FreeSat.

Mar 29, 2022 Last reply: 4 years ago 9 Replies

Have a 1 metre satellite dish and a rotator. Little used these days. Last time round about Xmas last year. Wanted to see a local BBC news (from Scotland) the other day and nothing.



Can get at the dish easily. Am I right in saying if I disconnect the cable to the motor there I should see volts between centre and screen? 12v with the motor activated?



There are a few 'joints' in the cable - all proper F plugs and couplers etc - so want to do a 'DC' test before buying any new bits.


13v or 18v depending if the box is calling for horizontal or vertical polarisation, with or without 22kHz depending if it's calling for low or high band

if the rotator uses DiseQc, and the box knows it's talking to the motor, i think the 22kHz gets modulated into command pulses

having got a satellite dish and suitable receiver a couple of years ago, again to watch BBC Scotland, I find I'm mostly watching that service via iPlayer on my computer.

Why the rotator? All UK channels come from the same point in the sky. My dish is mounted at ground level on a tree at the far end of my garden, pointing over the roof at the satellites. This avoids an unsightly mounting on the front of the house.

Because it was fun playing.

No point having a 1 metre dish if all I wanted was UK progs.

But mine is at the rear of the house. ;-)

Spent some time playing. Changing in the TV menu from LNB power on or off made no difference. Motor on or off the same. DC on the TV F connector reads a few mV. Other TV I have with a sat tuner (not used) reads about

12v DC.

But before trying for a warranty repair, I dug out the old sat STB. A Mutant. Played with that quite a bit so more up on its software. Initially, nothing. But moving the dish soon found Astra. And everything working again.

Swapped back to the TV, and that now tuned FreeSat.

So for some reason it would apparently only supply volts up the cable when it sees a load.

I had a new roof fitted recently. Although the dish isn't near that, I suppose they could have whacked it with a ladder. Or the recent high winds moved it.

Being a 1 metre dish it is pretty tolerant of position.

Everything about your complaint points to the motor not operating. Surely the motor must need a separate cable, otherwise how can the LNB be switched?

A 1 metre dish is far more affected by position than a tichy Sky one because its 'field of view' is much smaller.

I don't understand how they work, but no. Just a simple co-ax between rotator and receiver. And it works. I assume permanent DC to the motor as there is a button on it you can press to move it manually. That did nothing when I first checked, hence assuming it wasn't getting power.

Ok. I can move it several 'steps' either side before I see a change in the signal.

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