Real basic questions - new to FTA

[stevecritchlow]

Hi
I live in an area that doesn't have Digital terrestrial at all, in fact we don't even get channel 5, so I've never really been interested in digital tv. I've also never owned SKY.

Obviously digital is coming, and as I travel at lot with a caravan I'm likely to go into other areas which have switched over. I'm therefore starting out with a satellite dish and a second hand sky digibox, with a view to getting FTA channels.

First question, and I know this is raw but I simply cannot find the answer anywhere, do I need a digital television? I have a standard tv bought a couple of years ago, and a 19 inch LCD television with built in DVD, niether of which I think are digital. If I do need a different tv are there any conversion options to prevent me having to spend several hundreds of pounds?

I've read elsewhere that i can get almost everything I would want to see on FTA, but not channel four and five? is this correct? If so, what can I do to get channel five (it has good childrens tv for several hours in the morning so would be useful)

Any other tips for a raw beginner from your experience would be really helpful

steve

[Robbo]

Yes any TV will work with a Sky box, you can wire it with scart or via UHF.

To watch channel 4 or 5 you just need to obtain a FREESAT from Sky card for £20 from Sky.

Also FTA, there are a few childrens channels, like CBBC, CITV,Tiny pop, pop, pop girl, Cbeebies.

Robbo

[kerrywez]

Hi Steve,
I am sure that you might like to know a bit about the new freesat that is coming out very soon. It will have all the BBC channels and all the ITV ones too. It is expected that Ch4 will leave Sly as soon as it can and join freesat, and Five should also do so when it's contract with Sly is finished. All this will be free and can be received with a FTA box or one of the boxes that will be sold for freesat.

It will do you OK to have the old Sly receiver and the FTV card from Sly, as you say you would like Five for the kids, and it will be some time, next year at the soonest, till Five shake the shackles of Sly, and till then your only option will be the Sly FTV card, also called Sly Freesat Card.

If I were you I would get a dish mounted at the house also, that way you can avail of the satellite receiver when at home.

Just one thing though as regards to using the system for your van, you will need to be able to set up the dish every time you move, because no matter how much you try you will never be able to have the van parked with the same orientation, but you will soon get used to it.

If you were in the East of the country, say Kent, one week and then went to the West, say Cornwall, the next week, then you need to understand that your dish will need to be pointed to a different compass bearing. This is because when you are in Kent, you are East of the meridian line and obviously you will be West of it in Cornwall. If you were sitting on the meridian line at Greenwich then you would have to set your dish to 28.2 degrees East, from Due South, not from magnetic South.

There are several ways of finding due South, one is to find out what time the sun is at it's azimuth, (it's highest point) and looking at the sun then you are looking due South. There are several programs that you can use to find out when the sun is at it's azimuth and some that you can enter your latitude and longitude into and they will then tell you what the deviation from due South magnetic South is. If you follow this link you will find software to download that will tell you the sun's azimuth for any day of the year SAT - Satellite Antenna Alignment (Satellite Dish Alignment) It is dead easy to use and is well explained in the literature that comes with it.

Please do not be put off by all this, if it sounds very complicated, it is not and you do not need to know exact due south, thought it would be a definite advantage, as you can just move the dish till you get a good signal.

Anyway putting in concisely I would say that there would be something like 6 degrees difference between Kent and Cornwall, so you will need to allow for this in your calculation of where the dish should be pointed for Astra2, the satellite cluster where the Sly signals come from. But if you have a laptop and carry it with you and use the software from the link I gave you, you will be able to enter your exact latitude and longitude into it and it will give you all you need to line your dish to Astra2 @ 28.2 degrees East.

Good luck and please let us know how you get on with it.

Very best regards Wez

I hope this has been of some help to you and lets you understand what is involved