[mythtvnz] Freeview dish set-up woes

[Noel & Di]

Hi Matt
You're nearly there!! Here is the "bushman's guide" to setting up your 
dish. Take one BFH and go to your...... Ahem. Seriously now.
Fire up your card & get it polling with the cable & dish all connected 
(This provides power to the LNB).  Go to your dish with your signal 
meter.  connect it in line as per usual & point your dish NORTH-ish 
(you'll be getting good at this by now!).  Initially set the sat meter 
so it JUST stops squealing.  Now rotate the dish slowly 5mm at a time to 
your left.  As you track through a signal path you should get a squeal.  
As the signal increases, de-sense the meter to work in the 3-4 range & 
tweak the dish up L <-> R for max signal, then up & down for max 
signal.  firm up your bolts (not too tight yet - just past finger 
tight).  Now go check your card to see if you're on the right SAT (leave 
the meter connected at this stage).  Remember the Sats you may pick up 
are (from "right" to left") are IS701, IS2, IS8, D1, C1.  D1 is usually 
the "second left" to be picked up on your size dish and is by far the 
strongest signal.  If you're on the right sat, go back to the dish (if 
not turn it some more to the next sat) and "flex" the dish 5mm or so to 
the left & then to the right, align the dish so the signal "drops" when 
flexing the dish both ways.  Do the same for up & down.  Now tighten up 
your bolts till they strip & back them off 1/4 turn.  Usually the LNB is 
set right when the coax is about 8 o'clock.  Your meter is tricky to use 
to set the skew rotation on D1, because it appears to pick up V AND H 
pol simultaneously (shouldn't happen but it just DOES on these cheapo 
meters)  The V is stronger than the H, which gets swamped.  So If you're 
keen rotate the LNB & observe the readings - remember to work the meter 
in the 3-4 range.  If you imagine two inverted parabolae drawn on paper, 
one very tall & the other short, overlapping each other with the peak of 
the short one under the skirts of the tall one - you are trying to tune 
to the short peak. fun eh?   hope this helps

Matt Poff wrote:

> Noel wrote:
>
>> You NEED the LNB on the dish.  Background scatter will max out the 
>> meter.
>> To check for shorts - dis connect BOTH ends of the cable & use a 
>> multi tester, or a battery & lamp even on one end.  You should get no 
>> reading (or light) until you short the far end. Then...
>
> Thanks, good to know. I originally had the the LNB installed on the 
> dish on the roof, then brought the dish down, then removed the LNB. 
> When the dish was installed I sshd to the receiver over wireless with 
> a laptop from the roof, started dvbtune and rotated the dish about an 
> inch at a time through an arc approx 300-20 degrees and got no change 
> in output... just continual "Polling" messages.
>
> I'd preset the elevation to 39.9 degrees as per the Freeview website's 
> values. I also tried rotating the LNB but there was no alteration in 
> signal strength. The dish mount is vertical (perhaps not perfect but 
> on the edges of the bubble).
>
> I also tried blanking the LNB with my hand to see if that made a 
> difference to signal but nothing.
>
> The complete lack of variance in reading/signal suggests to me 
> something is bung - hopefully the LNB and not the two Skystar2 cards 
> (which seems unlikely).
>
> Cheers,
> Matt
>
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