Default Transponder & Sky Card activation overseas

dallasboyes

If at all possible.

How do I get it. I am very new to forums never used them before.

dallasboyes

PS I am in tenerife south

Nick [D]vB

Hi all,

I have just picked up an old PACE 2500B from a boot-fair for £3 8)

It didn't have a card in it but luckily I have a few from when my sister used to subscribe.


The newest card was sent to her in summer 2003 (after she cancelled!)

It was a standard replacement card but was never activated / paired (still attached to the letter)

I just tried it and it says "This card is not Authorised" 8(


Her old card just says "Call to upgrade Subscription"

But the letter says it should have stopped working anyway?


I also have an yee-oldy light blue "Sky Digital )" card but I guess this is an ice scraper now???


Is there any way to wake these cards up through the engineer's menu,

without subscribing / ringing sky, and preferably without connecting the phone line?

I just want to get channel 4 & five etc working again?


Any help would be appreciated,

Cheers,
Nick

rolfw

If it's never been activated, then it is unlikely that you will be able to wake it up, although I seem to remember that at the time with the new issue cards, simply putting the card in the box would activate it.

You can perhaps try the new installation routine in the installers menu, but it will need to be connected to the phone line for it to work.

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Nick [D]vB

Thanks for the quick reply!

I have read that if you see a "Call to Subscribe" message the card has not been "killed" and should still be updating?

I've heard it can take 72 hours to update, how long should it normally take?

Are the EMMs cumulative, or are you just waiting for the serial number to be addressed in a rotation?


My problem it that I want to use my DVB-S cards and have to keep unplugging the Sky box,

I've given it ~4 hours so far but I'm trying to work out if it is starting from scratch each time I unplug the sat feed?

I realise that the card has not been used for a long time so would that mean it takes longer?

If I try this, and the cards aren't dead already, is there any chance they would kill them over the phoneline?

Is my sister going to get a knock at the door if I do this? lol


If I ring Sky and say something like:

"I know I don't subscribe now but if you wake the old card up so I can get five etc I might subscribe again soon,

otherwise I'm off to get a Freeview box"

...would they go for that or just try and flog me a new Freesat from sky card ??? lol

rolfw

The replacement cards were designed to activate automatically in a specific box and whilst it is worth trying to activate it, it is unlikely to succeed. You are probably flogging a dead horse.

Using new installation will almost certainly not work and even if it did flag up on the Sky computer, it probably is no longer on their active list, so probably will not be brought to any human attention.

As a small aside, Channel 4 is FTA on non-Sky receivers, so it is only Five and Sky 3 that is to be gained by using a card.

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dallasboyes

In your details you say you live near a BBC rebroadcast aerial how did yiu access it


if using card registered in uk just ring and reactivate
if you need a card ...order a freeview card to uk addy then activate when you got the card from your mates house back in uk ...they will take any uk bank account for d.d[/quote]

Nick [D]vB

Hi rolfw, thanks for getting back to me.

Originally Posted by rolfw The replacement cards were designed to activate automatically in a specific box and whilst it is worth trying to activate it, it is unlikely to succeed. You are probably flogging a dead horse..

So short of ringing Sky and performing the Jedi mind trick on the operator all the old cards are pretty much useless???

Originally Posted by rolfw Using new installation will almost certainly not work and even if it did flag up on the Sky computer, it probably is no longer on their active list, so probably will not be brought to any human attention..

Out of desperation I ran a new installation call-back on all of the cards, but as you guessed it didn’t work. I haven’t had a knock at the door yet, but I’ve got my tin-foil hat on just in case... lol

A mate has lent me a card from his spare box, it isn’t pared to my receiver but that’s not a problem. It did take about 8 hours to start working though???

In your experience, if I run this sky card with my DVB-S cards, using Trex or Phoenix CAMs with no EMM support, how long before the card dies again, and will it take 8 hours+ in the sky box to wake it up each time???

Originally Posted by rolfw As a small aside, Channel 4 is FTA on non-Sky receivers, so it is only Five and Sky 3 that is to be gained by using a card.

I added the FreeSat channel 4 feed but it would be nice to have it in the EPG and have +1 etc. Lets hope five goes FTA soon then I won’t have to mess about with Sky cards at all.

Also, I have heard rumours that Sky Italia NDS has just been hacked, if that’s true we are probably all going to get a re-issue before to long anyway?

