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safariboy

I have a satellite dish at home. It is fixed. It was purchased for the "Hotbird" satellite. It also seems to pick up "Astra 1" at about the same strength but not Astra 2". Astra 1 and Hotbird are in different directions. Can anyone tell my how we get the Astra 1? (We really want Astra 2 but presumably would have to move the dish for that)

Safariboy.

DABurleigh

I presume you have two LNBs. One is at the dish's focal point for 13E and the other at the focal point for 19E. If the dish is >=1.8m then you should be able to add a third for Astra 2. If, as you say, it was purchased for Hotbird, it has no need to be that big and you won't be able to fit it.

So, move the dish to lose Hotbird/Astra1, or add a small dish to get Astra 2 as well.

Dave

Grizzly

Hi Dave...it's an elliptical dish - 1.5m x 70cm. It was sold originally for Sky customers in Scotland where the signal is poor. We bought it many years ago, to receive Hotbird and so improve our French, Italian and German by watching their TV. (!)

We don't want to fit any other dishes, partly because the dish is well-hidden in a valley gutter on the house and virtually inaccessible and also we are not allowed to install dishes etc in this area . We were interested to see if we could program the Humax box to pick up Freesat and this lead us to the discovery that we were apparently receiving signals from two satellites in very different parts of the sky.

G ( and Safariboy who is out )

safariboy

Thanks for this but in fact there is only one LNB - this is what puzzles me. the LNB only has one connection.

DABurleigh

The full horizontal beamwidth of your dish at the -3db points at these frequencies is 1.3 degrees, so with a single LNB there is no way you should be seeing Hotbird and Astra 1. Which brings us back to what you mean when you say 'It also seems to pick up "Astra 1"'?

Here are the transponders/frequencies/channels for the satellites at 13E:

safariboy

When you go to the screen that controls searching for new programs you get an option of several satellites. The Hotbird and Astra menus both work and a signal strength bar gives almost full scale and much the same values for both.
I must look into it with your links. Thanks.

Basically you must be right - The dish is quite large and so must have a narrow beam

Snelly · Eastern Rally Co-ordinator

You need my home setup...

88cm Dish

3 lnb's on an arc bracket:
Hotbird 13E
Astra1 19E
Astra2 28E

DiSEqc switch

Multisat Receiver

Equals: a few more channels... Wink

DABurleigh

Shane,

Well that invalidates what I had gleaned from a quick search, that to get the physical separation of LNBs for the 6 deg difference in beam pointing a large dish is needed.

How far apart (distance) are the LNB centrelines, and are they aimed on boresight at the satellites? Your horizontal beamwidth is ~2.2 deg.

Dave

Snelly · Eastern Rally Co-ordinator

Just for you Dave... I've been up my ladder and slapped together a picture for ya...

DABurleigh

Beyond the call of duty Smile

Well, it just goes to show that some people have the ability to speak a load of claptrap with utter confidence - see here: