UK Sky Digital Dish

[muckypup]

The guy I bought my house off had sky digital and he left the sat dish. I have now just bought a decoder off ebay (confirmed it working perfectly on a friends setup) and want to connect it up.

The dish is quite solidly mounted and looks to be pointing the correct way. The only problem was that part of the cable down the wall is missing (I blame the missus & some agressive pruning of nearby plants).

From what I can gather, the cable is the same coax as for TV?

I have made a temp join in the cable simply by twisting the centre cores of the cable together and confirmed with a multimeter that there is connectivity from one end to the other. However, when plugged into the decoder box it says no signal received (and the signal strength meters are empty)

Have I missed something with the cabling?

MP

[greengate69]

A couple of things:

Normal TV COAX is certainly NOT suitable for digital Satellite. Depending on the length of the cable run that may be why you are seeing no signal.

For joining the cable, join the inner cores and the outer braids of both sides to each other and make sure they are insulated from each other.

Sounds silly but is the LNB on the end of the dish connected?

Could the dish have been knocked out of alignment, this would also give you no signal?

I would recommend:

1. Use decent satellite cable
2. Join the cable core and braids (core to core, braid to braid)
3. Check that the dish and LND couldn't have been knocked out of alignment.

If you don't have a local satellite retailer, I can recommend

http://www.thedigiboxshop.com

they can supply the cable, an LNB (if required), and if you need te realign the dish they sell a simple (and effective) tuning meter.

P.S. check it is definitely a Sky Digital dish and LNB. If it is an old Sky Analogue it may be useable (as long as the LNB is type "Universal"), but the dish would definitely need realigning.


Good luck

[muckypup]

mmm...

Found this URL...

http://www.heyrick.co.uk/ricksworld/digibox/splice.html

Which claims the sat signal is transmitted down the "waxy-looking stuff between the inner wire and the braid".. which if correct is probably why no signal is getting though as I have not connected up the waxy-looking stuff together.

I have followed your advice though and ordered 10m of sat cable, 2 F-plugs and an F-Type Barrel Connector and I will do it properly!!

MP.

[muckypup]

That sorted it! I replaced the length of ordinary tv cable with the stuff from the sat shop. I used the proper connectors (added very carefully) and now everything works!

MP.

[BJ_M]

mmm...

Found this URL...

http://www.heyrick.co.uk/ricksworld/digibox/splice.html

Which claims the sat signal is transmitted down the "waxy-looking stuff between the inner wire and the braid".. which if correct is probably why no signal is getting though as I have not connected up the waxy-looking stuff together.

I have followed your advice though and ordered 10m of sat cable, 2 F-plugs and an F-Type Barrel Connector and I will do it properly!!

MP.

that waxy looking stuff is not a conductor, it's an insulator ..

[bugster]

Found this URL...

http://www.heyrick.co.uk/ricksworld/digibox/splice.html

Which claims the sat signal is transmitted down the "waxy-looking stuff between the inner wire and the braid"..
MP.

The secret is that the high frequency signal actually travels down the waxy-looking stuff between the inner wire and the braid. Please don't ask me how this happens, it smacks of ghostly goings-on to me, but rest assured that it is true

If that guy wasn't serious it would be pretty funny, but as it is, this is scary that someone could be so wrong

[BJ_M]

maybe he read about the "skin effect" of HF transmission and didn't understand it ... Teflon, foam-core and PVC make poor conductors

problem is - people believe stuff like that ...