Cheers,
Nick

darin73

hi, first big thanks to the people who do this!

i got a sky card as for use in a second room, but i'm trying to use it here in Tver, Russia (2nd room

i activated it in my parents sky box in scotland.
i brought the the card here to russia (2hours from moscow)
i have a 1.5 meter dish on top of 9 story apartment building.
i have an Arion af-8500mfi reciever box.

i thought i could slide the activated card in the slot after the "sputnik master" adjusts the satilite to coridinates for astra 2e satilite i got the off the internet : Elevation: 24.9° & Azimuth (magn.): 179.1°

but now i see the "slot" in the box is fake! its is only 3-4mm deep!
below is a thicker opening about 8-10mm..i dont understand how i could get the sky card in??

however, after reading many of the posts, i fear my sky card can only be used in the box(sky) in which it was acitvated???

any, help would be VERY appreciated as i am dying to hear some english here in russia! ;-)

Topper

Welcome to the forum darin73

Firstly you must understand that Sky use NDS encryption also known as videoguard, unless as you correctly state you have a sky stb, or a Diablo/Trex cam loaded with the correct firmware, or an emulator which can read a sky card such as cccam (normally run on a dreambox) then your stb will not be able to decrypt whatever your card was supposed to allow you to receive assuming your stb could actually physically accept the card. I would concentrate first on actually receiving a signal as although the theoretical footprint appears to indicate you will get some channels using your 1.5mtr the reality on the ground is often different. Before looking at encryption further and possibly spending more money I suggest you try to get reception of Astra 2/ Eurobird and take it further from there.

War does not determine who is right, it determines who is left!

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darin73

alright m8, i've just been reading up on some of the tech abbreviations, only to get more abbreviatons in the definitons! but i AM learning!!

soo..i've been going through the menu in my STB (set-top b0x and removed the hotbird and sirus satilites, and added the astra28e with hightlighting the 11778 trnsponder, (i've seen this in other posts soo i thought i'd select that one).

the signal bar keeps flashing between 9-10%, while the dish position is actually aimed at 'Raduga' sputnik, which was in the "ballpark" of elevation and azimuth according to some satfinder website which use google map. it was with in a few degrees sooo..i am hoping it (9-10% signal) would improve with a re-positon which i have scheduled for wednesday.

question- if i have even 9-10% does that mean i am accessing the astra satilite which caries sky?

question- reading wikipedia (sory) about what NDS and STB are, (stil dont know what nds stands for??)..but anyway NDS aka videoguard, aka encryption,, is meant to be protection of viewing services, and part of protection is the card is 'married' to a box..Q-how do i get a divorce!?!? =)

question- and finally, (4 now..having never met oddly i trust ur advice..do u think IF i get the signal imporvement from astra showing on my arion stb, AND..IF i cant get a divorce, THEN..Q-should i have the 2nd sky box in my parents room (which was the box i did the activation in), shipped to me in russia?
however, f.y.i. to get ur best advice, that box had first the 2nd sky card activated in it, (1st card is in sky+ box in living room), soo really my card is for sky in a 3rd room. q-soo is the 2nd box paired with two cards 2nd & 3rd, therefore if my parents ship that box and get a new one there extra card wont work in new box??

i think if i get the box i activated it in, & i have signal it would work.. but ofcourse i dont have UK land-line. my folks w'ld be happy to send it, and they could get another from sky, but with maybe a new card for themselves??

i ask because i think i can get signal, but i cant get the card into this box, even if i could get a 'divorce' ...

hope thats not too much!?!? ;-)

obviously, PLEASE feel free to ask me any questions to help u make ur best judgement, which is very much appreciated.
cheers,darin

snap

Have a look at the signal quality meter, which is underneath the signal strength meter you have, if no bar visible you do not have Astra 2. Sounds like you have no signal at all. How did you point the dish? With a meter or sat beeper? A signal display will often show 0 to 10% signal strength even when not pointed at a satellite.
You are probably too far out to get the services you're looking for. I can't find any reports of people receiving Astra 2 in the Moscow region.
First thing is to establish if there is any service where you live.

Topper

Well as I have already stated you need to get a signal first, 9-10% means nothing, a lot of stb's give that kind of signal reading pointing at a brick wall. The rest at the moment is immaterial until you have directed the dish to receive the signal from 28.2 East.
I suggest you tune your stb to one of the Eurobird FTA frequencies then having established a channel do a full scan and we will take it from there.

