Stictly ......... A fixed dish?

[Daves]

Here we are, watching “Strictly” on our new Suitcase HD dish & receiver at home. Set it up fixed but still a bit of a job because of the sensitivity with Sat location. Only need to move the dish a fraction and loose total quality of signal. However, pretty pleased with it all round.

Taking it away in the van next week and intending to fix it to the bike rack. Bit concerned about the sensitivity though because, with moving about inside the van, won’t we continually loose the signal?

What about all those vans with the dish fixed to the roof, do they have the same problem?

Cheers - Dave

ps Strictly's just finished ........my money's on Matt & Aliona!!

[Rosbotham]

Have had a Maxview crankup on roof and never had problem with van rocking causing dropout, other than at margins of coverage (i.e. Switzerland) or when it's very windy (when picture breaks up, it's time to wind it down). My new van has got a Teleco dish which looks like Joddrell Bank - as I gather larger dish = more sensitive, will be interest to see how it performs.

 

Given suitcase systems tend to be small dish = less sensitive to positioning, I'm *guessing* that your viewing tonight is at the extremes of being accurately locked onto the satellite : small dishes are generally pretty forgiving.

 

Paul

[Daves]

Thanks Paul. Well, the signal level was 99%, signal quality 68%.

LOS (NASA - loss of signal) occured with approx 0.5cm azimuth movement. Thoughts were that rocking the van (ie getting up for another glass of red!) could easily cause LOS.

Dave S

[hallii]

Go for best quality, you should be able to get 76- 78%.

 

Try skewing the LNB it makes a big difference.

 

You won't get a LOS with normal movement, anything more than normal and you won't be watching the tellie anyway!

 

Make sure that the cable connections are good, and try and keep therm dry.

 

Hallii

[Clive]

"with van rocking causing dropout"

Put the stabilisers down at night then!

 

C.

 

[Daves]

Stabilsers!? No jacks on these - they just drop to the ground (if you're lucky). With the overhang of a Starspirit and 6 heavies in the rear lounge they just stop the front wheels lifting off!

Seriously though, CapCom (SWMBO) does not take kindly to LOS during Poirot!

D

[art338]

Rule one, no nooky when watching the TV.

 

art

[Rosbotham]

Daves - 2010-11-06 8:35 PM

 

Thanks Paul. Well, the signal level was 99%, signal quality 68%.

 

Dave S

 

That is pretty low quality Dave : can't recall ever having less than approx 80% on my system.

 

I haven't a clue how to adjust the skew and had the old system for a couple of years. Suffice to say I don't think it makes a massive amount of difference unless you're at the margins...and in the UK that shouldn't be the case.

 

Incidentally, I'm assuming you already know about www.dishpointer.com ? Can come in handy to know which direction to point before you get to the site.

 

Paul

[Frankkia]

I agree - the signal strength is ok (but that is just a measure of the signal between the LNB and the receiver but most FTA boxes require a good signal quality of at least 60% to be able to process the signal.

 

TRy to acheive a better signal quality by moving the dish ever so slightly up or down and side to side after you have found the satellite.

 

Even in the UK the skew can make a bit of difference depending on how far west you are - Lands end can be critical.

 

To alter the skew undo the skrews on top of the LNB (just half a turn will do) then rotate the LNB in the fixing - On most of the LNBs supplied with the suitcase dishes the LNB cable should point at, between about 6 and 7 O'clock. The further west you go it may need to move to nearer 8 O'clock. Lisbon will be even further. If you go to Germany move the LNB the other way - Berlin will be about 5 O'clock

[Rosbotham]

Frankkia - 2010-11-07 8:51 PM

 

Even in the UK the skew can make a bit of difference depending on how far west you are - Lands end can be critical.

 

I'm not saying I disagree Bernie. But furthest west I've been is Tintagel in Cornwall, furthest east would be Interlaken in Switzerland. I've no idea how you adjust the skew on the dish on my old van, and never struggled to get a signal unless a tree was in the way. That's why I'm sceptical about the importance of skew adjustment. Having said that, if the skew on Dave's dish is well off, I guess it could be universally bad...

[Frankkia]

What makes me think the skew is well off is the fact that there is a perfectly good signal strength. This would indicate that the connections are good and that means that the problem lies in the accuracy of the dish.

 

Accuracy is in three different directions 1)Azimuth - (left to right) 2)Elevation - (Up and down) 3) Skew - (lining up with the horizontal and vertical signals). When you move around the curvature of the earth you present your dish to the signal at a different angle - the more accurate you are with this angle the more likely you will get a strong signal quality.

 

Some LNBs and dishes are (dependent on their architecture) better at coping with poor skew.

 

 

[Mr. Grumpy]

We originally mounted our Lidl dish on the roof but it was affected by movement in the van so we now use a tripod which also means when we leave a site we don't have to re-tune when we return. We got the tripod from Amazon for about £25 but we have seen dishes mounted on a single pole using a washing rondo fitting. Make sure you keep the dish as low as possible as the further from the ground the greater the movement accentuated by gusts of wind. We also lose signal strength in heavy rain but do use the dish on what I think is the edge of it's range in the Vendee.

[kelly58]

Last year whilst on a campsite in the South of France a Dutch couple behind us were having a right old go at each other because she could not watch the tennis , he was trying all  he could to get a signal on his satalite when after a while he realised our towels we had hung to dry after a swim were obscuring his signal , removed towel appologised signal ok Dutch wife happy Dutch husband out of hot water smiles all around.

[Philjp]

Whilst Down in the south of France this year we stayed on a site all the pitches where under trees. We found the only sat link we could pick up was hotbird and that disappeared late afternoon. So we gave up but left the dish up on its tripod. We had hours of entertainment watching the Germans and Dutch arrive on site trying to get a picture Walk down to our Pitch look at the direction we were pointing and then walk of Muttering to them selfs. We use the tripod as we found that we could move the dish around if there was any obstructions in line of site of the Satellite. i find that on occasions i have to adjust the lnb for skew to get the quality up the Dishpointer is a good program as it will also tell you if you need to adjust the skew.

[Guest JudgeMental]

How do you manage to change the skew if you have a dome? :-S

[Keithl]

Skew the MH :D :D :D

 

Edit. Sorry Judge but I couldn't resist that one!

[Daves]

Thanks for your replies.

Well, I must admit that it was our first attempt with a satellite system and it was firmly set up in the garden. The instructions said "try to get both signal level and quality above 50%"with the LNB at about 8 o'clock. So, I thought that 99% and 68% were pretty good for a first attempt. It still picked up loads of channels so I wasn't too concerned until I moved it a fraction to try and improve the signal but lost it completely until I moved it back again. It was then that I thought that moving about in the van could be a problem.

We'll try the dish attached to the bike rack first (if we can find a pitch of the right orientation) and, if LOS is a nuisance, go for a tripod.

Cheers - Dave S

[Guest JudgeMental]

on a tripod much less bother and far more accurate as you can move it about easily