Hi all,

We moved into our newly rented but fairly old house on the slopes of the Jura about two weeks ago. I finally got around to buying some cable for our existing sky box to hook it into the existing satellite dish hanging off the roof of the house (appears to be pointing roughly in the right direction....).

Plugged in the sky box, turned on, went to look for signal strength and......
NADA.

I think it is probably that the LNB's have kicked the bucket either from being frozen to death or unpowered for a long time - last tenant in the house was here in May....

Can I just unhook the LNBs and put new ones in, or should I ditch the whole setup, dish and all?? The dish is large, but I suspect quite aged...

Advice gratefully received.

Thanks!!

Or simply the dish points at another satellite... there are some sticky instructions that include alignment, I suggest you follow those and report back if still problems. D

The dish wouldn't be aged (unless a truck drove over it).
Not all LNB's are created equal...

Was this used with Sky before??

Most locals will point the dish at 13 or 19 degrees and not 28

No, I don't believe so. But with my Sky box plugged in, should it not pick up whatever satellite was hooked up previously, and at least show a signal? When I go into the installer menu, it shows no signal strength at all....

Is it a sky digital box or analog?

Its sky digital, its a sky plus box we've had in Ireland for about a year..

Go and get a new LNB at Mediamarkt, treat it very carefully and if it doesn't work, then return it. Never seen a broken LNB ((I have the feeling that the dish is pointing in the wrong direction or perhaps the cable is somewhere broken) but I guess it could happen.

i bet it is the cable. i had a broken cable before

I'll send you my old one in the mail then. Outside new, inside... dead.
welcome to electronics.

The house we moved into had a very old & big dish for sky. We had numerous problems and replaced cables, lnb's, but in the end were recommended to change the dish. We now have a smaller new dish and everything works perfectly....so maybe it is the dish.

SKY digital will only pickup the Astra 2 satellites (there is a way to change the frequency and polarization it uses for the signal meter).

You can always try a separate signal meter. Or can you borrow a non-sky Digital satellite box?

You have new cables, so either duff LNB or pointing at the wrong satellite I'd say.

To get a good "almost all weather except snow blizzard and torrential rain" signal for Sky you need min 80cm dish and I would recommend spending a bit more on a very low noise lnb (0.2db or less).

Anyway we are all speculating until you confirm its not just the alignment.

Daniel

check the cables, even if alignment is wrong you shall get "some signal".

I , once, spent hours fighting a broken cable (and became wiser in the process).

Once you start picking up the signal, then alignment will be next. Astra 28 is a pretty easy satellite to align (once you know where to point )


Good luck
neerahi

PCDesigns, I don't say that LNB's don't get broken (everything in life does!), but from my limited experience with these devices is fairly uncommon for them to get fried. It was just a wild guess so will look forward for the OP to let us know the root cause and also to have him enjoying his satellite TV.

Hey, and thanks for the welcoming to the electronics, I haven't heard that phrase for about 18 years, since I graduated as electronic engineer! . I learned that in the hard way, like new outside and completely fried inside!

Cheers, yopo

Its not the cable, I ran a brand new 20 mtr length down from the attic to my sky box. My worry was over the total lack of signal, I assumed the disk was at least pointing at a satellite...

However, I think I now need to call in a man with a meter and a ladder - the dish is up on the roof, I'd be fairly certain that the likely outcome of me going on the roof to adjust it would be

a) No satellite signal
b) A broken leg

I think I'll also invest in a couple of new LNB's - not too expensive and I think from everything I've read that they are actually goosed, or I'd be seeing some sort of signal.

Thanks to all for the help.....I need to get myself organised in advance of Saturday's Heineken Cup matches !!