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darin73

hey teacher,, leave those kids alone!

thanx, u guys are funny, and i really appreciate the help!

there are two bars on the screen and you're right (snap) the top on bar is 9-10% but the bottom bar is blank. ps..have a stupid grim at the 9-10% pointing at a brick wall!

but anyway i am an electrician of many years, i did the grunt work of running the co-ax cables (1 for tv & 1 for www) and mounted the dish. the sputnik master had some type of box that had a needle and made a whistling sound as he did the directing of the satilite dish. which is actually pointed at a satilite for "raduga" internet service.

i was going to have him(sputink master) come last wednesday to instal a seperate dish for astra, but i have decided to wait for sky box, so i can see reception bars. i think i will have this done mid november.

but maybe a second dish would not be necessary if u can answer this question,..do you know if there is www provider using the astra satilite?

also Q about the box..of course i dont have uk phone line here behind the iron curtain...i have read many posts, and i wonder about the card not working due to lack of "updates"???

well, going to try euro bird,,,i think i had that one, maybe you know, is it the satilite that carries sirrus?? for 100% sure i know i had that with good signal strength and clear picture,, i just wasnt a big fan of the 100 arab sex chanels!

darin73

ps..i typed i had "sirrus", but now i know it was "sirius" i had with good signal, and the www provider was called Satgate..cheers

darin73

i think i can save alot of bother if u know the answer to this..what satellite does sky transmit? because i've been looking at the astra web site and the "footprints" or areas of coverage of 2a, 2b, 2c & 2d astra satellites..and if sky is on 2d i dont have a chance according to the map of 'footprint'..maybe if sky transmits on north beam of 2a or 2b, or maybe my best chance would be south beam of 2c..???cheers

Analoguesat

Try Channel 5 - thats about all thats transmitted on 2C at the moment.

Sky use all 5 satellites slotted at 28E
Astra 2A 2B 2C & 2D
Eurobird 1

These use about 10 different footprints.

Analoguesat's message to the world Analogue forever!

dandnsmith

Have a look at _www.lyngsat.com/28east.html- you can see that there is stuff on 2A North&South, 2C, 2D, EuroBird. However, to get sky update stuff you need (I think) 2D.

Moscow Wolf

Darin, I am in the East of Moscow and we use an Expat here to receive our SKY channels. I have recently been up on the roof of my 14th floor building with a Russian technician to change the LNB and discovered the following: -

I have a Russian made 2 metre dish (ideally, we should have 2.5 metre dishes this far east, but they're too big to get into the lifts and up on to the roof) the LNB is made in China and I have no idea what db it is as I'm only now taking an interest in what I have paid and am still paying for in maintenance fees etc.

I started with a single cable SKY Pace Box and about 1 year ago, updated to a SKY+ PACE box so the technicians had to run a second cable from the roof (14th floor) down to my flat on the 5th floor.

I can get more or less most SKY channels except BBC, ITV. I used to get Channel 4 and 5, but of late they have more or less gone or practically unwatchable.

I have SKY Sports and the Film channels and the Anytime TV is a plus. They seem to be pushing Internet SKY here at the moment (at some fantastically expensive price), but I do not know if this is some kind of Slingbox set-up as I am not technically capable in this area.

What I would like to ask the Forum is this: -

I do have a UK Bank account, but do not currently use it as my address is a forwarding address in Slough which sends all of my mail to Moscow. I therefore currently pay a 'middleman' on a quarterly basis in advance the SKY Subscription plus 5% for using his credit card; is there anyway I can get around this to make it cheaper or pay direct? I guess if I stop my current agreement then, the middleman will 'deactivate' my card?

I pay a quarterly maintenance fee of 45 Pounds sterling, but I don't actually know what this covers as when I lost SKY last week, I had to wait a couple of days for the Russian technician to arrive to spend a whole 5 minutes to realise that the LNB had gone, he changed it and now the 'middleman' is asking me for 6.500 roubles (circa 153 Sterling) for a piece of Chinese manufactured junk.

He is also asking me for another 145 Sterling 'annual card fee'; last year he said it was a 'license fee' until I told him to poke it and I got it removed from my 'fees'.

