Sky satellite problems

by **Hoss** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 11:08 am

I recently upgraded my sky system to Sky+HD with multi-room, however when the sky installer came to my home he said it was not possible to have the multi-room facility and the record/playback function due to the fact that our building is connected to a communal ariel system. And since I did not have a sat dish he said the local authority does not permit sky to erect them. He gave me the option of pulling out of the upgrade but I decided to go ahead in the hope that I would be able to iron out all the issues. The installer very kindly let me have a dish from his van along with some co-ax connectors. I purchased 100m of 75 ohm co-axial cable, a satellite meter/finder. I erected the dish, ran the cable to the set-top boxes (wires not touching), got an alignment reading of 9.2, (the meter goes up to ten). But my TV shows the message (both of them), NO SATELLITE SIGNAL BEING RECIEVED. I tried moving the dish to which ever position with someone watching the tv screen but to no avail. I contacted Sky again, they asked from where I got the dish from, and not wishing to get the installer into trouble I said that I bought it from a specialist shop. They said that since the dish is not theirs then they cannot help.
Crikey! Here I am forking out more :( for a system than what I started with, and getting none of the benefit, not to mention £50 outlay on cable and sat/meter, and Sky won`t help.

I would be very greatful if anyone can provide a technical solution to my problem, maybe there is something I`ve missed.

by **plumbbob** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 4:33 pm

Are you sure the signal you are receiving is from the correct satellite? I had a similar problem when fixing my own dish. Gave up and called the Sky guy out, and it turned out I was pointing at the wrong satellite! They were very close together.

by **Hoss** » Fri Nov 28, 2008 12:09 pm

Thanks for reply Plumbob, however i have tried pointing the dish in various directions only to find that the sat finder meter I bought just drops off the lower end of the scale, and when the dish is in the meter`s optimum range scale, I still get the TV screen message; NO SATTELITE SIGNAL IS BEING RECIEVED. Frustrating or what??

by **Perry525** » Fri Nov 28, 2008 4:44 pm

As a caravaner I move about the country and have to tune in my Sky dish at every stop.

The Sky set of satellites is slightly East of due South-however the angle changes depending where you are in the country.

Another point is that the larger the dish the harder it is to tune in.

Look at the position of other dishes near you and take them as a guide.

If you have a portable TV that you can use to tune Sky this is a great help, as it takes a few seconds for each move to be absorbed into the system.
Turn the TV on and select Services.
Select System setup.
Select Signal test.
You will see the strength and quality as a linear display.
Each needs to be more than 50%

by **plumbbob** » Fri Nov 28, 2008 6:42 pm

In the services section that Perry mentions, check that the Network id is 0002 and the transport stream is 07d4.

It is different for different satellites, which is how we found my dish was pointing the wrong way.

Mind you, I am assuming this slightly, as I do not have HD, but I presume it is the same sat.

by **Hoss** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 4:22 pm

Thanks Perry525 & Plumbob, I will try that in the week after next when I have the time as I`m doing my final module & exam for CORGI.

by **ericmark** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 2:01 am

I had original sky set up and over time it dropped off (10 years) I also tried using a finder and got some results but not good enough. So I tried to cancel sky at which point they came and found the cable was not up to scratch but would not renew as they are not allowed in the loft it seems yet original routed through loft by sky man. So fitted new cable and signal strength came up and all worked. Then I got free to air box intended for bedroom but though I could use to record one while watching another but although seems to have through port as soon as I switched on FTA the Sky failed.
So Thought I would try using old cable (Have quad LNB) and it works A1 so it seems the Sky box is not very sensitive?
My son in law tried setting up satellite using a big dish and it was a failure with sat finder and had to set up TV outside and then he found Turksat without a problem.
As other user says with big dish so many signals hard to select correct one.
Do you know anyone with Sky where you can test box?
Eric