Satellite

I have a Maxview Satellite crank up.on the roof of the van and sometimes it takes me ages to get a signal,i can  use the TV to help get a signal but not very often,so would it help if i bought a metre or can you get a app for my phone.
I very rarely use it as its frustrating .So if somebody is able to help that would be great.
I did look to see if it could be changed to an automatic but it cannot be done.
rich

I use Satfinder Tool from the playstore.

greycaster wrote:I use Satfinder Tool from the playstore.

Thanks greycaster,i have tried a similar app for iPhone without much luck.

I have a portable sat dish and use this meter to locate the satellite.. Without it, it would be very hit and miss. An app just gives the bearing and elevation required for your location, and I find it is just a useful starting point. The meter finishes the job off by helping to orientate the dish for the strongest signal....

                                        https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/satellite-finder-a96fg

I was always having a problem setting up my dish especially when it was raining. My new van has a cytrax automatic system which is brilliant, 30 seconds and its up and running. Expensive but hey ho you can't take it with you.

i used to have a Crank up system and heres how i got it tuned (usually fairly quickly)......
firstly, you need some ide of where you need to point the dish...into the sun at around 12 o clock is a good approximation.
similarly, you need to know roughly the elevation of the dish...this can be found once ypu have next successfully tuned in....ie, when you wind it down, note the number of turns in the handle (i think mine was 8.5 turns)...
i also had a tuning meter in line so that i could hear the changing sound..
so, firstly, elevate by the number of turns.....
sweep the dish from east of the 'guess' to the west and listen to the meter...
if nothing, change the elevation by (say) one turn and then sweep again....
youll soon get the hang of it...
this process is very similar to how my Teleco Flatsat works.
good luck.

If you're having a problem getting a signal, even with 'Satfinder' or similar, the problem might be the dish 'skew' which has to be close to right to get a decent quality data stream.
Skew is the angle that the LNB should be rotated to.
Make sure that you know how to set the skew dependant on your geographical location.

on my Camos Flatsat, it originally had no skew, this was not a 'skewable' model yet i got a full signal everywhere in the UK easily.
later, i made a bracket to incorporate the skew needed for sputhern france and i was able to pick up uk channels a bit further into france then before..

Our new van had a Snipe Selfsat fitted when we bought it.
We're in Spain at the moment and I was pretty certain that there'd be no chance of any freesat channels this far south with the limited footprint of the new satellite.
We did manage to get a full bouquet of ITV channels just north of Biarritz the other day though, which surprised me.
The Snipe dish has auto everything, including skew.

rich g wrote:I have a Maxview Satellite crank up.on the roof of the van and sometimes it takes me ages to get a signal,i can  use the TV to help get a signal but not very often,so would it help if i bought a metre or can you get a app for my phone.
I very rarely use it as its frustrating .So if somebody is able to help that would be great.
I did look to see if it could be changed to an automatic but it cannot be done.
rich

I had a maxview crank up on a narrow boat for about 3 years and although there's definitely a knack to finding a signal after a bit of practice I could usually find a signal within a minute or two, but after about a year or so it was becoming increasingly difficult to find a signal getting intermittent results and after a bit of a witch hunt I found that the coax cable that runs through the unit had fractured and was intermittently connecting and disconnecting (the cable flexes every time the dish is raised and rotated and the solid copper core doesn't lend itself well to repeated flexing) 

This may not be the issue with yours as your dish has probably not been moved as much as mine as I was a full time live aboard moving about twice a week but it might be worth a look (in 3 years I think I replaced the cable about three times which does require a bit of dissembling) It is relatively easy to check by connecting a cable direct from the lnb to the receiver bypassing the internal cable but of course you do need to be able to get to the lnb. 

On a more general note some receivers are a bit slow to register a signal (sky boxes particularly slow) so you may find a meter helps if your tv is a bit slow to respond to a signal.

Happy sat hunting.

Justus2 wrote:I have a portable sat dish and use this meter to locate the satellite.. Without it, it would be very hit and miss. An app just gives the bearing and elevation required for your location, and I find it is just a useful starting point. The meter finishes the job off by helping to orientate the dish for the strongest signal....

                                        https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/satellite-finder-a96fg

Be aware that you can get the same thing on Ebay for a fiver - link.

