Freesat in Europe

[Tom Swiffen]

I live in UK (Yorkshire) but have a second home in Puglia, Southern Italy. With the right equipment would it be possible to receive UK freesat so far south? If not, what about Sky Freeview? I already have a large satellite dish and box purchased locally to receive Italian channels from the hotbird satellite. Should I be buying equipment in UK and connecting to existing dish, presumably re-aligned? What would I need? NB. I have no technical knowledge whatsoever!

 

[Topper]

Welcome to the forum Tom

Well you are going to need a massive dish to get SKY freesat (freeview is the UK terrestrial service), can I suggest you do a forum search for Puglia and read the threads is brings up especially the Sicily one, but generally 3.5 mtrs appears to be what you need, however with fringe reception such as this a few Km can make a massive difference.

 

[itisix]

Hi,

I live in Portugal and I get a load of uk channels.
I'm not 100% sure if you refer to freesat as basically the FTA channels in Astra2 / Eurobird, but it's fairly easy to receive them.

You can either buy equipment in the uk, or just buy an FTA receiver and a dish in your local area. you can even have someone set it up for you (I don't know how it goes on in Italy).

According to kingofsat, there are reports of people receiving Astra 2, especially Astra2D (hardest to receive in mainland europe) with antenas of 1,8 meters (sicily), but I can't really confirm that.
I would strongly recommend you find someone in puglia to find out how to receive it and how big the antenna needs to be. Setting up is just like anywhere else. An honest local person is probably the best choice.

There are people in southern Portugal receiving with a 1 to 1.2 meter antenna.

I myself live in the center / north of portugal and have a 1.25 m antenna, but 80 cm would probably be enough (i have multiple satellites).

If you want to discard astra 2D (basically ITV, BBC, Channel 4, Film 4 and some others, you have north and south beams, as 2D only as a fixed one pointing to the UK).

Apart from UK channels, I really wouldn't recommend any other free ones. I rarely watch other satellites.

 

[Topper]

itisix
The o/p is based in Puglia Southern Italy, I fail to see how quoting reams of information based upon Portuguese reception will help him. He is situated a further 24 degrees East of you and therefore requires an enormous dish for 2D reception.

As regards the reports you mention where people are receiving the 2D beam with 1.8 mtr, please substantiate that as it seems unlikely in view of the 2D footprint _http://www.lyngsat-maps.com/maps/astra2d.html

 

[itisix]

If you look at the footprint, portugal is also far out of there. I was just giving a bit of an example as to how it could work.
I've seen footprint websites saying you need about 2,5 meters in portugal, and you can have it in the southern parts with just 1,2 meters.

You can't look at the distance in "degrees", but rather in miles, since the satellite has an almost round beam coverage. If you go to google earth, the algarve is pretty much the same distance to the center of the beam as the puglia area, so there shouldn't be much difference.

Looking at the footprint, would you say it works with 1,2 meters in the algarve? Probably not, but it does...


As for the reports of 1,8 you can see it here, but like I said, I can't confirm this.

_http://pt.kingofsat.net/beams.php?s=52

 

[rolfw]

Portugal is a known hotspot for Astra 2D, Puglia and South-eastern Italy is a known cold spot. Last I saw on this forum was a member looking to buy a 2.8m dish to try, but never heard any more, also the lack of reports on Astra2d.com would suggest that very few if any have managed to receive Astra 2D there.

 

[Jimmy H]

Hello Tom

We have a second home in Corfu, I have an 85 cm dish pointing at 28' with a sky digibox with Freesat from Sky card. I can receive ITV ( selected regions on 12402 V 27500 FEC 2/3 - Yorkshire TV East is there) C4 and C4+1, Five, Fiver and Five US. You will also be able to get BBC News Channel which will enable you to get the red button channels. If you can live without BBC1 & 2 this is a very economical solution, they very often put Match of the Day on the red button as well.

I've just bought a new Sky digibox(Pace DS445N with Freesat from Sky card from The DigiBoxShop.com for £115, if you give them a postcode in the Yorkshire East region ITV will come up on channel 103 on the EPG otherwise you can use the add channels facility.

Hope this helps.

Jim

 

[ralphmagno]

hi to all
just to let you know we have a 4 meter solid irte here in naples italy and
we have tried everything ivacom quatro and nothing.
there is no receiving astra 2 d of free sat south of rome.
we did everything except freeze the lnb to lower the noise figure below the .3 bd and its no go at all

we used short runs and even used a spectrum at the base of the dish and no lobes at all.

have a good day
ralph

 

[Analoguesat]

Basically Tom this is all telling you that if you want the BBC channels & anything else on the Astra 2D satellite (most of the ITV & C4 family of channels) - forget it.

