newbie questions

[clockhammer]

first of all apologies for the newbie questions, I only started to think about this last night.

I have a regular sky dish on the side of my house and I don't have a receiver. Can this dish only be used in conjunction with a sky box or would a receiver bought from Maplins pick anything up?

My ultimate aim though is to try and pick up some Polish tv for the wife. Any advice on what equipment I would need for this. I'm situated between Edinburgh and Glasgow.


thanks for any help offered, its such a wide subject and I've found it pretty hard going so far.


cheers

 

[rolfw]

For Polish channels, you would need to move your dish a few degrees West and up a little, as they are on Hotbird 13E, the little Maplin receiver would be fine for these.

You would be able to receive all of the free to air channels from your dish's present satellite using the Maplin receiver, that would include ITV and BBC, but exclude Channel 4 and 5.

PS. Welcome to the forum, we all start off as newbies, so don't worry about asking basic questions, we were all in the same boat once. ;)

 

[clockhammer]

Nice one thanks for the reply.

Once I've moved the dish position to get the polish channels I take it I lose the Freeview stuff then?

Think I will give this a try, wife will be happy to get Polish TV,,, brownie points for me


thanks again

 

[Topper]

Once I've moved the dish position to get the polish channels I take it I lose the Freeview stuff then?

Think I will give this a try, wife will be happy to get Polish TV,,, brownie points for me
thanks again

Unless you motorise yes...... this is a list of Polish FTA channels but look on the right hand side to check which ones are available on Hotbird

 

[clockhammer]

Thanks for the list, wife says there are some worthwhile channels there.

Another question though, can my old sky dish be motorised or do I need to start with a new dish and installation?

I can see this ending in tears with me on the roof, screwdriver and wrench in hand :-)

 

[2cvbloke]

Thanks for the list, wife says there are some worthwhile channels there.

Another question though, can my old sky dish be motorised or do I need to start with a new dish and installation?

I can see this ending in tears with me on the roof, screwdriver and wrench in hand :-)

Generally, it's better to have a seperate motorised dish, that way you have the sky dish for the missus to keep up with her soaps or for the kids & their cartoons and the motorised on for channel hopping...

 

[Topper]

Generally, it's better to have a seperate motorised dish, that way you have the sky dish for the missus to keep up with her soaps or for the kids & their cartoons and the motorised on for channel hopping...

But in this case it is the missus that wants to do the channel hoppingO-no

 

[clockhammer]

I picked up a Fortec Star Beta today and it seems fine. Picking up stuff from Astra and a few others. I'll try and align it with hot bird tomorrow so I can get the Polish channels.

I also bought an analogue sat finder meter so I guess its me on the roof with a phone and hammer and the wife with a phone and watching the meter.

Thanks for the help so far,,, I've been reading through the forums quite a bit and I think I've only scratched the surface of what seems a pretty complicated subject.

Anyway, I'll post and let you know when I've lost all satellites tomorrow 2


cheers

 

[Topper]

Do not forget to mark the current settings with white paint before you loosen the bolts and move the dish.

 

[clockhammer]

thanks mate,,, the black marker and digital camera are ready

the stb itself though shows signal strength on each sat so I guess I won't need the meter, I'll just talk to the wife on the phone as I'm moving the dish. Definitely gonna get a motorised setup though, gotta save the pennies first :-)

been enjoying the fight channel tonight as well as zone reality, a whole night of sporting disasters. Watching referees getting chased about the pitch in Argentinian football is pretty entertaining.

 

[clockhammer]

managed to move the dish and picked up hotbird, not that many Polish channels though. Lots of Italian / French and Arabic dirty girls channels. Decided to move it back to Astra until I can motorise the whole thing. Don't know if I can motorise an old sky dish or if I should just wait and get a good dish installed. It was easier than I thought though and didn't need the meter as I just used the STB signal strength etc.

I got a bunch of software to update the img file, a tps editor and a channel editor. Not that sure what difference any of this will make but giving it a try anyway, suppose its a good way to learn stuff. I' hoping that I'll maybe find a few more channels through it all though. Am I right in this assumption?

I bought the wrong cable though, doh, I got a RS232 when I need a null modem cable,,, back to Maplins tomorrow then.

 

[Topper]

Well done, when you are feeling more confident you can try a few more sats in between. There plenty out there, you can always check what sat you are actually picking up by crosschecking details here click on frequencies Europe or Atlantic