I feel I am being ripped off here and need to find away around it. Can I take it that if I upgraded from SKY to SKY+ less than a year ago that they would have needed to have changed the LNB? In this case, if yes, I should surely get a 1 year guarantee on the equipment?

What else can I do to make my 'fringe reception' better? I read somewhere that Russian manufactured dishes are not up to much, but what facts can you give me so that I can baffle his brains back too!

I would really miss my SKY now if I lost it and I do not wish too, I just want to pay a fair price.

Many thanks, if as a Newbie, I have overlapped into the wrong forums with the wrong questions.

Moscow.

snap

There are agents around who will provide the same service for a lot less, you are being severely ripped off. You shouldn't be paying any maintenance fees or card surcharges on your sub at all. You need to find someone in the UK whose address you can use, and find an agent which arranges the sub based on this address, there are a few that do this.
It would have been necessary to change the LNB when upgrading to Sky+, but they have obviously installed cheap junk which has failed, or the dish had moved, or something like bird droppings had covered it.
If you can get to the dish, I suggest buying an LNB yourself and DIY. There are people here who will help.
You should be able to receive BBC News on Sky 503.
If so, you can view football and other red button events by doing the following:-
Select 503 for BBC News.
Press 'text'
Key in '3001' and press 'Select'
This should give you access to any sports interactive channels ( not always active. Try on Saturday afternoons)

Moscow Wolf

Snap, thank you for that valuable information, I fully realise that I am being 'taken for a ride', but without any competitor service, I have the choice to pay or not receive my SKY. If you could suggest someone (website) in the UK that could facilitate such then please PM me so that I can follow it up asap.

I believe that BBC News is quite a new channel for us here out in the East of Europe, I can receive it ok and will follow your advice. I am not a technical proficient person, but can follow specific instructions to push this or that button as long as a banana is thrown in occasionally to keep me happy.

snap

I can't send you a PM as you haven't been a member for long enough.
See if you can send me one by looking in my profile>contact info>Vcard.

Moscow Wolf

Understood, email sent. Many thanks once again.

ynotdu

using 4>0>1 I do not get an option menu of full systym reset?Also most receivers even old steam driven ones will update systymn software If You press the back-up button until You see a black screen with an updating software message.It,s only use seems to be that If You buy a 2nd hand digibox that has been dormant,It will enable the decoder to store up to 50 channels to favourites,once stored access is via blue button, and the i button will tell you if a show is subtitled/narrated or not,if You want to switch either on.Software update has never given Me missing Channels from E.P.G though,seems to be card dependant to do that.

ynotdu

Press&hold back up button after unplugging for at least 30 seconds I mean,Press back-up button as You are booting digibox up,black screen will appear stating updating systym software

darin73

hi, soo...i just had a new dish (1.2meter) installed, not in front of a brick wall! ;-) but on the roof of my appartment complex. its above the the 9th floor, and has clear view to the sky. on the Arion box i selected astra 28 satilite, i have now both bars of signal, as b4 i had only 9% on top bar and zero on the bottom bar...now on top i have apprx ~40% and the bottom is about 55%, but they go +/- 5% constantly moving..but steady at those general % signal strength.

just wanted to keep you posted, any1 whos interested anyway..maybe i will be first behind the iron curtain to have sky?? not that i care about making history, just be nice to hear some proper english! lol

but, i do wory about one thing now,, maybe sum1 can help,

i have been reading posts about the boxes (sky) that need to call for updates, but of course, i dont have a uk land line here in russia..now my sky card is "married" to a box (sky) in scotland..i plan to have this box shiped to me, as this was the box i activated the card in..does any1 have an opinion about the need for land line?? in scotland i unpluged the land line after activation and the chanels all came in fine,, so i can say box +card dont need phone line to watch tv..but for how long i wonder?? i heard somthing about an "auto dialer", also sumthing about pluging the phone jack into a phone cord that "doubles back on itself" as to "trick" the box into thinking the line is busy???

ohh..also, the "sputnik master" wants to sell me a "booster" because, he says i got like 30 meters of cable going up the side of the building, from my flat on the 4th floor to the 9th floor...he said it will boost the signal from 55% to 80%..does any1 think i should buy this?? its a hassle cause i gotta bribe the lift 'Master' who will unlock the roof soo to install a booster?? but, maybe it a good idea??

cheers