Equipment for reception of UK (FTA, Sky etc) in SW France (67)

[Granty666]

About to set up a dish for UK Sky etc in South West France - 65700 Haute Pyrenees.


I'm fairly high spec on the AV side (65" Smart LED TV + Onkyo TX-NR5010 receiver) and want something to provide a good signal
.

I proposed a Gibertini 1.25M dish with twin Inverto Black Ultra LNB with possibly another Inverto Black Ultra for 19E, Fixed Pole mount at ground level, approx 50M run to the TV (suggested buried in conduit WF125 cable) probabley the spec may be overkill, but one off installation hopefully.

i've requested a quote / recommendation from a local installer

This is part of his reply:

Due to recent changes in the satellite for UK reception a 1.25m dish is probably a safe option although a 1 metre dish should be also be fine.
Which other language channels were you looking to receive? French, German, Spanish, Italian etc?
What I notice about the Gibertini dish is that the multihead does not allow for a LNB to be positioned in the central prime position where it would capture the best signal.
This would not be suitable for reliable reception of UK TV due to the recent changes.

and this is what he proposes:

Parts
Cable 0,90€/metre
Dual 1 metre dish inc. single LNB 145€
Twin LNB 0.1dB 57€
Unsubsidised SKY+HD Digibox 279€

Is there a technical reason not to use the Gibertini and would the prime focus prosed perform better?

bit of a newbie, simply having had a Sky dish in the UK
kind regards

Granty :-beer

 

[rolfw]

There are lots of offset LNB brackets which use the standard LNB holder for the main focus (giving better signal), you don't have to use the Gibertini one, just look on ebay. The Gibertini 1.25m dish will be far superior to any unknown 1m dish, so best to stick with it. Are you planning to subscribe to Sky?

 

[A nonymous]

I would suggest getting the stuff yourself as to be honest it looks a little pricey to me.

The Sky box can be gotton off ebay for as little at £25 for a HD model, You can also get a 100m of WF100 cable for under £40.

A decent Inverto Twin lnb can also be gotton for about £25

The reason the installer is proposing a prime focus dish is because thats probably what he has in stock.

I would go for the Gilbertini any day of the week over a Johnny no name prime focus dish. Although I would just go for a single head Gilbertini to line up on 28e and just use a throw out arm for the other satellites.

Please also be aware that Sky boxes are not good for getting other satellites with. They have a tendency to throw their dummies out of the pram when they don't get a signal for 28e for a while. They also don't have DISEqC switching so you would have to manually diconnect and connect each cable for each satellite.

You don't have to have a new box from Sky to get a contract. I have only ever had one box from Sky and that was in 1998. I have had several contracts from them in the past.

Nano

 

[hairybadger]

Another alternative would be a second, smaller dish (60cm or so) for 19.2. The disadvantage would be twice the cable....

 

[PaulR]

Reading and re-reading the first post, the French supplier ISN'T proposing a prime focus dish, what he's saying is that with the Gib multi-LNB holder you can't put an LNB at the prime focus position. Prime is an unfortunate word in this context, a better word is is main, as Rolf used.

If you already have a 1.25m dish then I would say use it as it gives a reasonably good margin for a lower signal strength if the forthcoming 2E satellite gives an even lower signal strength than 2F does at your location. Current reports indicate that 1M is just good enough in the SW of France so it depends on whether you could take the financial hit of effectively scrapping (or selling on) the 1.25m dish if worst comes to worst. It may be that 1m will be good enough for 2E, we just don't know. There's only a certain amount of future-proofing that you can build in.

WF125 is probably overkill as you say. Personally I would use WF100 as it's considerably cheaper and easier to obtain (although in France you'll probably end up with some RG6 equivalent). WF100 has a copper core, coper braid and copper sheath. The better RG6s have an aluminium sheath, which really doen't like water at all as it reacts electrolitically with copper. Even worse RG6s have an aluminium braid and/or a copper coated steel core. I don't think you can buy an RG6 in France with an all copper spec.

I would also use a Quad LNb (four outputs). The Invacom Black Ultra has the best price/performance balance available at the moment. But be careful as Inverto also produce lnbs such as the Black Pro and in different "colours" which are not the same. This also gives you flexibility to put a box in the house called a multiswitch which will take those four outputs and multiply them up to 8, 12, 24, etc if your satellite requirements increase. I went the multiswitch route in France from word go as there's a secondary advantage that you can mix in FM and TV signals and run them down a single cable. I have two feeds into the living room (should have made it three!) and one into each of the three bedrooms and kitchen. If you are really thinking about only doing it once this has got to be worth a thought.

Afterthought

I've also, much as you have proposed, put a multi-LNB holder on my satellite dish so that I can run cables into the living room only for 19E and 13E. The 28E position wasn't at the main focus point but I suspect that's something that I will have to change when I go down next week. In fact I think I shall probably have go up a size or two on satellite dish to maintain my rain margin.

 

[sonnetpete]

I don't know about the 1.25M Gibi but on my 1M Gibi and using a Gibi bracket you can definitely get an LNB on dish centre. (See attached photo)

 

[rolfw]

That's so close to centre that it should be fine.

 

[hairybadger]

WF125 is probably overkill as you say. Personally I would use WF100 as it's considerably cheaper and easier to obtain (although in France you'll probably end up with some RG6 equivalent). WF100 has a copper core, coper braid and copper sheath. The better RG6s have an aluminium sheath, which really doen't like water at all as it reacts electrolitically with copper. Even worse RG6s have an aluminium braid and/or a copper coated steel core. I don't think you can buy an RG6 in France with an all copper spec.

what cable do you use PaulR? The local Bricowhatever has 17VATC and I've used that up to now - aluminium braid and foil, the core looks like it's copper (even when cut). I don't have any problems with it but my cable runs are short and I use silicone grease liberally

 

[PaulR]

I bring my cable over from the UK. Currently I have PF100 (same B$lyB spec as WF100 but from a different manufacturer - Phylex instead of Wespro). I guess you'd have to order some from a UK supplier.

You can also buy WF100 as a bonded pair of cables (shotgun - but make sure it's WF100 not the smaller and lossier WF67) and as a foursome of cables inside a PVC sheath. These are easier to handle when you have a lot of cables although, obviously, a bit more expensive. The four cables in a sheath are actually colour coded which helps if you're installing a quattro LNB to a multiswitch as a quattro has to be connected a precise way. Fortunately a lot multiswitches available nowadays will work with quads as well as quattros.

That's the best answer I can give. Do you have relatives coming over or perhaps you make journeys back to the UK?

 

[hairybadger]

I bring my cable over from the UK. Currently I have PF100 (same B$lyB spec as WF100 but from a different manufacturer - Phylex instead of Wespro). I guess you'd have to order some from a UK supplier.

You can also buy WF100 as a bonded pair of cables (shotgun - but make sure it's WF100 not the smaller and lossier WF67) and as a foursome of cables inside a PVC sheath. These are easier to handle when you have a lot of cables although, obviously, a bit more expensive. The four cables in a sheath are actually colour coded which helps if you're installing a quattro LNB to a multiswitch as a quattro has to be connected a precise way. Fortunately a lot multiswitches available nowadays will work with quads as well as quattros.

That's the best answer I can give. Do you have relatives coming over or perhaps you make journeys back to the UK?

OK - thanks for that I go back to the UK about twice a year but since I invariably have a small child or children in tow I try to minimize what I carry. I could always try ordering from a UK site. I've just looked at 2galli and they appear to have a good selection of quality cable. I have no real need for shotgun cable but I can see the attraction!