I have started using a Humax PVR for caravanning in place of a Sky receiver.
When setting up a 60cm dish at any new (U.K.) location with a sat meter I can find Astra 28 without problem (10 years practice with the Sky box) but the Humax does not show any signal strength or quality readings at all. If I do a search it cannot find a signal and it shows my postcode as "invalid". Doing a manual search will then find programmes after which the SS and SQ read as normal, 100% on both.
Anyone any idea what I am doing wrong? With a Sky receiver previously set up, connecting to the dish, aligning on Astra 28 produces SS and SQ readings and all the channels. Why doesn't this happen with the Humax?
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Odd, to work in freesat mode the hdr needs to access 11426 H on Eurobird 1 at 28.5E. Best suggestion turn on the hdr select manual tune and choose the above transponder. Line up the dish using the displayed quality and sig strength.

Thanks. I think you are correct as the instructions state to do exactly that if "invalid postcode" shows. I didn't check the "trouble shooting" appendix at the time...familiarity breeds contempt / when in doubt RTFI etc etc...........
What I can't understand is if the receiver has been set up previously then connecting to a dish correctly aligned to Astra 28°E it should not need re-tuning. For example, on returning home, the Humax is connected up to the house dish and works immediately. The Sky box didn't need re-tuning each time I changed location.
It couldn't (?) have been the dish alignment because, when I eventually tuned in, the dish hadn't been moved from where the meter indicated maximum strength.

Ah well, next month, try again.

The sky epg comes from Astra2 at 28.2E, the Freesat one from Eurobird1 at 28.5E. If you aligned the dish on a Astra2 transponder you might be a tad off for EB1.

An analogue sat meter wouldn't distinguish 28.2 from 28.5 but, as I stated, the dish wasn't moved between getting "invalid postcode" / no SS/SQ and, eventually, tuning in. Strangely, I didn't have this problem on my previous trips earlier this year. Just set the dish with the meter and all was well. I certainly didn't set up a manual tune on 11426. Something weird about this last trip.
Thanks for the reply.

You don't need the meter to tell you which satellite you are aligning on. If you align on 11426 H you are aligning on 28.5E (there's no 11426 H on Astra 2). This should get you both 28.2 and 28.5E