New here, need info

tibouch · 24-02-2008

Hi There,

I am new here. We are a french family leaving in West Midlands UK, and we will have to move in a few weeks. I ll have to quit my cable system as cable is not existing where we move. I am looking at satellite to receive digital French and UK channels. I don't really know where to start, any information would be helpful. Thanks.

**Robbo71** · 24-02-2008

Hi, welcome to the forum,

The French free to air channels are mainly on the satellites at 5W,13E and 19.2E.

Have a look here:-
_http://www.flysat.com/tv-fr.php

The english channels are mainly on 28E.
_http://www.flysat.com/tv-uk.php

Your best option is probably a motorised dish, if you wanted to get all the channels from all those satellites. Alternatively a fixed dish for 5W, and a another dish with 3 LNBs for the other three satellites.

For the Free to air channels, you would also need a FTA digital satellite receiver, which cost from approx £40 upwards.

None of the satelites I have listed need a very large dish, a 60-80cm should be OK for all of them.

By the way, you would also need a good view of the southern skies, and ideally a south facing wall.

Robbo.

tibouch · 24-02-2008

Hi Robbo,

Thanks for the welcome and for those information. I appreciate your quick answer

. I ll have a look at all that and might come back with a few questions.

**Topper** · 24-02-2008

It would also help if we knew where you are moving to

tibouch · 24-02-2008

Hi, A few miles further, still in Birmingham but the cable is not there, so satellite seems to be a good option to get the channels I had before and more.

**Topper** · 24-02-2008

Originally Posted by tibouch

Hi, A few miles further, still in Birmingham but the cable is not there, so satellite seems to be a good option to get the channels I had before and more.

Ok no problem I wasn't being nosy or anything but have had people before asking then find out they are actually moving to Australia where they cannot see those sats

tibouch · 24-02-2008

Hi,

No worries

, I wish it could be Australia, I would enjoy the sun and warm temperature.

**Topper** · 24-02-2008

So as Robbo said you can get all you need and I would recommend you read all the tutorials on the forum for setting up dishes but especially Rolf's motorised dish tutorial, assuming you are setting it up yourself of course. There are plenty of people who will help if you get stuck but really patience is all you need, oh and a sat finder would be a worthwhile investment

tibouch · 24-02-2008

Thanks Topper, a sat finder will be my first buy then.

**Robbo71** · 24-02-2008

Are you thinking of going motorised or fixed tibouch?

**HB13DISH** · 25-02-2008

Originally Posted by tibouch

Hi There,

I am new here. We are a french family leaving in West Midlands UK, and we will have to move in a few weeks. I ll have to quit my cable system as cable is not existing where we move. I am looking at satellite to receive digital French and UK channels. I don't really know where to start, any information would be helpful. Thanks.

Have you considered an official subscription to Canal Sat on Astra 19.2E?
Canal Sat France Astra 19.2E Package Details
If you don't have a French address, you can buy a smartcard and a receiver with the right CAM support to open the channels.

tibouch · 25-02-2008

Robbo: I think I'll go motorised. I had a look to some interesting tutorials on this forum and I believe I might be abble to do that. I did it (not with a motorised dish though) when I was leaving in France and it worked quite well. It seems to be a bit more complicated here but not impossible. I can see that this forum is quite active and that I call for help. I am a bit concerna bout the size, I am moving in a terraced house, the wall which is facing south is the front wall. Do think I could go for the smallest size possible and still be able to catch satellites which deliver French channels ?

HB13DISH: Back in France I was subscribing for Canal Sat but I might go for a smartcard over here. What about the english channels like Sky, could I have a single receiver with various smartcard or other system ?

Topper: I have seen quite a few sat finders on internet going from nearly nothing on Ebay

to 30 or 40 £. Does a cheap one is good enough or should I go a more expensive one?

Thanks for all those information and advices guys, really appreciated.

**Robbo71** · 25-02-2008

With the smallest dish possible ( the smallest offset dish I have seen is 35cm) you would probably have problems with Astra(19.2E) and possibly Hotbird.

I had a Sky zone 1 minidish for those two sats, and I would lose signal if it rained to hard. A 60 cm one though should be fine.

I think a 60cm would be fine for 5W too, judging by the footprint on Lyngsat, but I never vistied there with my minidish due to an obstruction.

You may find one of the mesh dishes would look less intrusive, although I think that they are generally of low quality.

By the way, I have given up with the sat finder now, I just use a portable TV that I can see through the window, using the receiver in-built meter. The trouble with all the cheapo meters is that they can't tell you what satellite you are on or what frequency. But the cheap meters are better than nothing if that's your only option.

**HB13DISH** · 25-02-2008

Originally Posted by tibouch

HB13DISH: Back in France I was subscribing for Canal Sat but I might go for a smartcard over here. What about the english channels like Sky, could I have a single receiver with various smartcard or other system ?

Thanks for all those information and advices guys, really appreciated.

If you have a Sky subscription, then you might need two dishes.
Fixed for Sky and a motorized for the rest of satellites.
Also you would need a Sky receiver and another receiver with CAMs supporting various encryption methods for all the other satellites and official subscriptions like Canal Sat.
I think that Canal Sat give excellent value for money with so many interesting channels.

tibouch · 25-02-2008

I have just realised the front was not facing the south, but the east and that there is already a mini dish installed (see attached picture, sorry for the quality...). I believe I might have to put a small mast to be able to get a wider angle with a motorised dish...

tibouch · 25-02-2008

HB13DISH: Thanks for the information. It seems that my wall will be full of dishes and the living room full of receivers

... I think I'll forget about Sky then and keep the channels I can get with the motorised dish.

**Robbo71** · 25-02-2008

Originally Posted by tibouch

I have just realised the front was not facing the south, but the east and that there is already a mini dish installed (see attached picture, sorry for the quality...). I believe I might have to put a small mast to be able to get a wider angle with a motorised dish...

You wall is not facing east if that is a dish for Sky, it is more like 50 to 60 degrees WEST of south. But this is not a problem at all for the satellites you want.
For a 60cm dish 12" (30cm) T&K brackets coupled with a short length of scaffold pole or similar will easily suffice.

With that you would be able to get 28E and as far west as the horizon.

It is only Sky boxes that do not like motorised dishes, a proper satellite receiver would be OK, and you would still be able to watch all the FTA (free to air) channels from 28E.

Even a Sky dodgybox shouldn't be too bad on a motorised dish , if you always left the dish at 28E when you weren't using it, but it would still hiccup.You would need a twin LNB if you wanted to leave it in the circuit, as a non-sky box is needed for other satellites.

Robbo

tibouch · 25-02-2008

Thanks Robbo, yes, I wanted to say East my web cam inverted the picture.

tibouch · 25-02-2008

West, Arrrggg, sorry for that.

**Robbo71** · 25-02-2008

Originally Posted by tibouch

Thanks Robbo, yes, I wanted to say East my web cam inverted the picture.

Are you saying that the dish is really pointing LEFT in the picture, i.e it should be flipped left to right?

If so, you have a problem, you are more or less on the limit west, so your house would be blocking all the satellites other than 28E already mentioned.

You might be better off on the back of the house for the other satellites, if it's a terraced.

Then you could a fixed dish at the front for Sky, and a motorised one at the back for the others.

It may also be possible to mount a motorised dish above the gutter line for a better view.