 

[ovis]

Hi Tom. Am located in Lazio where it joins the Marche/Abruzzo borders.
Am using an 80cm dish to pick up Astra 2a beams on which you can get bbc news and a number of fta film channels, and a second 60cm dish for Hotbird for local Italian channels and other english news channels. I thought of buying a 2m dish but there are no reception reports for this area and therefore its a bit hit and miss and a dish wud set you back €1500+
Now if Freesat were to put up a subscription service on Hotbird that wud be a much better solution.

Pete

 

[Analoguesat]

Now if Freesat were to put up a subscription service on Hotbird that wud be a much better solution.

Pete

Never going to happen

 

[keenite]

with a sky digibox with Freesat from Sky card. I can receive ITV ( selected regions on 12402 V 27500 FEC 2/3 - Yorkshire TV East is there) C4 and C4+1, Five, Fiver and Five US. You will also be able to get BBC News Channel which will enable you to get the red button channels. If you can live without BBC1 & 2 this is a very economical solution, they very often put Match of the Day on the red button as well.

Jim

Here in Berlin I have an old Pace digibox without a Freesat Sky card. What channels can I receive, over and above those that are FTA outside the Astra 2D viewing area? I can already receive _http://www.channel4.com is that the same as BBC4?
Cheers,
K.

 

[keenite]

I live in UK (Yorkshire) but have a second home in Puglia, Southern Italy. With the right equipment would it be possible to receive UK freesat so far south? If not, what about Sky Freeview? I already have a large satellite dish and box purchased locally to receive Italian channels from the hotbird satellite. Should I be buying equipment in UK and connecting to existing dish, presumably re-aligned? What would I need? NB. I have no technical knowledge whatsoever!

See this link for details about the "freesat card" (add 'www' before and 'htm' after for the link for it to work):

satelliteonline.co.uk/sky_abroad

 

[Topper]

Here in Berlin I have an old Pace digibox without a Freesat Sky card. What channels can I receive, over and above those that are FTA outside the Astra 2D viewing area? I can already receive _http://www.channel4.com is that the same as BBC4?
Cheers,
K.

Your post is very confusing........you can receive what your setup/dish/lnb arrangement allows you to outside of the 2D footprint, what are you expecting? no channel4 is not the same as BBC4.

See this link for details about the "freesat card" (add 'www' before and 'htm' after for the link for it to work):

satelliteonline.co.uk/sky_abroad

He will not be able to receive the freesat channels without a massive dish in Southern Italy.

 

[T.Tanilsoo]

Well, it appears that not entire Freesat is on UK-only transponders. I in Estonia can receive some channels also listed under Freesat with 78 cm dish(I guess those I see are on Eurobird 1). No Beeb, ITV etc though, obviously. So I would say that part of the Freesat might be visible in Europe, but definitely not all channels.

 

[Topper]

Your are correct there is duplication of many channels on other co-located satellites at 28.2/5 East, Channel4 London being one of them on 12480 V 27500 2/3, that does not alter the fact that the Freesat services is primarily intended for the UK

 

[keenite]

Your post is very confusing........you can receive what your setup/dish/lnb arrangement allows you to outside of the 2D footprint, what are you expecting? no channel4 is not the same as BBC4.
.

What I meant to say was whether or not I can receive more channels with a Freesat card, than I can now without one, i.e. are there more channels on the Europe-wide beams that I could receive with a card, or does this pertain only to programs broadcast via the 2D beam?

 

[Rick]

What I meant to say was whether or not I can receive more channels with a Freesat card, than I can now without one, i.e. are there more channels on the Europe-wide beams that I could receive with a card, or does this pertain only to programs broadcast via the 2D beam?

There isn't such a thing as a freesat card. If you can recieve the channels and know someone in the UK who can get you a sky sub, you could get whatever sky channels you want to pay for.

 

[Lazarus]

What I meant to say was whether or not I can receive more channels with a Freesat card, than I can now without one, i.e. are there more channels on the Europe-wide beams that I could receive with a card, or does this pertain only to programs broadcast via the 2D beam?

The only Channels that a FreesatfromSky Card will get that are not freely available "in the clear" are Sky Three, Fiver, Five US and Setanta Sports News.

 

[keenite]

The only Channels that a FreesatfromSky Card will get that are not freely available "in the clear" are Sky Three, Fiver, Five US and Setanta Sports News.

Thanks. Are all the channels you mention broadcast solely on the 2D beam?
Cheers,
K.