Hi; upgraded to duo2 2.4m UNIMESH wall dish with KU /C lnb

[unimesh7Fowner]

Hellow everybody . have just turned 60 years old and have a large 2.4 meter dish on the rear 1st floor wall of my house in Stanmore Middle*** i.e. NW of London.

This dish is the envy of my neighbours. They tried complaining to the council about it . but the council keep replying to them nothing can be done now as planning permission has been granted.

For the last 16 years I been having a Unimesh 2.4M dish on a AJAX H-H mount 36v mount with a mechanical corotor for polarisation with Ku / C LNB using a echostar LT8700 receiver positioner.

I have just replaced the lt 8700 with a Vu+Duo2 with two twin tuners ( i.e. 4 tuners in total) and a technomate v2 Box . positioner, about a week ago.

The old chaparral corotor ,Swedish microwave Ku LNB and C lnb have all been replaced by a single combined Ku / C , with separate Ku and Cu band output ( with tone switching polarisation) LNB unit .( that's technology process for last 16 years)


The 2.4 m prime focus Unmesh dish and the H-H Ajax mount which came with the dish was not replaced. ( no technology process here. but I could replace it with a solid dish but this could make the neighbours go mental)

I have managed to upgrade the latest boot up software and install a few plugins.

I managed to programme the duo2 to control the v2 box( using diseq 1.2control) from the information taken from this forum. A very big thank you .

The problem I am having is that I am getting very little Freesat or Uk channels but mostly German and Austrian( at 13, 19 or 28.2) ones. the pictures are great( using HDMI) I never seen anything this, even better than the freeviewHd

If I download the channel listing plugin from this forum I hope This will solve the problem .

Can somebody confirm this please.

Thanks.

[tigertimtim]

with a dish that size you should be picking up a few thousand channels on 13,19,28 east alone...quite a lot will be scrambled of course until you get a line

a decent channel list will make it easier as regards sorting your channels out:]

[echelon]

the catseye lists for E2 should mean that you get what is in his list (using ku-band on the lnb)

you should receive over 100 fta uk channels from 28.2 east (the freesat channels , google the freesat website for a full list)

or look here _http://www.lyngs*t.com/Eutelsat-28A-and-Astra-1N-2A-2F.html

change the * to an a

you would get those freesat channels from a tiny 39cm zone 1 sly dish never mind a much bigger dish like yours (you could easily incorporate a 28 east mini dish with sly quad lnb into the system and use the larger motorised dish as and when required for all the other sats)

[CokeAddict]

With a dish that size, it is possible that your alignment is slightly out, and thus reducing the signal from these "strong" sats.

[crabber]

Welcome to the forum, first it is good to know that I am not the only old codger on here.
As you have had such a large dish for so long I am sure you must be familiar with adjusting it for maximum signal, but may not know there is a program for mobiles called Vu player which has a signal strength meter as part of the extras. Provided you have wi-fi to your phone this can be used to check the dish alignment without having to disconnect any cables.
As for the channels available, I am in a minority of one here but I like to let the system scan rather than use downloaded settings although this is obviously faster.
I will be interested to hear what channels you can pull in on 26 east and 7 west when you get going.

[unimesh7Fowner]

A very big thank you for all the replies. I been on the flat roof playing about with the dish alignment after upgrading to the latest BH software.

I managed to get store 30W, 7E, 13E 28E 42E, just using the duo2 signal quality bar on the OSD . I have confirmed these are the true positions of the satellite . During the tuning process I have selected network scan. I believe that this reads the NIT of the satellite than locks into it . Before when I tried without the network scan the tuner locks into any signal it finds( please confirm this ,as I can see its locks into anything when I manually turn the dish with the v2 box remote).

I will take up Echelon advice on the catseye list, I will be getting a motorised 90cm Georgian dish from Germany ( No body sells them in Uk .) I have installed it on my friends house a few months ago. For the 90cm I will be using a c120 quattro( not Quad) Lnb for normal viewing for the family ( I have a satellite /tv distribution system already installed)

I will try 26E and 7W and Vu player as Crabber advised . At the moment I using the my 24in LCD TV, turn it around towards the window and reading the signal quality, adjusting the mounting N-S direction ( using 45E and 30W satellites quality)and have a digital level( 0.1 degrees accuracy ) to adjust the declination and the elevation angles .The BER is always at 0 at all times ( does this works?). the signal strength of the duo2 is a joke its all over the place at all times whether its signal locked or not.

At the moment for some reasons I cannot get any signal lock on my C band LNB using the C TUNER ON THE DUO2 . This is set to C LNB , tone off, Voltage polarisation switching I have tried 10E and 1W no luck .

