Getting Hotbird channels on a Sky setup

mattjones17

Default Getting Hotbird channels on a Sky setup
Hi,
I've been searching Google for this and found one or two threads on this forum, but none seemed to answer my exact question. I live in South west England, and I watch via a Sky+ box which I installed myself replacing a broken Sky box. I never got round to installing the second LNB, so I only really have VCR-like recording capabilities as well as live pause and rewind, but oh well, that's another story.

My question is - can I get Russian channels on my setup? My understanding is that Sky uses the 'Astra 1' satellite - Russian TV seems to vary - but a lot of people have mentioned Hotbird. Is this my best option? What will it entail? I've tried adding channels from the Hotbird myself and my box informs me I have no signal - I presume I would need to realign the dish?

Any help will be much appreciated.


Matt

Mickha

You would be better off with a second dish, and maybe a 6 degree monobloc LNB, this will give you 13E and 19E, then you can leave your Sky setup alone.
The Sky digi boxes aren't really suitable for viewing other satellites so you might want to get a second receiver.
I assume at the moment you have only a Sky mini dish aligned to 28.2E.

mattjones17

This sounds like my setup

For the setup you suggest, I assume I'm looking at £100-200?

Tivù

That isn't too far off.

The lower figure if you do it yourself, the higher if you get someone to do it for you. Roughly.

satelliteman

Unless of course you want all feeds from a single dish. A fairly simple set up using an LNb offset bracket.

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mattjones17

This offset arm sounds interesting.

How likely is it going to be that I will get a signal with this on a sky minidish?

Thanks

Tivù

Small! (Like the Dish)

You'd be better off with something over 60cm (80cm would do it nicely).

Here's a guide which may help

http://www.satellites.co.uk/satellit...bracket-sm-pdf

mattjones17

Thanks for all the advice

I've heard that some satellite beginners set dishes up in the garden with workmates etc, rather than go the whole hog and actually fit them to the side of the house. How successful is this? I'm guessing it would need to have a clear line of sight to the sky?

Matt

Tivù

As long as the temporary mount is both stable and has line of sight, then it's a perfectly practical proposition to get the bracket and LNBs in the correct relative positions.

It will certainly minimise the potential "tweaking time" oop t'ladder

mattjones17

Thanks for all the advice

I've heard that some satellite beginners set dishes up in the garden on workbenches etc, rather than go the whole hog and actually fit them to the side of the house. How successful is this? I'm guessing it would need to have a clear line of sight to the sky?

Also how likely would I be to get Express-AM1 in south west england?

Matt

rolfw

Popping a dish on the wall next to your Sky dish will be fairly easy if you have a drill, you just need to make sure that you can see 13 East, fifteen degrees further West than your Sky minidish is pointing. You could take the opportunity of drilling a new hole into your sitting room and run two cable in, one to service the second tuner on your Sky+ box.

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Robbo

I often do that if possible, especially with multi-LNB setups, as when I stick it up onto a wall, minimal ajustment is necessary.

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denno69

I was a complete noob to this game a few months back and managed to put a 1m dish on the side of my house (with the help of my bro and old man) and pick up all the sats I need.

Dishpointer.com is a useful website to show where the sats you want are in relation to your house.