Portable Satellite Tv Setup Questions

[037291]

Hi All.

Today i picked up a dish with Roof Brackets , LNB Arm and the LNB.

My Aim is Currently to get Foxtel and possibly in the future use it to play around with the other birds that have unencrypted channels with a new receiver.

Now i have some questions.

1. This afternoon i grabbed the foxtel decoder and tried to pickup a signal no success. Could the Trees be blocking signal. and is there a way to test the LNB? ( Note: Foxtel satellite dish is mounted on the house roof)

2. What type of LNB would i need to replace it with ? ( I am confused with the output frequency being in a completely different range then the input of around 10- 12 GHZ)

3. What signal range does the strength gauge need to be ?

4. How is the actual dish size measured? EG . Diagonally Length Width ETC.

Will have some future questions aswell.

Here is the items i have looked at on ebay.





This one looks simalar to the acer on the Proper etup




Appreciate any assistance and welcome any suggestions.

Regards,

Matthew

[LeroyPatrol]

To get the entire foxtel bandwidth you will need a 10700 LNB. If the LNB is a 11300 you will need to put those LNB settings into the foxtel receiver but you won't get all the channels.
Those sat finders are a good for finding sats then you use your receiver signal and quality menu to 'tweak' your dish and 'skew' your LNB.
I personally like the Sharp LNB's and the one you posted has dual outputs so you could connect a second receiver to it in the future if desired.
Trees can get in the way. You need a clear view of the sky. Checkout dishpointer.com for an idea of which way to point your dish.
Ideally 80-90% signal would be nice so to minimise rain fade (yes signal gets attenuated in the rain)

Leroy

[mtv]

As mentioned, you'll need an LNB with LO of 10700.

A universal LNB will cover the channels, but the Foxtel decoder doesn't allow to select universal LNB's and also as mentioned, an 11300 will not cover all the Foxel frequencies, so just stick to a 10700... it's the standard used by Foxtel/Austar.

I agree.... Sharp have good LNB's (also the standard for Foxtel/Austar) and if you have iQ/iQ2/iQHD, you will need a dual output LNB, but for standard Foxtel, a single is fine.

Strong LNB's also work fine.

LNB's down-convert the very high satellite signals to much lower frequencies to be sent down the coax to be decoded by the receiver. The local oscillator (LO) frequency of the decoder determines what frequency ranges the LNB receives and what the output frequencies become.

In simple terms, you just need to ensure you match the LNB LO with the satellite transponder frequencies and for Foxtel, a 10700 LO LNB will do that for you.

Dish size measurments vary, but if you have an oval-shaped dish (eg: typical offset dish) it's generally measured by it's shortest dimension, eg: measured between the two closest edges/narrowest points.

Yes, ANY obstruction in the signal path can seriously degrade or destroy reception, so you must ensure the signal path is completely free from obstructions.

[beer4life]

Hi All.

Today i picked up a dish with Roof Brackets , LNB Arm and the LNB.

My Aim is Currently to get Foxtel and possibly in the future use it to play around with the other birds that have unencrypted channels with a new receiver.

Now i have some questions.

1. This afternoon i grabbed the foxtel decoder and tried to pickup a signal no success. Could the Trees be blocking signal. and is there a way to test the LNB? ( Note: Foxtel satellite dish is mounted on the house roof)

2. What type of LNB would i need to replace it with ? ( I am confused with the output frequency being in a completely different range then the input of around 10- 12 GHZ)

3. What signal range does the strength gauge need to be ?

4. How is the actual dish size measured? EG . Diagonally Length Width ETC.

Will have some future questions aswell.

Here is the items i have looked at on ebay.





This one looks simalar to the acer on the Proper etup




Appreciate any assistance and welcome any suggestions.

Regards,

Matthew

G'Day Mathew,
First of all the Foxtel decoder is of little use to you unless you have a current paid subscription and Card.
It is absolutely useless for other than Foxtel.

1. You need to accurately point the dish at the specific Satellite.
Input your Location/address/GPS co-ordinates and C1/D3 as the Satellite.
You can move the icon to the exact location on your house.
This will give you the required Elevation and Azimuth, True and Magnetic.



2. The LNB is simply a Beat Frequency Oscillator/Mixer that changes the input Frequency to a lower range that the cable and STB can handle.
The paramount requirement is that the dish installation menu be set to the same as the L/O frequency on the LNB.

3. You need to adjust Elevation/Azimuth/ Skew for Maximum signal/quality on the specific Satellite.

4. Dish size, some are round, others oval. Roughly 65 to 95 Cm should give good results.

Satellite Finder, That one would do.

LNB 1 is a Universal and you don't need that.
LNB 2 is a single/dual output 10700 and if that's what you have, should suffice.
LNB 3 is a Twin/dual output LNB used when you have a STB with Twin tuners or you want to feed two STBs independently.

