Sat (Satellite Technology) HOWTO

5. Base setup

5.1 First: mounting

The first thing we have to do is to mount our parabolic antenna;

After we need to pointing it out (searching right degrees from some magazine): degrees are always intended from south to east or to west for horizontal one and from ground to satellite line for vertical one. Classical pointing tools is the compass.

5.2 Calibrating

How can we see if we are right oriented?

After decided a right range of angles, we have to adjust it measuring power level. For such a thing we can

1. Use for example an analog receiver (which is compatible with digital converter) and start to search right degree: when we see some imagine we'll get it. I suggest to use analog converter cause, maybe, you have one (from precedent installation) and cause it is more simple to calibrate it than digital one.
2. Use a power meter (about 20US$) with sequential lights: at full signal all lights turn up.

5.3 Double Feed

You can also install a double feed system (some vendors sell a complete kit with standard distance to receive, for example, Astra (19.2 SE) with Eutelsat (16 SE) or with HotBird (13 SE).

For mounting it you have to consider, in addition, that satellite is at the opposite side of the converter, like in figure:

              SAT1                 SAT2
                 \                 / 
                  \               /
                   \   C1   C2   /  
               \    \    \ /    /     /       
                \    \   / \   /     /
                 \____\ /___\ /_____/
                      
                      Top View  
               
               C1 receives from SAT2
               C2 receives from SAT1

Also, with 2 focus, you would use a diseq.

5.4 Data-link level adjusting

Once we got analog signal we have to adjust our receiver to right frequency, PID, speed rate and so on.

I report here an example of configuration, for EON (EuropeOnLine), transponder 114 on Astra satellite (19.2 SE)

Frequency: 12640 MHz

Polarization: V (Vertical)

Symbol Rate: 22000 KS/s

PIDs:

• Unicast: 512 (decimal), 0x200 (hexadecimal)
• Multicast: 785, 786, 1041 (decimal), 0x311, 0x312, 0x411 (hexadecimal), but you should notice that, in many cases, Multicast PIDs are taken in automatic.

We also need another info: what MAC address to assign to our DVB card.

Again, for EON you can see Appendix A to calculate MAC address from dynamic IP address.

Obviously you need login and password to use ISP service.