German TV - UK in house, then motorhome in Europe.

[madrat]

Don't think it would work through a closed window in the rain, although I could be wrong.

[solunauk]

Got my satellite finder today - cheapest model from Wizard. I did get a response from it with the dish inside, but of course a better response outside. I found what seemed to be a pretty strong signal in the direction expected for 28.2E (could have been 19E). I think I've confirmed that the Pace tuner is duff (as Stick warned me to expect), because there was nothing showing on the signal strength page on the install menu, even after the box was powered down and then back up. LNB and Transponder settings are on default. Turned the dish a few degrees east and picked something else up pretty strongly, but still nothing locked on.

Now I have to decide whether to replace the tuner or forget S*y and put the 15 quid towards a more 'flexible' receiver. It's a shame - I fancied having a play around with the Digibox just as a learning exercise before committing my cash.

Sol

[BGonaSTICK]

I found it a lot of fun replacing the ZIF tuner - a nice project if you have a couple of hours to spare.

If that's not your thing, recycle it and buy something like a cheap Technomate.

[solunauk]

After much deliberation and reading I decided to put the Pace aside for the moment. I've bought a 'factory reconditioned' SL65/12 off Ebay for 22.50 including postage - should arrive midweek. (There's no manual but I found one (for the 12V) on the Silvercrest site. If anyone wants a copy, let me know.) I think this receiver will teach me more than the Pace and eventually I'll upgrade to a Dreambox or Vantage. I'll just have to hope that the chip is a B1, not A1.

BTW, I take back what I said earlier about the Magnavox remote control - it doesn't work properly with Sky - the coloured buttons don't work, so it went back to Asda. I got a B grade OneForAll URC7555 from Sparkyuk.com. It seems to work everything! Looks like new except for a minor scratch and was half price. No manual supplied but again the internet came to the rescue.

Sol

[BGonaSTICK]

Perhaps you be so kind as to upload the Silvercrest manual on a new thread in the Comag/Silvercrest section?

:clap:

[solunauk]

Success! Das Erste is go!

I got my SL65/12 just after lunch, rigged it up and locked onto 19.2E pretty easily. The dish is clamped to an upside-down rotary line (got that tip on here) with the cable coming in through an open window for now. It's all a bit wobbly but the signal seems pretty steady at 76% strength, 71% quality. That was the best I could get using the sat meter (which was noticeably more sensitive to dish position than the receiver display), and the channels (more than 400 FTA) seem to be received just fine.

So, that was pretty cheap: Free dish, LNB 9 quid, SL65 22.50, cable 15 - that's it!

Time to go and play!

Sol

[BGonaSTICK]

Excellent. It's always a good feeling when, after reading so much, you actually have it all working in your own living room. Especially when you've done it yourself!

:clap: