Two cables from landlords unused dish

[garyd]

Hi All,

I apologise for this being really basic and also if has been asked and answered before but I cannot find anything via search to cover it.

I have moved in to a rental property that has a satellite dish with what appears to be (as far as I know!) one lnb but two (2) cables coming out of two purpose designed holes from a concealed box beneath the lnb with two free holes remaining.

I was wondering:

1) can anybody advise whether I could use the dish for a 'freesat' or fre to air receiver?

2) as there are two cables can I reroute them to seperate receivers?

I am quite happy with 'freeview' programmes but it isn't feasible to alter the cable run from the terrestrial aerial hence my queries re the available dish.

I have taken pics of the dish, lnb and cables if anybody needs them to ponder over (though don't know how to upload on to this site).

Any help and/or advice given will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Gary.

 

[Topper]

Welcome to the forum garyd

More than likely a Sky + installation with having two cable, could be a twin lnb or a quad using only two outputs. Yes assuming the dish has not been moved and was originally pointing at 28.2 you should be able to get all the freesat channels

To upload your pictures go to post and scroll down to the manage attachments button, just make sure the pictures are reduced to about 200K each using something like pixresizer

 

[garyd]

Thanks, Topper.

I've looked at close ups of the pics and it does say on the lnb label that it is a quad lnb so I presume the two cables are able to feed two receivers and in theory two more can be added.

Or I could be completely wrong! lol

 

[Robbo]

Yep, you are correct, up to 4 tuners can be run off the quad. Assuming that everything is still in working order.

 

[garyd]

Cheers, Robbo.

I've got a drum of cable and plenty of f connectors so ALL I have to do is buy a cheap receiver or two. Also I'll have to try and make my way through the myriad of opinions and reviews etc as to whether freesat or free to air is best.

Wish me luck!

Ta for the help, chaps.

 

[Robbo]

For a fixed dish pointing at 28E, the best option is clear, it is to use a Freesat receiver, whether it be SD or HD, as it is plug and play as far as I know, and the EPG is properly populated, and you can switch to FTA mode if you so desire.

The generic receivers come into their own for multi-satellite use and when wanting to view foreign subscription channels as a wide variety of CAMs and cards can be used if a CI slot and card slot are fitted, the freesat receivers have no provision for this.

I would not reccomend going too cheap for the receiver, I paid £27 for one, although it works most of the time, the build quality and general user friendliness of the thing is pants.

Yes, good luck , although you won't need it.

 

[garyd]

Robbo,

I'll probably look around the £50 mark. Hopefully get something half decent. Just need to find somewhere local to Enfield or online maybe who sells them, other than Maplin, though I mean them no ill, just think a specialist dealer may have a better quality unit for the price.

Cheers to you and Topper for your kind assistance.