Starting out in the more 'advanced' side of satellite TV

[KingDaveRa]

So firstly, Hi

I've been a Sky subscriber for a few years now, starting out on plain old Sky, then going Sky+, then SkyHD not long after it came out.

Being a bit of a gadget fiend, and basically having bought all the other random gadgets I could think of, I decided the next port of call was something to do with satellite TV.

I'd seen a few cheapo camping kits in Lidl, and the idea of something that could be packed down into a case and put away appealed, as I could play around with it to my heart's content. The STBs they came with were a bit lacklustre, so that put me off. Recently I had a mad moment in PC World and bought a Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA HD-S2 card. It sits alongside my existing WinTV HVR1300 card nicely, so I can use DVB-T or DVB-S easily.

However, I still needed a dish, so I managed to find a 'Konig' 35cm dish for £40 on eBay, with LNB (don't ask what it is, some cheapo thing I guess!). It came in a carry case, with various brackets as well as a compass and some cabling. I had a play with it in the garden and managed to find Hotbird and Astra 19E without really trying too hard. I had also bought a signal meter in Maplin a while ago, and once I'd figured out how to use it (the instructions being typically vague. Cisco write better manuals, which is saying a lot) I was able to lock on fairly well with some pretty decent signal strengths.

I've been using both the Hauppauge WinTV 7 app, and DVBViewer Pro. So far I've managed to find FTA stuff easily.

My mounting for the dish is a wee bit Heath Robinson (something I'm not above!) as permanently mounting a second dish apparently means planning permissions and whatnot, and I'm planning on moving relatively soon anyway, so I'm happy with the insta-mount hanging out the window!

Now I'm just wondering 'what next'. I intend looking for other satellites, and just seeing what I can find! So far I've been looking at Lyngsat and Kingofsat, and of course here too!

 

[satelliteman]

Hi, nice little dish. Of course your need a larger dish to catch most of the other birds.

Happy reading.

 

[Lazarus]

Welcome to the Forum!

"What Next" ??

A dish of around 80-90cm with a DiSEqC motor would be my suggestion.

But that would seem to mean moving house, sadly

 

[Huevos]

No planning permission needed for a dish under 1 metre, or 2 dishes one up to 80cm and the other up to 1 metre.

 

[Lazarus]

No planning permission needed for a dish under 1 metre, or 2 dishes one up to 80cm and the other up to 1 metre.

Depends exactly where he's living .............. Landlords are entitled to impose their own conditions regarding Dishes and other Antennae and some are very stringent indeed.

Also, even under basic Planning Regs, there are additional constraints which can be imposed by eg National Park Authorities, in Conservation Areas etc.

Also, the relevant sizes are 1m and 60cm

 

[rolfw]

Unless there are restrictions from a landlord or management committee, you can have two dishes, but even if you can only have one, there are multi LNB setups available.

 

[KingDaveRa]

Thanks for the nice welcome

I'm currently living with the parents (hey, it's cheap!) and I've already put holes through the wall for the dish, AND my Virgin broadband. Another dish is probably pushing it a bit, hence why I'm happy to wait!

Am I really limited to just Hotbird and Astra 28 and 19? Or would it be suck it and see? I'm not sure where else to try pointing it really.

 

[Lazarus]

That size dish should also get you Atlantic Bird 3 at 5W and possibly Hispasat at 30W as well.

 

[ltkltkltk]

From memory my sky minidish(bout the same size) could get 30w, 5w, some of 1w, bits of 4.8e, 7e(I think) 9e, 13e, 19.2e, bits of 23.5e, 28.2e, and 42e.
I didn't try for anything more but in this hobby "give it a go, It might work" should hold up pretty well.

 

[KingDaveRa]

Well that bodes well. I think I'm going to rebuild my 'bracket' as it's proving hard to get the decent angles on it. The house faces almost 28e, so hotbird and beyond are at a bit of an angle - attainable, but an angle.

 

[mich181189]

Heh, I've never managed to get 5W on mine (I have the exact same model of dish) however mine fell out of a window... (the sucker cup mount supplied isn't massively strong) and signals have been a bit on the weak side ever since... (the top left quarter is a bit bent!)

So yeah, just make sure the dish doesn't meet the concrete after accelerating at 9.8m/s/s and you'll be fine... heh...