Satlink 6908 or 6906 Sat finder? - Freesat in France

azillio

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Hello all..

I'm treading through a bit of a minefield, but am narrowing down my options on have a delivery to the South West of France to try to get the best Freesat signal since the new changes in Sats.

I'm looking at 100/110 dishes (Gibertini/Triax) (before possibly going 120cm as a last resort in the long run).

As a 'budget' sat 'finder', I'm looking at the Chinese made Satlink (6908 or 6906). Reading reviews, are these readers going to give me hours of headaches to set up for the new ASTRA settings?? Pre-set satellite finding? Firmware updating? (I am on Mac OS) etc etc...

I just want to get the best gear in situ before tearing my hair out!

Many thanks in advance :rolleyes:
 

sonnetpete

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My Satellite Setup
Laminas 1.2M fibre dish with an IBU, on a Clarke Tech USALS motor, covering 57E - 24.5W to an Octagon SX88. Displayed on a 20" Dyon LED TV.

Seperate 80 cm dish on 28E with a Humax Freesat for SWMBO.
Free Sat V8 meter. Sony Bravia 46" LCD, Sony BluRay and Home Cinema.
My Location
Normandy, France

azillio

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I've used my meter (see my signature) very successfully to peak up a signal using it's existing Astra 2 data. I used mine to take readings for our Astra 2E map.

From your choice of 1 metre dishes, I'd go for the Gibertini everytime. If you need to go up a size, you can obtain a 1.2M Laminas dish from this French supplier.

http://www.2galli.fr/boutique/fiche_produit.cfm?ref=OFC1200&type=30&code_lg=lg_fr&num=21
Great, thanks for the info.. I'll begin to understand 'reading the 2E/2F map' when it arrives..

I'll try the 1m Gibertini before investing a whole load of effort in a heavy 1.2m. I've seen the French supplier, and am also looking at a number of German suppliers who have good prices and cheap DHL shipping. French postage is not the cheapest!
 

sonnetpete

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My Satellite Setup
Laminas 1.2M fibre dish with an IBU, on a Clarke Tech USALS motor, covering 57E - 24.5W to an Octagon SX88. Displayed on a 20" Dyon LED TV.

Seperate 80 cm dish on 28E with a Humax Freesat for SWMBO.
Free Sat V8 meter. Sony Bravia 46" LCD, Sony BluRay and Home Cinema.
My Location
Normandy, France
The Laminas only weighs 6.5Kg in total, that's why I chanced mounting it on my USALS motor...up to now it's been ok. The German supplier I looked at was €20 more for the Laminas than my French dealer....off hand I can't think he charged much more than that for carriage inside France.

The map of 2E reception reports already exists. You can look at it here: http://goo.gl/maps/Ha4xf
 

azillio

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There seem to be a couple of other maps knocking around :

2F
2E

Looks like rain is the real signal killer..

I'll look at the Laminas again, but at €70 for a Gibertini 100, it may just suffice in the first place.

Is there any real difference in the 6908 0r 6906 meters? Everyone talks of horrendously poor instructions, and much of the Youtube vids are in Potuguese/Russian/Polish etc although one in German (which I understand) mad it look a piece of pie (6908 SE - as in "Second Edition").

Cheers.
 

sonnetpete

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My Satellite Setup
Laminas 1.2M fibre dish with an IBU, on a Clarke Tech USALS motor, covering 57E - 24.5W to an Octagon SX88. Displayed on a 20" Dyon LED TV.

Seperate 80 cm dish on 28E with a Humax Freesat for SWMBO.
Free Sat V8 meter. Sony Bravia 46" LCD, Sony BluRay and Home Cinema.
My Location
Normandy, France
Is there any real difference in the 6908 0r 6906 meters? Everyone talks of horrendously poor instructions, and much of the Youtube vids are in Potuguese/Russian/Polish etc although one in German (which I understand) mad it look a piece of pie (6908 SE - as in "Second Edition").
Cheers.

From the description I've read on Amazon the only difference between the two meters seems to be GUI based....certainly I can't see any difference in their functionality. After all it's a meter, it will let you peak up the signal using the strength and quality readings and then let you view channels to ensure you are on the correct sat. It is (relatively) a piece of pie and more than adequate to set up a dish for 28.2E. Not sure what SE might mean, it could well be 'second edition' but then I have a guitar which is designated SE and that denotes 'student edition'....
 

alec

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120 cm Laminas dish
Inverto Black Ultra Quad
Humax HDR1010S and Foxsat HDR; Topfield TF 4000 PVR
My Location
Southwest France
I recently bought a 6908 and used it to tweak my new 120 Laminas dish and (even newer) Black Ultra Quad. No problems at all.
The instructions are poor but I found it very easy to run a scan on my previous dish (Gibertini 100 cm on 28.2) then select appropriate channels to tune in the new one. If starting from scratch you could always do the scan on e.g. a friend's dish.

Much improved signal - BBC HD channels receivable most of the time - with slightly better (but still not good) resistance to rain fade on SD channels.

One thing to watch - if you keep your meter in its fancy box, put it in face down. Otherwise only a small shake is enough to trip the on/off toggle switch, which at best runs down the battery.
 
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