Help with getting Sky in Morocco

S

skymoroc

Member
My Satellite Setup
Sky Pace Minibox, 1.2m dish
My Location
Morocco
I hope someone can help, I have been trying to get sky out here near Casablanca in Morocco. I have connected up my Pace mini box to a 1.2m dish and have had an engineer align the box to the Astra satellite. I have then adjusted the Default Transponder Frequency to 12.129 but I can only receive the news channels (BBC News, Sky News, CNN, BBC Parliament). When I go to the BBC1, BBC2, ITV, etc I get the message "there is a technical fault with this channel". The engineer in Morocco says that I need a 2.8m dish but the Astra website says that I probably need only a 90cm dish so I think he is just trying to sell me something.
 
In Morocco you will indeed need a VERY big dish to watch the BBC / ITV channels - they are transmitted on a restricted footprint which is pointing at the UK.

To be honest Id guess something nearer 4m not 2.8m!
 
It would be far cheaper to get a vpn set up on your broadband and watch the uk programming via iplayer. ;)
 
The Astra website suggests 90cm for Astra 2A and 2B.

But BBC1,2,3,4, much ITV, Channel 4, Five etc are on Astra 2D and you need a BIG dish for that, as stated.

The UK Channels from 28E come from four Satellites, not one: Astra 2A, 2B, 2D and Eurobird 1.

2A, 2B and Eurobird are relatively broad in coverage and the Channels you are getting come from those.

So your technician/installer is correct. He might even be being optimistic.
 
Ive just had a look at the astra 2D.com site.

You *might* get away with a good quality 2.4m dish for most of the channels. Now Im talking Channel Master quality not a the 500 quid pile of scrap you get from cheapie wholesalers. Dont even think about those sorts of dishes - they are flimsy & you will be wasting your money and spending no end on repeat installer visits to redo the job after its twisted around in the first winter storm.

However you may need something bigger for decent results so dont take this as gospel.
 
Thanks for the advice. Can you direct me to where I can find some advice on setting up a VPN?
 
Do a ggogle search for something like "bbc vpn expat" There are a few companies doing them for a few € a month.
 
Hi.. and for the others channels like channel 4, itv, five, etc.. exist anything like iplayer?
Thank you.
 
xiuz5 said:
Hi.. and for the others channels like channel 4, itv, five, etc.. exist anything like iplayer?
Thank you.
Click to expand...

Yes - all of them have similar setups.
 
If you look at this map -http://www.astra2d.com/iberia2d.html you will see that nearby to you (OP) Astra 2D can be received with a 1.2 / 1.5 m dish. The fact you are getting a "Technical fault" message as opposed to "No Satellite Signal" suggests you are very close to pulling 2D in with your set-up. Can you advise what LNB you are using, how long the cable run is and confirm that the installer has used CT100 cable? It may well be that upgrading the LNB and replacing the cable with CT125 will solve your problems. By the way, the PACE Minibox is one of the most sensitive Sky digiboxes ever made and will definitely not need upgrading. I would also like to know if you are pulling in anything off 2A/2B North beams (see -http://www.flysat.com/astra28.php).
 
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