My First Go at C Band

[checkitout]

A local neighbour in the next street asked me to help him with his Italian RAI satellite connection today. It appeared that after some bad weather this week it stopped working.

I offered to help and sure enough when I got there and looked at it the signal quality being rxed on his Phoenix STB it was next to zip.
Grabbed my sat finder jumped on the roof and soon got some signal tuned.
The best I could get was a signal quality of 50% on the Phoenix STB.

I did not think this was good enough but in the end the picture and sound was coming in fine, so I left it at that.
I have not played with C Band sat stuff before so I was pleased with the end result regardless.




Was wondering if that level of signal quality is right or is something out of place here?




Also noticed that there was no card in the Phoenix so I assume that this RAI channel (I think via Asia Sat 2) is free to air?



Maybe one day (if I convince the missus) I will get a C Band dish and do some more tuning ... can not help myself sometimes.

[Keepleft]

Sat finder that works via C Band eh?

If you go C Band, try 3.0m diameter to start with.

[it's me]

A local neighbour in the next street asked me to help him with his Italian RAI satellite connection today. It appeared that after some bad weather this week it stopped working.

I offered to help and sure enough when I got there and looked at it the signal quality being rxed on his Phoenix STB it was next to zip.
Grabbed my sat finder jumped on the roof and soon got some signal tuned.
Question-what size dish ? On my 2.4m mesh I have around 50% quality and it works okay. You can try to turne the LNBF a bit, you may gain some more.

The best I could get was a signal quality of 50% on the Phoenix STB.

I did not think this was good enough but in the end the picture and sound was coming in fine, so I left it at that.
I have not played with C Band sat stuff before so I was pleased with the end result regardless.




Was wondering if that level of signal quality is right or is something out of place here?




Also noticed that there was no card in the Phoenix so I assume that this RAI channel (I think via Asia Sat 2) is free to air? Yes, it is Free2Air, no card.



Maybe one day (if I convince the missus) I will get a C Band dish If you get one, make sure it is at least a 3m mesh. You can play with smaller dish, but at the end, bigger-better :-) and do some more tuning ... can not help myself sometimes.

it's me

[checkitout]

I did not measure the dish size, but it was a mesh job.
At a guess I believe it must be a 2.4m job.

From the feedback here then it looks like the 50% quality I measured will be normal or OK especially if the dish size is 2.4m.

Good to also know that RAI is FTA.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Godzilla]

Ive done afew cband systems over the years for RAI here in Melbourne.

A 2.3 meter mesh dish is all you need, 3m is not required in Melb but bigger is better.

Now you mentioned the signal dropping after bad weather.

Wind....the dish has moved.

Rain....water may have enter the f connection.

No spiders living in the feed horn?

Those pheonix receivers have given me problems over the years, i prefered to use Strong receivers.

Connect your sat finder and without undoing the dish, flex the outside of the dish to see if the meter inproves when flexing up/down/left/right.
If you see an improvement in signal then undo it and move it accordingly.

Check your connection at the lnb, make sure its dry, maybe cut off and inch or 2 of coax and redo the connection incase water got in. Waterproof the connection.

Take a look into the feedhorn to see its free of spiders and webs.

Try another set top box as i have found those pheonix receivers unreliable.

If all else fails check your wall plate f connections.

When you ask of signal quality, does he have a picture? 75% or better with a Strong stb is reasonable.

Sounds like it needs a little fine tunning.

Maybe he lost signal in high wind conditions as the dish was flexing but once the wind stopped the dish should have stopped bending unless its moved on its polar mpunt.