A few questions from a newbie

kroc_kroc

Brief history:

My wife is form Slovakia and she wants our sons to be able to watch Slovak channels to help with their vocabulary. So initially we just wanted the dish to use a card/package which her mum brought over: Skylink Astra 3/23.5E.

After doing a bit of research and asking some questions on a non-dedicated satellite forum I have decided a motorised dish is the best option because I would enjoy the extra FTA channels including the HD stuff.

Questions:

1. Do I definitely need to go for a 1m dish? The official Astra footprint says I need 1m + dish but when having a look at an installers dish nearby my house he could get a good signal from that satellite with an 85cm Fracara dish. We couldn't test the actual channels properly because he didn't have a CAM to decrypt my card but the bars looked about 80-90% full (on a clear day). I was told by a lot of people on the other forum to go for a 1-1.2m dish, but although I can get away with it on my house I would prefer to go for something more discreet.

2. I was told that the the Fracara 85cm dish is just as good as a 1m dish – is this true because if it is I may be be swayed towards purchasing this dish.

3. Is there any connection between the receiver and the motor i.e. will any make/model receiver work with any make/model motor?

4. Same thing for LNBs – is it better to go for a complete package like the same make dish/motor and LNB or to buy them separate and get the best quality one for each? Not too sure what example to give but maybe a Fracara dish, Technomate motor and Titanium 0.2db LNB.

5. What dish to go for? Narrowed it down to 4 choices so far: 1. 85cm Fracara dish. 2. 1.0m Gilbertini dish. 3. 1.0m Orbital dish or 4. 1.0m Penta dish. I see a lot of people in the local area using large Triax dishes – are they any good?

6. I've decided to go for a Technomate TM-6900 receiver. The main reason was I don't want anything too technical (like the Dreambox) as I am a complete novice but I do want optical (audio), and RGB/HDMI outputs. From what I've stated above is this a good choice? Will it enable me to play about and receive lots of channels with the motorised dish and possibly add more cards/packages as and when I need to?

7. Will I need a CAM with the Technomate to work with the Skylink card (Cryptoworks).

8. What's the best motor for the above dishes. So far I was just going to get a Technomate Diseqc motor which comes in the package if I was to go for the Orbital dish. I don't want to have to keep calling people out because the motor is gone so a quality motor recommendation would be good.

BTW I live in NW London and I'm into quality components rather than the cheapest to get buy – thanks in advance for any advice.

Robbo

Hi, and welcome to satellites,

I will try to answer some of you questions, and since you have kindly numbered them here goes:-

1. Probably not, I have a Triax TD110 (1m wide) and can pick those transponders up with a very high signal quality, I'm about 30 odd mile east of you. There's not much difference in size to look at between an 80cm and a 1m, Personally I would go for a 1m/or equivalent to make sure.

2. Don't know, still waiting for someone to do a direct comparision.

3. Any receiver with Diseqc 1.2 will work with any Diseqc 1.2 motor. They all connect using the coax cable, that the signals come down. That is the beauty of Diseqc motors, simple and convenient for user.

4. It doesn't matter, all the components are compatible with each other for the types of dish and size you are looking at.

5. Any of those would do the job, I have the Triax, it performs OK, but the elevation bracket is a pile of $H*t.

6. Yes, I believe so, it does have a slot for a CAM doesn't it?

7. Don't know, I know some of the other TMs can handle Cryptoworks, not sure about an official card though.

8. The Moteck sg2100, seems to do most people OK. For better performance a 36V motor with V-box is better, it depends how much you want to spend. Had my STAB Diseqc motor going for 18 months now, still seems OK.

Hope this helps a little.

Robbo

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kroc_kroc

Thanks for getting back so quickly.

The elevation bracket has put me off the Triax – I think I may go for the 1.0m Gilbertini dish – does this come with an elevation bracket?

The person who's going to install it for me (CIA registered) has said I'd be better off going for a double or triple LNBs and pointing them to the main satellites – what are the main ones if you were to choose three. Would two be sufficient? I need one definitely for Skylink Astra 3/23.5E but which other one or two would you go for for maximum amount of quality channels? He said a motor is only useful if I want to pick up Arabic, Turkish, etc channels whereas I'm more interested in European.