doing - mainly because I just don’t understand why I can’t get the signal in situ. This will probably have to be a job for Monday.
 
Mickha said:
Can you please post details of your satellite meter?
Click to expand...
Hi, thanks for your response
This is it, bought from Amazon France but with manual in English. As I mentioned, when connected to my home dish it works perfectly with a nice clear picture on the screen. I can’t see any settings that could be wrong, LNB power is auto.
GTMEDIA V8 Finder2 Satellite... https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0B3LM5WL6?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
 

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Mickha said:
Can you please post details of your satellite meter?
Click to expand...
rolfw said:
A couple of photos of your dish and LNB would help, plus the satfinder.

First thing to do is check your LNB by putting the signal meter on and covering the LNB with your hand, the signal level should rise. If you use dishpointer.com on a laptop or PC it should give you pretty much the azimuth, the elevation scale on dishes is notoriously inaccurate, plus the offset on different dishes can vary, but in most cases the dish face shouldn't be too far off vertical and the LNB skew should be around 7.30 on the clock, but can be fine tuned once you've found the sat..

You have to be pretty slow when moving the dish for the satfinder to react, unless it's a satbeeper, or a more expensive meter.

PS. you may also find that 80cm is on the small size for some of the UK narrow beam channels on 28.2 East, but someone more local may be able to assist on that info.
Click to expand...
Just had another go, when covering the LNB S (signal?) rose from 62 to 66.
 

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I see you have a spectrum function on the meter, that's what I use on my meter to find satellites, as they immediately (or as quick as your meter can process them) show on the screen, then at least you know you've found a satellite, that then gives you a good base for correcting asimuth and or elevation. As someone else has said, find a channel/frequency of one of the stronger channels for your area. 1740845072103.webp
 
Analoguesat said:
Dont start with the BBC & ITV channels - see if you can find something on the European beam - they will be stronger in central France. once you have locked them in you can start tweaking your dish & lnb for the BBC & ITV channels.

Home - FlySat Satellite Chart

Follow the digital satellite frequencies on our daily updated site.
www.flysat.com www.flysat.com
Click to expand...
I haven’t managed to find anything so far!
 
Have you checked other satellites, when you pick up a signal?
It's so easy to be pointing at 23.5E, 19.2E or even 39E, when looking for 28.5E.

I use a simple satellite meter, to locate a signal, as it's so easy to use:
sat meter.webp
You know everything is working, almost immediately, as once the meter is connected between your LNB, and receiver, and the receiver is powered up, the light comes on, at the rear of the needle display.
You then simply adjust the dial, to make the meter more sensitive, until you get a reading around 5, then adjust your dish, until it reaches 10, turn the dial, again, to get the reading back to 5, then move the dish, until it reaches 10.
Keep doing this, until you get the strongest signal, then adjust the skew, rotate the LNB, slightly, until, once again you get the strongest signal reading, and check which satellite you're on, by scanning in a few channels, and check them on kingofsat, lyngsat, or flysat.
 
Billygoatgruff said:
Just had another go, when covering the LNB S (signal?) rose from 62 to 66.
Click to expand...

S (signal strength) is not important. As long as it is not just zero, it is usually OK.
It is Q (signal quality) that is important, and that shows that you receive "something".

Normally I advise to use https://www.satellite-calculations.com/Satellite/lookangles.htm
to find, at what time of day the sun azimuth is the same as the satellite azimuth for your position. So that you can aim with help of the sun.
Alas, the website seems to ask for login data nowadays?

Greetz,
A33

Edit:
Try tomorrow at about 10:06 GMT +0
(So for you about 11:06 at GMT +1 ?)
I calculated it with an unknown to me website: Calculation of sun’s position in the sky for each location on the earth at any time of day

When the sun shines at that moment, put a string from top of dish to LNB, and check that the shadow of that string will be along the vertical center of the dish. Then your azimuth would be about to 28.2E

Good luck!
 
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Although it shouldn't stop you from getting a signal, that LNB is really designed for a Sky dish so it won't work quite as efficiently as a standard LNB intended for the type of dish you have. When you do find the satellite and later on if you decide you need a little more signal then swapping the LNB is something you could consider.
 
timo_w2s said:
Although it shouldn't stop you from getting a signal, that LNB is really designed for a Sky dish so it won't work quite as efficiently as a standard LNB intended for the type of dish you have. When you do find the satellite and later on if you decide you need a little more signal then swapping the LNB is something you could consider.
Click to expand...
Quite right this is not the LNB that came with the dish, but I get the same result with the correct one (ie nothing). However this one does work perfectly well for freesat with my home dish. But I take your point re when I do eventually get a good signal
 
a33 said:
S (signal strength) is not important. As long as it is not just zero, it is usually OK.
It is Q (signal quality) that is important, and that shows that you receive "something".

Normally I advise to use https://www.satellite-calculations.com/Satellite/lookangles.htm
to find, at what time of day the sun azimuth is the same as the satellite azimuth for your position. So that you can aim with help of the sun.
Alas, the website seems to ask for login data nowadays?

Greetz,
A33

Edit:
Try tomorrow at about 10:06 GMT +0
(So for you about 11:06 at GMT +1 ?)
I calculated it with an unknown to me website: Calculation of sun’s position in the sky for each location on the earth at any time of day

When the sun shines at that moment, put a string from top of dish to LNB, and check that the shadow of that string will be along the vertical center of the dish. Then your azimuth would be about to 28.2E

Good luck!
Click to expand...
 
Thanks I’ll try that
 
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