Help needed

Originally Posted by Rich-Tea

Hi everyone, i was wondering if someone could help me, I’m completely new to this satellite stuff, so please be patient..

I want to buy a new motorised system, was thinking about a technomate receiver with a 1 metre dish, can forum members recommend which receiver and which dish to buy!! And where to buy from? Plus the dish must be black, as will be getting it installed at my girlfriends who lives in Bradford, as she lives in one of those country houses with black stone, a white dish would stick out like a sore thumb....so black dish is needed..

Ps: is a 1 metre dish legal? Or do i need planning permission?

Thanks in advance..

Originally Posted by 2cvbloke

First off, the law says you can have 2 dishes without planning permission, 1st is up to 1m and second up to 60cm...

As for a black dish, it's easier just to buy a normal white or grey dish, then using matt-black car paint just spray it black or maybe be arty and match the brick pattern of the house...

You can find allsorts of kits through the advertiser's banners at the top of the page...

Originally Posted by Rich-Tea

Thanks very much my friend, will check things out.

Originally Posted by 2cvbloke

No probs, just a quick note, the Technomate 1500 series are quite popular for their patchability for "extra" channels...

Originally Posted by Rich-Tea

Thats what i was thinking? The technomate but which one is better 1500 or 1600...
Would you recommend buying a full system off Ebay ?

Originally Posted by 2cvbloke

The 1500 is better known for the patching, I'm not sure about the 1600 though...

You can buy a full system from Ebay if you like, most people do, it's just up to what you're prepared to spend...

Originally Posted by Rich-Tea

I sort of resigned to spend a bit, ive been saving up quite a while, the most important bit is getting it right, and buying the right items..

I’ll settle for a technomate 1500, on your advice, can you recommend a good dish? It’s got to withstand heavy wind and stuff, where her in doors lives, it gets wind/snow the lot, its right in the hills, so it’s got to be pretty sturdy.

The colour doesn’t matter now, i’ll take your advice again, and use car spray paint on it...

Thanks again mate, you’ve been really helpful

Originally Posted by 2cvbloke

There's several types of good dish makes, Triax, Gibertini, Channel Master/Andrews (more expensive, but tough as anything!!!), just have a look through some other posts to see what other people have chosen, but again, it's all about how much you wish to spend...

As for surviving strong winds and bad weather, you'll need to use a set of T & K brackets, as the sheap "L" brackets will just flex about, and in some cases they have even snapped off leaving the dish dangling by it's cable or on the ground with a big dent!!! Also, T&K setups are best suited to motorised setups as they're much more stable, but you have to make sure it's straight and vertical otherwise the dish won't be properly aligned to the satellite arc...