,Update i have bought one of these https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/digital-satellite-finder-a13kf  but unable to fit it myself,so i need help to find someone in Worcestershire to fit it as i cant find anyone.
Thanks
rich

They do not need fitting as such they just fit inline with the feed from the dish. You may need a short length of cable to position it in an area you can see.

Hi  

jennyandpeter wrote:They do not need fitting as such they just fit inline with the feed from the dish. You may need a short length of cable to position it in an area you can see.

Agreed no installation needed and they are very easy to use.

Unscrew the lead from the dish to the receiver (at the receiver end) and screw it into the connection marked “satellite”.

Connect a second cable of any convenient length (sometimes a short one comes with the meter) from the connection marked “Receiver” and screw it into the receiver input - where you removed the original cable from.

The receiver will power the unit.

I’ve not used that particular model but the “ATT” button probably adjusts the sensitivity up and down (they all have a sensitivity control of some sort). You start at high sensitivity and if you get a full scale reading you turn the sensitivity down and carry on until you get a peak in the reading.

The “Buzzer” button turns on a buzzer that varies in tone and / or volume as the signal increases.

When you have found the best alignment you can normally either remove the unit or leave it in circuit as you wish.

If you find a strong signal and get either no channels or channels you weren’t expecting you have almost certainly found the wrong satellite - easily done.

Once you have a signal you can use the signal strength / quality feature on the TV for fine tuning (e.g. skew). Signal strength and quality are not the same thing and maximum signal doesn’t all ways co-inside with maximum quality.

Brod

How do i connect this 
To this  

thanks in advance 
rich

You'll need an extra (preferably short) satellite cable with a plug at each end.

Disconnect the existing cable from the receiver and plug it into the L/H socket on the finder marked 'Satellite', then plug the short extension cable into the socket marked 'Receiver' on the finder and the other end into the socket on the 'Micro M25 SC' receiver.

Follow the finder instructions to move and align the satellite dish.

EDIT: Is the dish cable currently plugged into the correct socket on the M25 SC Receiver? I can't find any helpful pictures on the net which show the legends on the two connectors.
It's worth checking that you have the cable into the correct connector at the moment, as this picture seems to show the dish cable in the other socket from the one in your picture:

hi meanchris
I have see just seen the set up you sent,i see that my cable is in a different socket,but it is picking up a signal when i move the satellite dish.

I will try the cable in the end one. 

Thank you for your help

I was just thinking that you could maybe look at the legend under each connection, to see what each one is for?

I wouldn't move the cable without checking first, one might be for the explosive ejector seat.

To late moved it  from IF out to LNB in 300 ma MAX as shown in the diagram you sent,strange as both respond to moving the dish 

now a trip Maplin to buy cable and F connectors

cheers

rich g wrote:To late moved it  from IF out to LNB in 300 ma MAX as shown in the diagram you sent,strange as both respond to moving the dish 

now a trip Maplin to buy cable and F connectors

cheers

That might explain why you're getting a signal but no picture, the IF Out connector won't be (IIRC) sending transponder tuning signals to the dish.

It might be worth trying to get a picture now that you've moved the Dish/LNB cable to the right connection, before you go out and buy more bits.

EDIT: The 'IF Out' connector is to send the signal from a dish connected to the 'LNB' connection to another device, it's what's known as a pass through connection, not for connecting to the dish.

meanchris wrote:You'll need an extra (preferably short) satellite cable with a plug at each end.

Disconnect the existing cable from the receiver and plug it into the L/H socket on the finder marked 'Satellite', then plug the short extension cable into the socket marked 'Receiver' on the finder and the other end into the socket on the 'Micro M25 SC' receiver.

Follow the finder instructions to move and align the satellite dish.

EDIT: Is the dish cable currently plugged into the correct socket on the M25 SC Receiver? I can't find any helpful pictures on the net which show the legends on the two connectors.
It's worth checking that you have the cable into the correct connector at the moment, as this picture seems to show the dish cable in the other socket from the one in your picture:

To fit the satellite finder do i connect it between the sat dish and the connector as in the diagram

Yes, between the dish and the 'LNB' connector on the receiver.

Aren't you going to try without the finder first, I'm pretty sure that the incorrect connection to 'IF Out' was why you weren't getting a signal?

Yes i will try it first when i move the van away from the bungalow