2nd Lease of life!

[kop442000]

Hi there!

We have two older satellites attached to our house. One was because we used to have sky back in the day, and the other was because my dad was learning French, and he pointed at something and got French channels.

Both satellites have been disconnected for some time, but now that I am learning Spanish, I would like to resurrect one of the satellites to get some Spanish channels.

I can't tell you what size the dishes are apart from to say that they look "standard" to me! We currently have a free-view box, but I don't think that helps does it.

Basically I just want to know, what else I need to buy, and where I need to point the satellites.

Hope someone can help,

Many thanks in advance of any replies posted!
Paul.

[SatelliteHelp]

Hi Paul, and welcome!

I guess that what you have is a dish pointing at the satellites that used to carry Sky in analogue (known by their location of 19.2 degrees East). I guess it's probably about 60cm diameter. The other one is harder to guess, but may be pointing at Atlantic Bird 3 at 5 degrees West, or maybe Hotbird at 13 degrees East.

No matter, one or the other can easily be repositioned. That may just involve some adjustment, or possibly relocating on the house.

Most of the Spanish and Portuguese TV is over at 30W. These numbers probably don't mean much to you, but will have an impact on the location of the dish.

Either dish may achieve reception from 30W, depends on size mainly, plus your location. You may have to buy a new LNB (the box of tricks on the end of the dish arm) to cope with digital as opposed to analogue. Again, depends on age etc. You might be OK. Only cost a few quid to upgrade, so no biggie.

Other than that, you'll need a receiver (from as little as £50) some cabling etc. and as I said, probably some adjustment of a dish.

Have a read in the beginners section here. It's aimed at folks like yourself

Please feel free to ask anything else that's not obvious.

SH

[kop442000]

Thank you for the reply!

Ok, well I have had a little read about the terminology so I know what 30W means! I will get hold of an LNB that lets me receive digital...

But as far as the receiver is concerned... do I need to find a "digital" receiver? Sorry if this is an obvious question.. I just get a little confused between digital and anologue. I had kind of assumed that everything to do with a satellite was anologue, but obviously not.

Are there plenty of Spanish channels out there then? Are there to be found just using anologue?

Again thanks for the help - would be tough to find things out without sites like this! God bless the internet!

[SatelliteHelp]

No problem m8.

Analogue has pretty much had it's day now, and all new receivers will be digital.

Make sure you don't get a Sky digibox though, as that won't do at all!

I don't know exactly what you're after watching or what you might want to watch in the future but one of the Technomates I mention in this thread:

http://www.satellitehelp.co.uk/forum...php?topic=99.0

will do a great job.

You can see all the channels available from 30W at Lyngsat:

http://www.lyngsat.com/hispa.html

There is a colour-key at the bottom of the page.

Only on the Internet can you get an answer to your satellite questions at 2:15am

[Analoguesat]

Cuatro is available in the clear in analogue on 30W if you have an existing analogue box. Thats it.

Put both dishes back into commission, buy a disecq switch (a tenner or so) and you can watch channels from 2 different satellites!

[kop442000]

Thanks guys.

I am just after a handful of Spanish channels... so when looking for a digital receiver, will it matter if I just buy the cheapest one I can find on ebay or something? (providing it works)

Also, when looking at a Technomate TM1500 on ebay, it goes on about "patched receiver". What does this mean please?

Thank you,
kop442000.

[Analoguesat]

You can load altered software onto it which will open *some* pay tv services. D+ (Spain) is wide open at the moment.

Please note the situation with compromised encryption changes from week to week, and you CANNOT open Sky UK like this.

[SatelliteHelp]

Originally Posted by kop442000

...will it matter if I just buy the cheapest one I can find on ebay or something? (providing it works)...

You get what you pay for when buying a satellite receiver like anything else in life. Build quality, reliability, ease of use, support etc.
I'd suggest that you shop around and check back here with your findings, or just go for a bottom of the range branded receiver.

Some of these (in no particular) order are:

Echostar
Technisat
Visionplus
Manhattan
Technomate
Lemon
Strong
Force
Topfield
Comag
Humax
Fortec Star

[Analoguesat]

Ive got a Technomate and Fortec Star receivers. They are easy enough to use and have plenty of "unofficial" hobbyist support

[kop442000]

Thanks for the posts..

I am looking at a Technomate TM1500CI+ for about £100 - does this seem reasonable?

Thanks guys.