AsiaSat 4 Ku Australia beam

**backer** · 13-04-16, 03:59 PM

Hi all,

I've moved house and lost my previous KU & Cband setup and I haven't played with this stuff for around 2 years.
The new house I moved into had a 65cm Foxtel dish which I have now replaced with a 80cm with H-H motor with Universal Ku LNB.

I managed to receive all the old favs (D2, C1/D3, D1, I19, I18) but can no longer receive 12414 V Ku TP from Asiasat 4.

Is this still transmitting?

Also my new dish is a Azure Shine 80cm which claims to have the performance of 85cm dish (rolled edges) does anyone found this to be the case?

I miss my old Cband setup

I'm in Melbourne.

Regards,
Brandon

**mtv** · 13-04-16, 04:11 PM

Don't have a dish on AS4 so can't confirm that one, sorry.

The dish, yes, I've used Azure Shine dishes almost exclusively and there's very little difference between the 80cm and 85cm Ku dishes.

**Guiseppe** · 13-04-16, 04:28 PM

Originally Posted by backer

Asiasat 4.

Is this still transmitting?

Yes it is. I get:

DAAI2
HZ
MAC TV
and
Null Channel-29
Null 3
Null Channel-06 ( the old DMC). The Null channels have no audio or video.

EDIT: There are Russian channels as well but these are all encrypted.

**backer** · 13-04-16, 04:46 PM

Thanks MTV and Guiseppe.

Either my LNB skew needs adjusting or my pole isn't perfectly plum for the H-H!
I am getting good reception for 152E - 180E and I used to be able to include 122.2E as part of my range!

Brandon

**mkhannah** · 13-04-16, 08:54 PM

I remember receiving it on a motorised 65 cm in Perth when it was used for sport feeds from WA. People said it was too hard to get with the other Optus sats, and it is tricky, but you can get the skew just right to get everything. Can't check now but try to find out the strongest transponder on as4 and tune in to that, then see how c1/d3 is.

**backer** · 13-04-16, 10:56 PM

I managed to get a lock and quite a strong signal.
Using USALS i entered 121.0E instead of 122.2E.

I'm not sure if this is because my pole/motor is slightly out(it's a existing Foxtel pole attached to my brick wall) or my LNB skew is optimized for Optus around the 8-9 o-clock mark instead of the 5 o-clock for AsiaSat4?

I am a bit nervous is make any additional adjustments as I am getting good coverage for all the other Ku Sats (which are using their correct locations entered under USALS). I have optimized for D2 for the ABC feeds.

Getting good reception now on AS4, D2, C1/D3, D1, 10, IS19, IS18

Brandon

**mtv** · 14-04-16, 12:53 AM

Originally Posted by backer

I'm not sure if this is because my pole/motor is slightly out(it's a existing Foxtel pole attached to my brick wall) or my LNB skew is optimized for Optus around the 8-9 o-clock mark instead of the 5 o-clock for AsiaSat4?

Most likely both.

Because Foxtel is a single fixed position, the installers don't need to be as critical with mounts being perfectly plumb.... it takes a lot longer to get it perfect and you must get it perfect for a motorised dish to track the arc correctly.

Your LNB Skew will definitely be an issue.

Motorised dishes used to receive Optus sats and others require a compromise LNB skew setting... you will lose performance on all sats, it's the nature of the beast.

You said you're in Melbourne.... 8-9 o'clock seems somewhat out, even for Optus sats, which for Melbourne typically have an LNB skew of between 6-7 o'clock.

You're going to need to trade some Optus performance to get the weaker transponders of other sats.

If anything, I would try to obtain the best signal quality from the non-Optus sats, whilst still having sufficient signal quality from the Optus sats.

It's tricky to get just the right balance to get it right.

**backer** · 18-04-16, 12:34 PM

I think I finally found the best settings I can do with this H-H motor configuration. Over the past week I have been fiddling every day till I can get the best results on all Ku Sats that are receivable in Melbourne. I now get them all but wasn't happy with some of the performance I was receiving (in particular Intelsat18 I bought a universal LNB for this one). At some point I have to just stop "fixing" and just be happy with a compromise. Every time I touched it, I either made it worse, same or slightly better.

What I found is that every single setting counts, from the motor on the pole (true north), the dish angle, the dish bracket(attached to the motor) and the LNB skew. Getting good results with the Optus Sats is easy enough but trying to get good results including Intelsat18, Intelsat19 and Asiasat4 can be tricky. One change effects another. One of the best places to start is getting the motor latitude correct, my location is around 37.8 I've tried around the 37-38 but finally managed to get it somewhere in the middle. Also the dish angle was so sensitive. Just tightening the screw could loose me signal quality. Then I have to check all Sats again to ensure they are still all within range and fiddle with the LNB skew.

I guess for me it's a fun hobby, as I don't actually watch very much of what FTA there is. Just trying to see what I can get (blind scanning etc) is the fun.

**Melbsatman** · 18-04-16, 09:23 PM

will the foxtel LNB be suitable for receiving majority of Ku band asian satellites, I believe the foxtel unit is a quad output LNB ??

**mtv** · 18-04-16, 10:20 PM

Originally Posted by Melbsatman

will the foxtel LNB be suitable for receiving majority of Ku band asian satellites, I believe the foxtel unit is a quad output LNB ??

Yes, the 10700 LO is suitable for most Ku frequencies.

The majority of LNB's installed for Foxtel are dual polarity, dual output.

(Older installations for the single tuner decoders may still have a single output LNB)

Very, very few use quad output LNB's as the preferred method of providing more than 2 connections is to fit a multiswitch.