Freesat or Sky in Murcia, Spain

6

666roddy

Member
My Satellite Setup
freesat with humax, dell xps laptop, dell inspiron laptop & 3GS iphone.
My Location
Uk Leeds/Spain Murcia
Hi I have a holiday home in Murcia near to San Javier, at present I have a 1.0 metre dish and humax receiver. With this setup I get BBC News 24, True Movies, Zone Horror and a few music channels etc. One of Neighbours as a 1.8 dish and gets the full monty BBC1, BBC2, ITV, C4, C5 etc. The problem I have is that my property differs in style and layout to my neighbours, anyone have any solutions space being the main problem. Question what is the max. size a dish can be pole mounted on a roof area which can get get quiet windy. Also is their a list of channel strengths meaning being hardest to receive to easiest to receive etc.
One installer recomended a Gilbitini 1.5 dish giving the same results as 1.8 dish!
 
666roddy said:
One installer recomended a Gilbitini 1.5 dish giving the same results as 1.8 dish!
Click to expand...
That may be because your neighbour has one of the really cheap but badly made Fortecstar dishes. These are difficult to assemble, damage easily and frequently (mostly!) only give the same performance as a good 1.5m dish.

Others with more knowledge of Spain will be able to advise further.
 
Hi Paul
No the neighbours is a 1.8 one piece dish I believe it is a Flamal Portugese dish.
 
666roddy said:
One installer recomended a Gilbitini 1.5 dish giving the same results as 1.8 dish!
Click to expand...
Well I have a Gibertini 1.5m and most of my customers have a 1.8m or larger Famaval dish, and I can assure you they do not perform the same. The 1.5m needs an exceptional receiver to get 24/7 reception and even then it will struggle on 10729V (C4 +1, E4, More 4, etc). In San Javier a 1.8m also gets some channels from Astra 2D horizontal polarisation transponders at certain times of day (not 24/7), but not a 1.5m. Also, with the 1.5 you will have little to no rain fade margin.

A Famaval 1.8m mounts on an 80mm diameter pole/ground-stand. Personally I wouldn't consider putting either of those dishes on a sloping roof or on a wall mount. The walls of those properties are hollow block and I've seen plenty of dishes that have fallen down when mounted that way. A proper job would either be on a flat roof, preferable partly or fully sheltered from the wind, or ground mounted.

On your current 1m dish, in conjunction with a Sky receiver and white FTV card you should be able to receive: ITV1, ITV1+1, ITV1 HD, C4 HD, C4, C4 +1, Five, Five HD, Fiver, Five US, Sky 3, Sky 3 +1 plus a load more FTA channels.
 
Hi Huevos

Thanks for the info I'm flying back out Spain next week with my brother who is a fabricator, to see if he can devise something to overcome the dish problem just love a challenge. I will also take a sky box and white card out with me on my return. Incidently my neighbour reckons no channel loss receiving all channels 24/7 using 1.8 dish and humax box.
 
Hi 666
I live in murcia and have a 1.3 dish...I can receive these channels 24/7 bbc1, bbc2 wales & ni , Itv1 & itv +1, ch4+1, more 4 etc... I cannot get ch4 and five. Although i used to get these channels with my pace 2600i, it sadly broke a couple of months ago. So now i am using a dreambox and a old amstrad box with not so good tuners. Ch4 & five do come through in the evening but are not really watchable so i think im just under the threshold on these receivers (if i had the pace i'm sure that i would be able to view these channels in the evening.. I do not have a ftv card, if i did i would be able to receive five no problem on the stronger transponder. Hope this helps. Richard
 
666roddy said:
my neighbour reckons no channel loss receiving all channels 24/7 using 1.8 dish and humax box.
Click to expand...
I hear this all the time from clients and when we go and visit the neighbour it turns out no FTA C4, no FTA C5, no CBBC, no Cbeebies, no BBC2 England/Scotland, no BBC3 or BBC4. That is because a 1.8m dish in San Javier will only receive Astra 2D horizontal transponders for a few hours a day in the early evening. Richard is in a better reception area and his post confirms this.
 
