Reception in Perpignan

H

heather

Member
My Satellite Setup
Sky digibox and subscription
My Location
France, south of Perpignan
I have used my Sky digibox and subscription happily in France for six years but now I have moved to a flat where individual dishes are not allowed on the balconies. I am having one of the rectangular mesh dishes brought here on Tuesday to see if it will work. I live on the Mediterranean coast, just south of Perpignan. I think I will be able to use a discreet dish, mounted on a portable fitting, but does anyone know if I am likely to be able to receive any channels on a smaller dish?
 
I took my portable setup (Zone 1 43cm Sky Minidish) with me on holiday during June this year to Argeles sur Mer which is just down the road from Perpignan and i couldn't get a sausage off Astra 2D @28.2e. Basically you won't get any of the free British terrestrial stuff like BBC1 or ITV with a small dish :(

If it was really clear i could get the other Astra 2 birds but once it rained it was game over. I left my dish on 19.2e for most of the holiday and watched D+ from Spain :)

:-beer


Nano
 
Thank you, Nanochikin, I live in St. Cyprien Plage, so there doesn't seem to be much hope for me. The block of flats next door has more English residents and they all contributed to the cost of having a full-size dish on the roof, but I am the only English person living permanently in my block and I am not prepared to pay 2,500 euros for Sky in a one-year rental. I believe I could get some programmes via my computer but I don't have Windows, only Suse Linux/Mozilla Firefox so it won't work for me. Fortunately, I love Radio 4 and I get that very well through my computer.
 
Get an 80cm dish and disguise it. Put it in a cupboard or something similar - and open the doors when you want to use it. I used to have an 80cm dish on the floor of my balcony (that you couldn't see from the outside) when I was living in Cannes - due to similar restrictions.
 
A dish will also work inside a plastic bag or one of those patio furniture covers, but only the cheap ones.
 
You'll need an 80cm for the ITV and BBC channels Heather, do you have a South facing window?
 
As I have an end flat, I have a balcony with two open sides. The long front side faces due West but the short side faces South and I have checked that there is full sunlight on it at 10.40 a.m. - indeed, all day. As I live right next to the sea, there is nothing to block reception. A local shop is bringing a dish tomorrow to try - I will let you know if it works!
Many thanks for taking the time and trouble to advise me
 
Hurrah! My TV chap rang the agency today and got them to agree to his idea - he is going to fill an old car wheel and inner tube with cement, embed a metal pole and bolt the 80 cm. dish to the pole. He brought the dish to try on my balcony and it worked well. No smaller dish would work here, right at the edge of the Astra 2 footprint.
 
That's a result Heather, well done. :)
 
Well Done Heather,
I'm pleased that you have gotten things sorted out via your 80cms dish.

So this makes me wonder why I cannot get the same results here in Corsica on a 1mt dish ?

Can anyone tell me if the VERTICAL alignment is crucial ? the reason I ask is because we moved house here on the island and I now live in a little mountain village.

When we moved I installed my 1mt dish again, left the VERTICAL settings as they were and was able to swivel the dish / mast HORIZONTLY (eastwards) until I picked up the BBC, but as I have stated before the BBC signal is very weak and unpredictable and I only have it for 1 or 2 hours at best during the day.

So now I'm starting to wonder if I could improve the signal by playing around with the VERTICAL settings?

According to satellite footprint maps that I have looked at they show that I am within the Astra footprint using a 1mt dish.

Any help would be greatly appreciated , as I would dearly love to have the BBC etc.
 
Certainly worth a go, a major increase in height of your location would affect the elevation setting, by how much I guess could relatively easily be worked out, it will only be a small amount, but probably critical.

Also the mount may not be in the same vertical plane as it was at the last location.
 
Many thanks for replying to may question, I'll certain give a go and play around with the vrtical positioning.
 
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