Hi
I am sorry if I am posting this in the wrong place... total newbie here...
So I have an FTA decoder to receive Dutch TV (BVN) through Astra 4A.
We managed to set everything up (well my husband) and thought we had found the signal, but then realised when we plugged in the decoder that the signal quality seemed ok, but signal strength was very very low??? So does that mean we have the right stellite but something's wrong with the LNB or so?
I must sound like a dummie, but would appreciate to get some opinions on this (in baby language please!
)
Thanks guys!
Thanks so much for all the help.
Satellit AV, we did as you said, but then also found that TopTV (pay TV here in SA) also runs through the Astra 4A, so we just checked the neighbours dish for that.
HAPPY
Marisi,
I see that you are pleased with the answers thus far, so I assume that you figured out the situation to your liking.
When I read your initial post, I made up a first responder notion of your situation based upon your wording. Since I do not know if you stated (typed) the situation out as you truly meant it to be, I have to try and read a little "in-between the lines" and make assumptions from my own experiences. You will please forgive me if I am going in the wrong direction because of these notions.
Your decoder, Set Top Box, IRD or receiver (however you like to call it, displays two signal parameters. SIGNAL LEVEL and SIGNAL QUALITY. These two indicators are both important, they reflect two unique measurements, but they are not entirely independant nor are they identical. Let's just say that they are "RELATED" or "Co-Dependant".
The SIGNAL LEVEL is, for all intents and purposes, a measurement of all the electronic "NOISE", good and bad, that the receiver can detect. It includes electrical interference and other background radiation signals, the internal noise from the electronic components themselves as well as the actual satellite signals.
The SIGNAL QUALITY, for all intents and purposes, is a measurement of the DIFFERENCE between ALL the undesireable "NOISE" and the actual satellite signal.
If the satellite antenna is properly aligned to aim at a specific satellite and all the menu parameters within the receiver are set up appropriately, then the satellite signal is "powerful" compared to all the other noise and the signal quality reading will be high. This is the important reading or measurement that you want to see.
The SIGNAL LEVEL, is a composite reading or measurement of everything - all noise including any satellite signal that might be present. But, SIGNAL LEVEL is important because you can detect and extrapolate a great deal of information from this reading. If it is extremely low, it might indicate that you have a poor or NO connection between the receiver and the LNBF on the antenna. It informs you of the "health" of your cabling and connections, the LNBF itself and the accuracy of the setup parameters.
If you do not aim the dish antenna at any satellite and take SIGNAL LEVEL readings, that is a baseline of the what the receiver detects from all the background and inherent or self induced noise. Every receiver displays a relatively standard or typical level of "noise" when not aimed at a sat. This indication varies from receiver to receiver and dependant upon the length of the cable and the type of LNBF and any switches that you may have installed. You have to adjust yourself to know what is normal for your personal equipment since it will vary because of many independant parameters. Your SIGNAL LEVEL readings will be unique to your setup.
You may utilize that "base-line" signal level to assist you in aligning your dish to a satellite. This is because you will detect an increase in the signal level if you dial your dish antenna towards a legitimate satellite. You should detect that the base-line signal level increases, since you added some more electronic "noise" or signal to the overall noise, even if you are not picking out any particular satellite signal just yet. You can detect that there is some other signal besides just the general "noise" there as you are getting closer to the proper alignment with the satellite. So the overall noise level increases regardless if you have isolated that signal perfectly from the total background noise or not.
Once you are truly "locked" onto a legitimate satellite signal, and you have your receiver parameters set up to look for that specific transponder signal, then the SIGNAL
QUALITY measurement should "JUMP" up and out of the background noise and show itself as being highly distinct from all the other noise signals.
Many people will tell you that the only important reading is the SIGNAL QUALITY, but I disagree. Now that I have explained what some of the differences are between SIGNAL LEVEL and SIGNAL QUALITY are, I hope you can understand why they are BOTH important. Both readings are extremely helpful to you, but typically for different reasons.
The two measurements are not totally independant of eachother and they are also not redundant for sure. You need both of them to inform you as to what is truly going on within your system. Understanding what they both infer is key and very helpful.
RADAR