Hi Richard whereabouts in Murcia are you located?
 
Hi 666
I live in Totana near lorca and mazarron.
 
Hi Richard Totana that's not that far away, my exact location is Balsicas, so their's hope yet.
So what is the biggest best dish, LNB and receiver which can be pole mounted in my circumstances! any recomendations please?
 
Hi 666
Not sure i can recommend a dish size...depends on what you want. Say if you subscribe to sky and wanted the movie channels for instance then i have never been able to receive that transponder and i don't know what size of dish you would need for this. I can tell you that for the area where i live most people have the same size dish as me (1.3 offset). There is a big development near here (camposol) and nearly all of the houses have the same size dish as me. The majority of the dishes are mounted on the house. Mine is mounted on the ground although i did live in a place called Perrin (near to cartagena) and was pole mounted on the house. I recently bought a inverto black ultra lnb but was a bit dissapointed with it as it wasn't any better than a cheap lnb i had previous. As far as receivers go...although the pace 2600 is old it worked for my purposes i.e received all the mainstream channels that i was interested in (bbc2 england/ch4 only certain times of the day) bbc2 ni/wales is now on a stronger transponder so now can receive them all day. So as i said it's just dependant on what channels you want to receive. Also as Huevos said although you are only a few kms away from me your area may be totally different reception wise. It's just one of those things you don't really know until you try. Have a look around you and see what other people have. Also if you like i have a email address of a local installer in mazarron, he may be able to advise you better. Not sure if i can post on here but let me know if you need it and i will pm you. Hope this helps richard
 
666roddy said:
So what is the biggest best dish, LNB and receiver which can be pole mounted
Click to expand...
All these dishes mount on a pole. The Famaval 1.8m and Gibertini on a 80mm diameter pole. The point is what is at the other end of the pole. When these dishes are above a sloping roof the pole is fixed to a side wall, and since walls round here are just hollow brick lots of dishes just drop off. Even when they don't drop off they get loose and need retightening and alignment every 5 minutes.
666roddy said:
Totana that's not that far away, my exact location is Balsicas, so their's hope yet.
Click to expand...
Not so close. About 50km as the crow flies. Round here 5-10km makes a huge difference.
 
Huevos said:
Not so close. About 50km as the crow flies. Round here 5-10km makes a huge difference.
Click to expand...

I agree 50km might seem a lot but when you look at some of the footprints for dish sizes it does seem more specific!
 
Hi
Not really interested in sky monthly subscription channels, BBC 1 or ITV would be nice basically any programes which are available to me back home!
 
666roddy said:
Hi
Not really interested in sky monthly subscription channels, BBC 1 or ITV would be nice basically any programes which are available to me back home!
Click to expand...
A white card would mean the channels I listed above using your small dish. It doesn't have to be a subscription card, just a free to view card would be good.

On dish size, buying an undersized dish will only lead to disappointment. There's nothing more frustrating than watching a film for an hour and a half and then not being able to watch the last 10 minutes because some installer has recommended a dish that is too small.
 
Many thanks for all the advice, I a spare Sky box will try and get hold of a white card before I return next week.
Does the card need activating in the UK or can it be done from Spain, is all straight forward in pairing the card and box up?
 
666roddy said:
Does the card need activating in the UK or can it be done from Spain, is all straight forward in pairing the card and box up?
Click to expand...
Try to get it all up and running in the UK. You will need to add channels via the services menu. Once you have a card and box ready we can tell you what to do exactly.
 
Hi Huevos

I ordered the FTA white card from Sky, I was told to ring them when it arrives to activate it.
My question is do sky know my exact location when I activate the card, at anytime.
 
Only if you tell them wher you are when you are on the phone to them!
 
Hi Huevos
I have now received the card, but it states that I need to connect the box to a telephone line!
What is my next step do I connect box up and phone them to activate the card now?
 
Back
Top