Just a quick update, I've gone through 2 switches and 1 receiver at home
the technomate kinda didnt like the power cuts we keep getting. The switches were cheapo's from ebay but a pain to keep getting the ladder out and changing them so I spent a couple of quid more on a better one (6 quid this time ;) ). This technomate was out of warranty so i took it apart. what was happening was it'd start up fine, then lose signal strength and quality on 1 then 2 lnb's resulting in a hot box and no channels. I assumed something had blown due to the power cut so I had a look and lo and behold a 2200uF 10V capacitor looked bulging compared to the others on the power supply board. I've ordered a couple of replacements and will try to solder them on. This is not a job for anyone cack handed but I've done soldering before. Will let everyone know the result when I've done it, otherwise the technomate is consigned to the scrapheap.
As for the eurobird 9 and chinese channel, missus cancelled the subscription as most of the stuff was available on internet, and tvb have a new live news stream on their own site so didn't see the point of keeping it. Might change the dish back to 19.2 deg east, got some unlocked channels