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

[solunauk]

Hi

I'm a newbie at this, so please bear with me....

My wife is German and she fancies watching a few wurst adverts etc. in her native tongue.

We live near Bath.

From what I've read so far, it seems that Astra 1 at 19E is the best bet for FTA German channels - in fact, there looks to be a huge choice! Any other satellites I should consider?

I'm trying to do this at minimum cost. Someone is going to give us their old satellite dish - no idea what size it is or if it has an LNB - I'll keep you posted on that. I've ordered some WC100 coax and F connectors from Satcure.

The thing that's really doing my head in is what receiver to get. I read here that Technomate is a good brand but the complicated bit is this: We're planning to get a motorhome in a couple of years and drive around (mostly southern) Europe, so ideally I want a receiver that will happily run off .... what? Do people use inverters in their motorhomes or does the receiver have to accept 12V input? I know I'll have to get another dish for the motorhome, and that's fine. I just don't want to get a receiver that's only going to be of use for 2 years.

I'm a bit of a hacker by nature, so I'll probably want to patch the receiver at some point.

Thanks in advance,
Sol

[nanochickin]

The Technomate receiver is still probably the best one to go for as its probably the most patchable one going and even more importantly Premiere (German PTV) is wide open on it at the moment

If your driving round Europe there is probably a good chance you will stay in camp sites etc I'm guessing so you will probably get a 240v hookup if you need it. If your running off a battery an inverter should be fine if your using a good quality leisure battery

Failing that one of the smaller Pace Sky Digi-boxes runs off 12v, although i can't remember the model and i also think some of the Comag ones do aswell. I Think its called the Porty :?

I just don't want to get a receiver that's only going to be of use for 2 years.

It will probably be fine for Free to view stuff but with encrypted channels you never know when support for a particular receiver is going to dry up. If you go for a Technomate go for the 1500 or 1000Ci models as they can accept cams so even if support does dry up you may well still be able to get stuff open on what ever cam is available in the future

As far as i am aware with regard to other German broadcasts i think the only other major one is on 23.5e, although it may be a bit awkward to get the german beam here in the UK

There is also a few bits and pieces on Hotbird (13E) , Atlantic Bird 2 (8W) and Turksat (42E)

You can find what and where the German channels are broadcast from lyngsat.

http://www.lyngsat.com/freetv/Germany.html




Nano

[solunauk]

Thanks for the info.

I expect we'll do quite a bit of unofficial camping, so no hook up. If an inverter is standard practice then that's fine.

In the UK at our house I plan to ground mount the dish for convenience - any tips on that? It would be good to be able to cover it in some way for protection and camouflage, but I guess that would cut down the signal strength?

Cheers
Sol

[nanochickin]

Just get a good quality Patio mount and make sure its bolted down securely and everything should be fine, you can also place it near to a wall or fence which may give it some protection from the wind

As long as it has good line of sight to what ever particular sat you want to watch everything will be fine



Nano

[BGonaSTICK]

Oooh, bit of a hacker? Maybe you should look at the Dreambox DM500. It has 12V input with and external power supply for indoor use. It's a very flexible box.

You can paint your dish in super tricky camouflage if you like, as long as you use the right (matt, non-metallic) paint.

Go for it. Sounds like you might enjoy this hobby on more than one level.

You may also like this thread about painting a satellite dish.

[solunauk]

Thanks for the hints, Bgonastick and Nanochickin :clap: Apologies for the late reply but my broadband went down for over 2 days

I'll definitely check out the Dreambox option.

In the meantime I've been given a satellite dish. It's an old Sky dish, black mesh, oval in shape (70x63) with the longest dimension vertical. The LNB is a Cambridge AE19. Is that LNB OK to pick up Astra 19E?

I also had a good look in the skip at the household recycling site and came out with a Pace Sky Digibox (Model BSKYB 2500S3). I plugged it into the mains and it came on. Using a universal remote (Magnavox from Asda, nine quid - pretty good for Sky cos it has all the buttons marked up for it), I got into the menus and all seemed fine, apart from no satellite signal, of course. I got a HF109 cable rigged up and stood in the garden with the dish, waving it very slowly in the right direction according to the alignment websites I went to, but my wife couldn't see even a flicker of a response on the signal strength meter on the box. Was I being hopelessly optimistic? Do I absolutely need to buy a satellite finder?

I had the LNB set to -19 degrees rotation offset (don't know the correct term). The cable is definitely OK because it works between my DTT box and aerial.

What should I try next? Another LNB?

Also, are there any hacks for the Pace to allow it to pick up other satellites?

Cheers
Sol

[Analoguesat]

The Ae-19 is an old enhanced analogue lnb. You wont get the high band frequencies used by digital channels on it. Get your flexible friend out and order a universal lnb from one of the online stores.

The "default frequency" used by sky digiboxes operates on high band which is why you wont have found anything.


Whilst digiboxes can be used on other sats, they are decidedly clunky and unfriendly to use, seeing as the channels have to be put in through "add channels" then wwatched through "other channels"

[solunauk]

Thanks Analoguesat, that explains it. I'll buy another LNB.

Saw this one on Ebay mentioned in the French TV thread:
Inverto Monoblock LNB 0.2dB with Built-in DiSECq Switch
Receive 2 satellites Astra 19,2° East & Hotbird 13°East Item number: 260114823167. Goes for about 22 quid.
BUT, it says in the item description: "Fitting: 40mm Dish LNB Holder (Not Suitable For Sky Boxes or Sky dishes)".
However, the clamp on my old Sky dish is 40mm, so is it something else that makes them incompatible? Will I have the same problem with many other LNBs?

Sol

[solunauk]

I did a bit more digging around and found out that modern Sky dishes don't have a 40mm fitting, so I assume that was the reason for the seller's caution.

Have ordered a single Smart Titanium universal LNB from Systemsat - I think in the end I'll want to go for 19.2E and 28.2E and the Pace digibox doesn't support Diseqc so a monoblock isn't suitable at this stage (I'm not sure there are monblocks that will do 9 degrees anyway?).

Sol

[Analoguesat]

Sky dishes have a peg fitting which slots into the end of the arm on the dish. "Normal" dishes have a collar fitting clamped around the throat of the lnb.

Monoblocs do 6 degrees - if you want 9 degrees you have to use 2 clamped together on an extension doohickerty .