The combined Ku/ C LNB is a WS international NS741U. I may have return it to the supplier before the warranty runs out.

I am planning to get a satlook Lite meter which has NIT so I know I am looking at the right satellite or anybody has any comments ? with a NIT feature.

I will post the results once I done the above or as I go along.

Once again a very big Thank You for all the replies.

[echelon]

I have only ever used a fairly cheap sat meter that makes a whistling noise which increases on a satellite (powered by the sat box) , but in addition also used boxes like my old tm1500 or newer spiderbox (which has signal and quality levels) and a portable tv to check the satellite I am on and the signal and quality levels using the box and tone meter

this has always been my preferred method as a non-professional installer to line up dishes and motors, I do not like using a linux box for this as I find the spiderbox to be extremely reliable when doing this task. never used any professional meters either, but I believe the proof of the pudding as being in the eating, so when my spiderbox gives me good signal and quality and shows me the actual satellite channels I expect, then I know exactly what I am getting

there is a july list of active transponders with fta channels in the sticky threads of the dish forum here, which I recently used to check my darkmotor and dish (the dish install faq thread) , so I would advise checking those first and ensuring you have found what you can get

save your channel list, load the catseye lists and its all done for you whilst doing all of this

should you prefer to scan your own list etc, there is no reason why you cannot reload your own saved list after sorting it all out with the catseye list (I use dreamboxedit for this)

no idea about C band stuff, so cannot help there

[unimesh7Fowner]

Welcome to the forum, first it is good to know that I am not the only old codger on here.
As you have had such a large dish for so long I am sure you must be familiar with adjusting it for maximum signal, but may not know there is a program for mobiles called Vu player which has a signal strength meter as part of the extras. Provided you have wi-fi to your phone this can be used to check the dish alignment without having to disconnect any cables.
As for the channels available, I am in a minority of one here but I like to let the system scan rather than use downloaded settings although this is obviously faster.
I will be interested to hear what channels you can pull in on 26 east and 7 west when you get going.

Tried 26 E , it locked on to 26E ( with network scan ) but I am getting 28E . So obviously for some reason the network scan is not picking up the NIT from 26 E .

Could not get W7.

I am quite satisfied with the TV facing the window and using the DUO2 tuner

I used to get more birds with the lt8700 and corotor set up few years back using the low threshold setting and the variable mechanical corotor setting for the polarity.

To date I have not pulled up any c band programmes yet.

In any case I have not fine tune the elevation and declination angle. I also have to adjust the C/ Ku LNB focusing and the angle yet ..( I have to increase the height of my scaffolding to safely do this) So hopefully things will get better than.

[cosworth4x4]

i dont think they use nit even though you are doing a network scan.

[crabber]

I am sure you will get it set up and adjusted properly soon. The reason I asked about 7 West was that there is a long thread about JSC sports channels in the general section. People are commenting on how easily or not they can receive them, I can watch them on a clear still day with only a 1.1 meter dish, so I expect you to be able to tune them with no trouble at all. I was interested to see what signal strength you got with such a huge dish.

[echelon]

I get plenty of channels including fta on 26e and 7w with a 1.1 metre dish in the n/w so you should definitely get those with a bigger dish in your location (some members here are interested in if you pull in those jsc footy/sport channels that elude most of us in the uk)

once your alignment is right there should be plenty of channels and satellites coming in

[unimesh7Fowner]

i dont think they use nit even though you are doing a network scan.

Just a intelligent guess . so what is a network scan?

[cosworth4x4]

nit = network id , a sat puts that out to identify itself seen it on sat meters so you know you are lining up to the correct sat.

network scan will automatically add transponders to search on the same network , but a network scan will not tell you if you are on the wrong sat once it locks onto one it will search that as you found out with 26/28 east.

[unimesh7Fowner]

I am sure you will get it set up and adjusted properly soon. The reason I asked about 7 West was that there is a long thread about JSC sports channels in the general section. People are commenting on how easily or not they can receive them, I can watch them on a clear still day with only a 1.1 meter dish, so I expect you to be able to tune them with no trouble at all. I was interested to see what signal strength you got with such a huge dish.

thanks I will bear this in mind.

[unimesh7Fowner]

I have only ever used a fairly cheap sat meter that makes a whistling noise which increases on a satellite (powered by the sat box) , but in addition also used boxes like my old tm1500 or newer spiderbox (which has signal and quality levels) and a portable tv to check the satellite I am on and the signal and quality levels using the box and tone meter

this has always been my preferred method as a non-professional installer to line up dishes and motors, I do not like using a linux box for this as I find the spiderbox to be extremely reliable when doing this task. never used any professional meters either, but I believe the proof of the pudding as being in the eating, so when my spiderbox gives me good signal and quality and shows me the actual satellite channels I expect, then I know exactly what I am getting

there is a july list of active transponders with fta channels in the sticky threads of the dish forum here, which I recently used to check my darkmotor and dish (the dish install faq thread) , so I would advise checking those first and ensuring you have found what you can get

save your channel list, load the catseye lists and its all done for you whilst doing all of this

should you prefer to scan your own list etc, there is no reason why you cannot reload your own saved list after sorting it all out with the catseye list (I use dreamboxedit for this)

no idea about C band stuff, so cannot help there

thanks. I have just installed the catseye list . Now all the freesat programmes are grouped together. Its easier now to search for a channel. I will do a retune of the tuners once I go out do the mechanical adjustment on the dish/ feedhorn .

[unimesh7Fowner]

Just an update on my dish alignment . the bearing on the inclination angle adjustment is just a washer and the play is quite great ( a few degrees, was Ok for analogue ) .Hoping to replace it with a ball type trust bearing. Hopefully this will stop the locking nut getting loose as the dish is moved by the motor.

[grafter]

I'm surprised with a 2.4 it's picking up 28E if you're pointing at 26, my 1.8 Precision doesn't get anything apart from (from memory so might be wrong) a single Ch4 transponder.

20E and 3E are probably the strongest C band signals available at the moment, 3E has a mix of linear and circular signals on it so you should get something easily without having to mess with depolarising plates too much.

The combined C and Ku LNBs are notorious for being crap on Ku, add that to the fact your dish is mesh you might find a dedicated 1m Gibertini and Inverto Black Ultra will do just as well and then use something like an ESX241 C band LNB on the unimesh although if access is tricky there's the problem of removing the plate for linear sats out west.

[unimesh7Fowner]

585805858158582

This is my 2.4 dish installation in Stanmore , Middx. NW London

.I have used two sets of dish brackets from 1.8 prime focus Traix dish( no longer marketed ). to distribute the load evenly on a larger area of the wall . Survived a few storms for the last 16 years.

the ajax mount is fixed on the top of a 85mm O/D stainless steel pole ordered from a stainless steel stockist.


Pictures shows the dish on 28E, east limit and west limit . If you notice carefully, the dish is more or less pointing horizontally at the west & east limits.

[unimesh7Fowner]

I'm surprised with a 2.4 it's picking up 28E if you're pointing at 26, my 1.8 Precision doesn't get anything apart from (from memory so might be wrong) a single Ch4 transponder.

20E and 3E are probably the strongest C band signals available at the moment, 3E has a mix of linear and circular signals on it so you should get something easily without having to mess with depolarising plates too much.

The combined C and Ku LNBs are notorious for being crap on Ku, add that to the fact your dish is mesh you might find a dedicated 1m Gibertini and Inverto Black Ultra will do just as well and then use something like an ESX241 C band LNB on the unimesh although if access is tricky there's the problem of removing the plate for linear sats out west.

Thank you for your inf Grafter. I agree that mesh dishes are not so good on Ku band depending on the mesh gauge . the smaller the mesh the better it is for Ku band. I checked the specification of the unimesh dish when I brought it. the Ku gain was not mush difference than of a solid dish of the same size of solid prime focus dish.
The unimesh was of 4 petals and of other solid dish came with 8 petals or more at that time. the more petals to assemble the more the " wrape" error will be. ie focusing will not be a sharp to the lnb.

I cannot comment on the c/ku LNB. but on paper, its seems ok for the Ku side . for the C side I agree with you of the difficulties of fitting the insulator plate .

I feel my problem is the alignment of the various elements of the dish which were not so critical during the days of analogue . For example previously, I had a corotor which had a tiny motor on the LNB which automatically adjusted for each channel by the analogue receiver Now I have replaced the c/ Ku with a WS International NS741U which has 0.3db Ku and a 13* C compared to the old 0.8db and 28* . Both have the same gain figures.

I have just realised my stupid mistake( age catching up with me) that I have aligned the LNb angle with the dish pointing west instead of it pointing south.

Furthermore, a plain washer (acting as a bearing on the declination stud) is nearly worn off due to friction when the dish is moved . I can see a few metal shavings around it. This has caused the dish to drop a few degrees at both the west/ east satellites. this once again, I suspect did not notice this previously due the higher tuner ( low threshold settings) sensitivity of the analogue receiver.

I am replacing the worn washer with a directional trust ball bearing . I have sourced one from Rs compoents.