Kindest Regards, " The Druid ".

[037291]

Thanks All for your feedback and advice so far.

This is the dish that i have acquired.




The LNB only has a faded serial number label on it so i am unaware of the actual model.

Is this dish appropriate for Foxtel ? And yes we have a paid foxtel service. Just a normal box.

[COLOR=Blue]LNB 2 is a single/dual output 10700 and if that's what you have, should suffice.

does that mean it has dual polarity so i can pick up all channels that i am subscribed to ?

Tomorrow i will take the dish up to the house where there is a clear LOS near the other dish.

[mtv]

The LNB only has a faded serial number label on it so i am unaware of the actual model.

Is this dish appropriate for Foxtel ? And yes we have a paid foxtel service. Just a normal box.


does that mean it has dual polarity so i can pick up all channels that i am subscribed to ?

Tomorrow i will take the dish up to the house where there is a clear LOS near the other dish.

The dish looks like a typical 65cm dish.... should be fine.. give it a clean

The LNB looks like an older 11300 model, so you will probably need to replace it.

Yes, the LNB's you linked to are dual-polarity

[037291]

Hi All,

Just purchased the signal strength meter and am currently winning the bid on the sharp dual output LNB.

On the Dish i notice some bolts so i can take the LNB arm off. Is that fine to remove than reattach when setting the dish up at the campsite?

For Aligning it the tools i am thinking of are

• Dish Pointer website on the Ipad
• A decent compas
• The Strength Meter

Is there anything else that would be recommended for alignment?

[mtv]

Hi All,

Just purchased the signal strength meter and am currently winning the bid on the sharp dual output LNB.

On the Dish i notice some bolts so i can take the LNB arm off. Is that fine to remove than reattach when setting the dish up at the campsite?

For Aligning it the tools i am thinking of are

• Dish Pointer website on the Ipad
• A decent compas
• The Strength Meter

Is there anything else that would be recommended for alignment?

A spirit level/bubble can be useful for making the mast vertical... it's not critical for a non-motorised dish but it should be a close as possible to vertical as the elevation and skew of the dish (and LNB) will alter as you rotate the dish if the mast isn't vertical.

Yes, you can remove the arm for transport, perhaps change the nuts to wingnuts for faster removal/fitting.

You can also cut the arm and place a larger section of tubing with a bolt over the break and permanently attach it to the dish end, then just insert the arm/LNB end into the 'joiner' and tighten the bolt.

There are commercially available joiners for doing just that.

There are also dishes with folding arms, designed specifically for portable use.

[037291]

Thanks For the Help,

The Sharp LNB and the Meter should be arriving next week.

I am a bit confused as to how much cable i should buy. ( The stuff i have in the shed isnt shielded well) . I am tossing up between geting 10 or 20 meters of premade cable.

10 Meters would be sufficient for most locations when we are outside. But for the times we camping under a shed in the caravan 20 meters could be needed to get the dish in a good location outside.

Would 20 meters cause to much loss with RG6 cable?

Thank You all again for the assistance.

[beer4life]

Thanks For the Help,

The Sharp LNB and the Meter should be arriving next week.

I am a bit confused as to how much cable i should buy. ( The stuff i have in the shed isnt shielded well) . I am tossing up between geting 10 or 20 meters of premade cable.

10 Meters would be sufficient for most locations when we are outside. But for the times we camping under a shed in the caravan 20 meters could be needed to get the dish in a good location outside.

Would 20 meters cause to much loss with RG6 cable?

Thank You all again for the assistance.

G'Day Cobber,
The difference between 10 and 20 Mtrs is minuscule. 100 Mtrs or more can make an appreciable difference.
Kindest Regards, " The Druid ".

[gulliver]

Just get 2 X 10 mtrs of RG6 ,use one and if needed use a male to male joiner and use it when required,
I hope this helps.{ I am watching to much of "Are you being served,Lol")

[beer4life]

Just get 2 X 10 mtrs of RG6 ,use one and if needed use a male to male joiner and use it when required,
I hope this helps.{ I am watching to much of "Are you being served,Lol")

Apart from anything else you would need a " female to female joiner " to connect those cables.


Kindest Regards, " The Druid ".

[037291]

Ah Too Late now got a 25 Meter Cable. After fiddling for hours this afternoon i managed to get the dish aligned onto C1 / D3.

Funnily enough it happened just as mum came to call me a Id10t . ( She never thought it would work)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now for some questions about the readings i was getting.

The meter showed some other satellites

Approximate Angles C1 was at 355 degrees at my location
11 Degrees Magnetic ( 160E BEIDOU G4 | OPTUS D1)
and another at 76 Degrees . I cant workout what that signal jump is. Any ideas on what that is?