Hispasat rediscovered

[Jacobo40]

After a couple of stormy nights recently my motorised dish slipped a few inches and as a result I can no longer tune in any Eastern satellites, leaving me with only Hispasat 30W, Telstar 12 15W and Thor 6 0.8W. As matters stand Hispasat is the only reliable one left.
This may be a blessing in disguise, particularly in the context of sport/movies/do***entaries and the like. Most of Portugal gets its satellite tv from Hispasat and for the English-speaker seeking movie stations, the Portuguese practice of using subtitles (instead of changing
the original soundtrack to the local language, as they do in Spain) is a boon. This also applies to tv series and do***entary series such as AXN and National Geographic. On the other hand Sport --what we have of it at the moment-- is almost all in Portuguese, but all the
European soccer leagues are represented, as well as other sports.

So, if you ever find yourself without Astra2, Hispasat could be a decent alternative.

[tinto de verano]

Hi Jacobo40,

I forgot to mention that you can always cheat by entering false latitude and longitude in your box... till you get a signal.

"Pretend to be somewhere else".

Make a note of your real lat/long first, of course.

Select one of your Astra 2 channels.

Go into Motor section.

Then you can try adding (in my case, maybe removing in yours... depending on the wind I guess) degrees to North first till you get a signal for your Astra 2 channel. Try fine tuning by adding or removing to East.

I used this trick after strong winds. Temporarily, till I get someone to realign my dish. Whenever that can be.

It works, even for the other satellites. I move the dish/motor, and there they are, Hotbird, Hispasat... maybe not all at top signal... but watchable (Astra 2 at 99% by the way, so no big loss).

In my case, just by heart/memory, not at the telly right now, I think my lat and long should be 6X.XXX North and 0.4XXX East, but I am currently using 085.000 North and 000.84 East... wherever that might be.

A big difference. But it works.

I know, the dish needs to be properly aligned and then I will be able to enter my real long/lat... but till that day.

Try it, good luck.

tinto de verano

[Jacobo40]

Many thanks, tinto de verano, I'll try what you suggest. I am used to modifying the coordinates to better define signals, but not to this extent. I'm not hopeful of bringing in Astra 2 at this location, which would be close to impossible at the best of times. But 27.5 West could be feasible and getting Astra 1 back would be rather nice, as well as Thor 6. I'll let the forum how things develop.

Jacobo40.

[tinto de verano]

Hi Jacobo40,

Did you try? Any luck?

I hope so.

tinto de verano

[JMH]

In my case, just by heart/memory, not at the telly right now, I think my lat and long should be 6X.XXX North and 0.4XXX East, but I am currently using 085.000 North and 000.84 East... wherever that might be.
Arctic Ocean

[Jacobo40]

Hi, tinto de verano: Sorry I couldn't get back sooner.

After much trying this and trying that I haven't been able to bring anything else in among the West satellites (which is the natural place to start) and the East satellites would be an even greater stretch. I'm used to making relatively small adjustments but so far the HiTech hasn't responded for larger deviations. I've even tried with another box (SkySat s2020) and no luck there either. What I'll continue to do is to try to bring in 27.5º West, which is pretty close to the only satellite I continue to get, Hispasat at 30º West. As soon as I can come up with anything, I'll report back.

[KARABANGA]

Hi. Have you tried moving the dish using 1.2 protocol to see how many satellites you pick up. With 1.2 you dont need your location settings as its manual search and store program. You need to make sure you have correct frequency for each satellite you are searching for when moving the dish . If you dont find satellites using 1.2 then you wont find them using USALS either..its means your dish is out of alignment..Regards

[Jacobo40]

Thanks, KARABANGA, for the suggestion. Could you explain just what is "1.2 protocol"?

With covid-19 I'm away from my usual moorings and moving to a more rural location has meant that local technical assistance is pretty limited, particularly if it entails motors. Actually the plan is modest enough: make small adjustments from Hispasat at 30ºWest to
Intelsat 907 at 27.5ºWest. With Hispasat and the BBC Satback on Intelsat 907 I'll be happy enough.

[ManikM]

1.2 is just a manual method of searching, you search using the fine movement function of the menu, then store when you lock on to a channel, it then remembers for next time when you select the channel

just do an internet search for diseqc 1.2 motor setup

[Jacobo40]

Understood and thanks. I use USALS rather than diseqc 1.2, but the idea is the same.

[KARABANGA]

Hi Yes for those who dont know USALS is the automatic search for satellites and 1.2 is the manual find and store satellites.. In my opinion USALS is always best as you only need to find and adjust the first satellite and the rest should come in though you may need to tweak it a bit as you go along. With 1.2 you need to know which way you need to move the dish ie east or west ...you also need to be careful at what point the motor dial is set to before you move it. Its always best to have motor dial set to zero and depending on which motor you have you will be able to move it between 70 degrees east and 70 degrees west.. With USALS you dont need to worry
about which way to move the dish as it will be moved in the right direction by USALS..For example if you are currently on Hotbird 13 east and wish to go to say 5west USALS will move the dish towards the west and stop on the 5 mark on motor dial. If you then want to go to 30 west USALS will move dish till it hits the 30 mark on the dial..The numbers on the motor dial represent the satellites position ..the dial has 0 as the centre(usually called the reference point) and then 1 to 70 for east satellites and 1 to 70 for west satellites. Take it from me that USALS is very accurate in finding satellites as long as you line it up on the first satellite correctly. you may need to tweak it a few times before you get it right..its not difficult but requires time and patience. Hope this has helped you to understand a bit about how motors work.. Regards

[JOE.MADDISON]

looks like your dish has slipped a lot,ther is little chance of finding many sats,and the next storm will move it again ,best to set it up correctly and tighten clamps etc.

[KARABANGA]

Hi..Its always important to check that the motor clamps on your wall mount are tight otherwise the motor can slip . Also dish clamps attached to motor should be tight otherwise in strong winds the dish may move left or right and you lose your lineup. I always make markings on the motor tail and the dish clamps so if i lose my lineup i just need to line the two marks together and i get my satellites back.. Regards

[Jacobo40]

Thanks a lot for both your comments, KARABANGA, very much to the point. I have always left the actual setting up of the dish to qualified technicians, all the while trying to learn what I can. However the present pandemic has me pretty isolated in rural area where most antenna installers have never worked with motors. So I'm going to seriously read up on the subject with an eye to doing repairs myself.

Thanks again.

[KARABANGA]

Hi Take it from me its easy to set up a motor..but its important to stress the need for precautions if working on a ladder etc especially in bad weather. If you feel its too risky then let a professional do it for you....If you need advice please ask. Regards

[JOE.MADDISON]

before you start look closley at motor clamp and dish clamp if dish has been up a while you may see marks where clamps were originaly and/or slip marks,and only loosen clamps one at a time,only enough to move it.

[KARABANGA]

Hi The only clamps you need to loosen is the dish clamps which hold the dish to the motor tail. The motor clamps which are are secured to the wall mount should be tight and never loosened unless you change motor or need to repair it. The dish clamps can be loosened a little bit to enable you to move dish slowly left or right until you pick up a signal...then tighten the clamps so dish does not move. Regards

[JOE.MADDISON]

SORRY but have been to dish problems where the clamp on th pole moved,more times than the dish clamp

[ManikM]

you cant get to your dish to re-align? sounds like the best bet - ive just gone through this pain...although tbf was quite straight forward once the pole was level, and the dish was dead centre on the motor - and the usals was correct - which can be acquired from dish pointer dot com