I've just installed a brand new dish so that my dad can receive FreeSat (I'm not paying £150 to Sky, when I can do it myself) but I've hit a problem.......

 

Dish assembled properly, fitted to wall properly, and wired up properly. :D

Temporarily I've got my old Sony box out of the attic (not been used for the last nine months) and connected everything up, powered the box up and then went out to make the fine adjustments to the dish/LNB, using a audible/visual sat finder. Got the best signal possible on the sat finder, then went inside to sort the box out......... 'No Satellite Signal Received'.... So I went into System Setup and see that I'm on about 3/4 for Signal Strength, but next to nothing for Signal Quality! Then spent the next two hours messing around with the dish to try to sort this out... then gave up and rang the Sky FreeSat help line. They were surprisingly very helpful and ran through the New Installation setup with me, but came to the conclusion that my Sony box could be faulty.

 

So can any experts shed any light on it?........... PLEASE!! :bow: :bow: :duffer:

Have you tried changing the polarity of the lnb ie rotating it slightly to see if you can get a better signal quality?

Yep, tried all five positions of the LNB, but no difference!

Don't waste time. Take the box to a mate's house who has a working system. Swap the boxes under the TV. If your box still doesn't work, bin it and get a replacement from eBay.

Dave (ex Sky IT) :)

Don't waste time. Take the box to a mate's house who has a working system. Swap the boxes under the TV. If your box still doesn't work, bin it and get a replacement from eBay.

Dave (ex Sky IT) :)

This is a top tip. It cuts through all the cr*p. If your box does work in your mate's house but not at your dad's, your dish is pointing at the wrong satellite. Other common faults are dodgy cable / dodgy f-connector. Try David's first then let us know what happens.

Gio (ex Amstrad, ex Astra, ex Eutelsat, currently satellite internet)

Not sure fella but your box might be faulty dave.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Sorry.... Im very bored and tired and it was funny at the time.

David, Gio, yep top tip, just got to find someone that has Sky now :confused: alas though I can't think of anyone now!

 

Wayne, cheers bud :duffer: ;)

Again im sorry mate :)

 

If you only have that box mate i have one collecting dust in the loft so can send that to you if you cant find anyone to try yours on.

 

If you want it give me a shout and ill get it down and check it out.

Cheers bud, but my dad and myself have a plan ;)

As it's going to work one way or another, AND I also want FreeSat in my new place (when I move in a few weeks) we have another box on the way. So if that one is the same, then we'll have to get an engineer in, after phoning Sky again first. If this other one works, then I'll have to get myself another Sony box for myself :( Bloody typical though, as I paid £98 for this box, just to match all my other Sony gear :rolleyes: At least they are a lot cheaper now!

 

Again, thanks everyone :bow:

Second Sky Digi-Box turned up today(dad's box), so I installed it after I got in from work, and........

 

 

guess what..........

 

 

 

No ****ing satillite signal received!!!!!!!!!!!!! :headvswal

 

 

 

After a lot of head scratching (and I mean a LOT!!) I've finally figured it out..........

 

...Dish assembled properly, fitted to wall properly, and wired up properly. :D ...

All of the above are correct........

 

...powered the box up and then went out to make the fine adjustments to the dish/LNB, using a audible/visual sat finder. Got the best signal possible on the sat finder,...

Oh yeah, I got the best signal possible....... But from the wrong ****ing satillite :headvswal :headvswal :headvswal It's pointing the wrong bloody way (well slightly) :smash: :smash:

 

So I've got the compass ready and will be going into the front garden in the morning (weather permitting) and re-allign it properly this time :rolleyes:

try this http://www.satellite-calculations.com/Satellite/lookangles.htm

Thanks Mark, all sorted this morning :cool:

Surprisingly, everything works when you point the dish at the right satellite ;) :rolleyes:

Gio (ex Amstrad, ex Astra, ex Eutelsat, currently satellite internet)

 

I used to work for the company who refurbed all the early Amstrad satellite receivers.

You wouldn't believe how many faulty units we got in per day :rofl:

I used to do about 100 a day myself and there was a team of 20 of us I think!

90% were down to them not having short circuit protection on the dish so anyone who plugged a poorly made cable in heard a loud pop and got a cloud of smoke out the box :rolleyes:

 

We had some fun with new engineers though.

We wired a switch up under the desk to the socket of the test dish and every time he repaired a receiver and left it on a soak test for a few mins, a flick of the switch shorted the aerial and blew it again.

No amount of testing located the fault and it confused some very good engineers :rofl: